WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 24, 4 March 1942, Page 6

WAR TOPICS

U-BOAT KILL

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NORTH ATLANTIC

DESTRQ VERS UEVKNGE

As a result of a lew trips without incident 1 was beginning to think that the Battle of the Atlantic was aobut as remote as the papers that told us about it —and somehow, though we had plenty of remind us of the submarine menace, 1 could not visualise the real tiling, writes a naval oll'icer in "London Calling."

One nigllt —it was in the middle watch. —we were steaming slowly along, keeping an eye on our charges who, settled for the night, wallowed . colli lor taly in the Atlantic swell. It all seemed so quiet and peaceful, and my thoughts were turning to better things, Avhen a call, "White column of Avater on the port bow," from the look-out brought me round quick enough to sec a Avhite pillar of Avater collapsing by the bridge of a cargo A'cssci about a quarter of a mile away on the port boAV. Then things began to happen. The captain, who Avas on the bridge at the time, took charge, and l'or the next few moments. I Avas fairly busy. When I had time tot look again, the merchantman had nearly gone. It Avas so strange and unreal. She j seemed to be steaming her A\ay to the bottom. 1 suppose that my impression AA'as so A r ivid because it Avas the first, ship I had seen torpedoed, hut 1 remember thinking: "How impossible that something so solidly i valuable could disappear as quickly j as a child's toy steamer overturned in a pond." 13y this Lime all hands were at action stations, and my captain, as senior oll'icer ol Lhe escort, was -dealing with the almost impossible number of orders, signals, dispesi tons, and so on. This done, Ave steamed slowly oa*or the spot where Lhe ship had gone down, amidst the useless debris of blasted wood crates Avith here ami there one of her boats swinging slowly in our wake to mark her grave. Looking for a Pin As Ave settled down to hunt the German shark who had caused this useless Avaste it struck me that the

ocean Avas a very large place and a Submarine a very small craft, and one felt like someone Avith a magnet looking for a pin in a A'cry large field.

We had been hunting for some time and the daylight Avas beginning lo tell some of us. that Ave could do Avith a good Avash and some breakfast Avhen the first lieutenant turned to me and said: "It is about time you saw a conning tower." AVcll, I must confess I avasbeginning to think that Avas about as likely as . . . .'Avhen avc Avcrc all electrified by the excited shout of the officer of the Avatch; "Smoke on the horizon," closely folhnvcd by the first lieutenant: "There is a conning tower in the middle of it, by God!"

And we could see the Germans milling about in their elTorts to get on to the raft. "Those Stupid-Looking Men. . Soon Ave were in the midst of them. My feelings of excitement during the hunt slowed down with Ihe ship and gave way to a sense of anti-climax. These stupid-looking men, floundering about in absurdly correct looking German forage caps, had a few moments ago been our deadly enemies, and now . . . but there was no time for that, as there was a lot to be done. As I came down from the bridge 1 had time for a good laugh. The other destroyer, determined to be in at the kill, had got her whal'er awnv in record time and the sailors had pulled over in time to snatch a bewildered German from a rope as he was scrambling up our ship's side v He did not like this at all and appealed to us, but we had not the heart to deny them at least one piece of evidence so we let him go.

The strongest impression that I got was the extreme youth of the crew as a whole, and also the fright of some of them, filled up, I suppose, with ranting propaganda the wicked waste of good ships and men, but it was interesting to note the complete change that -came over him when he was saying good-bye in front of his men. This consisted of them embarking at each other like a lot of wolves quarrelling over a very small piece of meat. There is little more to tell except that though the fact of our arrival had been kept secret there was a crowd to see the prisoners go ashore and, of course, the usual topical remarks. •"Cheer up. You'll be able to go and have a yarn with old Hess . . . you two might be brothers, anyway, squarehead." On our way back lo base, the Üboat captain, so incongruous in a shooting coat and grey llannel trousers lent him by one of the officers, asked me one morning, while taking exercise on Ihe 'quarter deck, why it was that men who had been torpedoed several limes kept on going to sea. The answer lo lliat one was obvious. His attitndc towards the war was that of about what we would do to them.

Sure enough, there emerging from the smudge of Diesel smoke Avas what looked like a small grey ciraretic tita. "Full ahead both." Never in all her long years of serviee can my ship have answered so quickly. Up climbed the signal, '"Submarine in sight." And we were racing off; our forward guns opened lire, and J went down (o try to ►spot ;i gun on her through the Hying spray, f did not see much of the chase, bill after what seemed like a few seconds the order. "Cease lire" scni in''' -back' !o the bridge to see what v. happening. It appeared that' I in- sll bsi; ri ;!! which J>a-i hai'ly dama „••••! l>\