Emmanuel Tittley, son of Herméline Clermont and Delphis Tittley, was born July 23,1924, in Chute-à-Blondeau, ON. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1943 at the age of 18. Three brothers had already preceded him in the Armed Forces: two in the army and one in the navy.

Emmanuel did his basic training in Lachine, QC. In 1944, he was dispatched to No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School, a unit of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Macdonald, Manitoba. The planes used for training on this base came from England and often had bullet holes in them; aspiring pilots were told that animals’ horns had done the damage! 

Emmanuel began a gunnery course that he did not complete since the course of the war had changed dramatically after the Normandy landings. Given the scope of the Allied presence already across the Channel, there was no need for him to go to Europe.

He then became part of the ground staff in Western Canada and was assigned to a wide variety of duties: driving ambulances, working in offices, and helping to close military bases, such as those in Estevan, SK, Deburt, NS, Mont-Joli, QC, and Uplands, ON.

In Mont-Joli, he was part of patrolling teams over the St. Lawrence River. Unknown to the majority of Canadians, German submarines ventured as far upriver as Rimouski. Twenty-three ships (including 19 civilian vessels) were sunk by the illusive German submarines. More than 350 merchant marine personnel, naval personnel, and civilians (including 136 on a ferry) lost their lives. No German submarines were ever destroyed. Fortunately, most Canadians were unaware of the danger lurking at their door. 

Emmanuel Tittley died in L’Orignal in 2016.