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.

That night, when the moon had gone behind a thick layer of overcast, he turned the convoy on to a course heading straight for the Western Approaches while he continued with a small escort force on a northwesterly course, the convoy鈥檚 general direction for the past few days. Once well away from the convoy, he staged a mock battle with the ships firing their starshell and snowflakes and dashing around as though in search of U-boats. Walker hoped that any U-boats shadowing them would be persuaded by the fuss that they had somehow lost the convoy and would come hurrying over to rejoin. In this way, he would draw them off H.G. 76 and bring them to his doorstep where Ins 鈥渇eudin鈥� and fussin鈥� 鈥� force of decoys could get them on the surface. Unfortunately, some merchantmen, seeing all this happen on the horizon, thought they were being attacked and immediately started firing their own snowflakes to warn their escort of an enemy attack and to see if a stray U-boat had penetrated into the convoy lanes. With the true position of the convoy now revealed, starkly, while the snowflake burned, and his ace-in-the-hole tipped off to the enemy, Walker took his force back to resume escort positions. Stork had no sooner taken up her own station astern of the convoy when the balloon went up again. Still on his bridge for the fourth day and night, Walker turned at a shout from his Officer of the Watch to see a ship disintegrate in flames on his starboard bow. Immediately, he called up the Group on R/T and ordered a 鈥淏UTTERCUP鈥� illuminations search to starboard of the convoy. This was a blunder, which he later admitted. The torpedoed ship, was in fact, the last in the line of the centre column and the search should have been ordered astern of the convoy. A few minutes later, about it p.m., the carrier Audacity which had done such noble work with her aircraft flying in impossible weather, reported herself torpedoed. Walker鈥檚 Battle Report says: 鈥淔or the last three nights, Audacity with one corvette had zig-zagged independently well clear of the convoy. Before dark to-night she had asked for a corvette and proposed to operate on the starboard side of the convoy. I had regretfully refused the corvette since I had only four escorts immediately around the convoy. I also suggested she should take station to port of the convoy since I anticipated any attack from the starboard side. Audacity replied that the convoy鈥檚 alterations of course to port would inconvenience her and eventually she went off to starboard alone. 鈥淚 should have finally ordered her either on to the port side or into the middle of the convoy and I feel myself accordingly responsible for her loss.鈥�
Marigold, Convolvulus and Samphire were sent off to starboard where the carrier listed badly ten miles away. Of the survivors, one was in immaculate uniform, sitting in a Carley raft with a suitcase full of personal belongings. He was a young lieutenant, RNVR who, the moment Audacity had parted with the convoy that evening to starboard, had announced to the wardroom: 鈥淭he senior officer of the escort is right, you know, chaps. We should have gone to port. And to back it up I鈥檓 going to pack my bags and put one in a raft all ready for the bright and jolly evacuation.鈥� It had seemed quite a good joke a few hours before. Walker had been in an awkward and, in many respects, unfair position. Although senior officer of the escort, and as such able to call on Audacity for assistance in hunting down the enemy, the commanding officer of the carrier, Commander D. W. MacKendrick, RN, was his senior. Walker鈥檚 job was to protect the convoy and see it through as intact as possible. Audacity was there to help him do it. On that last night, he felt the convoy needed the greater measure of protection and refused to part with a corvette to screen what he considered to be Audacity鈥檚 recklessness in manoeuvring to starboard of the convoy, the danger side. But in terms of seniority he could not give orders to MacKendrick on anything, and he was reluctant to argue openly by signal the niceties of rank between the senior officer of an escort and the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier. It fell to Penstemon to sight Commander MacKendrick swimming among the oil and debris in a state of collapse. He was on their weather side and the ship was rolling heavily in mounting sea and swell. The ship鈥檚 boat was away picking up other survivors and, when he saw the danger of the drowning officer being cut to ribbons by the keel, Lieutenant Williams, RNVR, the First Lieutenant, stripped off his jacket and plunged overboard to try and tie a rope round the exhausted Commander. MacKendrick鈥檚 body, supported only by a life jacket, floated limply on the water. Williams managed to get a lifebuoy round him and signalled his crew to haul the officer on board. But while they were trying to pull him to the ship鈥檚 side, a particularly heavy roll jerked the rope out of their hands. Members of the crew had just enough time to grab the exhausted Williams before MacKendrick drifted away in the swell. That was the last seen of him. While the rescue work was going on, Deptford, on the convoy鈥檚 port beam, sighted a U-boat on the surface between herself and the convoy. Walker joined her, firing starshell, and Deptford ran in to attack. The enemy dived and, for the next hour, Deptford and Stork carried out a series of depth charge attacks until finally all contact was lost. In their opinion, the U-boat had sunk but, in the absence of any evidence, such as wreckage or survivors, Walker refused to confirm it as a 鈥渒ill鈥�. They made several more runs on what appeared to be a sub marine lying deep. Eventually, Walker called off the attack, classified it as a 鈥減robable kill鈥� and stationed Deptford on the convoy鈥檚 port beam with Stork on the bow. This submarine was later admitted by the Germans to have been destroyed and was identified as another 740-tonner, U-567 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Endrass.鈥� (Endrass had been First Lieutenant of U-47 commanded by Gunter Prien, when she penetrated Scapa Flow earlier in the war).
