The British Sea War

The Coxswain a Chief petty Officer named Bill Parker arrived with his punishment books in a few moments. Tony said "Well Swain as you can guess, as you are responsible for discipline,. I need to know why we have so many men under punishment."

Tony was horrified as the details came to light, in all 45 men were under punishment and it was so unusual for so many men to be punished for trivial offences, and sentenced to stoppage of leave. . In particular the fact that ten of the men were married, or had families ashore, and could not get home to see them. The First Lieutenant also added, that he had two officers, who were ordered to do alternate Officer of the Day in harbour for a month for not carrying out the Captains orders to put men under punishment,.

After an hour Tony leaned back in his chair he looked at the two men and said. "I can not repeal the last Captains punishment without a lot of fuss. But I want all men under stoppage of leave as at today, to have their punishment held over for a further 21 days.

"We shall be at sea then sir." The Coxswain responded.. Tony smiled "Oh gosh Swain how remiss of me, but I cannot keep changing my mind can I now." he said with a smile.

Order the men given extra work to muster, but then be sent back to their messes if you and the First Lieutenant think that is the best way to be fair. If they happen to get ashore for a drink somehow, that's up to you Coxswain, use your judgment. However let it be known that any punishments awarded after today, will be a different kettle of fish, and based of what I determine is a fair punishment. . How you work it. I will leave to you.. I want this ship to be fit in all respects for sea.. Turning to the First Lieutenant he said.. Raymond you can sort the officers out. "In future I want you to ensure that any men put on charges are for real offences, not trivial misdemeanors.. This ship is going to war shortly, and I want a ships company who can do their jobs, without having to watch their backs all the time."

Overnight the whole attitude of the ship gradually began to change. The Flotilla Captain sent for him. "Any problems Tony? "No sir, the dockyard say they will be finished on time." The Captain laughed. You know what I mean. Off the record what have you done."

Tony explained the problems he had encountered, and how he had dealt with them, and then the Captain said.

"Your predecessor has had a mental breakdown, and I am told he has been hospitalized, but I thought that it would be better for you to deal with things in your own way without my warning you".

"That explains a lot sir, the ship was almost at a state of mutiny Sir."

After about a week .the whole mood had visibly started to change, and Freda and he were invited to dinner as guests of the officers in the wardroom. It was the first time that Freda had been on board a warship, and her vivacious outgoing personality made the dinner a real success. One officer was heard to say afterwards

"It almost makes it worthwhile to be wounded to have that lady nurse you."

But soon the Flotilla was ready for sea. They were to sail with a convoy for Halifax Nova Scotia but the Flotilla Captain said that their job first of all would be to form in line abreast several miles ahead of the convoy. The eight ships could cover a wide area of sea with their sonar. Their job together with Coastal Command aircraft would be to seek out U Boats and destroy them..

And so the Fifth Flotilla went to war. The Flotilla first of all carried out practice U Boat attacks, and gunnery shoots, and Tony was quite pleased with what he saw.. The ships company seemed to be much happier, and many of the requests for transfers were withdrawn. Two men volunteered for Submarines, but they assured him it was something they really wanted to do, so Tony granted their requests..

It was ten days later that the Flotilla found themselves travelling in line abreast searching for U Boats suspected by the Admiralty of being in the area. according to the Admiralty's intercepted signals from Germany. The weather was really bad, with a high wind and gusting rain. The ship was rolling with the high seas on their quarter and HMS Blackbird was the Starboard wing ship.

Suddenly the radar reported that there was a small echo bearing on red 20 which was just off their line of approach. Tony requested permission to investigate, and as they got nearer he was allowed to detach and search for what appeared to be an almost stationary echo. The lookouts reported that their seemed to be a life boat lying deep in the water and someone in it was baling frantically..

Tony got as close as he dare, as they got nearer they saw it was one man, he appeared to be wounded, and baling his boat frantically. It seemed that it was a boat fitted with inbuilt buoyancy tanks otherwise it would have sunk a long time before. The boat bore the name of SS Southern Princess .

