大象传媒

Part Two 鈥� "The Recollections"

Singapore to Port Said

I travelled home from Singapore on H.M.T. Dilwara; she sailed from Singapore on or about the 20th August 1939. I was approaching five years old and my first recollection of the voyage home is of Colombo, lovely spicy smells and being taken to see a lighthouse in the middle of the town. All verified when I went there, as a Navigation Apprentice on the M.V. British Advocate in 1952. Mother had sent a post card home from Colombo saying that it had been quite rough, but that 鈥淜en had not been too bad鈥�. I reckon that this was code for 鈥渟he had been a bit sea sick.鈥� Surprising really as the S.W. monsoon is not too fierce in the Bay of Bengal at that time of year.

The Dilwara was at Aden on the 3rd September 1939, I remember going ashore in a large open wooden boat with a noisy engine. I think that it must have been a lifeboat, as I don鈥檛 think that a troop ship would have carried a special 鈥渞un ashore鈥� boat at that time. The other main memory was the strong sea smell of the sea at the bottom of the companionway. I was ashore with Mother in Aden and it seemed no time at all before we were rounded up and herded, by a large Royal Marine, back to the boat. I can vividly remember his red and white peaked service cap and starched khaki uniform. He took us back to the ship. Going back to Dilwara in the boat, all the 鈥淕rown-Ups鈥� were very serious, as war, with Germany, had just been declared. So I sat very quiet and tried to look all serious and worried, just like the 鈥淕rown-Ups鈥�. The Dilwara then sailed for Port Said.

At Port Said, the Dilwara was moored between buoys opposite the Port and Canal Office Building. There were lots of merchant and warships there. One ship, I always used to believe, wrongly, that it was a cruiser, was pointed out to me as being special, a Llanreath man, Frank Mills, was a stoker/E.R.A. on board., but I don鈥檛 know the details. The ship that he was on, was in fact, H.M.S. Hardy. He later went on to win the D.S.M at the battle of Narvik. His captain, Warbuton-Lee was awarded a posthumous V.C.

Port Said to Gibraltar

The Dilwara sailed from Port Said, in Convoy 鈥淏lue No.1鈥�, on 9th September 1939.
Three days later it was my 5th birthday; it was celebrated on board with a big cake. We used to eat in a large mess-room or saloon and were served by Indian stewards. My main memory of the mess-room is the all-pervading smell of pea soup, fiddles on the long tables, white tablecloths and a woman being seasick and falling backwards out of her chair. Our cabin was very small, just room for the bunks and a foldaway wash stand. I thought that that was really smart piece of kit. There were four of us in the cabin, two mothers and two boys. I didn鈥檛 like the other boy so we squabbled; it ended up in the two of us having a competition over how far we could spit. Not surprisingly, the two mothers fell out because of this!

In the Malta Channel, a cargo ship, which I remember had a black hull and red boot topping, the Blue Funnel cargo liner Stentor; appeared to be very close to us, that night she got too close and there was a collision. I was woken up with all sorts of bells and gongs ringing, being hurried along alleyways and up stairways and made to stand in lines on what I now know is the boat deck. I was still in my pyjamas and dressing gown. A man in a peaked cap fastened a lifejacket on me. It was dark and not at all cold and I don鈥檛 remember being the least bit concerned. I had no real idea as to what was happening. Mother was very worried, as she had picked up the wrong handbag, the one without the money! After what seemed a very long time to me, we went back to our cabin.

The next thing that I can remember is being in Gibraltar, the Dilwara was in dock and I was shown the big dent and hole in the side of the ship with staging and men working. Apart from that I can remember little about Gibraltar, except being in a large open and dusty place with monkeys. It must have been the Rock and the Apes. Mother also took me to visit some people who had been in Singapore with us. I cannot remember their names.

Gibraltar to Southampton

The Dilwara sailed from Gibraltar on 26th September for Southampton, in Convoy HG1, a slow [7 knot] convoy of 28 ships.

My memory is of a large number of ships. The escort vessels were what appeared to me, to be destroyers, one of which was in the middle of the convoy on our port side. I now know that this was H.M.S. Colombo, a cruiser, and that the destroyers joined us later at a rendezvous in Western Approaches. There seemed to be lots of big ships in the convoy, all still in their pre war paint schemes.

Mother was about six months pregnant at this time. I remember going with her when she went to see the ship鈥檚 doctor. I had to wait outside in a grey painted alleyway on chairs that were steel, cold and very hard.

One day on the promenade deck, I wanted to get a better look at one of the ships in the convoy or something and climbed up on the rail. A member of the crew grabbed me. This gave me a helluva fright, so I had to cry, even though he was being very nice to me. He was dressed in navy blue and had a 鈥渕ilk churn鈥� hat, so I guess that he was either one of the quartermasters or one of the R.N. personnel on board. Mother was quite concerned. This must have been in the Bay of Biscay, as it was very rough. I can clearly remember seeing the forefoot of the ship in the next column to us coming clear of the water

I did not know it at the time, but one of the reasons that the Dilwara was not attacked was that on the first day of the war, the S.S. 鈥淎thenia鈥� had been torpedoed and sunk, about 250 miles N.W. of Ireland. She was sunk, without warning, by U-30, commanded by Lt. Lemp. There were about 118 casualties, children and Americans amongst them. Hitler then put a ban on unrestricted submarine attacks on passenger ships, as he did not want to drag America into the war. It was not until August 1940 that Hitler lifted all the restrictions on submarine warfare.

