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.

KAPITANLEUTNANT HEYDA was worried about U-131. There had been no report from her throughout the day of the 17th and none all night. Having made contact with the convoy in U-434 shortly after midnight he had decided that, in the absence of 鈥渉oming鈥� reports from his colleague, he had better take over as shadower. He was on the surface about ten miles from the convoy at dawn on the 18th checking the positions of the nearest escorts before diving to give the crew a chance to clean up the boat and have breakfast in peace. Carrying out a similar check on the port beam of the convoy, Stanley sighted him from a range of about six miles, on her port quarter. She broke R/T silence to report to Walker and turned away at high speed to attack. Exmoor, Blankley and the sloop, Deptford, all of whom were stationed within reasonable distance of the enemy were ordered to join her, Walker鈥檚 principal concern being for Stanley鈥檚 asdic which had been breaking down. She closed the enemy at twenty-four knots, hoping to get near enough to drop depth charges with a reasonable chance of success. But she was soon sighted by U-434, which crash dived in seconds with Stanley still some three miles away. At a mile from the diving position, she saw oil bubbles blow to the surface and, reducing speed, began dropping single depth charges in a square around the area. Blankney arrived and, picking up an asdic echo, dropped a quick pattern of five depth charges set to explode at 150 feet. When the disturbance had died away, she regained contact and acted as directing ship, passing the range and bearing to the asdic-less Stanley who went in to drop a pattern of fourteen charges set to 150 and 300 feet. While the spray was still falling, the irrepressible Blankney, always willing to attack anything and everything, raced in and dropped a ten-charge pattern in the same place. Below the two ships, U-434 was reeling under the shock. The charges, tumbling down, were causing damage faster than it could be repaired. The conning tower hatch cover cracked and a steady stream of water poured down at Heyda鈥檚 feet as he stood gripping the periscope column for support. The lights went out and the auxiliary system failed. Another rocking blast put the steering gear out of action. The finale came when the next pattern鈥擝lankney鈥檚 for luck, detonated so close that the blast pressure of the water exploded one of their own torpedoes in the stern tubes. Panicking men shouted for鈥檃rd; the wounded in the stern screamed. Heyda glanced quickly at the depth gauge. It showed them sinking rapidly and out of control. White-faced, but calm, he ordered tanks to be blown and called the crew to prepare for surfacing. Stanley and Blankney were preparing for another attack when U- 434 came to the surface less than a mile ahead with such a rush that she nearly leapt out of the water. Joyously, Blankney turned to ram at full speed but was too late. Shouting and wailing like their comrades in U-131 this crew jumped into the water. The last came up through to the conning tower as U- 434 rolled over and sank. The two destroyers, with the recently arrived Exmoor, picked up survivors and rejoined the convoy, and Walker was able to signal that a second U-boat had been sunk. During the morning two Focke-Wulfs appeared low on the horizon and Audacity flew off two of her Martlets to engage them before they had a chance to send out too many details on their radios. When they came out of cloud ahead of the enemy, the guns of both aircraft unfortunately jammed after the initial bursts and the two enemy bombers scuttled off, one damaged slightly. After this Walker arranged with Audacity鈥檚 captain that aircraft should be flown off for routine patrols round the convoys at dusk and dawn each day. Any U-boats answering the summons of the Focke-Wulfs would receive a warm welcome by H.G. 76 from the air and the sea. Early in the afternoon, Exmoor and Blankney, who were based at Gibraltar and had barely enough fuel to make, the return trip, parted company reluctantly. Before they left, Blankney signalled to Walker: 鈥淩egret very much having to leave you when the spoils of war are still waiting to be plucked. Good luck, am proud to have sailed under your orders.鈥�
While on passage to Gibraltar, Blankney heard disquieting news from her forty-five prisoners. She signalled Stork immediately with a warning: 鈥淗ave learned from prisoners that position, course and speed of convoy are known to enemy together with name of aircraft-carrier.鈥� In the late afternoon, Audacity flew off her dusk patrol too early and nothing was sighted. But as darkness approached, Penstemon, on the convoy鈥檚 port beam, broke R/T silence to report sighting a U-boat on the surface about ten miles to port, Walker ordered her to attack and told off another corvette, Convolvulus, to join her. They gave chase and the U-boat dived. As nightfall would cloak the convoy too soon for Walker to direct the chase, he ordered the two ships to remain hunting only so long as there seemed a chance of sinking the U-boat. While Convolvulus was taking down his orders, the men on the bridge went rigid as her asdic loudspeaker picked up the approach of torpedo propellers. 鈥淗ard a鈥� starboard,鈥� shouted her captain. 鈥淔ull ahead.鈥� Painfully and slowly the bows of the little ship began to swing as the noise from the loudspeaker sounded like the rushing of express trains. Suddenly a look-out shouted: 鈥淭orpedoes to port, Sir.鈥� The captain rushed to the side of the bridge in time to see the wakes of two torpedoes about twenty feet away. It had been a very near miss. After dark, the two ships lost contact with the submarine and rejoined the convoy. For the next few hours peace came to H.G. 76. On the starboard quarter, two miles from the end merchant ship I the starboard column, Walker zig-zagged in Stork. The next ship to his left was Stanley, covering the rear of the convoy a patrol two miles dead astern. The weather was fine, only slightly overcast and with a pale on shining bleakly through occasional breaks in the cloud. The sea was behaving much the same as it had throughout the voyage; short and choppy, with a swell big enough to roll a small ship round without being too uncomfortable. The wind was light and bitterly cold.
