大象传媒

Angus Bannerman Robertson

28 March 1925 to 17 February 1942

Angus Bannerman Robertson was my brother. He was born on the 28th March 1925 at 16A North Street, Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire.

I know little of Angus in his early years, because I was not born until 1934 and by then he was already nine years of age.

However, from what I have learned he was a fairly adventurous lad, who joined the Cub
Scout movement before eventually becoming a Boy Scout, all of which he did in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.

From an early age, his interest in the sea and ships was overwhelming. I am told, that whenever he was taken or went to Aberdeen; the first place me made for was Aberdeen Harbour, predominately to look at the trawlers and ships, which would be in the port at that time.

Prince of Wales Sea Training School 鈥� 1939

At the age of 14, he left school and immediately joined the Prince of Wales Sea
Training School, at Ingham Hall, Stalham, Norfolk.

SS Castilian and the Jervis Bay Convoy 鈥� 1940

In September 1939, war had been declared and we were then at war with Germany.
Having completed his time at the Prince of Wales School he was assigned on the 22nd June 1940 to the SS Castilian, where he was employed as a Cabin Boy. On the 22nd August 1940 he became a Deck Boy on the same ship.

The war at sea, especially in the Atlantic, was just beginning to take its terrible toll on our merchant ships and it was on the 5th November 1940 whilst serving on the SS Castilian, that Angus witnessed at first hand the battle between the German 鈥榩ocket battleship鈥� Admiral Scheer and the Jervis Bay. He was 15 years of age.

The Jervis Bay, originally a passenger ship, formerly owned by the Aberdeen and
Commonwealth Line, had been taken over by the Admiralty in August 1939. They armed her decks with 6鈥� guns and she flew the White Ensign, her roll being that of ocean escort for Atlantic convoys.

At the beginning of November 1940 the Jervis Bay had left Halifax, Nova Scotia as the sole escort of Convoy HX 84, when on the 5th November she was suddenly confronted by the Admiral Scheer.

Captain Fegen of the Jervis Bay decided he would take on the German battleship, but
realising he would be hopelessly outgunned, he ordered the rest of the convoy to scatter.

As the Jervis Bay went towards the Admiral Scheer with all guns blazing, she started to
be hit by the 11鈥� guns of the German ship and soon the bridge along with the gunnery
control centre were out of action. Captain Fegen lost an arm and shortly afterwards was
killed by another shell.

Although the battle had lasted only a short time, the Jervis Bay was ablaze and with no
guns, the crew were ordered to abandoned ship. Only 65 men were picked up, out of an original total of 255.

It is believed another armed freighter, the Beaverford, took up the fight and held the
Admiral Scheer for a further few hours, but late in the evening she also sank with all
hands.

The German pocket battleship succeeded in sinking only five freighters in the time before
darkness fell, this being mainly due to the actions of the two armed ships who faced the
Admiral Scheer. (Excerpts from 鈥楩ighting Ships of World War II by J.N.Westwood and
www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~Heritage/JervisBay)

The SS Castilian did as she had been ordered by the Captain of the Jervis Bay, and arrived safely back in Great Britain on or before the 25th November 1940.

At this time, I was six years of age and attending Port Elphinstone Infant School.

I returned home from school one afternoon to find my brother Angus sitting in my fathers
chair, still in his uniform, speaking to my mother and father. Why, I have no idea, but I
threw down my school bag and dived under the chair where Angus was sitting and remained there for some considerable time, still hearing Angus鈥檚 voice relating his experiences.

He was home on leave for some time and his records show that he was signed off the SS Castilian on the 25th November 1940 and remained at home awaiting a recall to another ship.

Whilst at home Angus was interviewed by the newspaper 鈥楶eople鈥檚 Journal鈥�, a local Aberdeenshire newspaper of the time, who published an article on Saturday 14 December
1940 under the Inverurie section it was headed, 鈥楤est Guy Fawkes Display He Has
Ever Seen鈥� and incorporated a small photograph of Angus.

The Empire Comet 鈥� 1941

The recall eventually arrived and he was ordered to join the Empire Comet, a brand new 6,914 ton ship, built by Lithgows Ltd, at Port Glasgow.

I recall making my way upstairs where we lived at View Cottage, Port Elphinstone on the day Angus was due to leave and I witnessed my father begging him not to return to sea,
as well he could have done, due to the fact he was still not 16 years of age, but he would
have none of it.

Angus signed Articles of Agreement on the Empire Comet on the 17th February 1941,where he was to be employed on board as an Apprentice.

The supplementary list of crew was submitted to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen in Cardiff by Dodd, Thompson & Co., who managed the Empire Comet on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport.

The Empire Comet set sail for the United States of America on the 28th February 1941, arriving in Boston on the 15th March. The ship then left the USA for return to Great Britain and arrived in Liverpool on the 19th April 1941.

As Angus on this occasion, was not due for leave he was obliged to remain on ship.

My mother and I left Inverurie and travelled by train to Liverpool, where my mother began to make enquiries as to the berthing position of the Empire Comet, but every shipping office and person she asked, were loath to inform or assist her.

Eventually, one company office after much checking of details, did tell her the 鈥楥omet鈥� was berthed over in Birkenhead. We then travelled via the Mersey Ferry to the Port of Birkenhead, where we found Angus鈥檚 ship.

We were kept by a police officer at the gate of the docks, whilst he made contact with the ship and requested my brother come to the dock gate and confirm who we were and sign us in. I was 7 years of age at the time.

