大象传媒

The following story by Terence Robertson is out of copyright and appears courtesy of and with thanks to Mike Kemble, and Captain Frederic John Walker.

ON July 3rd, 1943, the Group sailed from Plymouth to arrive in the 鈥淢usketry鈥� patrol area the next evening shortly before midnight. At dawn two days later, a Sunderland reported a U-boat on the surface approximately thirty miles to the west of the Group, and Walker turned at full speed to investigate. Before the ships could arrive at the position, the aircraft reached its Prudent Limit of Endurance and was forced to head for home. It passed over the Group, exchanged signals of mutual regret and vanished into the distance, leaving the sloops with no sign of the enemy. They searched vainly for more than two hours and finally gave up in disgust. During the morning, a Catalina reported herself attacking three U-boats on the surface and followed quickly with another message saying she had been badly damaged and was returning to base. Her pilot forgot to give any position for the Group to follow up. Another aircraft flew into sight and blinked a signal to Walker saying that mechanical defects made it imperative to return to base. His departure left the Bay without air patrols of any kind. A biting signal from Walker to Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth about the beauties of air-sea co-operation, when no aircraft were flying, brought immediate results. At noon a Liberator appeared and placed himself under orders. He circled the Group at a range of thirty miles and, for the next few hours, it looked as though an air-sea team had finally been established. Unfortunately, the aircraft could stay only as long as its fuel lasted and, in the early evening, the Group were sorry this co-operative pilot had to fly back to base. Within an hour another Liberator had made a meteoric arrival and disappeared again before Walker could even make contact. The Group had been steaming eastwards all day and, by nightfall, were only ten miles from the Spanish coast; in fact, their radar screens were showing in clear greenish blobs landmarks known to be fifteen miles inland. The ships about-turned and headed to the northwest corner of 鈥淢usketry鈥�, their starting-off point for sweeps towards Bordeaux and Lorient during the next two days. The series of disappointments continued, and it seemed possible that the enemy had taken steps to counter the blockade. Walker鈥檚 Report of Proceedings for this voyage reflected some of the frustration felt by the whole Group. There was something of Drake, Raleigh, Frobisher and Nelson in him. While ashore he was reserved to the point of shyness and restrained in all his dealings with people outside the Service but, once at sea with his own command, swash buckling tendencies came to the surface. It was impossible for anyone near him not to be affected, and the crew of Wild Goose, like the men of Starling, soon became inspired with a spirit of dash. By 11 am they were nearing the reported position of the enemy force and tension mounted when an aircraft reported the sinking of one U-boat. Soon they could see four aircraft circling wildly ahead over a sea covered in a spreading patch of oil. On the fringes were seven disconsolate-looking Germans squatting dumbly in a rubber dinghy. The Group raced past them, Walker signalling to his ships that there was no time to stop and pick them up. 鈥淚t will do them no harm to contemplate nature while we do the hunting,鈥� he snapped. Before Wren broke away from the formation, a Liberator dropped a smoke float on a U-boat eight miles away and she was quickly told to resume her station. Walker had turned the Group towards the thin column of smoke when look-outs in all ships sighted a whale blowing indignantly alongside the float. A few derisive signals about 鈥渂lind鈥� pilots passed between the ships as they returned to their asdic sweep. This time Wren peeled off and hurried to pick up the Germans, now a tiny speck on the horizon and, at the same time, five JU 88鈥檚 appeared and followed her movements with cautious curiosity while she rescued their countrymen. U-607, a 500-ton U-boat commanded by Oberleutnant Jeschonneck had left Lorient for operations off Kingston, Jamaica, on the evening of the 12th. After midnight, champagne had been served to the crew to celebrate the captain鈥檚 birthday and, for this reason perhaps, they were a little slow in sighting a Sunderland which roared in to attack at 8 am on the 13th. The first bombs scored direct hits on the frantically dodging boat, blowing the conning tower party into the water. They were the only survivors, the remainder of the crew being trapped in U-607 which sank immediately.
