Churchill's Greatest Fear: The Battle of the Atlantic 3 September 1939 to 7 May 1945 by Richard Doherty

Author:Richard Doherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473879416
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

* Morison goes on to note that 15 September was the ‘day of the great fall [autumn] turkey shoot’ when RAF fighters shot down 187 German bombers, a figure now known to have been greatly overestimated.

Chapter Nine

Although 1942 had been the worst year for losses to U-boats, there had been developments that indicated a better future, although that was not clear at the time when too many advantages seemed to lie with the enemy. The Allies had achieved a series of victories since June that proved to be the pivot on which the war swung in their favour. The United States Navy’s victory at Midway was first, followed by Eighth Army’s at El Alamein in November, leading to the destruction of all Axis forces in North Africa the following May, and the defeat of Paulus’ German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in February 1943. To these may be added the Battle of the Atlantic, even though its very worst months came in early 1943.

Losses in December 1942 would have been higher had it not been for a single Liberator of No.120 Squadron from Iceland. HX217 and SC111 were en route to Britain, on parallel courses about twenty-five miles apart when a U-boat spotted them on 1 December. The sighting was reported to U-boat headquarters, now moved to Paris to avoid attack by British commandos, and twenty-two boats were ordered to target HX217 which further observation showed on a more northerly course; faster convoys were considered to carry more valuable cargoes. On 7 December two Liberators were despatched from Reykjavik to provide air cover but one returned with engine problems. The other found the convoy and remained with it for six hours.

Next day, at 1.37am, U-600 torpedoed and sank a straggler. Later that day, Terry Bulloch, commanding 120’s Reykjavik detachment, took off in Liberator AM921, the machine that had suffered engine trouble the previous day, to escort HX217, although he had been flying for most of the past two days. On a sweep on the 6th (according to Bulloch’s log this was on the 5th) he had encountered foul weather that forced a diversion to Northern Ireland, whence he returned on the 7th. Squadron Leader Desmond Isted was to follow in another Liberator. Bulloch’s navigator, Michael Layton, a Canadian, the oldest member of his crew, was ‘one of the few men whom the Bull trusted implicitly’. An outstanding navigator, Layton ‘true to form, located HX217 without delay’ as dawn broke. Bulloch began scanning for signs of U-boat activity while Ginger Turner concentrated on his ASV screen.1

At 11.30am Bulloch’s remarkable eyesight detected a surfaced U-boat, picking out the firmer line of its wake from the many white slashes on the ocean while flying through a hailstorm. Bulloch, known as ‘Hawkeye’, called his crew to action stations, and dived to attack. Usually a U-boat crew spotted an aircraft first, but not in this case. As the boat began diving, the Liberator was in the final stages of its attack. In the bomb bay were

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