大象传媒

The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Captain Walker and Mike Kemble

It was just before midnight on the following night, as we reached the end of our beat, that we found one, and once again, my ship was in luck. The moment was an awkward one, as the group was engaged in the changing of direction of search which meant that we were not in formation to keep clear of one another. I told the rest what I had found, and our new senior officer tried to confirm the contact, at first without success. We went through a hair raising time and had to stop the ship to avoid a colleague, and then start the attack from only 400 yards range. The explosion of the patterns lifted the stern of the ship but she still held together, and the instruments still worked so the battle could proceed. Conditions for some reason were not as good as usual and an uncomfortable time followed when we lost and regained contact and lost contact again while trying to follow the U Boat which was snaking freely. The Woodpecker got contact firmly though she was not certain that she had a genuine submarine echo, attacked it for luck, without result. They then lost it altogether and it looked as if this whole operation would turn out a frost until Wilkinson, promoted to Leading Hand, and his asdic team announced a firm contact, well clear of consorts. It was astern and at long range which sounded unlikely but the team were so confident that I begged to be excused and went after it.
It got better as we got closer until we were not only confident we had the right thing but knew enough about it to attack. The proper thing would have been to wait for assistance but this groping around was tiring people and so in we went. We lost contact on the way but were determined to have a bang and complete the attack. After that, we waited. There was no contact, but instead we were rewarded with sounds. First of all I was told that my listeners could hear a noise as though someone was banging metal with a hammer. That went on for a few minutes and then followed a sharp crack, two more muffled explosions came next and then silence. We had heard what submariners call breaking up noises which came from a ship as she sinks after disappearing from view. It seemed fair to assume that what we had heard were breaking up noises from a U Boat. And, as other ships present had also heard them and none of us had a contact it was decided to hunt no further. We formed up and went away, at 5pm we ere back and what a sight met our eyes! An oil patch covered several square miles and in the middle was a large quantity of debris. The U Boat is sunk signalled the Starling "You may splice the mainbrace".
We were informed by Sir Max Horton that, on our return home to Liverpool, he intended that we should be cheered into harbour. And what a welcome they gave us! We steamed up the channel into the River Mersey in line ahead and turned to port in succession to enter the lock into Gladstone Dock, and there was the crowd. Rows and rows of our comrades from the escort ships were there together with the Captain and Crew of the battleship King George V which was in dock nearby. Masses of WRENS who were making as much noise as all the rest put together, merchant crews, crews from allied ships and dock workers. Strung up was a hoist of flags which read, "Johnnie Walker, still going strong". Unhappily the signal hoisted was not fulfilled. On 9 July 1944 Captain Walker died of a stroke brought on by heavy strain and overwork.

Continued.....
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