At 3.45 in the morning of the 19th Stanley reported by R/T, 鈥淪ubmarine in sight鈥�. in his excitement the reporting officer forgot to say where or on what bearing from the convoy. U-574 bad been the third U-boat to contact H.G. 76 late on the 16th. Since then she bad been staying close but doing nothing to give herself away. Her commander, Oberleutnant Gegnalbach, had watched the sinking of U-131 through his periscope and, slightly sickened, bad slunk away to the stern of the convoy. He stayed there throughout the 18th while U-434 was being chased and destroyed, and eventually decided to make his attack that night. He surfaced and, increasing speed to catch up with the rear ships, got to within three miles when the moon came out for longer than usual to bathe the scene in a pale glow. He saw an escort on his port bow and, at the same time, Stanley made her report. While Stanley turned to attack, Gegnalbach gave a curt order. 鈥淪tand by torpedoes.鈥� 鈥淎ttacking.鈥� 鈥樷�楩IRE.鈥� Walker raged on the bridge of Stork. He had almost lived there throughout the trip, retiring to his cabin only to shave and collapse wearily and fully-dressed for an hour or two on his bunk during the day. Even then he could not relax. As senior officer of the escort every signal affecting the convoy or any ship in the escort was sent to Stork and had to be dealt with during these precious moments. He could not see Stanley in the dark, they were about six miles apart, and she had given him no idea of what directions he should steer to support her attack. Grabbing the R/T phone he shouted her code name and ordered: 鈥淔ire an illuminant to indicate your position.鈥� If a shadower had contact with the convoy there was nothing much to give away. He had just replaced the telephone when Stanley came on the air with another report: 鈥淭orpedoes passing from astern.鈥� As this was being given to Walker, one of his look-outs sighted Stanley who blinked her recognition signal with a shaded Aldis lamp. 鈥淎t the moment,鈥� wrote Walker in his Diary later, 鈥渨hen everything seemed to be sorting itself out at once and I had my glasses on her, she went up, literally, in a sheet of flame hundreds of feet high. She thought the torpedoes were passing her.鈥�
It was a few minutes after a.m. when Stanley was torpedoed, and Walker for the first time ordered his 鈥淥peration Butter cup鈥� to deal with this night attack. Escorts turned outwards from the convoy firing starshell over the areas ordered by the 鈥淏uttercup鈥� instructions in an effort to illuminate the probable directions of the U-boat鈥檚 escape on the surface. Walker took Stork close to the burning, sinking Stanley and dropped depth charges in case the attacker had submerged and was trying to escape detection by hiding from asdics in the disturbance caused by the wreck. He took care not to go closer than half a mile to avoid injuring any of Stanley鈥檚 survivors. While turning round the stern of Stanley, Walker gained contact with what his asdic team called a 鈥渃ertain鈥� submarine. He went in to attack, dropping a pattern of ten charges set to 50 and 150 feet. Then he ran out for half a mile to turn again in readiness for another attack. The second run-in had just started when the U-boat surfaced two hundred yards ahead. Stork increased to full speed and steered a collision course. The ensuing chase, which lasted for eleven minutes, is told in Walker鈥檚 Battle Report. 鈥淎s I went in to ram he ran away from me and turned to port. I followed and I was surprised to find later that I had turned three complete circles, the U-boat turning continuously to port just inside Stork鈥檚 turning-circle at only two or three knots slower than me. I kept her illuminated with snowflakes and fired at him with the four-inch guns until they could not be sufficiently depressed. After this the guns鈥� crews were reduced to fist shaking and roaring curses at an enemy who several times seemed to be a matter of feet away rather than yards. 鈥淎 burst of our machine-gun fire was let off when these could bear, but the prettiest shooting was made by my First Lieutenant, Lieut. G. T. S. Gray, DSC, RN, with a stripped Lewis gun from over the top of the bridge screen. He quickly reduced the conning tower to a mortuary. No men were seen to leave the U-boat although they must have jumped some time judging from the position in which we found the survivors later.鈥� Eventually, Stork managed to ram her quarry just before the conning tower. U hung for a second on Stork鈥檚 stem before rolling off and scraping underneath her until reaching the stern where she was greeted by a pattern of depth charges set at shallowest settings. These blew her to pieces and even rocked Stork dangerously. Several Germans in the water were blown to bits by the depth charges, and Walker did not expect any survivors when he steamed over to where some English-sounding shouts in the water indicated 庐they might be some of the men from the stricken Stanley. They were Germans, and with Samphire helping, Stork picked them up. From the prisoners, he learned that his latest kill had been U-574. With five prisoners aboard, Walker proceeded to search for Stanley鈥檚 survivors with extra look-outs and the asdic team watching for signs of other U-boats. There was little hope of anyone surviving the fire that had followed the torpedo explosion in Stanley, but cries from the water soon disclosed that twenty-five of them were swimming in a group. Stork鈥檚 boats pulled away and brought them aboard. One died later.
