大象传媒

Introduction

This is a copy of the diary, which my Father made during one of the convoys to Russia. In this case I believe it would have been to Archangel on board the Destroyer H.M.S.Marne. He served in the Royal Navy from April 1940 to December 1945.

CONVOYING TO RUSSIA. FREDERICK ARTHUR TODD R.N.

No doubt most people appreciate the dangers attached to the convoying of war materials to Russia, but as I am serving on one of H.M. Destroyers engaged in escorting merchant ships on this hazardous route, I intend to give my version of the trip.

We start our journey on the evening of the 8th Sept 1942 in company with nine more Destroyers, one Cruiser and one small Aircraft Carrier. We are to meet the convoy of 40 merchant vessels and also more escorting ships in 2 days time at sea. When we catch up with it, we expect to be nearing what is called the danger area, that is the spot where we first expect the enemy to try his best to stop us getting our convoy safely through. Before I go any further, I think it would be of interest for you to know that we have been informed by our Captain that the German battle ship 鈥淭urpitz鈥�, a couple of their heavy Cruisers and a number of Destroyers are spread out in various ports along the north coast of Norway and it is quite possible that we shall have to engage them if they decide to attack our convoy.

10th Sept.
We meet our convoy and all day we roll along at a terribly slow pace owing to the fact that these large merchant ships cannot do much more than eight knots. Nothing much happens this day except a few U-boats are attacked with depth charges.

11th and 12th Sept.
Again we get things pretty quiet and we proceed on our journey with nothing happening out of the ordinary to ease the monotony of this snails pace. We are asking ourselves what could have happened to the Germans that we should have been left alone so long but each one of us knows full well that its 鈥滱ny Minute Now鈥�

13th Sept.
We start off this day quietly enough but towards lunchtime we are spotted by an enemy aircraft out on patrol. Now we know for certain that we shall be called upon to let them have it. Yes its afternoon now and here comes a dozen J.U.88 bombers. We all dash away to our respective action stations to wait for the attack to begin. Needless to say we don鈥檛 have long to wait. In they come with plenty of bombs and courage but owing to the number of guns blazing away at them they fail to score any hits. Now we can see the famous German torpedo bombers away in the distance and as they approach we can count no less than forty of them. The Aircraft Carrier releases some Hurricane鈥檚 and they speed away to intercept the Germans but although they bring quite a number down some of them manage to get through. Then the big guns start raising merry hell with them. Still on they come to give the close range weapons a chance they are all waiting for. It seems as if the torpedoes that they are now releasing are meant for the convoys escort of Destroyers because at least four tin fish come our way but our Captain very cleverly dodges them. While our guns are banging away I manage to get a few bursts in with my Orlikon. Phew that was certainly hot while it lasted. This is Sept 鈥�13鈥漛ut we are all confident we can beat their best efforts off. Towards nightfall we get another spell of fireworks and again its J.U.88s. One plane is hit directly over our heads and in the failing light it looks a picture, descending in flames. I shall certainly never forget the sight we all witnessed that evening. It put the 5th November in the shade. Thousands of red hot tracer shells and bullets streaming at the planes as they came over in twos and threes and an aircraft or two burning brightly on the sea. Anyway darkness arrives to give us a short break from attack from the air. But although the night is upon us we still have enemy submarines to contend with and depth charges can be heard exploding occasionally as one after another Destroyer goes in to attack.

14th Sept.
The night in this part of the world does not last long at this time of the year, so we are soon searching the skies again for aircraft and once again we expect to be at our guns for another 20 hours or so. We are getting little or no sleep at all now but still everyone is ready to carry on the battle but strange as it seems we get no air attacks this daybreak. But in the afternoon again a formation of 20 and another of 15, torpedo bombers arrive to attack us and our precious convoy. Again, hell is let loose! Torpedoes are flying through the water and thousands of shells and bullets are flying through the air with aircraft screaming all around. One of our ships is hit and I shall never forget the scene. One second the ship was there and the next there is a blinding flash followed by a terrific crash. Smoke towers into the sky and when it clears away not even a piece of wood can be seen Of course we are having our losses but nothing like what one would expect with such attacks as we are having and we are taking very good toll of the enemy aircraft. Towards nightfall however things begin to quieten down again and we know that for about three hours we shall get another rest from the aircraft. Throughout the night though we all, or rather most of us drop depth charges on subs.

