大象传媒

A brief chronicle of Magnus Johnson Cogle鈥檚 service history during World War II. As told to his son Derek Cogle in the year 2000.

I enlisted in the Royal Navy in January 1940 and was sent to the naval training camp HMS Royal Arthur in Yorkshire, where I was to train as a Telegraphist After completing my training as a Wireless Telegraphist; I was posted to the Patrol Service Base in Lowestoft.
I was to be drafted to the Mediterranean, and was given all the necessary inoculations, then sent on fourteen days home leave, but this draft was cancelled and I was sent to join H.M.S. Wastwater in Aberdeen. She had just returned from Narvik, where she was involved in the evacuations of British troops.

Whilst in Narvik the crew had raided the NAFFI and on return to Aberdeen the ship was put in debt, which meant that they were on meagre rations, this lasted until we were sent to the USA.

H.M.S. Wastwater, a newly built 560-ton armed whaler Lake Class.
Laid Down 7th July 1939
Launched 31st August 1939
Displacement 560 tons
Length 138 ft.
Armament 1x12 pdr.AA, 1x20mm AA, 2x5inch AA.
Speed 14 knots
Pennant Number FY 239

The Wastwater was part of the 10th Anti-submarine Flotilla; the next flotilla below the Destroyer Squadrons. (This was before the Corvettes and Frigates came from the USA.)
The ship had a crew of thirty-four, and the ratings were attached to the Patrol Service Royal Navy Reserve, most were all ex-Trawler or ex-Merchant Navy men. My first trip was to sail to Scapa Flow, which was to be our base station, I was sick for most of the trip. From Scapa we patrolled the Pentland Firth to Cape Wrath. Whilst at Scapa I spent fourteen days on board the submarine supply ship H.M.S. Maidestone training on the Marconi wireless set, and the Patrol Service routines. Learning more in those fourteen days than I ever did at Royal Arthur.

We continued patrolling these waters until April 1941, when we sailed for Iceland HMS Hood was at anchor in the Val Fjord; this was the Sunday before the Bismarck sank her, with the loss of over a thousand Men. On 27th July we were part of a reconnaissance force made up of 2 Cruisers (HMS Nigeria) and 2 Destroyers, which left Scapa Flow for Svalbard. Their aim was to attack German, and German controlled shipping of Finnmark. Our task was to patrol the East Coast of Iceland scanning for U-Boats.

On 30th July the D/S Dagny I, was working the coal trade from Svalbard, she took on board 57 passengers in an attempt to get them to Kirkwall. She sailed from Advent Bay on the 31st July, from Bellsund, and the following day she was escorted by the Polish destroyer Garland.
The Wastwater took over escort duties on the 3rd August, and she reached Thorshaven on 8th August. She resumed the voyage the following day, when a German plane spotted us. The plane flew off but another plane appeared and attacked the Dagny, she was hit by two bombs, one in the engine room and one on the after deck. Two engineers and the donkey man, on duty in the engine room were killed. The German plane then turned its attention to the Wastwater. The Wastwater returned fire, and the plane flew off. The starboard boat on the Dagny was readied and quite a few people were in it when something went wrong with the launching, and they all fell into the water. The port boat was launched successfully, and filled to the rim with people, but some had to be left on board, they were picked up a little over an hour later. The Wastwater rescued 63 survivors, and landed them at Thorshaven that afternoon. The Steward and First Mate on the Dangy, were seriously injured and were admitted to hospital. A British destroyer took the other 61 survivors to Scotland on 11th August.

The HMS Leicester City tried to extinguish the fires and save the ship but the boilers exploded, when the fire subsided enough they tried to tow her towards land in order to beach her but she capsized and sank. The bombing had taken the lives of 4 crewmembers and 2 passengers I had never been so scared in my life as at this moment.

U-Boat captured.

27th August 1941. U-570 was blown to the surface by depth bombs dropped by Hudsons from 269 Squadron Iceland. The U-boat was intercepted and boarded by HMCS Niagara and HMS Burwell, HMS Wastwater assisted with other trawlers HMS Northern Chief, HMS Kingston, HMS Agathe, and HMS Windermere. The U-boat was towed to Iceland where it was repaired and commissioned into the RN as HMS Graph.

In Reykjavik we had a working inspection from the Admiral; shortly after this we were informed that we were to patrol the shipping lanes off the East Coast of America. We were again called upon to rescue American sailors whose ship had been sunk of Iceland. On one occasion the Captain was invited on board a 鈥淏ig Ship鈥� as a guest, and he came back 鈥渧ery happy鈥�, and when ordered to take his 鈥淭rawler鈥� out on patrol, he refuse, as he objected to the Wastwater being called a Trawler. An armed escort came on board to ensure that the Patrol order was followed through. Before we left Iceland we witnessed the arrival of the Americans; it was quite a spectacle.

Whilst moored in harbour in Iceland, a storm blew one of the masts over. We had a short visit to Stornoway, before embarking with the Buttermere and twenty-six other trawlers to Canada and the USA. (Two of the trawlers were lost on the journey) We were on loan to the U.S. Navy. On one particularly foggy day close to Newfoundland, we were following Buttermere, which was the leading ship, when we lost sight of her. A periscope was sighted and the Wastwater opened fire hitting the target, when they drew closer it was found to be a buoy which now had a large hole in it.