Jeschonneck and his six companions were swimming together when the Sunderland came low and, for a panic-stricken moment, they feared they were about to be machine-gunned. Instead, the aircraft dropped a raft alongside them and circled high overhead, obviously directing surface units to their position. By now, even Walker had decided that Doenitz was refusing to give battle and, with this anti-climax, the Group made glumly for Plymouth, which they finally reached on the i6th. Walker found that Starling was not yet ready for sea, so he took a few days鈥� leave to see his wife and family in Liverpool and to deliver his Report of Proceedings personally to Sir Max Horton who was demanding first-hand reports of the Group鈥檚 activities. His obvious delight at Walker鈥檚 adventures came out in the covering letter he wrote when forwarding the Captain鈥檚 Official Report to the Director of Anti-Submarine Warfare at the Admiralty. 鈥淭his is typical of Walker,鈥� said Sir Max. 鈥淎 nice bright and breezy report even if the metaphors are a bit mixed. All huntin鈥�, shootin鈥� and fishin鈥� with a little cricket thrown in for good measure.鈥� By the end of 1942, a large number of ships in the Western Approaches Command had been fitted with new anti submarine devices designed to reduce the margin of an enemy鈥檚 potential escape. The asdic was modified to the extent that the operator could not only 鈥減ing鈥� on a target ahead and below but could estimate its depth. Recording machines electrically operated with the asdic set showed a commanding officer roughly what evasive action the enemy was employing. These improved devices called for new armaments for precision attacks. With the 鈥済uesswork鈥� being taken out of the normal attack procedure, it would be possible to fire projectiles to explode on impact. After the marked lull in June caused by the temporary retirement of the U-boats from the convoy routes, the enemy returned cautiously into the North Atlantic during July. Doenitz threw 150 U-boats into this mid-summer blitz in a concentrated thrust aimed at severing the Atlantic lifelines. To do this, he had to regain the initiative by sending his boats into their patrol areas at the greatest possible speed. This meant sailing across the Bay on the surface and risking losses due to air attack. To minimise the danger, he reverted to sending them out in groups of three, and sometimes five. When Walker received a copy of this intelligence from Commander-in-Chief; Plymouth, he announced joyfully: 鈥淪o they are back on the surface. Long may they continue to be".
On July 22nd, he transferred his command to Kite, handed back Wild Goose to Commander Wemyss, welcomed a new sister sloop to the Group, Woodcock, and sailed the following day to enforce the blockade in the Bay of Biscay. When the Second Support Group arrived in the southern section of the Bay for the 鈥淢usketry鈥� patrol at noon on July 2 he sent the following signal to all ships: 鈥淭his time we must deliver a hard enough blow for the Boche to be left in no uncertainty about the fate of his U-boats. He must be made to realise that the Royal Navy considers the Bay of Biscay a happy hunting ground and will stamp out any attempt to restrict the free and rightful passage of Allied shipping. When we meet him we will destroy him. We are a hunting force and from now on, 鈥榓-hunting we will go鈥�.鈥� It was not surprising that from then onwards the famous old song, 鈥淎-Hunting We Will Go鈥�, became the Group鈥檚 signature tune to be played over the leader鈥檚 loudhailer each time Starling entered and left harbour. During this fine, balmy afternoon with a frivolous sea leaping lightly across the slight, contented swell, the five sloops steered to the southeast towards the coast of Spain in their normal hunting formation, line abreast and two miles apart. At 6 pm they sighted an object which looked to Kite鈥檚 Officer of the Watch suspiciously like a conning tower ten miles to port. He sounded action stations, reported to Walker, and the Group turned to investigate. As they drew nearer, the object became a large ocean-going fishing boat and closer inspection proved it to be the Spanish trawler, Europe 5, from Vigo. 