Military History of Barbados - World War II

World War II

Twelve Barbados men made up the Second Barbados Contingent of Volunteers for the Armed Forces. They were recruited for the Royal Air Force. They left Barbados for England in November 1940 to fight against Germany. One pilot was Errol Walton Barrow who became an officer in the Royal Air Force. On 30 November 1966 he became the first Prime Minister of Barbados. By 1945 Barrow had risen to the rank of Flying Officer and was appointed as personal navigator to the Commander in Chief of the British Zone of occupied Germany. In September 1942 during World War II, a German U-Boat was patrolling the waters of Barbados where it torpedoed SS Cornwallis off the coastline of the capital city. The ship was brought ashore in Barbados before it was released and was torpedoed a second time and sank. The shipwreck was later turned into a reef and Marine park. The prize winning Barbadian novelist Austin Clarke writes in detail surrounding this attack in his novels "Pig Tails'n Breadfruit: A Culinary Memoir" and Giller Prize-winning The Polished Hoe. The books talk about the economic hardship felt in Barbados after it was cut off from global trade by Germany.