The Tribune

By Rashad Rolle

GEORGE Collymore, 84, and Lloyd Toppin, 87, wanted three things from their service in the Second World War: To find adventure, to gain knowledge and to return home safely.

They accomplished their last goal in 1945 when the war ended with most Bahamian soldiers never having fought enemy forces.

More than 2000 Bahamians had served in the war. This year, three veterans have died.

Mr Collymore and Mr Toppin are among the 29 that are still alive.

They are not relatives but both their fathers were Bajan men who were recruited into the Bahamian police force.

They both went to Western Junior and Western Senior High School (now CR Walker), they went to the same church and they attended the same Sunday School services.

During the war, they were members of the Royal Air Force, Bahamas Air Service Squadron which had its base in Oakes Field.

Training wasn’t hard the two men said, but they were required to be alert while learning to do foot drills, use ammunition and perform guard duties.

As part of the countdown to Remembrance Sunday events this weekend, The Tribune spoke to the two men.

“My first flight was in a B-26 aircraft,” Mr Collymore said.

“It was the first time I ever flied a plane. It lasted a couple of hours. It was an unpleasant flight because we were doing tactical manoeuvres.

“I wasn’t afraid, apprehensive maybe, but not afraid. It was my most memorable experience because of the adventure of it. Overall, I drove in a plane about eight times.”

Mr Toppin, who worked in aircraft maintenance, said: “You have to understand that aircraft then weren’t what they are now.”

The transportation industry was just moving away from relying on seaplanes to developing aeroplanes.

The men differ on one topic: whether they would participate in a war knowing now what they know about war.

Mr Collymore said: “I would not have participated in another war. When I was young, I was fearless and adventurous. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into like I know now.”

Mr Toppin said: “I would’ve volunteered because they would’ve needed our service.”

In their book, Islands in the Stream, a History of Bahamian People, historians Michael Craton and Gail Saunders said the Second World War was not a particularly popular war among Bahamians and that “ordinary people were too desperately poor to feel even the limited patriotic loyalty evinced in the First World War”.

However, Mr Collymore and Mr Toppin said they had no personal objections to the war. “If we had lost the war, we wouldn’t have been sitting here today,” said Mr Toppin: “Hitler would’ve gotten rid of all of us and we would still be what you call ‘slaves’.”

He said patriotism wasn’t the reason they volunteered to fight in the war.

Britain, however, made sure they understood whose side they were on, he said.

“The British made certain you were loyal to them. Today they don’t instil that same loyalty in people. When the National Anthem came on, we jumped up at attention.

“Now, we don’t. The Union Jack was more respected than the flag we have now.”