大象传媒

The Life
of
Ken

Part One "Convoy - The Voyage Home"

August to October 1939 The Voyage Home

Singapore to Southampton via Port Said & Gibraltar

Preamble

The 鈥淰oyage Home鈥� was from Singapore to the U.K., with Mother and I on board the troopship H.M.T. Dilwara. Dad had gone home earlier in the year on the R.M.S. Rawalpindi, a 鈥淐ivvie boat鈥�. He had been posted to a training camp, in the U.K., as part of the massive re-armament and expansion of the Army. Mother, six months pregnant with Cyril, and I followed a few months later on a 鈥淭rooper鈥� the Dilwara. No 鈥淐ivvie boat鈥� comfort for us!

War with Germany was declared during the course of the voyage home of the Dilwara. This meant that from Port Said to Southampton the Dilwara sailed in convoy. Below is an account of the voyage. The first part covers just the convoys; it is based on data gleaned from Admiralty records at the PRO and other historical records. The second part is the result of my recollection of events that occurred sixty six[!?] years ago, it attempts to cover the whole of the 鈥淰oyage Home鈥�.

Part One 鈥� The Convoys

Convoy Blue 1 鈥� Port Said to Gibraltar

H.M.T. Dilwara sailed with Convoy Blue 1 from Port Said on the 9th September 1939. It was the first Westbound convoy from Port Said. Once clear, the twenty ships of the convoy formed up in five columns of four rows. The columns were 3 cables apart, with 2 cables between ships in each row, a cable = 200yds. .[see app.1]

H.M.T. Dilwara was the Commodore Ship at the head of column three in the first row. The Convoy Commodore was responsible to the Senior Officer of the Escort [S.O.E.] for the control and handling of the convoy. The Convoy Commodore was either a senior M.N. Captain, with R.N.R. Experience or a retired R.N. Flag Officer.

The escort for the convoy was the 3rd Division of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. S.O.E. was Captain Warbuton-Lee on H.M.S. Hardy; the remainder of the division was HM.S. Hasty, Hereward and Hostile.

The convoy route was determined by the N.C.S.O. at Port Said. Experience showed that routing needed to be better coordinated. It was suggested that routing come from a single authority, so that escorts and covering forces could be effectively provided. Also that a single authority be responsible for all Allied convoy routing. Convoy Blue 1 narrowly missed a French Convoy on a reciprocal course on the night of the 14th September. A single authority and fixed routes would have avoided this.

The convoy carried out zigzags by day, convoy speed was nine knots, this gave a speed of advance of eight and a half knots. Zigzags were discontinued at night. Signalling, station keeping and manoeuvring, were exercised energetically and showed rapid improvement.

During an exercise for, or possibly an actual 鈥淓mergency Turn鈥� on or about 16th September there was a collision between Dilwara and another ship in the convoy. The other ship was the S.S. Stentor, a Blue Funnel Line ship on the port side of us. My memory of that time indicated that the damage was on the starboard side of Dilwara. Which just goes to show how reliable that a five year old boy鈥檚 memory can be!

The convoy arrived at Gibraltar on the 18th September 1939, with no other incident. A problem with effectively screening the convoy off Gibraltar, became apparent. About half of the convoy, for whom there were no harbour pilots, were ordered to stop and wait well outside the defended area of the port. This meant that there was an extended line of ships, several miles long, all stopped. They presented an easy target that was impossible to screen effectively. The ships had to be 鈥渦rged鈥� to enter the patrolled area of Gibraltar Bay.

Apart from the unexpected meeting with the French convoy and the collision involving Dilwara, the voyage from Port Said was without incident. On arrival, the Dilwara was taken in hand, to make good the collision damage.

Convoy HG1 鈥� Gibraltar to Southampton

Dilwara had been patched up after the collision and became part of Convoy HG1 that had been formed at Gibraltar. The convoy sailed at 1500hrs. on 26th September 1939. It was the first homeward bound convoy of the war from Gibraltar. There were 28 merchant ships in the convoy; the only other large and fast passenger ship was the S.S. Largs Bay, owned by the Aberdeen and Commonwealth line and managed by Shaw Saville and Albion. 18 of the ships had been in Convoy Blue 1, another 10 had joined at Gibraltar.

The 鈥淥cean Escort鈥� and S.O.E of the convoy was H.M.S. Colombo, she was a light cruiser of the 鈥淐arlisle鈥� class, from the 11th Cruiser Squadron. The Commodore of which was in command of H.M.S. Colombo.
鈥淐eres鈥� Class Cruiser
The 鈥淐eres鈥� class was identical to 鈥淐arlisle鈥� Class except that the 鈥淐arlisles鈥� had a raised bow.

The remainder of the escort was the Polish destroyer Blyskawica.

Prior to sailing on 26th September, a convoy conference was held ashore at 1030hrs. The convoy was due to sail at 1400, but it was 1500hrs before all ships were underway.
On sailing, the Straits of Gibraltar were swept by an anti submarine destroyer screen ahead of the convoy. This was maintained until 2200hrs on the day of sailing. At the same time, aircraft from Gibraltar maintained air cover over the convoy until dark on the 27th September. At this time North Front airfield at Gibraltar had not been constructed. So the aircraft would have been from the six Saunders Roe London II seaplanes of 202 Squadron, 200 Group, based at Gibraltar.

On clearing the protected area at Gibraltar, the convoy was assembled in four rows, each of seven ships. Convoy speed was eight knots and during daylight hours maintained a zigzag. The spacing of the rows and columns was as in Convoy Blue 1.

By day Colombo was stationed in position 5,1 with the commodore ship Dilwara in 4,2. Blyskawica took up station about three miles ahead, zigzagging independently across the front of the convoy. By night Colombo patrolled ahead zigzagging independently, but within visual signalling distance of the convoy. This released Blyskawica who then dropped to a position astern of the convoy. The reasons for this were to keep off shadowers and to keep down any U-boats ahead of the convoy. There was the subsidiary role of keeping neutral ships away from the convoy.

During the first full day at sea, emergency turns were exercised. This exercise was repeated after dark.

The next day the weather started to worsen. In view of this, at 2000hrs 28th September, Blyskawica detached, as she was low on fuel[!!!]

On 1st October the ships exchanged convoy stations to conform to their revised Ports of Destination. The weather had deteriorated further, convoy speed was reduced to less than four knots and the zigzag was abandoned. This delayed arrival at the rendezvous point where the local escort was to join.

At 1400hrs on 3rd October, four destroyers of 5th Destroyer Division rendezvoused with the convoy. They were H.M.S. Ilex, H.M.S. Imogen, H.M.S. Imperial, and H.M.S. Isis. At 1200hrs on 4th October, the convoy split. Eight ships escorted by Ilex and Imogen, proceeded to Irish Sea Ports as convoy H.G.1.A. At 1400hrs on 5th October, H.M.S. Echo and H.M.S. Intrepid took over as escort for convoy HG1. H.M.S. Colombo, H.M.S. Imperial and H.M.S. Isis, plus R.F.A. Abbeydale proceeded to Devonport.

On the 5th October 1939 Dilwara arrived safely at Southampton.

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