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Wartime memories of an Able Seaman - Part Two 鈥� 鈥楴orth Atlantic convoys鈥� on HMS Bulldog. Capture of U boat U.110 on 9th May 1941 convoy OB.318.

Part two of an oral history interview with Mr. Arnold Hargreaves conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淲e left all that, the English Channel Invasion Patrol because we were occupied with another job so we went on the 鈥楴orth Altantic Convoys鈥�. We used go to Scotland, sort all these Merchant ships out and get them all like sheep - sort them and you鈥檇 see all the lights flashing and that. Our Captain seemed to be charge of some of them. It all depended how many convoys there were, in a month there might be about three or four convoys and each Captain would have about eight Destroyers and Corvettes and trawlers. We鈥檇 go to Scotland, to Scapa Flow or Greenock or Glasgow but mostly we used to come out of Scapa Flow. But sometimes we used to come into Liverpool, Birkenhead. We used to go up there, get the convoys sorted out and we used to take them half way across the Atlantic, call in Iceland refuel do a bit of fishing with a line. We used to be up in Iceland, another place to oil up and to get a few provisions.

Then one time when I was up there, I used to be a motor boat crew man for the Captain, there used to be three of us, a Leading hand and another chap, they used to have a motor boat. We used to take the Captain fishing in Iceland. And not only that, because we weren鈥檛 close enough to the shore because it was rocky I had to get out in the water up to here, in my ordinary clothes, to get him close so that he didn鈥檛 get his feet wet. It was very cold and not only that, where are you going to dry them because when you get back on board ship there is no where to dry them. Nothing at all, even your shoes got mouldy! Then we used to go on this 鈥榚re patrol again and the Canadians or another lot would pick them up?

When the guns were on 鈥楢ction Stations鈥� - there used to be about four watches, port, starboard, red and whatever it is, there used to be four watches. You used to do four on and four off, night and day. The lookout on the Bridge, 鈥楢ction Stations鈥� mostly. And then we had these gales, they were so rough, we lost one of these whalers from the side of the ship on one trip. The waves came along and took it completely off because the weather was so rough and the depth charges as well, them big depth charges, they were rolling all over the place, some of those got washed over. We lost that whaler. We lost nearly half the mast as well, that got bust down as well. After we came in, I think it was Greenock or Glasgow, had to get the ship repaired and then we started again on more convoys, up and down. We were on duty four on, four off getting wet through. I never had a duffle coat, I never had wellingtons either. You see on some of these films here, they have duffle coats and doings and gloves, we never had any of that at all whether on the guns or on the Bridge. On the side of the Bridge it was open - there was no glass, there was like a little alleyway where you could just stand on that side and on the port side or the starboard side with the glasses and sometimes the Captain or the Officer of the watch would come, 鈥楥an I see your binoculars please?鈥� Well, not 鈥榩lease鈥� - to see if they were clean because sea water would get in there and you couldn鈥檛 see anything and they鈥檇 have you for that. If you missed anything, whatever it was, they鈥檇 tell you off. Like one day I was on there about say two miles away I could see a small sailing boat, this chap he didn鈥檛 report it on the other side, he should have done because it was on his Section. I see it and I thought 鈥業鈥檇 better report that or he鈥檒l get told off鈥�. The Captain, the Officer on watch he come along side it to see that there were no bodies on it and just let it go. No bodies so he let it go.

Then we started on this 鈥榚re U boat situation. They used to call it ASDIC and they used to have a special chap there down below with his earphones on, ping, ping, ping and this Destroyer will cover that area. This one would cover that and one would cover that but sometimes the submarines would come up in the middle here instead of down below and travel with the convoy until it got dark and they鈥檇 let go some torpedoes. They used to have Destroyers or Corvettes down the side and we used to zig zag all the time. If it was bad weather, it was just too bad, you could see the propellers coming out, you could see the propellers going round.

