Memories of Metz and Paris
I was transferred from Northwest Command Edmonton to Metz France in the spring of 1953. I travelled from Edmonton to Quebec City by train. I then flew on a North Star from Quebec to Goose Bay, and onwards to Greeland, Iceland, England, and finally into Orly airport just outside Paris France. If my memory is correct, I would have arrived in Paris in June of 1953. It was 1 AirDiv Movements, located at 35 Avenue Montaigne in Paris that sent me onwards, by train, to Metz.
There was no station, per se, at Metz when I arrived. The only thing at the unit was the old building at the front entrance which they used as a guard house. The Chateau de Mercy provided offices for the RCAF personnel that were employed in Metz, and there was a small Chapel located close to the Chateau. There were no barracks, no clubs, no recreation facilities - just the Chareau and the guard house. This meant that all of the service personnel in Metz had to find their own accomodation, either in the city or in one of the other local communities. As can be expected, these early days resulted in a great deal of comradarie at establishments such as the ABC Restaurant and the Charlamagne Bar.
I was a ComOp by profession and I worked at the Chateau from the time I arrived in the summer of 1953 until the spring of 1954. I was employed in Communications and I worked in three locations over the year. The "Relay Room", the "Comm Centre", and the "Crypto centre". The Communication sections were located in the basement of the Chateau and this was a restricted area. When you wanted to get through the door the MP on duty in the main entrance would push a botton at his position which would open the door to allow us entry to go downstairs. My basic duties were sending and receiving messages. The "Relay Centre" at the Chateau in Metz was what could be called "a minor relay centre". We had messages to and from 2, 3, and 4 Wing, also the unit located in Metz. We were tied into the "major relay station" at Stanbridge in England. They would move our messages to Canada and also pass us messages they had received from Canada for locations in Europe. As I remember we had a standard "nine and three" shift system. We worked three days, three evenings and three midnight shifts - and then the crew had three days off. There was, as I recall, about five personnel on each shift. A mix of both male and female military personnel (Air Force). When going on duty we boarded the bus at the Gare (train station) and the bus took us out to the Chateau. When we finished work, a bus brought us back to the city of Metz.
I lived at a number of different locations in Metz. Sometimes a hotel, sometimes an apartment, and even a private home. I'm not sure when they started construction of the barracks and other buildings at Air Div HQ. I do recall that by the summer of 1954, they were starting to move personnel onto the station. It was at this time that I lucked in and got transferred to Paris - where I could continue to live on the economy.
I arrived at 1 Air Division Movements Unit, 35 Avenue Montaigne, in Paris in the spring of 1954.
As was the case in Metz, there were no military accommodations in Paris. I lived in the Alma Hotel when I was transferred to Paris. The hotel was located on the same street as the Movements Unit. I worked in the Comm Centre at the Movements Unit and I was the only communications person stationed there. The Movements Unit was so close to the Alma Hotel that I walked to and from work. It only took about 5 to 10 minutes.
When I was there in 1954, it was known as 1 AirDiv Movements Unit. There was an ME section, a Post Office, a CommCen and a Movements Unit. There were two Officers. F/L Gil Grouix was the CO, and F/L Ted Miller was the Movements Officer. Other RCAF personnel were: Flight Sargeant Daskvich who ran the post office. A Cpl (whose name I can't remember) was I/C of the Orderly Room with some civilian staff. Chuck Lambert was the unit driver and there were some civilian employees in this section. There were also three French ladies who worked in the Steno Pool. I must not forget myself. I was a ComOp, but all we had at the unit in Paris was a teletype machine and some crypto equipment which was connected to Metz. I was called over to the Canadian Embassy from time to time to encode and decode some messages. So to the best of my recollection there was six Air Force personnel, two of which were Officers.
There was an all ranks club at the unit and I can remember there were 15 names on the list. We didn't use money - just signed our name when we took something from the bar. It was an honor system. You signed your name in the book and at the end of the month, you paid the CO for what ever you had spent during the month. We didn't have a pay office. Our money was sent from 1 Air Division HQ in Metz to the American Express office in Paris where we each had an account - and that's where they sent the money.
During my tour in Paris there was only two of us that were single - all the rest were married and lived on the economy. I didn't see any of the other RCAF personnel unless we were at work. I spent a lot of time on my own sight-seeing throughout Paris and I made many civilian French friends. I also got to see a lot of the areas that the tourist doesn't know about or get to see. I also played hockey in Paris for a team called the "Devils of France". That was quite an experience. As can be expected, I seemed to have many friends in Metz and at the Wings who would contact me to get them a good hotel and point out places for them to go too.
I continued to return to Metz on my days off - to spend time with friends. I would depart Paris by train on the Friday night and usually return on Sunday. The train ride from Paris to Metz was about three to four hours.
We are aware that the 1 Air Division Movements Unit was initially established at 35 Avenue Montaigne in the summer of 1952. The Unit was subsequently moved to 8 Avenue Morillo in early 1955. The move was carried out by both military personnel and civilians. The building that we moved into on Morillo was reported to have been the headquarters for the "Gestapo". I don't know if this is true but it was a much better location than that on Montaigne. For example at the old location the CommCen where I was employed had orignally been a washroom and the room still had bathroom tiles on the wall. You can imagine what that was like.
As you are aware, military personnel and their dependents were travelling to and from Europe by Ocean liners in those days. During the time that I was stationed in Paris one of the primary tasks of the "Movements Unit" was to make hotel arrangements in Paris for personnel and dependents coming from Canada. Having done that, we would go down to Le Havre and other ports and meet the drafts - getting these families through customs and onto the train for Paris. Upon getting to Paris we saw them to their hotels and explained we would pick them up in the morning and take them to the Gare (St. Lazare) for stations at Metz, 2, 3 and/or 4 Wing. Then I would send messages to the appropriate station advising them of who was en route and their time of arrival to make sure they were meet.
Finally, during the summer of 1955 I got transferred back to Canada. I boarded the train from Paris to Le Havre where I boarded the "Homeric" for my return to Canada. There were 45 military personnel on the draft back to Canada. As I recall there were an additional 100 Amercians and around 1,700 Italians also on board this Ocean liner.
Ironically I was, once again, transferred right back to Northwest Air Command in Edmonton.