Night Action by Peter Dickens

Author:Peter Dickens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 1974-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

7a.

Vorpostenboot, a converted steam drifter.

(Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte)

7b.

Vorpostenboot 1314, ex-German steam trawler Gustav Hugo Deiters, 1942. ‘M’ Class Fleet Minesweeper in background.

(Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte)

8

A German patrol in action at night

(Associated Press)

A Coastal Command patrol had spotted the convoy at two in the afternoon and at 1825 there had been a bombing attack by four aircraft, though no hits resulted. At 2054 however all the ships were jolted by a heavy explosion as the steamer Wolfram hit a mine; she was well inside the swept channel, as Bergelt was careful to point out to his potentially critical superiors, but her de-gaussing equipment had recently failed. Her engines stopped instantly and Bergelt reduced the convoy’s speed to five knots while the situation cleared, but the Wolfram was in no state to continue and VP 806 was left behind to look after her. Later she sank.

We had been briefed on the aircraft sighting report before leaving harbour, and this time it really seemed as though we should be able to by-pass the convoy well to seaward and come in quietly ahead of it. 233’s First Lieutenant and Navigator being General Lee I had thought it unnecessary to take Alan as I usually did when riding in someone else’s boat, and I was justified as General did the job superbly.

I should dearly like to know whether Bergelt was apprehensive about MTB attack that night; knowing the convoy to have been reported he might well have been, and if he had tried to put himself in my mind and doodled on the chart with a few rough calculations derived from such data as the time of evening twilight, our cruising speed and radius of action, and of course his own intended movement, he should have been able to deduce that his time of greatest danger was quite a short period between about 2200 and midnight. Whether he thought on these lines I shall probably never know because, sadly, he died after the war; but I rather doubt it as I cannot honestly give his escorts credit for being keenly alert, and also because he placed them in a curiously ineffective formation, the reason for which he did not record.

Having discarded our lame ducks we bumbled over without incident and, as I can now assure General, almost exactly along his intended track. Arriving at the point where silence was to begin we cut main engines, but bless my soul the noise continued. Uncertain of myself I naturally swore at someone else, David Felce of 83, but unfairly as his boat was as quiet as a mouse. Then I thought, crikey we’re being chased by E-boats; but the quality of sound was not quite right for that, and there was nothing to be seen although the night was fine, calm and clear. When in doubt look upwards however, and there was the explanation; 213 beautiful Lancasters droned overhead in an unbroken stream on their way to bomb Hamburg, and now looking more intently in the right direction we could see the occasional spark from an exhaust.

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