15th Sept.
What have they to give us today? We most certainly expect a warm time of it from their air attacks but the sky is overcast with cloud and all we get throughout the day is 2 or 3 (mostly J.U. 88s attacking from high level. Their aim is very poor at this form of attack and we suffer no casualties. Nightfall comes once more and with it the U-boats. Throughout the night dozens of depth charges are dropped and two submarines are destroyed.

16thSept.
We start off this day feeling rather tired owing to the lack of sleep but we still feel confident that we can get this convoy through with the minimum of losses. Most of the day we are followed by enemy aircraft, which are working in conjunction with the U-boats. All day we are dropping depth charges and in the afternoon the lookouts spot a sub on the surface well ahead of the convoy. We make a dash for it but when the U-boat commander realises we mean business he promptly crash dives. We get contact with him though and drop our eggs. The contact fades after that and we can probably say we have destroyed a German submarine. By night fall this day we have got our convoy to a safe position and now we leave them to get to port by themselves. Now it鈥檚 our job to pick up another convoy and make the journey back home with it.

17th Sept.
Well early this day we find this homeward bound convoy and take up our positions in order to start the slow journey home but apart from the German shadowing aircraft following us all day nothing happens.

18th Sept.
Again nothing out of the ordinary happens but we get a few snowstorms.

19th Sept
Once more we are free from action except for a few depth charges dropped. Now we are getting plenty of snow and its getting damned cold. Hello! What鈥檚 this? Suddenly we get a U boat attack and although the convoy itself escapes damage one of the minesweepers we have with us is sunk (H.M.S. LEDA).

20th Sept.
Now we are well on our way to what is considered the safety zone and we don鈥檛 expect any air attacks. Our only danger now is U-boats and mines.

21st Sept.
At the crack of dawn this day we get another submarine attack and another of the escort is hit. This time it is the Destroyer 鈥淪OMALI鈥� but she is taken in tow by the 鈥淎SHANTI鈥�.Bad weather compels the 鈥淪OMALI鈥� to break loose and she eventually breaks in two and sinks. Most of her crew are saved. Later in the day a British aircraft has to make a forced landing on the sea and as this same aircraft is sinking we go in to take the crew off. Luck is with us and we take off all the crew, which consists of 9 men.


22nd Sept.
Again we start off with U-boat attacks. I happen to be on watch at the time and I witness hits with torpedoes but again we are lucky and we only lose one ship, one of the convoy.

23rd Sept.
Nothing happens this day.

24th Sept.
We land the airmen we picked up from the sinking seaplane and put them ashore safely at Iceland.

25th Sept.
This is the day when the 鈥淪OMLI鈥� breaks in two. Nothing more to write about happens.

26th Sept
We are nearing home now and we hear a report on the radio all about the convoy that got through safely to a Russian port and the announcer tells us that the convoy we are still at sea with is safely home but here we are still at sea and liable to attack from U boats and the wireless tells us we are safely home.

27th Sept.
Late in the afternoon we leave our convoy in a safe position and make all speed for our base. We get in just before nightfall and in time to get about a months mail from home. Needless to say we are all damned pleased to get home again. Myself I feel I could sleep for about three months.

The following notes are not part of the diary but come from various sources, which I have researched through the Internet

Notes

1. Outgoing convoy would be PQ18 and return convoy QP1.

2. 13th September: German aircraft torpedo nine ships but next day Avengers Hurricanes ensure that only one more ship is lost to air attack. In total over forty German aircraft are shot down by the convoy鈥檚 defences.

3. 14th September: The ship which exploded is no doubt the ammunition ship 鈥楳ary
尝耻肠办别苍产补肠办鈥�.

4. 19th September: H.M.S. Leda was sunk by U-435.

5. 21st September: H.M.S. Somali was sunk by U-703. The seaplane was a Catalina
which came down after attacking U-606. This was ultimately sunk 22nd February 1943 in the North Atlantic by depth charges from the US coastguard cutter USS Campbell and the Polish Destroyer Burza.

6. 12th November 1942: H.M.S. Marne was torpedoed in mid-Atlantic whilst escorting
the submarine depot ship 鈥楬elca鈥�. Helca was sunk and Marne, having been hit in the aft magazine, causing an enormous explosion, lost 40 feet off the stern and was therefore unable to propel or steer. All that night H.M.S. Excellent patrolled around them in an effort to protect them. Come dawn, Excellent, having taken off as many crew from Marne as possible, had to leave as she was running out of fuel. (Dad was one of those to remain on board). For three days Marne sat there waiting for a tug to tow them to Gibraltar. Six months later she was back at sea.

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