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Wartime enemies make contact 67 years later

Nearly 70 years after a famous Second World War incident in which a Canadian ship rammed and sank a German submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, the only survivor of the doomed U-boat and perhaps the last living sailor from HMCS Ville de Quebec have rediscovered each other via the Internet -- two former enemies now forging a poignant, long-distance friendship via e-mail.

The remarkable reunion came about after a California newspaper published a story last November featuring the wartime reminiscences of Frank Arsenault, an 86-year-old Canadian veteran now retired and living in Santa Cruz.

The highlight of the P.E.I.-raised Arsenault's four years aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec was the corvette's fateful encounter with U-224, a German submarine that was menacing a convoy of Canadian ships on Jan. 13, 1943, off the coast of Morocco....


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Read entire article at Vancouver Sun