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.

The Navy in peacetime and the Navy at war are vastly different affairs. Officers who had been social lions and ear marked for high rank in 1939 had been known to fail on the battlefield; others who had spurned the niceties of the peace time service and suffered for it were proving indomitable, and sometimes brilliant, leaders in war. The Admiralty is probably the most rigidly disciplined of the three Service departments; yet time and again it proves itself capable of astonishingly human actions. Commanders-in-Chief are not responsible merely for the destruction of the enemy with the fleets at their disposal. They also keep a constant, vigilant watch over the health, behaviour, cares and worries of their commanding officers. Sir Percy Noble had long realised that in Commander Walker he had found one of the most keen and efficient U-boat hunters in the Western Approaches Command. He knew also, through that strange, invisible grapevine which reaches through mess decks and staffs, that Walker could best be rewarded by early promotion. Accordingly, he recommended to the Admiralty that the 3 Group鈥檚 Senior Officer should be given immediately the rank of Captain. The Admiral had another motive for this. Reports had reached him through Staff channels that Walker, spending most of his sea time on Stork鈥檚 bridge from which he could instantly control any given emergency, was showing signs of strain and tiredness. He had summoned him to Derby House for an interview and had noticed for himself that the quiet, modest officer burned inside like a suppressed volcano when discussing the Atlantic battle. Tell-tale lines were already tugging at his eyes. It was time for Walker to be rested ashore, but it was obvious too that any attempt to tell him so and relieve him for a trip would be strenuously resisted. If he were promoted he must expect to be moved from Stork and might accept a shore job, no matter how reluctantly, without realising he was actually being given a let-up. The Admiralty agreed with Sir Percy鈥檚 recommendation and threw in a reward of its own. When the half-yearly promotion lists were issued in July, Walker鈥檚 name headed the list of commanders promoted to captain, thereby cancelling out the pre-war report from Valiant which had criticised him. The citation read: 鈥淔or leadership and skill in action against enemy submarines.鈥� Soon after this promotion, Sir Percy sent for his Chief of Staff Commodore Mansfield, and said: 鈥淲alker鈥檚 promotion and seniority now makes it necessary to make some changes. Therefore I suggest we take the opportunity to rest him by appointing him Captain (D) for about six months. He should go back to sea by the spring of next year.鈥�
Unaware of the real reason for his transfer ashore, this promotion brought disappointment to Walker. He saw the logic of the new appointment but was hardly content to sit behind a desk reading the exploits of the Western Approaches in their Battle Reports. When breaking the news to Eilleen, he said: 鈥淭he Admiralty have only themselves to blame if I make a damned awful Captain (D)鈥攚hich I shall.鈥� He took over his new job in October and immediately opened a two-pronged attack on the Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief, one for a less cautious and more offensive approach to the Battle of the Atlantic, and the second to persuade Their Lordships that he should be sent back to sea in the small ships he had come to regard as his second home. He sent for Eilleen who gave up her job and they found 鈥淭he White House鈥�, South Road, Liverpool, which became their home for the remainder of the war, and his life. His tall, spare figure with the gaunt, weather-tanned face became as familiar among the shopping crowds of the port as it was in the dockyards, inspecting ships, advising their commanders and sorting out the complex problems of getting old ships refitted, new ones launched and secret equipment installed in ships waiting to sail. At Derby House, he analysed reports of convoy battles, handled personnel problems by the thousand, recommended officers and men for awards and sent for others to be quietly and politely burned by the 鈥渂ottles of acid鈥� that became the standard reward for slovenly behaviour or indecision in action. Commanding officers learned that it was decisiveness that counted with Captain (D). He could not tolerate a dithering officer but would always help and advise those whose decisions had been near to disastrous. On a few occasions, he was invited to wardroom celebration parties and it was then that his gayer, more relaxed, side appeared in the intimacy of a close professional circle. He had always been keen on physical exercise and keeping fit generally, he took cold baths winter and summer, and he could stand on his head almost indefinitely, drinking a glass of beer. At Christmas, Walker gave the first of his few wartime lectures. It was on a subject he believed in passionately and which he considered a number of reservist commanding officers should know more about. 鈥淟eadership comes very much easier to those of strong personality, commanding presence, but don鈥檛 fall into the mistake of thinking these things are essential. They are not. Nelson and Napoleon were both little squirts and Hitler is in my opinion a figure of fun. Yet Napoleon led a whole nation for some years all over Europe to eventual defeat and Hitler is doing the same thing now. 鈥淭here is a distinction between leadership and discipline. An utterly undisciplined rabble was successfully led to storm the Bastille in 1789鈥攍eadership without discipline. Conversely, I have watched a magnificently disciplined body of Royal Marines in a big ship expending foot-tons of energy in trivial exercises鈥攄iscipline without leadership. A well-led ship鈥檚 company can be recognised in any emergency by their ready and intelligent anticipation of orders and the absence of confusion and shouting.鈥� Unconsciously, perhaps, he was drawing upon his own experience in command. It was against the wasting of 鈥渇oot tons of energy鈥� that he had rebelled in big ships before the war. Similarly, he could not really care how a sailor dressed at sea or whether his hair was cut to the required length, so long as he was keen, efficient and trustworthy in his job. On morale, he dealt mainly from his own experiences quoting examples from Stork and current cases he was dealing with at Derby House.