Once the man had been rescued, the boat coxswain on his return, reported to the bridge that the man was now in the care of the doctor, but the ship had been torpedoed the day before by a U boat which had then surfaced. It had been the U54. The man had told the coxswain that he was the Second Mate of the SS Southern Princess, and that the U Boat had surfaced and deliberately sunk the other boats by nudging them over with his bows and then he had deliberately machine gunned the survivors in the water.. He had been the only survivor in his boat, and that was only because an aircraft had been sighted, and they had dived in a hurry. He had been shot in the shoulder and the doctor was treating him in the sick bay..

Tony had heard stories of this happening, later when he interviewed the man he learned that the SS Southern Princess was a modern ship, and had a top speed of around about eighteen knots. They had been allowed to sail out of a convoy because of their speed which gave them a better than even chance of beating U Boats. It seemed that they had been desperately unlucky to have been torpedoed as they were travelling at full speed when they were hit.

.

Tony reported back to the Flotilla leader. Other ships of the Flotilla had made several submarine contacts and had carried out attacks during the day with some success having sunk one U boat.

It was later that day when their partner ship to Starboard HMS Sea Eagle had made a contact. Both ships paired up as they had rehearsed with one ship attacking while the other standing by tracked the submarine by sonar as far as was possible. Then they would change roles, so both ships alternated their roles in the attack..

.. . . . ***********

U54 was thirty days into its patrol. Max Steiger was worried as recently it seemed that the Tommies were getting more adept at dodging the U Boats. In addition they seemed to have more escorts, and more aircraft escorting the convoys. Even before he left to go on patrol, the high command was concerned that so many U boats were late returning from patrol, or were reported as having been sunk..

The Third Lieutnant was on watch. He was muffled up in oilskins with a thick sweater underneath and a towel round his neck. . It was first light, and once again they had not found the convoy. The previous day they had sighted a lone Merchant ship and had sunk her. She had been on her own and travelling at speed, but as usual the Captain Oberleutnant zur See Max Steiger the Captain, seemed to have the luck with him, and had sunk her with two torpedoes. Although she was a fast Merchant vessel she was just in the right position for him to risk a couple of torpedoes...

The third lieutnant was not a great supporter of his Captain, and did not approve of the Captains obvious delight at killing innocent seaman, but like the other officers they dare not complain. He too was worried about the seemingly increase in escorts and the umber of U boats that seemed to be now falling victim to the enemy.

That morning the sea was rough with waves crashing against the bridge structure, sending clouds of spray and occasional waves across the bridge. The three lookouts and the Lieutnant were very wet and feeling very miserable, and longing for their watch to end, or for the boat to dive and to have a hot meal.

The Captain had ordered the Third Lieutnant and the lookouts to watch for signs of smoke. That was a sure sign there was a convoy nearby. Always merchant ships made a lot of smoke, and it was a sure guide for the U Boats in helping them to find a convoy. But he thought that the high wind and rain would blow the smoke away quickly.

Dawn was late coming as the sky was still dark, with slivers of light just breaking through thinner patches of the dense morning rain clouds. Visibility was poor and Oberleutnant zur See, the Captain .Max Steiger was considering diving, as staying on the surface was becoming too dangerous, and once again they seemed to have missed the convoy, although they were in the position ordered by U Boat headquarters. Because of the poor visibility, the Captain had decided to risk staying on the surface for a bit longer,. in case a new position for the convoy came through on the radio.

Steiger had told the Officer of the watch "Keep the lookouts on their toes Karl, as he had left the bridge to the Officer of the watch. Suddenly at 0630 the radio room reported from a U Boat in contact with the convoy, It said the enemy convoy was steering on course 190 degrees approximately with 40 ships in four columns speed approx five knots, and the position was very near them yet they could not see it.

Then the rain started gusting and getting harder, and visibility got even more patchy as the driving rain swept across the sea. "Bloody thick weather." The Officer of the Watch muttered to himself as he longed for the order to dive, to get dry and to get some hot coffee. He reflected it was unusual for the Captain to stay surfaced this long now that the Tommies had the long range aircraft helping to protect the convoys and the new killer groups. .