In the middle of this operation there was a dull explosion and a flash from the direction of the convoy. It was the SS Ruckinge, which managed to send out her name on the radio before the crew abandoned ship. Walker ordered Samphire to stay until she had picked up all survivors, and took Stork back to the convoy at full speed. On the way, he stopped to rescue from a lifeboat the master, chief engineer and twelve others of the Ruckinge. By this time it was clear that more than one U-boat had attacked the convoy, but it was now nearly 5.30 a.m. and they could expect some respite. On board Stork at this stage were three Stanley survivors, fourteen from Ruckinge, seven from U-131 and six from U-574. Walker reported the night鈥檚 events to C-in-C, Western Approaches and to the Admiralty. To crown a night of flame and smoke, a signal marked 鈥渦rgent鈥� from the Admiralty reached them as dawn was breaking on the 19th, saying that six U-boats appeared to be in the convoy鈥檚 vicinity! The Group felt the loss of Stanley deeply and there was a sense of sadness that one of the convoy had been sunk despite their efforts. But, in return, they had inflicted a hammer blow on the enemy. In three days, he had lost three ocean-going submarines and their crews. No escort before them could claim such toll for so small a loss. Fortunately, the day proved quiet with only sparring skirmishes. Walker, with Stork鈥檚 bows crushed in and bent sideways by the force of her collision with U- had no wish to drive her too hard. He had also lost the use of his asdic set and was virtually powerless to attack anything submerged. In the afternoon, a Focke-Wulf appeared to starboard with the obvious intention of establishing their position, course and speed for a night U-boat attack. Walker ordered Audacity鈥檚 aircraft up. 鈥淭he resulting battle was pretty to watch,鈥� says his War Diary. 鈥淭he two Martlets climbed at the enemy alternately as he attempted to escape first in the clouds and then low over the sea. They presently returned, leaving a very dead Focke-WuIf.鈥� The carrier鈥檚 dusk patrol sighted a U-boat on the surface fifteen miles away on the port beam, and immediately Walker ordered Deptford, Marigold and Convolvulus to hunt him at utmost speed, while he fumed at Stork鈥檚 own inability to join in the search because of her 鈥渂ent beak and my own stupidity in getting the dome鈥� knocked off鈥�. ( The asdic dome sticks out from the bottom of a ship like a small blister. It sends out the 鈥減ings鈥� which echo back when hitting an underwater obstacle). But the force returned after dark, having found nothing, only to be mistaken by some of the merchant ships for U-boats. The ensuing bout of pyrotechnics as they fired their snowflakes to illuminate the 鈥渆nemy鈥� did not, however, disturb the remainder of the night. The U-boats were around, but for some reason failed to press home the attack. Perhaps they had learned of the fate served out to their three colleagues. The 20th passed uneventfully except for occasional darts outwards by Audacity鈥檚 aircraft to attack U-boats reported shadowing the convoy, and by noon on the 20th Walker had made up his mind that, no matter what evasive alterations of course it took, the convoy was still going to be shadowed. Therefore he might as well take the shortest route home. In his War Diary, he wrote with obvious weariness: 鈥淭he net of U-boats seems to be growing tighter around us despite Audacity鈥檚 heroic efforts to keep them at arm鈥檚 length.鈥�

Continued.....
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