Grey Wolves by Philip Kaplan

Author:Philip Kaplan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

THE HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED

The North Atlantic shipping lanes were the most dangerous places to be for the Allied merchantmen of the convoys early in World War Two. Later, when Admiral Dönitz ordered the majority of his U-boats transferred to the Mediterranean, that sea, and the area off Gibraltar in particular, became the most dangerous place to be. Extremely heavy convoy traffic brought weapons and supplies from Africa to the men of the British Army in Egypt and other Allied merchant ships hauled raw materials in from the far east. It became the stage for a very important convoy battle and the laboratory in which new and improved tactics were developed for taking on the U-boats. It began in the afternoon of Sunday, 14 December 1941, when an Allied convoy, HG-76, made up of thirty-two merchant vessels, left Gibraltar in the care of several warship escorts, with Commander Frederick John ‘Johnnie’ Walker, whose reputation as a maverick had caused him to be passed over for promotion to Captain and compelled him to sail a desk through the first two years of the war. Walker, however, was an able tactician and had spent substantial time devising his own concepts for dealing with the U-boats.

Finally, in October 1941, Walker was given command of the Bittern-class sloop, HMS Stork and senior responsibility for a convoy escort force of Stork and seven corvettes. Walker’s pet name for his wife was Buttercup, and that was the name he gave to the coordinated battle tactics he devised for use against the enemy subs. His intention was to use the maximum number of warships and the maximum amount of firepower against the U-boats and to do so in the darkness when attacks by the subs were most probable. He based his tactic on the belief, from experience, that when a U-boat made a successful torpedo attack, it would likely remain in the area of the wrecked target or attempt an escape on the surface at top speed to evade the convoy escorts. As he explained his idea: “Operation Buttercup is designed to force the U-boat to dive by plastering the area around the wreck with depth charges and by illuminating the most likely directions of his surface escape. Once submerged, the destruction of the submarine is considerably simplified.”

At the start of the month, the little group of escort warships had guarded the convoy from Liverpool to Gibraltar without experiencing any U-boat attacks. Walker had, however, been receiving reports from the Submarine Tracking Room in London indicating that no such easy passage could be expected on the return voyage. In fact, it was known that a number of U-boats were heading towards the Gibraltar area and that others were being sent down as well from the Baltic on Hitler’s personal orders. The scene was set for a spectacular battle.

To help counter the evident threat of the U-boats, nine additional warships that were then based in Gibraltar—two sloops, three destroyers, three corvettes and the escort carrier HMS Audacity—were assigned to augment Walker’s protective force.

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