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These are the stories of veterans who visited the National War Memorial in Ottawa today, Remembrance Day, November 11, 2009.

(Photos by Steven Chase/The Globe and Mail)

Elsa Lessard, 87. She was one of 200 "Wrens" at a military radio intercept outside Moncton, N.B. who tracked German submarines by their broadcasts.

"Whenever a submarine wanted to contact German headquarters, it had to surface. That's when you could take a bearing on where they were. When we heard this we hit a panic button and yelled in the frequency. A gal about a kilometre away in a shack in a farmer's field took the bearing. That's how we tracked U-boats during the war. It all ended up at [decryption station] Bletchley Park outside of London."

Doug Meredith, 86. He served in the Canadian Navy in the North Atlantic during the Second World War, working on both a corvette -- a light, highly maneuverable warship -- and minesweepers. He says sailing the North Atlantic is an experience he will never forget.

"Unless you'd been there, it's hard to describe it. Just think about tipping your house 30 degrees on an up angle and then 30 degrees on a down angle and being kicked up and down now and again. You have to live your life holding onto something."

Harold Poapst, 90. He ran radar for the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. Mr. Poapst installed radar in anti-submarine patrol bombers and test-flew them over the Atlantic.

During the conflict he was shipped to an island off the North Carolina coast to help wage submarine warfare. "I was pretty much by myself there," he recalled.

Merv Fediuk, 75. He bluffed his way into the Canadian Forces as an underage teenager in 1951, ultimately ending up spending more than 25 years in the military.

"I lied about my age when I was 16. I was supposed to go overseas to Europe with the 27th Brigade but they found out I was too young and I went back to my base in Regina, Saskatchewan, and cried my eyes out. They kept me around working there until I hit the right age. Then I ended up in Korea for a couple years towards the end of the Korean War. Then I served in the Middle East during the Suez Crisis."

Mr. Fediuk enjoyed his service, which included work in the Forces' dental corps. "They were good years."

Clay Stones, 83. He was in the merchant navy during the Second World War -- under constant targetting by the Nazis due to the value and importance of its shipments. Mr. Stones survived a ship sinking during the conflict after an attack by a German sub.

"We went into Antwerp, Belgium and unloaded about 8,000 tons of ammunition," Mr. Stones recalls. "Once we got out, off the coast of Holland, we got torpedoed, even though we were empty," he said. "It was a two-man sub that hit us."

He was rescued by a British destroyer, though he recalls the warship was a rougher ride than his merchant vessel. "I was seasick on the destroyer even though I hadn't been seasick on the freighters."

Mr. Stones has lived the last 55 years in Newmarket, Ont. "My son asked if we would all come down [here] today and I thought it was a great idea."

Les Griffiths, 83. Mr. Griffiths fought the Nazis and their tanks "mostly in the desert" during the Second World War -- from Alexandria, Egypt to Jerusalem.

He was a gunner in Britain's 13th Anti-Tank Regiment. He'd "sooner not" describe his experience during the conflict, saying only that it was "warm," but adds he's hoping to revisit the region in the near future.

Michael Fedak, 85 and Aurele Lafontaine, 86, both veterans of the Second World War and D-Day.

Mr. Lafontaine, right, enlisted at age 17. He was a messenger during the Second World War, a position that was especially targeted by the Nazis in order to disrupt communication lines. “I was a dispatch rider, a DR. It was a tough job because the Germans could see you and shoot you on your motorcycle,” Mr. Lafontaine, of Kanata, Ont., recalls.

Mr. Fedak, left, (left side of picture) was a radio operator and a driver and “you name it” with the Lake Superior Regiment, 4th Armoured Division. He served in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. “I was only 19 years of age.” He lives in Winnipeg now but comes to the national capital Remembrance Day ceremonies regularly because his son lives in Ottawa.

Bill Anderson, 87. He served in northwest Europe during the Second World War with an anti-tank regiment.

"I went in six days after D-Day. I stayed on for a few months after the end of the war. I was with an anti-tank regiment throughout France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. I've always had an ambition to come to Ottawa for the national Remembrance Day ceremony and a young friend of ours offered to escort me. She arranged the transportation and all the heavy thinking and all I had to do was get myself here."

He's retired in Goderich, Ont.

Jan Gasztold, 84. He served in the Polish air force -- under British Command -- between 1942 and 1948 and emigrated to Canada in 1952.

His father was a Polish patriot sent to Siberia by the Russians. He left Poland to escape Russian domination and spent the war working on aircraft in Egypt.

Eric Schultz, 64. He served in both the army and the navy in a career that including a posting in Cyprus and a submarine.

"I joined the Black Watch in 1964 at Camp Gagetown, New Brunswick. I went to Cyprus in 1967. And then I was stationed in Germany with the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. I came back around 1970 and I transferred to the Navy for six years. My first ship was the HMCS Restigouche [destroyer] and then I was on the HMCS Onondaga submarine for one year and then I was on the HMCS Algonquin [destroyer] for about four years. I served 12 years and then I got out."