If you happen to be walking through Churchill Park today and hear bagpipes and bell chimes, head to the Duncan McIntosh arena's parking lot to witness an annual event hosted by the South Waterloo Naval Veterans Association.
Naval veterans and club members will gather there around 1 p.m. to honour the Battle of the Atlantic. They will sing a rendition of God Save The King, the Galt Kiltie Band will play and the bell from the HMCS Hespeler will chime while a list of ships involved in the historic Second World War naval campaign is read out.
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest military campaign of the war, ran from 1939 until the defeat of Germany in 1945.
The Royal Canadian Legion says the campaign involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles. By the end of the campaign, an estimated 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were lost.
"The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), for its part, lost more than 20 warships. Proportionally, Canadian merchant seamen suffered much more heavily, losing one in ten among the 12,000 who served in Canadian and Allied merchant vessels," wrote the legion.
The HMCS Hespeler was a Castle corvette class warship commissioned in February 1944 in Leith, Scotland.
The SWNVA has bells from each of ships, the HMCS Galt and the HMCS Preston at their club house and rotates the bells for each ceremony.
SWNVA member Pat Wade said the ceremony, which honours all who fought and lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic, used to involve a parade, but has been scaled down in recent years.
After the ceremony, members will return to the Navy Club on Cambridge Street for a light lunch and refreshments.
Wade said the SWNVA is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise $50,000 for extensive plumbing upgrades at their club house.