Then this time one of these chaps got a sounding on there and there was another Destroyer and he got contact with this and he dropped some depth charges (looking at a description and photographs in the book 鈥楾he Secret Capture鈥� by Captain S.W.Roskill, DSC, RN.) They had a special chart so they could retrace their steps. The (U.110 boat Captain Lemp) chap here was the chap who sunk the first boat during the war with all the kids on board (SS Athenia) going to Canada, evacuees going to Canada, he sunk that, he did. These are the German prisoners off the submarine, here. We took a lot of the gear off there but as we were on there for so long we actually got a lot of the stuff off. We had another whaler put on here and we got as close as that and with the bad weather it got bashed against here and it sunk the whaler so we were high and dry on there. That鈥檚 what we were waiting for.

The Captain had said down here on the phones, 鈥樷�榅鈥� gun man the whaler鈥� - which is the rowing boat. So as we were getting lowered in the boat. You see, as the boat was so close and as we were getting lowered off the boat it was firing over your head. The chap on the bridge, with a small machine gun he was firing, not at us but at the Germans that were on there as they were lowering the boat. So the guns couldn鈥檛 get the U boats because the big guns were for 10 miles or more. So we couldn鈥檛 depress the guns really, you鈥檇 have to have them literally firing over your shoulder at these 鈥榚re chaps. As you were in here they were still jumping in the water they were some of these German chaps.

And then you go on the whaler and then you had to put on your life belt and have to clear all the deck with all the men that were available to lower the whaler because it wasn鈥檛 automatic. These two hang up, two like that, the derricks and all had to be manhandled they would. All the ships鈥� company that was available would be on the ropes, two ropes to let the boat into the water and then when you got so far you get a little hammer to knock a pin out and it dropped the rest of the way! All the crew are already in there. You鈥檇 clamber in there, all these 鈥榚re men that you saw in the book here, dropping it in the water there and they鈥檇 all have a safety line. Where the whaler is, there鈥檇 be about eight ropes hanging down and as it was lowering you鈥檇 be hanging on to that in case you finished up in the drink. Then you get so far from the water, because the water is going like that you couldn鈥檛 let it go down otherwise the water would just, you鈥檇 drop it straight on there. So the bloke would knock a pin out and it would just drop down there. Then you would have the same routine when you come inside. So if you had another boat alongside here, from here to here, you鈥檇 have to have the same routine. Clear everybody off the doings, hook the boat on again and pull it up by manual, no blinking pulleys, there are all names for it, it will be all in the book here. It would take 50 on each side, 50 on each rope pulling away, hoping they would pull together instead of tipping it like that. But there are special orders for that, for two ropes there. There is a name for that rope and a name for that rope so if the boat is getting tipped up the chap would say 鈥渢he inboard rope pull鈥� or the other rope, so that they would both pull together, so the boat would come up even. When you got up there you had to take the plug out to let the water out. It鈥檚 quite complicated. On these 鈥榚re boats, the oars would be about 8 foot. You had to make sure you didn鈥檛 鈥榗atch a crab鈥�. That means when your oar goes in, you鈥檝e seen it on the Thames when they are rowing on the Thames, when your oar goes in there and you can鈥檛 get it out, it was called 鈥榗atching a crab鈥�. Because you can鈥檛 get it out because you are not rowing the same as the other chaps. You still went through the motion until you get your oar out to start rowing again. They call that 鈥榗atching crab鈥�.

On this submarine bit here, about there, there was a hatch which you could lift up (on the top of the submarine). A lot of them don鈥檛 know this, but as we were on this 鈥榚re and as the whaler was getting broke up, it was tied on there, we tried to keep it way from here, from banging against the submarine. We had a look to see where we could get a boat hook from. There was a hatch here and it had about six boat hooks in it, they were about as big as that nearly, and they tried to lever it away from the submarine so it didn鈥檛 get bashed up, I gave up in the end. I kept that boat hook and I used it on my motor boat! But the trouble was, when we had got all these German prisoners on here because it was supposed to be secret - they were not supposed to know that it had been captured. But when the Captain saw my boat hook standing in the doings, he said, 鈥楪et that boat hook out the way鈥� because if they鈥檇 of seen it they鈥檇 have know we鈥檇 been on there.