鈥淚 have seen a good many leave-breakers, ship jumpers, drunks, etc.,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 have a standard speech for them. I tell them what stinking skunks they are for helping the German war effort, doing their little best to lose the Battle of the Atlantic, miserably failing their country in her hour of need. Most of them are shaken to the core by it, some even burst into tears. You must get home to your men that there is no excuse for leave-breaking, that it is not merely playing truant from school, but letting their mates down badly. If a wife is ill or having a baby, the man must realise that his duty to his country comes before his duty to his family. Another cause of low morale is the difference in pay between the sailor and the dockyard and factory workers ashore. Rub in the honour of being picked for the finest fighting team in the world, and that the country would have been in German hands long ago but for that team and his part in it.鈥�
Some weeks before, Timothy had written asking his father to help him transfer to submarines. Walker had pulled a few minor strings and at Christmas his son, now a sub-lieutenant RNVR, came home to Liverpool on leave prior to attending a submarine course at Blyth. Nicholas was also on leave, and Gillian had taken a job at a garage to learn something about driving before joining the Wrens. As Timmy had been in Rome when Andrew was born, this meant that the family was re-united for the first time. One night during the festivities, Eilleen wakened and heard a slight noise outside her bedroom. She slipped out of bed, opened the door and to her astonishment saw a workman鈥檚 brazier glowing redly on the landing and, in front of it, a large red-painted signpost saying 鈥淩OAD CLOSED鈥�. She returned to the bedroom, shook Johnnie awake and told him what she had seen. 鈥淣icholas,鈥� he muttered sleepily. 鈥淚鈥檒l deal with him in the morning.鈥� Then he turned over and went to sleep again, leaving Eilleen prey to such thoughts as a mother might have at 2 a.m. with a brazier burning enthusiastically on her landing. At breakfast next morning, Nicholas and Gillian glanced apprehensively at their father who continued to sip his coffee in silence. He finished a second cup and lit a cigarette. before looking at Nicholas and saying abruptly: 鈥淧ut it back.鈥� He walked out leaving consternation behind him. It had not seemed such a bad idea to remove the brazier after a party at night; but to put it back in cold blood during daylight was another matter. Yet family discipline was such that after dusk that evening, two heavily-laden figures slunk furtively through the streets towards the river. A splash in the Mersey covered their trail and the incident was closed. Walker鈥檚 reputation as a fighting captain and a relentless administrator was so well known that when Admiral Sir Max Horton took over the Western Approaches from Sir Percy Noble, who was being sent to Washington for liaison duties, one of the first officers he asked to see was Captain (D). It was to be one of many meetings and, by the time Walker returned to sea, Sir Max Horton had set his standard of efficiency for the Command on the level of this captain. More important to Walker, he found the new Commander-in-Chief sympathetic to his ideas for more positive action in the Atlantic Battle. He set seriously to work on a paper campaign directed at both the Admiral and the Admiralty to convince them that the U-boat war could not be won by escorts huddled round convoys and waiting for the enemy. In a series of memoranda, he stressed the need for special groups to roam the Atlantic freely in search of the enemy. Coastal Command, he said, were increasing the number of their aircraft and, as a result, air co-operation was being improved and extended right across the Bay of Biscay, up to Iceland and over to Greenland. Now was the time for sloops and destroyers to revert to their traditional roles of seeking out and destroying the enemy. He pointed to dockyards round the country where new ships were nearing completion and urged that these should be used to form the new striking forces, or hunting groups. During one discussion with Sir Max Horton, the latter asked: 鈥淎nd where would you suggest these hunting groups would find the enemy?鈥� 鈥淚n my view we should seek them out on their own doorstep, the Bay of Biscay, and the mid-Atlantic where they are also vulnerable because they feel safe.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 around the 鈥楥hop鈥� Line Area,鈥� said Sir Max. (The Atlantic was divided down the middle by the 鈥淐hop鈥� Line. To the west of 鈥淐hop鈥� the Americans had control, east of 鈥淐hop鈥� was Britain鈥檚 responsibility.) 鈥淲ithout aircraft you might spend days not sighting a damn thing. You would need to take a carrier, and I doubt if we could afford to risk them in that kind of operation.