Gunshield Graffiti

George F. McElroy was a freelance reviewer living in Oakville, Ontario.

Thomas Lynch, born in Halifax, served in the Royal Canadian Navy until unification in 1969 and is the author of Canada’s Flowers: A History of the Corvettes of Canada and The Flying 400. James Lamb was an officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve and served throughout World War II in ships of the ocean escort forces. He worked as a journalist after the war and has written books on a variety of subjects.

Gunshield Graffiti, claim the authors, is the largest collection of reproductions of the unofficial ships’ badges of World War II known to exist anywhere. It includes buxom mermaids, bedevilled Hitlers, gorillas in bell-bottomed trousers, Donald Duck, and other cartoon characters chosen to represent navy vessels. These crests show a good deal of original thought and salty, lower-deck humour (such as the choice of five aces as a crest for HMCS Baddeck, or the picture of a crowned lady falling on her backside into a large puddle, displayed on the gunshield of HMCS Wetaskiwin). Where actual crests did not survive, Commander L.B. “Yogi” Jenson, RCN Retired, has supplied reproductions based on hazy photos and veterans’ descriptions.

This book is a valuable historical record of a part of our history that could easily have disappeared with few traces. It will be of particular interest to RCN veterans and historians, but its appeal to general readers will be limited.