The Dilwara arrived at Southampton, unscathed, on the 5th October 1939. So Herr Hitler could have saved my life!

While Dilwara survived the war, Lemp was not so fortunate. He was drowned or killed when in command of U-110 and attacking convoy OB318 in the North Atlantic on the 9th May 1941.

U-110 was blown to the surface by depth charges from the corvette H.M.S. Aubretia in company with the destroyers H.M.S. Broadway and H.M.S. Bulldog. U-110 was abandoned by her crew, she was then boarded and captured by members of the crew of Bulldog. Lemp was either drowned while attempting to swim back to the submarine, having realised that the U-boat was not sinking. Or he had succeeded in swimming back to the U-boat and was shot by the R.N. boarding party already on board. Depends who you believe. Hollywood was not involved.

Postscript
We disembarked at Southampton. There was the large 鈥渃abin鈥� trunk and sundry bags from the cabin, plus trunks and packing cases that had been stowed in the hold 鈥� 鈥淣ot wanted on voyage鈥�. The story goes that Mother took one look at the pile, made sure she had the handbag with the money, took me and departed! The baggage being consigned to the tender mercies of the Railway Company, probably Great Western. It worked, as it all arrived home at Llanreath a few days later.

References

ADM199/18 鈥淪.O.E. report and Convoy Form A1鈥�
AD199/61 鈥淗.G. Convoy reports 1939 鈥� 1941鈥�.
AD199/2184 鈥淐onvoy Lists September 1939 鈥� May 1940鈥�.
Jane鈥檚 Fighting Ships of WW II.
A Hague & B Ruegg, Convoys to Russia 1941 鈥� 1945, 1992.
A Hague, The Allied Convoy System 1939 鈥� 1945
Derek Howse, Radar at Sea, 1993
J.Slader, The Fourth Service, 1995.
Warlow and Goodman, R.N. In Focus, WW II, 1994
M.J. Whitley, Destroyers of WWII. 2000
M.J. Whitley, Cruisers of WW II. 1999

Appendix i
Notes

The H.M.T. Dilwara was a purpose built troopship of 11,050 G.T., built in 1935 and managed by B.I.S.N.Co. She was a motor ship and survived the war. In 1939 she was one of only nine troop ships on charter to the Government. She later took part in 鈥淥peration Demon鈥� the evacuation of the Army from Crete in April 1940. She was subsequently converted to a Landing Ship Infantry. She was involved in landings at N. Africa, Sicily, the South of France and Burma. After the war she reverted to trooping and she ended her days on the Pilgrim run from S.E. Asia to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

H.M.S. Hardy was the Flotilla Leader of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of 鈥淗鈥� Class ships. H.M.S. Hardy was sunk at the First Battle of Narvik; on the 10th April 1940, where Captain Warbuton Lee was posthumously awarded the VC. The new H.M.S. Hardy, built in 1943, was torpedoed by a GNAT from U-278 on 30th January 1944 and had to be sunk by H.M.S. Venus. She was S.O.E. of convoy JW 56B, from Loch Ewe to the Kola Inlet. Not a lucky name!

Of this class of eight vessels only H.M.S. Hotspur survived the war. They were part of a major group of destroyers constructed between the wars. It started with the prototype 鈥淎鈥� & 鈥淏鈥� classes designed in the mid twenties. It was ended by the 鈥淕鈥�, 鈥淗鈥� & 鈥淚鈥� classes of the thirties. A total of 73 of these vessels were constructed between 1931 & 1937.

The convoy report by Colombo is fascinating and detailed. It clearly shows our state of (un)preparedness for war. The fact that there was no anti-submarine destroyer escort when off the coast of Spain was identified as a major weakness. Also the range of speeds of the ships in the convoy meant that the slowest vessel dictated the speed of the convoy. This made it unsafe for the faster ships such as Dilwara and Largs Bay .

H.M.S. Colombo was one of a class of cruisers designed at the end of WW I to counter similar German cruisers, then being planned or constructed. The class was envisaged as 鈥淒estroyer Leaders鈥� with a main armament of 5 x 6鈥� guns. During WW II, she served up until 1940 as a 鈥渢rade protection鈥� cruiser, mainly in the South Atlantic. Subsequently she, in common with the bulk of the class, was converted to an A.A. cruiser.

Whites of Cowes built the Polish destroyer, Blyskawica, in 1936. When it became clear that Hitler was not going to heed the ultimatum from the U.K. and France, she sailed with her sister ship the G.Grom from Poland to the U.K. Her name translates as 鈥淟ightning鈥�!

The anti submarine sweep out of Gibraltar would have been by H.M.S. Hardy and her 3rd Division of H.M.S. Hasty, H.M.S. Hereward and H.M.S. Hostile. In December 1939, H.M.S. Hardy took her division to the South Atlantic to hunt the Panzer Schiffe - Graf Spee.

The S.R. London II was a twin engine biplane flying boat, it was part of a series designed in the early 1930鈥檚. It had a radius of action of 225 miles with a bomb load of 8 of the useless 250lb anti submarine bombs and an endurance of 5.5hrs. Defensive armament was 3 x .303鈥� m.g. She and others of her type were soon to be replaced by the Short Sunderland.

The destroyers, that rendezvoused with the convoy, were among the last of the group of 鈥渋nter-war鈥� destroyers Of the 鈥淎鈥� to 鈥淚鈥� classes. Echo was later transferred to Greece. Of the others only Ilex and Isis survived the war, six being lost. Their layout, armament, etc., is described in the tables below.

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