鈥� Curiously, although he agreed with Walker on almost every point in the general plan, the Commander-in-Chief refused to add his endorsement on the question of aircraft-carriers. But, at the Admiralty, this was no problem. Small carriers were being built in considerable numbers and the war at sea was becoming the pivot of all other military operations. Sir Max went to London for a series of conferences and, by February, Walker鈥檚 ideas were substantially approved. They were not his alone. Other senior officers had contributed the basis of much of the overall plan and little could have been done without the help of Sir Max Horton. But it was Walker鈥檚 persistence and energy that pushed it through. He received forceful backing from Naval Intelligence who compiled reports from numerous sources into composite monthly surveys of the Battle of the Atlantic for the private use of the War Cabinet, Board of the Admiralty and certain departmental heads, such as the Director of Anti-Submarine Warfare and the Commander-in Chief of the various shore and sea-going commands. The Survey for January, 1943, was hardly encouraging. 鈥淣ow that Grand Admiral Doenitz is Supreme Commander of the German Navy,鈥� said the Intelligence Report, 鈥渨e may expect all units to operate in support of the U-boat war and we shall be on the look-out for any indication of a change of policy. It is certainly going to be a grim fight in 1943 and though we are not as ready as we would like to be, there have been plenty of examples late in 1942 to demonstrate that even with our present inadequate air and surface escorts, with good training and team work it is possible to fight a convoy through a pack of U-boats and give as good as we get.鈥� ( Intelligence was referring to Walker鈥檚 defence of convoy HG 76) For March and February the Reports were equally, if not slightly more, cheerless. 鈥淣ever before has the enemy displayed such singlemindedness of purpose in utilising his strength against one objective, the interruption of supplies from America to Great Britain. As a result, engagements were embittered and successes against U-boats high. 鈥淭he months ahead are critical and the outcome of the struggle is by no means sure.鈥� It was at this vital period that Walker persuaded Sir Max Horton to let him return to the struggle.
He was appointed Captain of a new sloop, Starling, and senior officer of the now famous Atlantic striking force known as the Second Support Group consisting of five other sloops of the same class, Wild Goose, Wren, Kite, Cygnet and Woodpecker. There was no conflict in his mind over leaving his family again. He knew his wife would never attempt to hold him back even if she could. For Eilleen, his return to sea meant going back to the long days and weeks of waiting she had come to share with thousands of naval wives throughout the country, never quite certain what the next telegram or 大象传媒 announcement would bring. She still suffered from a recurrent illness, but she were troubled in any way, Johnnie was not allowed to see it. Her patient restraint when her husband was ashore did not escape him. He knew she was calling on all resources of mind and body to appear cheerful at times when she must have felt more like crying. Before leaving the office of Captain (D), Walker proposed to broadcast a message to all Navy wives. This was accepted by庐 the 大象传媒 and then quashed by the Admiralty who feared it might tend to convey to the world that we had so many deserters and leave breakers that we had to appeal to their women to help. In fact, Walker wanted the help of the Navy wives and sweethearts, not because of deserting, they were too few cases to worry about, but because he wished these women to realise how important they were in maintaining the morale of the fighting men. He considered they were as vital to the war effort as anyone in the factories. Today, many of those women who were sweethearts are wives now, and a great number of the wives have become mothers. For some nostalgic memories may return at this brief excerpt from Captain Walker鈥檚 message.
鈥淲e sailors all know that beastly moment when leave is over and how it would be tempting to seize on some trivial excuse to stay a little longer. I am glad to say that most wives see to it that their husbands return to their ships in good time. I have this to say to those who have wavered. Never forget your influence on your man and keep him up to the mark. Send him back from leave itching to get at Hitler鈥檚 throat, not unhappy, worried and anxious about his home. Your paramount duty is to help your husband or son or sweetheart to grind the Nazi face back into the dirt from which it sprang.鈥�

Continued.....
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