The British Sea WarChapter 6
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Convoy Work
The weeks and months passed. A few days in port and then back to sea. Now Tony was the Senior officer of the fast convoy AH122 with two more new Flower Class Corvettes commanded by Lieutenants RNVR and an ancient armed sea going tug commanded by a Lieutenant RNR.( Royal Naval Reserve) Both the Captains of the other two Corvettes had gained some limited experience in previous convoys, and like Summer Rose Tony knew that they would give a good account of themselves when called to action.
The other two corvettes had been commissioned at about the same time as Summer Rose, their crews were just as inexperienced, and their commanding officers had very little sea time, and not much real practical previous experience of convoy work before taking up their commands.
But as time went on and they were lucky enough to have had a few easy convoys they had accumulated a lot of experience, and like HMS Summer Rose they were now on their fifth convoy to Halifax and were now relatively experienced. It seemed that no sooner had they arrived home, than they were turned round and sent to sea again on another long frustrating convoy.
The Captain Tony Nash was very tired and frustrated, as at sunset the previous night just before the attack had begun, they had lost their air cover, and now they had to rely on their own resources. Going on past experience, he knew it would be rough. A radio signal from the Admiralty had told them that their were seven U Boats in their vicinity.
This convoy was supposed to be a fast convoy with a planned speed of at least fourteen knots, which they had never yet achieved. He thought that some of it was pressure from the owners that was making them try and conserve fuel.
The attacks had come the night before almost as soon as the sun had set. Four of the ships had been sunk by U boats using both guns and torpedoes whilst travelling on the surface up and down the lines of the convoy, before they had been beaten off by fire from some of the D.E.M.S gunners on the merchant ships, after Tony had in desperation ordered the escorts to light up the convoy with star shells. The U Boats now well illuminated had been forced to dive. For a time it seemed that there were ships on fire and sinking wherever he looked. As the Senior Officer he felt that every ship sunk was his fault...
They had made several attacks on dived U boats and suddenly they found, that the ships suddenly found some extra speed from somewhere, Which meant they had to abandon the attack to stay with the convoy.
Several ships had taken hits from the submarines guns, but were still afloat, but he knew full well, that this was only the beginning. The U Boats would travel with the convoy, and would hit them time and time again, until they were out of torpedoes and ammunition. If he could make the convoy use its speed they stood a much better chance of outrunning the U Boats.
The attacks the previous night had just died down, and several ships were damaged or on fire, but there was nothing they could do to assist them, everyone was relaxing when the Chief Engineer rang from the engine room, to report that the main shaft bearing was running hot, and he had to stop the engine to inspect it, and somehow stop it from overheating.
Tony immediately called the other escorts, and the Commodore of the convoy, and told them that he had to stop his engine for repairs. He instructed the Lieutenant RNR in command of the ocean going tug HMS Osprey to take over command of the escort. Meanwhile, he moved clear of the convoy, and stopped his engine. The ships company remained closed up at action stations, and he warned everyone that they had to maintain silent routine.
He told his First Lieutenant Bob Rankin RNVR. "There is to be no smoking on the upper deck, No radar, No sonar transmissions, just maintain a listening watch. All hands to remain at action stations wearing their lifebelts, and they must keep down out of sight. Check that all depth charges are set to safe, and make sure the galley can supply plenty of hot drinks and sandwiches. Double all lookouts, and I want complete silence throughout the ship. The hand must wear soft shoes or creep around in their socks as sound is magnified as it travels through water"
"Number One While you are at it make the upper deck look as though we are abandoned, loosen a few Carley Floats, put the gun a bit askew anything to make us look as though we have been hastily abandoned..."
The night passed slowly and the air was full of tension as HMS Summer Rose rolled heavily in the Atlantic swell, badly hampering the engine room artificers in their repairs, as they struggled to work in the confines of the small overheated engine room. The lookouts had been doubled, but kept their heads down when the moonlight was strongest, and they were changed every half an hour, and the guns crews waited impatiently, some managed to doze at their station, but many were alert to the fact that if they were discovered by a U Boat, a single torpedo would soon finish them off.
