大象传媒

My late father in law Bill Wood was aboard the destroyer HMS Bleasdale which had many various roles during ww2, one of the more relaxing roles was Biscay Duty which entailed recieving and escorting atlantic convoys in the latter stages of crossover in the Bay Of Biscay...this must of been in the later stages of the u boat war as he spoke very little of the worry of submarines, he was in a mixed bag of vessels a polish crewed vessel and a free french boat you sailed upwind of because it stank!!plus more HMS ships, life was almost idillic for a young seaman , lots of sun, millpond seas and no immediate danger even the germans seemed chilled out, a charmed life Bill claimed.
every few days they would be reconned by a german Dornier spotter plane just to make sure they hadnt wandered off, the gunnery crews would lob up a few shells but really didnt put too much effort in as charlie knew thier range and stayed just out of it. after a salvo he would waggle his wings and be gone, this continued for months and became the routine he brought them no ill and they became entertained by this break in the monotony , then one fatefully day a HMS ship on firing at charlie got a shell trapped in the gun and a charged was placed in the breach to clear the obstruction this extra propellant increased the range and poor old charlie flew staight into the wayward rounds path losing his tail plane and plummeting into the sea . the poles got there first and claimed there was no survivors but some HMS crews were not convinced and lot of falling out between ships took place.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.