大象传媒

This story was added to the People's War Site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Newcastle on behalf of Fred Howson. Fred Howson fully understands the site's terms and conditions and the story has been added to the site with his permission.

"I was in the Royal Navel Patrol Service, whose HQ was The Sparrow's Nest in Lowestoft, and its fleet was made up of over 1000 fishing boats commandeered at the beginning of the war and used exclusively for minesweeping and escorting convoys.

For a time they suffered the highest casualty rate of any of the armed forces, losing over 300 ships in the first three years.

There were usually about half a dozen on every Russian convoy. Their ability to get seaman out of the freezing sea could not be bettered.

I was a telegraphist (wireless operator), on a minesweeper first and then a trawler convoy.

The convoys in the med where having a pretty rough time, and in April 1943 five of us were sent down to reinforce the escorts.

On the way down we had to do a U-Boat sweep all the way down. It took us just over a week. In those days the admiralty sent out (by Morse code) what they called 'a situation report' at eight o'clock every night and was looked on with the same enthusiasm as the 大象传媒 nine o'clock.

I had just sat on my chair (and very comfortable it was too!)when that evening's situation report started. When it was finished I passed it onto the coding officer to be decoded. About 20 minutes later Bob, the decoder, half-shouted "Fred! Fred! You must read this before I take it to the officer of the watch!"

It told of all the convoys crossing the Atlantic and the position of the U-boats. It really was frightening, the number listed was 125!

This period was perhaps the worst in the whole of the battle of the Atlantic - April and May 1943.

Admiralty figures admitted that in April and May over 100 ships were being sunk and the shipping experts warned the government that if those losses continued the UK would have to sue for peace by the November 1943.

But a miracle did happen. In June 1943, more planes were given to the fleet air arm which meant that every inch of the Atlantic could be patrolled from East to West by aircraft. There was a big improvement in the radar used by the aircraft. I think it was called "10CMS", which meant that the aircraft could pick up the U-boat snorkel and last but not least, the number of escorts were increased.

What happened in June 1943 was nothing short of a miracle. The British admiralty claimed the sinking of no fewer that 40 U-boats. But wait for it - The German admiralty admitted the loss 43 -yes, 43! - U-boats!

In July 1943 Admiral Raeder, Commander in Chief of all U-boats, admitted that Germany had lost - yes, lost! - the Battle of the Atlantic and ordered all U-boats to regroup at the Azores.

At the end of the war, the German admiralty admitted that only 20 out of every 100 U-boat crewmen came back home.

Quite rightly we have a Battle of Britain day and an El Alamein Day, but never a Battle of the Atlantic day, without which we would not be celebrating the first two.

Is that why it is called the Silent Service?"

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