All hands waited on deck for the end to come, none of them believing that a U Boat could miss such a tempting target. The Captain managed to get some fanny's of Kye (naval version of cocoa) sent round to each upper deck station at times during the night, and few hands managed to sneak a smoke behind a closed door, but otherwise utter silence was maintained.
Tony warned everyone on deck to keep their heads well down out of sight when dawn breaks. The ship must look abandoned.
Lieutenant Rankin the First Lieutenant joined the captain on the bridge during the night and asked "I can't understand why you did not allow smoking on the upper deck sir There are lot of moaning bout it?"
Because Number One, the glow of cigarettes would be a giveaway, and if a U Boat sees us, I want it to think we are abandoned ... I hope he will not want to waste a Torpedo on us, if we can make him curious enough to show himself, then we stand a chance of getting the bastard with the guns"
Dawn broke with a cloudless sky, and then suddenly the silence was broken as a spanner was dropped in the engine room, it woke up the few people who had managed to doze off. "The Captain rang the engine room he was furious "Who dropped that "fucking spanner?"
"I did sir, sorry. said the Chief ERA however sir, but the good news is that we should be finished in about fifteen minutes sir."
"Thank god for that, but keep the noise down, we have U Boats popping up all over the place complaining about the noise."
'He turned to the First Lieutenant, tell the hands on the loudspeaker that we should be underway soon, but don't show yourselves yet ... U Boats will not be able to hear the loudspeaker while they are dived."
Just as he spoke the sonar operator reported. Submarine blowing main ballast tanks somewhere to starboard Sir."
Tony ordered over the speaker "Stand by all guns, U Boat probably surfacing nearby to starboard. Load with HE The 4' gun to go for the saddle tanks, and the Oerlikans stop them using the bridge and their guns. Independent fire when you see a target. But keep your heads down until you see him on the surface, he is probably just going to have a look at us first"
"That is if the bastards haven't torpedoed us by then" he whispered to himself.
They waited in silence, and then a lookout reported the sighting of a periscope to starboard. It was about fifteen tense minutes as the U boat circled round the ship, then the U Boat started to break surface, about five hundred yards away, and HMS Summer Rose opened fire as soon as she broke surface. The conning tower had only just broken the surface, when the guns first opened fire. From that distance it was almost impossible to miss the target, as the U Boat staggered from at least three direct hits from the 4" gun, then she rolled over sluggishly and disappeared from sight. It was presumed then that the Starboard side saddle tanks had been hit, as well as one strike on the side of the conning tower. If the damage was as bad as they thought then she could not survive. Some large traces of diesel oil and bits of wreckage came to
the surface which seemed to confirm their success.
U199 had been cruising peacefully at ninety feet not far from HMS Summer Rose. at about two knots to conserve power. Most of the crew off watch were sleeping.The spanner being dropped on Summer Rose woke them up all up, and alerted the Captain Hans Merkel to something happening nearby, or at first he thought, the noise could have come from another U Boat nearby doing repairs, but he decided to have a look anyway."
He ordered. Thirty feet half ahead both motors.". The engineer on the diving panel opened the high pressure valves to put a burst of high pressure air into the ballast tanks, and gradually U199 rose to periscope depth. A quick look through the attack periscope showed him HMS Summer Rose stopped with no sign of life, apart from a black and white cat casually washing itself on the boat deck
The 4" gun on HMS Summer Rose seemed him to be hanging down at a funny angle, and he thought she must be abandoned for some reason ... He watched carefully for any sign of life for about fifteen minutes.
Hans was confused. He could not use a Torpedo as they had not yet reloaded the tubes from the night before. He was sure the longer that he looked that HMS Summer Rose for some obscure reason was abandoned, and he was very curious. So he then decided to have a look He ordered the guns crew to stand by for gun action on the Port side. And gave the order to surface, as he lowered the periscope, and climbed into the conning tower, ready to open the top hatch to the bridge when they were surfaced. He had just undone the first clip when he died.
Fawn
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