It wasn鈥檛 difficult getting into the submarine but you got wet. Mind you because we were only in our normal uniforms more or less. We got wet through but we kept on coming up with different stuff but you made sure you weren鈥檛 washed over the side. Somebody else sent another boat along side and we could chuck it in there, throw it in there. That鈥檚 how it got in there. The trouble is when we were on here the Captain of our boat he鈥檇 cleared off he did and left us to it. We was about a mile without anybody and they were chasing more submarines because there were about six submarines around there and he was sorting them out and then they thought they were going to sink this one as well, the Germans did. So what they did, they went round dropping these depth charges. They had one here and one here and one here but as times went on they used to fire them over the ship, from the back over the top so as a ship went over and passed a submarine it had blown up.

All the chaps they鈥檝e got little bits. But some people had bags and that and kept it, a lot of it never got retrieved, it went home! But the coding stuff we got a lot of stuff like maps and things like that got put on here after a while. We went to Scapa Flow and a lot of the stuff we took from here to Scapa Flow and that got put in a plane from Iceland to Scapa Flow. Then on a plane from Scapa Flow to London and then to like Bletchley Park, where it went to.

We went to Iceland and from Iceland to Scotland we did that in 48 hours! And we had all these prisoners on here because they鈥檇 got picked up by another ship and they transferred them on to us. So we had all the prisoners at this end. (Looking at the photographs in the book). We went from Iceland to Scotland in 48 hours. If it was just an ordinary job they go slow so they didn鈥檛 use so much fuel but we put the foot down to get the stuff as quickly as possible to the authorities because we had to come through the Pentland Firth from Iceland to Scotland.

But the trouble is when the Army found out we had got these prisoners, they didn鈥檛 treat them like we did, like give them cigarettes and things. They just blindfolded them and what-so-names because all the Fleet was there and if they escaped and they could see all the Fleet 鈥� they would say 鈥榳hat鈥檚 all these ships here?鈥� So we discharged all these prisoners, they just pushed them around because they were sinking ships. But we treated them normal, like anybody. They hadn鈥檛 seen what we鈥檇 seen, they hadn鈥檛 been through, the soldiers. After we鈥檇 got rid of all the stuff. I鈥檝e still got some stuff. On the submarines they have like secondary charge and I鈥檝e still got one. I carried it in my bag for over 12 months before I could get it out the dockyard because of the security. They search you, 鈥榃hat have you got? Cigarettes under your collar?鈥� because they used to come out with cigarettes pinned underneath the collar.鈥�

Any chap like me in the Navy could tell you a story same as me, any sailor could tell the same or probably worse. So we went on here and got all the stuff off here, the U.110 got damaged and that鈥檚 why it came up. All these here survivors jumped off there. If they didn鈥檛 get shot off here, they dived off into the water. We landed on here and went along here (along the top of the submarine) and we got all the stuff off of here. We towed it with a tow rope for three days into Iceland but we never got as far as Iceland, it sunk. But we got most of the stuff off and we towed it, we tried to salvage it, to Iceland. We towed it for three days but the weather got rough and you can see where the waves are, it got in there and just damaged it and it sunk.鈥�

The names of the men listed below were led by Sub-Lieutenant David Edward Balme, R.N., and they manned the Bulldog鈥檚 five-oared whaler and boarded U.110 on 9th May 1941.

Allen Osborne Long, Telegraphist
Sidney George Pearce, Able Seaman
Cyril Arthur George Dolley, Able Seaman
Richard Roe, Able Seaman
Claude Arthur Wileman, Able Seaman
Arnold Hargreaves, Able Seaman
John Trotter, Able Seaman
Cyril George Lee, Stoker 1st class

Allen Osborne Long was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and all the others were 鈥楳entioned in Despatches鈥� for 鈥榞ood work in salving documents under conditions of danger and difficulty.鈥�

This information is taken from 鈥楾he Secret Capture鈥� by Captain S.W.Roskill, D.S.C., R.N. Retd.
Collins, London, 1959.

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