One of the many great quotes attributed to ‘anonymous’ is, “He who is remembered never dies.” William Wallace Haig Martyn is certainly remembered. Bill’s war time experience is recorded for all time, not just in war records, but in books like Sea Flight by Hugh Popham, They Gave Me a Seafire by R. ‘Mike’ Crosley, Royal Navy Aces of World War 2 by Andrew Thomas and many more. Then there are the websites that have accounts of his actions, like the excellent blog post about Operation Pedestal found on armouredcarriers.com. There are many pages that make note of him, or provide some detail, such as a page found on the CFB Esquimalt website, or some of his letters on the Canadian Letters and Images website. There are synopsis of his service on The Nauticapedia site and on www.acesofww2.com. Once you find Bill’s name and click on it you are taken to this page on fightingforyourlife.com.
There is no shortage of Bill ‘Moose’ Martyn on the page, whether printed or virtual.
“On arrival at Hatston I was met by the outgoing CO of 880 – Lt/Cdr(A) ‘Moose’ Martyn, DSC, RCNVR. Needless to say, with a name like that, he was a Western Canadian; a relaxed six-footer, well known as one of the successful Hurricane COs in Indomitable. His most recent major operation had been to provide CAP – with 801 Squadron from Furious – on the raid against Tirpitz.”
Excerpt from They Gave Me a Seafire, by Commander R. ‘Mike’ Crosley
“A short while later, a second section of 801 NAS downed Do 18 K6+FH of 1.KuFIGr 406, flown by Ltn zur See Keil. One of the pilots involved in this engagement was Canadian Lt W H ‘Moose’ Martyn, who thus claimed the first of his five kills.”
Excerpt from Royal Navy Aces of World War 2 by Andrew Thomas
In a letter home, dated August 8th, 1937 Bill wrote, “Well only a few weeks now and I shall be in a real first line Fighter Squadron. This life is really great and I wish it could go on forever. It is everything that a chap like myself could wish for.” He was 21, thousands of miles from home and doing the only thing he had ever wanted to do – fly. As far as I am concerned, he still is.
Moose Martyn (dot) com is my way of remembering, and thus ensuring, that my grandfather, Lt. Cdr. William W. H. Martyn, DSC and Bar (RN) never dies.
If you listen carefully you can hear the roar of the Merlin 55M in his Seafire as he crosses overhead, ready to defend you and I and the freedoms we hold dear.
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