Battle Of The Atlantic Memorial Service At Spencer Smith Park September 3

There will be a crowd around the sailor statue on the Burlington waterfront next week. The Burl-Oak Naval Veterans are holding a memorial service at the Naval Ships Memorial Monument in Spencer Smith Park on Thursday, Sept. 3 at 11 a.m., honouring the Merchant Marine sailors lost during the Battle of the Atlantic.

The battle was the longest continuous military campaign of the Second World War, running from September 1939 through to May 1945. Allied crews spent those years keeping supply lines open across the ocean under German submarine attack, and around 36,000 merchant seamen died over the course of the campaign.

The service takes place outside at the monument itself rather than in a hall, which is worth knowing if the forecast turns.