Editing Military history of Barbados (section)

===World War II===
[[File:West Indians in Britain during the Second World War CH11478.jpg|thumb|[[Royal Air Force]] servicemen from the [[British West Indies]], A. O. Weekes of [[Barbados]] (left), and A. Joseph of [[Trinidad]] (right), during [[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]], later the first [[Prime Minister of Barbados]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bps.gov.bb/index.php?ZZZ=1_1055_10_0_0_&YYY=28_105 |title=The Second Contingent |access-date=2009-07-05 |publisher=[[Barbados|Barbados Postal Service]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220151547/http://bps.gov.bb/index.php?ZZZ=1_1055_10_0_0_&YYY=28_105 |archive-date=20 February 2012 }}</ref> who became an officer in the [[Royal Air Force]].  By 1945 Barrow had risen to the rank of [[flying officer]] and was appointed as personal navigator to the Commander in Chief of the [[Allied Occupation Zones in Germany|British Zone]] of occupied Germany.

On 11 September 1942 [[German submarine U-514]] was patrolling the waters of Barbados where it torpedoed the Canadian steam merchant ship [[List of shipwrecks in September 1942#11 September|''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.<ref name=untold>{{cite book |last=Metzgen |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Metzgen |title=Caribbean wars untold |year=2007 |publisher=[[University of West Indies Press]] | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a59YIzh9y18C&q=SS+Cornwallis+World+War+II&pg=PA160|isbn=978-9766402037 }}</ref> The prize winning Barbadian novelist [[Austin Clarke (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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Clarke |first=Austin |author-link=Austin Clarke (novelist)|title=Pig Tails'n Breadfruit: A Culinary Memoir |year=2000 |publisher=[[Random House of Canada]] | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCgBAAAACAAJ |isbn=0679310304 }}</ref>