By three in the morning of the 22nd, a lull in the fighting gave Walker a chance to assess the position. Once again, only one of the convoy had gone down, the Norwegian tanker, SS Annavore (3,000 tons), but the loss of Audacity with her aircraft was the most grievous blow. In retaliation they had beaten off most attacks and scored a 鈥減robable鈥�. Walker ordered the corvettes picking up survivors to return to the screen and on the bridge murmured aloud a prayer that the U-boats would spend the rest of the night licking their wounds and regrouping. Fifteen minutes later, Stork鈥檚 crew were startled by an unusually heavy crash. Walker and the bridge personnel rushed to look aft and to their astonishment saw the bows of Deptford cutting into Stork鈥檚 quarter deck. A look-out in Deptford had seen what he thought was a U-boat close on the surface. The Officer of the Watch had altered course and crammed on full speed, at the same time calling his captain who was down in the chartroom estimating the convoy鈥檚 position. When it was too late, the 鈥淯-boat鈥� was seen to be Stork. Damage was serious if not vital. Describing the scene in his War Diary, Walker wrote: 鈥淒eptford鈥檚 stern had walked straight into the temporary prison and two of the five Boche captives there were pulped literally into a bloody mess. When I went aft in the dark later to inspect the damage I walked straight into the hole and found myself with my feet among the Boche corpses and my elbows on the quarter deck.鈥� When he had been helped back on deck, he turned to a group of sailors and muttered quietly: 鈥淲ell, well, well. Never a dull moment.鈥� Then he returned to the bridge. There were no further attacks that night, but at dawn on the 22nd, the balance sheet showed a gloomy picture, as far as the escort was concerned. Stork鈥檚 asdic equipment was useless; her depth charges had to be moved to the bows to lighten the stern damaged by Deptford; and her speed had been reduced to ten knots; Deptford herself had a damaged stem, her asdic was out of action and her maximum speed was eleven knots; most of the Group鈥檚 radar sets had packed up; Audacity and her aircraft had followed Stanley to the bottom. During the day, a Liberator arrived to patrol round the convoy for nearly three hours. At this time, a Focke-Wulf paid them a brief visit but soon vanished in the clouds. At 4 pm, as darkness was falling, the Liberator reported two U-boats on the surface twenty-five miles astern of the convoy. They were lying alongside each other, when the aircraft broke cloud, and a wide plank bridged the gap between them. Men were crossing from one to another and it seemed likely they were repairing some sort of damage. The aircraft dived and shot three men off the plank before the U-boats drew apart. It was learned later that one of them had been holed previously either by depth charges or gunfire during the convoy battle and had been trying to effect repairs that prevented her from diving. When the aircraft appeared, the crew of the damaged U-boat transferred to the other leaving behind scuttling charges. When the latter left the scene at high speed on the surface and the other one sank as the scuttling charges went off the aircraft thought she had submerged.
The U-boat had quite certainly been damaged by the escort and finished off unwittingly by the aircraft. The score could now read four and a half U-boats destroyed by the Group, as they shared honours with the Liberator for this last kill. At midnight, the SS Ogmore Castle shuddered under a particular heavy sea. Officers and crew were suddenly convinced that they had rammed a U-boat, and were holed themselves. They rushed to the boats and abandoned ship. Convolvulus investigated, found the deserted ship to be floating quite serenely and informed the crew in the lifeboats that they could re-board their ship. By dawn, the Ogmore Castle had resumed her station in the convoy, manned by a sheepish crew. The night passed without further incident, the quietest for seven days, and, at noon on the 23rd, the convoy was led into the Western Approaches 鈥渟afe鈥� area by an exhausted but happy Group. The Commodore signalled Walker: 鈥淒espite the loss of Audacity and Stanley, you have won a great victory. On behalf of the convoy deepest congratulations and many thanks.鈥� Walker acknowledged and set off for Plymouth to have Stork鈥檚 damaged 鈥渂eak鈥� repaired. The convoy that had to get through had started off from Gibraltar with thirty-two ships and now arrived in the United Kingdom thirteen days later with two fewer. Before docking in Plymouth, Walker received a message from Sir Percy Noble saying: 鈥淵ou are required to attend a meeting with myself and the Director of Anti-Submarine Warfare at the Admiralty at 1500 on Tuesday, January 6th.鈥�

Continued.....
'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.