Spray swept over the bridge casing time after time, wetting the faces of the Officer of the watch and the lookouts. A lot of water was falling down the conning tower into the control room and keeping hands busy clearing it up. "Keep a good lookout damn you." The Officer of the Watch shouted at one lookout, who seemed more concerned in wiping his face..

There was a not a sign of the sun, but suddenly the Captain came to the bridge, and sent the bridge lookouts down And gave the order to the control room "Diving stations, Stand by to dive." He hoped they may hear something when they got down on the sonar ". He was desperate to sink a few more ships as he knew he was in line for the coveted Iron Cross First Class..

The Captain then ordered :"Clear the Bridge" and the boat dived to 30 metres. It was still slightly affected by the rough weather at this depth, but the motion was bearable, but the foreplane operator was struggling to hold the depth. Eventually, after a few minutes U54 went down to 300 metres to wait until the weather moderated, and they had new orders. However, he felt happier now he knew he was near the convoy, and he was sure that finding them later would present no problems now he knew the mean course..

The Sonar operator on watch, was listening intently, periodically he looked up at the captain, and shook his head. Several hours went by and there was no sign of anything, until suddenly the Sonar operator looked up, as he snatched the earphones away from his ears and everyone picked up the sound of depth charging.. It was near enough to be heard quite loudly the boat "The Tommies are pasting someone". A voice said breaking the silence.

"Right stand by to surface." The captain ordered. On the surface the weather had started to moderate. The captain had just ordered the lookouts to the bridge when the Second Lieutnant reported Aircraft bearing 010. The Captain immediately ordered dive dive dive. .

The boat had not reached full buoyancy when the dive order had been given All main vents had been opened, and the bridge was awash before the captain had put the clips on the upper lid. Giving another burst of cold Atlantic sea water to the control room. "Periscope depth." The Captain ordered as he shook the sea water off his saturated oilskin . As the boat steadied at periscope depth. The captain looked all round for the aircraft through the periscope. He suddenly tensed and ordered.

"Flood Q. . Sixty metres. Hydroplanes hard to dive" .Suddenly they heard the sound of a ships engines as they passed nearby, then as depth charges exploded alongside them, people lost their feet, as three or four terrific explosions rocked the boat. The lighting failed, and their was a sound of smashing glass..

Then the sound of sonar transmissions rebounding from the hull warned them that they were being hunted by an escort and he had them on sonar.. This escort was joined in a few minutes by another ship who also soon had them pinned down on sonar..

Max Steiger looked round the control room as the emergency lighting came on. "300 metres silence in the boat.". "That aircraft must have pointed us out to the escorts, but there was no sign of any merchant ships, no smoke nothing. " he said out loud.

The First lieutnant suddenly said "That aircraft must have radar, and we must be in contact with one of those new killer groups, we were warned about. That is the only way they could find us through all that bad weather, and homed the ships on to us."

The next few hours they weaved, stopped started and changed depth as the convoy escorts persevered. For the first time Hans Steiger felt the first pangs of fear strike him. The hunt was on for them..

For hour after hour the depth charges rained down on them. The emergency lighting was giving out, and the batteries were getting low as they had to continually change speed and depth to avoid the hunters which drained the batteries.

Soon it was obvious that they could taken no more punishment. Their were leaks appearing in the pressure hull The engine room and motor room was being flooded and Max Steiger decided he had to surface and make a run for it.. If he could catch the Tommies by surprise they might just have a chance. Steiger ordered Stand by to surface, Stand by guns crew . Foreplanes to hard rise, Full Ahead both motors. Blow main ballast tanks. .

**********

The asdic operator on HMS blackbird picked up the sound of U54 surfacing. As she broke surface the main armament of HMS Blackbird started firing. The shells were hitting the casing, and the Conning tower as U54 disappeared into the stygian depths of the Atlantic leaving Max Steiger and two lookouts in the water.

