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Ice Cold in the North Atlantic

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sylvia Perry, a volunteer from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Essex, on behalf of John Hulse, and it has been added to the site with his permission. It was told to him by his father Alexander George Hulse and John fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

This is just one of the many stories my father told me about the war but it was forty years before he actually talked about his experiences. He was on a ship in a convoy going from Liverpool to America to pick up whatever supplies they could get there and the convoy was being decimated by U-boats. Fifty-two boats set out but only fourteen actually arrived which will tell you how bad it was. This is what he told me.
Every morning when we went on deck there were less boats to be seen. My captain decided to take the ship north to the ice-floes because the u-boats weren’t able to operate so successfully there. I’ve never been so cold in my life. We were only able to stay on deck for one hour then we had to go below for an hour to try to keep warm. In the morning when we came out of the ice-floes one of my gun crew spotted a u-boat periscope. As gun-layer I aimed the 4 inch gun and fired – but it was loaded with an anti-aircraft shell so although it landed close to the periscope it would have done little damage. So then I had an armour-peircing shell loaded and I tried again. However the sub was already submerging so there was only a slight possibility of a hit.

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