From Canada we sailed on to New York, where we were to be based from February to November 1942. Whilst based in New York we were given an inspection by an American Commander with a party of Officers and they past with flying colours, the Americans were particularly impressed with the astic which they said was far superior to there own.

The Americans installed their own radio gear on the Wastwater, which was big improvement on our own radio set, as it was crystal controlled and would lock into the frequency.
For the installation I had to go with the Captain to Wall Street, where the navy had taken over office space. Going in past the armed Marines, they were surprised that a rating was allowed to see the secret documents, as the Americans only allowed their officers to see them.

Based in New York we patrolled the coastal waters around the East Coast of America, and in August we convoyed a floating dock to the Virgin Islands. The Captain was concerned that they would be an easy target, with only the Buttermere and the Wastwater acting as escort to such a large slow moving vessel, and all the way down we scanned the radio frequencies for U-boat activity, but nothing was heard, it was only after we docked that we found out that we had been scanning the wrong frequencies.

We successfully escorted the floating dock to its destination but the day after they delivery the dock was sunk by a U-boat. We visited other ports in the Caribbean including, Porto-Rico, St Thomas鈥檚, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic, before being recalled to Canada where we were to escort a cable laying vessel off Halifax. Travelling to Halifax, we encountered the coldest Canadian Winter for twenty years, with temperatures down to forty degrees below freezing. Although the storms were the worst in living memory, the ex-trawler men on board had every confidence in the ship saying that it rode the waves better than any deep-water trawler that they had sailed on.

From the cold of Canada we were told that we were to make for Freetown in Sierra Leon.
We set sail landing in Bermuda on Christmas day, but only staying for the morning before setting sail for Brazil. We stayed on in the Caribbean until March 1943; we then sailed on to Brazil. In Brazil on shore leave we were able to take part in a Samba festival, which was even better because the girls were able to leave their chaperones. On another shore leave the crew were involved in a fight with a group of American sailors. One of these Americans later had the unfortunate task of having to come on board to repair the wireless set, which was done in double quick time.

We left Brazil in March 1943 making for Freetown South Africa; on 29th March approaching Freetown we were diverted to pick up survivors from a British ship the Blue Star Line鈥檚, Celtic Star, which had been sunk by torpedoed. We had sailed all the way from Brazil our fuel was low so would only have a limited time to perform the search. As we approached the search area, a flying boat appeared to help with the search. A few hours later the flying boat returned, but as it flew in low it hit a large wave and crashed, we managed to get two survivors off the plane, and one of these gave part of a co-ordinate before he fell unconscious. By plotting the direction that the plane had come in from, Commander May took a calculated guess as to where the survivors would be. Because of the fuel situation we would only have this one chance to find the survivors. Thankfully his guess was correct and we were able to rescue the survivors. The Celtic Star was torpedoed in position 04 16 N, 17 44W.

Because of the atmospherics in that region the radio reception was very poor and I caused a full alert by using the wrong call sign, we had been away for over two years and the codes had changed. When we reached Freetown the crew was paid off. Commander May went home on a destroyer and the crew of the Wastwater was posted home on a troop ship, and was back in Britain within one week. But the Warrant Telegraph Officer in Durban wanted me to stay on in South Africa, as they had very few telegraph operators there. The only way I could get home was to apply for a commission, this I did but I had to work my ticket home on a Corvette, which took three weeks to complete the journey. On return to Britain and after some well earned leave, I was posted to Devonport as Duty Crew in the Barracks, where on one occasion I was called out to join a flotilla of torpedo boats for a raid on the Channel Islands.

In March 1944 I was posted to join HMS Seymour in Greenock, after joining the ship we sailed for Oban to complete the ships trials, which were two weeks of hell and red tape. After the trials were completed, we sailed for Ipswich.

H.M.S. Seymour, Captain Class Frigate, built in the USA under the lend/lease agreement.

Power Turbo electric.
Displacement 1,725 tons
Length 300ft
Armament 3x3inch AA, 1x2-pdr AA, 8x20mm AA, 1x2 40mm AA, 1x A/S mortar (hedgehog)
Complement 186
Speed 26 knots

Because of its large armament of anti aircraft guns the Seymour, was used to provide cover for the battleship H.M.S. Warspite as it bombarded the D-Day landing sites of Calvados. In June 1944 when it was realised that there was no danger from German aircraft the Seymour was sent to patrol the Channel. Where we acted with a Cruiser as flotilla leader of American, British and Polish

Gun Boats.
Patrolling between the beachheads and the fleet offshore, we followed the front line until we reached Antwerp, when the RAF took over. On the 2nd March 19454 the Seymour sank the German Torpedo Boat, S219 off Ostende. On one patrol on a foggy evening the Polish torpedo boats came back towards the Seymour at speed, a British destroyer who mistook them for the Germans had fired upon them. When filing a report the Captain of the destroyer was angry that his ship had missed its targets.

When the war was over the Seymour called in at Hamburg in May 1945, and she also visited Oslo in June 1945, before returning to Rosyth and then a tour around British ports.
I was released from service on the 26th November 1945 in R.N. camp St Budeax, Devonport.

The Wastwater was sold in May 1946
The Buttermere was in the Mercantile TIERN 1948
The Seymour was returned to the USN 5th January 1946.

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