My mother and I had dinner on board the Empire Comet and as the other Apprentice on board was away on leave at the time, this left an empty bunk in Angus鈥檚 room.

He then requested permission of the Captain, if it were possible for me to stay onboard that night. After much discussion, it was agreed. My mother left and returned to the hotel in Liverpool.

The following day she returned to collect me from Birkenhead and we said our farewells to Angus. It was the last time we were ever to see him.

The Empire Comet cleared Liverpool bound for Montreal on the 5th May 1941. The ship
then sailed to various parts of the world.

From Montreal she travelled to Sydney, Nova Scotia and from there, yet again back to the port of Liverpool, where she arrived on the 22nd June 1941.

On the 25th July 1941 the 鈥楥omet鈥� was in Cardiff where she left for Port Sudan, then on to Bombay and from there to Cochin in India. It left Cochin and arrived in Galle, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the 23 November 1941.

Leaving Galle, it then arrived at Cape Town on the 13th December and again left on the 16th of December 1941.

The 鈥楥omet鈥� berthed in Trinidad on the 5th January 1942, where it remained for three days before moving off for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving on the 20th Janaury 1942.

On the 7th February 1942 the Empire Comet sailed from Halifax in Convoy HX 174 bound for Great Britain.

It is believed the ship became detached from the Convoy due to dense fog on or about the 10th February. The authorities in this country then felt, she may have been sunk on the 19th February 1942, but could not say for sure why.

At the time of the loss the British authorities would give very little details to my parents, only that Empire Comet was believed sunk, but they had no earthly knowledge how, why or where and as it was wartime, they were not obliged to say.

Enquiries made in London - 1955

In April of 1955 I joined the Metropolitan Police in London and started to make enquiries as to where I may be able to trace details of the Empire Comet.

This proved extremely difficult and the only place I found the smallest of details was the Ministry of Transport, St Christopher House, Southwark Street, S.E.1 whose responsibility it was to keep all wartime merchant shipping records.

However, they showed the 鈥楥omet鈥� as presumed lost on the 19th February 1942 and gave position locations where they thought the ship had been lost, but no concrete evidence.

At this point, I felt there was no further use in trying to trace any other details of the
Empire Comet.

Enquiries made in Germany, Canada and America 鈥� 1980鈥檚

Some years passed before my son Melvyn Robertson, who had completed four and a half years with the British Army, having served in England, Northern Ireland, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany decided when he left the army, to take up residence in Hanover, Germany.

Having heard the story many times from me of my brother Angus and the Empire Comet, he decided to start making enquiries of various organisations connected with the sea and World War II.

From the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario he was informed that on the 10th February 1942, convoy HX 174 had been advised, 鈥榯o scatter after sound contact had
been made by the Naval Escort, believed possible enemy submarines鈥�.

The Canadian authorities also showed that the Empire Comet gave a position of 59鈥�14鈥橬
x 17鈥�10鈥橶, this is believed to have been the last radio message from the Comet.

Some time later the German Red Cross advised Melvyn to contact a Mr Jurgen Rohwer at the History Library in Stuttgart, who it appeared was an authority on German U Boats of the Second World War.

After much investigation by my son, involving many phones calls and letters to various parts of the world, suddenly on the 8th May 1987 he received a letter from Mr Rohwer in Stuttgart and in it he wrote, and I quote, 鈥楾he Empire Comet was in convoy No. HX 174 from Halifax to Liverpool. On the evening of the 17th February 1942 at 22. 37 hrs (German time) at grid 58鈥� 10鈥� N, 14鈥� 00鈥� W, she was torpedoed by the U-Boat 136, Commanded by Kapitanleutnant Zimmerman.鈥�

My son was absolutely dumfounded and slightly overcome with emotion that these details had at long last surfaced.

Melvyn, bolstered by his initial find then decided to pay a visit to the only German U-boat museum in existence, which was at Cuxhaven, a small German town on the North Sea coast, the museum is run by an ex-submariner, Mr Horst Bredow. He showed my son throughout the museum, eventually withdrawing a folder containing the details of U-boat 136. The folder contained photographs of the actual U-boat, along with the Captain Zimmerman and his Crew.

Unfortunately, these were the only details Mr Bredow had, but he advised my son that the
National Archives in Washington D.C. may hold further records, with the possibility of the logbook of the U-136 being there.

In July 1987, Melvyn visited Washington D.C. and paid a visit to the National Archives, and there he was given a microfilm of the logbook of U-136.

Captain Zimmerman鈥檚 log, for the 17th February 1942, show details of how he had sunk the British merchant ship, the exact positions he had taken to carry out his task and described how many torpedoes he had used. The log states that the cargo ship was hit with two torpedoes and that she went down within nine minutes, with her stern uppermost, followed by heavy detonations from below.

Melvyn kept enquiring and he found that the submarine U-136 with Captain Zimmerman on board, had been sunk on the 11th July 1942, just off the west coast of Maderia, whilst in the process of attacking British Convoy OS 33, along with a number of other German U Boats. The U-Boat went down with the loss of all hands.

So there it is, my brother Angus Bannerman Robertson lost his life in the Battle of the
Atlantic, he was sixteen years of age and he was 39 days short of his 17th birthday.

Both my parents went to their graves, never knowing the full details of how Angus lost his life during World War II.

More information and photographs can be found on the Prince of Wales Sea Training School website www.pwsts.org.uk

Allie Robertson.
11 November 2003.

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