鈥淢usketry鈥� was one of the areas the Admiralty had promulgated as being used by neutrals at their own risk. Should they ignore the warning and be met by British warships, they were liable to be taken as prize or sunk. Walker did not hesitate; it was impossible for him to continue his patrol with the trawler in tow as a prize, so he ordered Wren to take off the Spaniards and sink her. An hour later, seventeen Spanish fishermen were aboard Wren, and Europe 5 was blown up and sunk. For the next two days the Group swept to the westward in close contact with air patrols. Walker grumbled that, now air-sea co-operation was working so well that he was rarely without a Sunderland or Catalina in company, the enemy was refusing to give battle. But at noon on the 28th, just as the five ships鈥� companies were being piped to dinner, alarm bells clanged and nearly 1000 men scrambled to their action stations. Three more Spanish trawlers had invaded the prohibited area and were about to regret it. Walker instructed Wild Goose and Woodpecker to take off the crews and destroy the boats while the remainder of the Group covered the operation against enemy intervention. The sea began to fill with trawlers and, in no time, each of the five sloops was busy taking off fishermen and sinking their boats. The El Viro was sunk by Kite; Montenegro by Wild Goose; Buena Esperansa by Woodpecker; Don Antonio by Woodpecker and Comparrel by Woodcock. Another trawler, H. de Valterra, was kept in reserve to act as an evacuee ship and, later in the afternoon, all the fishermen, including the seventeen who had enjoyed the hospitality of Wren since the 25th were transferred to her. 鈥淭his bedraggled little vessel,鈥� wrote Captain Walker in his Report, 鈥渨ith her decks packed with excited Spaniards, bore some faint resemblance to the old pleasure steamers brought out for the day to cope with the Bank Holiday trippers at home. But she lacked that fleeting air of dignity which befits an old vessel brought out to meet such a situation and, as she lay between Woodpecker and Kite, she cut a pitiful figure of poverty, neglect and squalor in sharp contrast to the business-like air of His Majesty鈥檚 ships and the blue-gold glory of a shimmering afternoon in the Bay of Biscay.
鈥淗owever, carnival gives place to duty and H. de Valterra was slapped on the flank and told to go home, which she did to continuous cries of 鈥淰ive Angleterre鈥�, just as three more trawlers hove in sight. It would, I am sure be an exaggeration to say that they had heard the buzz and were anxious to join the party. It proved impossible to add them to their gallant band of brothers as the Admiralty had just reported a U-boat in our vicinity, an aircraft had signalled a sighting report and the Group formed up in line abreast and set off to the northwest at full speed.鈥� Nothing came of this search and the Group resumed patrol ling through the northwest corner of 鈥淢usketry鈥�, their cruise assuming the aspect of peacetime exercises until shortly after 7 am on the 30th when Wild Goose intercepted the wireless signals of a U-boat talking to her base at Lorient. Walker wheeled off the Group and set course along the bearing to the southwest and an hour later an aircraft reported himself circling over three U-boats roughly in the same position as that which they were already chasing. By 8.30 a.m. all ships were receiving excellent bearings of the chattering U-boat. She was probably telling Lorient of the aircraft patrolling above herself and her partners. The many and varied positions being signalled by the now wildly excited aircraft were ignored. At 9.30 am the Group sighted an aircraft low on the horizon ahead and almost immediately heard the sound of exploding depth charges. Alarm bells rang through each ship and the men rushed to their action stations for what looked like an interesting battle. At 10 am the enemy came in sight on the horizon, three conning towers turning together to avoid attacks from three aircraft. Four minutes later, Walker鈥檚 rarely-revealed love of the dramatic came to the fore as he beckoned to Kite鈥檚 yeoman of signals and ordered: 鈥淗oist the General Chase.鈥�
For a moment the yeoman was confused. Then, with a smile of joy, he raced to the rear of the bridge and a few seconds later made a signal used only twice before in the Royal Navy, once by Drake, when he chased the Spanish Armada from the Channel, and again by Nelson when he defeated Napoleon鈥檚 fleet at the Battle of the Nile. When the flags came down in the executive signal for the order to come into operation, the five sloops surged forward under maximum power, each ship now free to race for the privilege of being the first to engage the enemy. Those with binoculars turned towards Kite鈥檚 bridge would have seen Walker waving his cap in the air as though, by doing so, he could urge each of his brood on to greater efforts. The two bloated-looking boats of 1600 tons, U-461 commanded by Korvettenkapitan Steibler, and U-462 commanded by Oberleutnant Bruno Vowe, had sailed from Bordeaux on July 28th for patrols off the Brazilian and central American coasts. Their escort for the Bay crossing was U-504, a fast 500-tonner commanded by Kapitanleutnant Luis.

Continued.....
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