The three survivors were seen struggling in the water which were helped up by seaman. as they scrambled up on the scrambling net which had been dropped over the side. Two of the survivors were lookouts and the other was Oberleutnant zur See Max Steiger the Captain of U54.

He very officiously demanded to see the Captain, and started demanding that he be treated in accord with the Geneva convention. It was a bad time to be sunk by HMS Blackbird as Tony turned to his First Lieutenant. "Have you any suggestion as to what we should do with this butcher Number One?". "Aye sir handcuff him and lock him in a toilet to let him cool down. Unfortunately we are required to treat him in accordance with the Geneva convention but I think we will be too busy chasing U boats for the time being .to worry about the comfort of prisoners. I will have the two lookouts seen by the doctor and given clean clothes. It might be n idea to get statements from them about their Captains killing of innocent Seaman Sir"

The next morning Tony decided to see Max Steiger. When Tony entered the cell area he stood to attention and gave the Nazi salute Heil Hitler He was complaining bitterly about the way he had been treated. Tony said "I could of course toss you in the sea and use you for target practice, like you have done to so many of our seaman, but we are not like that. But I do have a statement from your seaman, and from a survivor who escaped your killing the survivors of his ship.

As far as I am concerned, you are not entitled to protection under the Geneva convention, but should be tried and executed by a criminal court. But that decision will be made by my superiors..

..

Chapter 7 Next

Chapter 7

HMS Tenacious Goes to War

It had been a wet Autumn, and true to form, the heavens opened just as Lieutenant Commander Mike Smith DSO, the newly appointed Captain of the "T" Class submarine HMS Tenacious, was having his first coffee of the day, in the wardroom at the Royal Naval Barracks at Devonport. Once again, it had been a noisy night with another raid on the dockyard. All the warships that were in Devonport, had added their weight to the anti-aircraft barrage, but as usual it was noisy, but largely ineffective. However the bombs still fell. He looked out of the window, and wondered why it always waited to rain this heavily when the raids were over, and never before they started...

All the ships company of HMS Tenacious were either living in the barracks, or on leave, and only the duty watch stayed on the boat overnight, to ensure the safety of the boat, and provide sentries. But during the days all the ships company would report to the boat to take part in working parties, and to overhaul essential equipment.

Most of the Ships Company had been with him on his previous command a smaller "S" class boat called HMS Sparkler and had been transferred en masse. However, there were a number of new faces, as some men had left on promotion and a T boat being bigger demanded a slightly larger ships company, so some new faces were to be expected..

Soon they would be off after a short working up period, and then sent to rejoin the iron ring around Brest, once again braving the autumn storms in the Bay of Biscay. If it was anything like previous patrols in his previous command, it would be a long boring wet assignment, living in virtually intolerable conditions, until they were recalled. He did however, have his own cabin on Tenacious instead of having to live with the rest of the officers in a crowded wardroom.

It was an essential job, as the Germans reportedly were keeping two of their large battle cruisers The Bismark and the Prince Eugen holed up in Brest, awaiting their chance to break out, and menace British convoys in the Atlantic. The fact that they were there, tied up a large part of the British home fleet in Scapa flow.

After breakfast Mike donned an oilskin, and went down to the boat, just to show his face, and then he planned to return to pack a small case, and be off home. The Torpedoes and ammunition together with fresh food, would be left to load until the day before they sailed.

The boat was docked in no 3 basin, and as usual was a hive of activity as stores were being loaded from the jetty, and the First Lieutenant Roger Bryce had wisely decided to top up the batteries, and was running a charge on one of the main engines Today, Mike was going on leave, leaving his newly appointed First Lieutenant in charge of the boat. This would be the first leave he had allowed himself, since commissioning his first command, just before hostilities had broken out. Half the ship company were on leave, and were due back in two days. He was giving himself five days leave, with no fixed plan on what he intended to do with himself, other than relax, and catch up on his sleep. They were due to sail for a short working up trial in seven days, after the final diving checks had been carried out.

The journey in a First Class compartment from Plymouth was seemingly on time, until it got near the City, and then with a large number of stops, it ended up being half an hour late, which considering all things was not too bad.