The Second World War by Winston S. Churchill

Author:Winston S. Churchill [Churchill, Winston S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th Century, History, Military, Nonfiction, Retail, World War II
ISBN: 9781472520876
Amazon: 1472520874
Barnesnoble: 1472520874
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2013-12-12T05:00:00+00:00

Meanwhile havoc continued to reign along the Atlantic coast of the United States. A U-boat commander reported to Doenitz that ten times as many U-boats could find ample targets. Resting on the bottom during daylight, they used their high surface speed at night to select the richest prey. Nearly every torpedo they carried claimed its victim, and when torpedoes were expended the gun was almost as effective. The towns of the Atlantic shore, where for a while the waterfronts remained fully lighted, heard nightly the sounds of battle, saw the burning, sinking ships off-shore, and rescued the survivors and wounded. There was bitter anger against the Administration, which was much embarrassed. It is however easier to infuriate Americans than to cow them.

In London we had marked these misfortunes with anxiety and grief. On February 10 we offered unasked twenty-four of our best-equipped anti-submarine trawlers and ten corvettes with their trained crews to the American Navy. These were welcomed by our Ally, and the first arrived in New York early in March. It was little enough, but the utmost we could spare. “’Twas all she gave—’twas all she had to give.” Coastal convoys could not begin until an organisation had been built up and escorts scraped together. The available fighting ships and aircraft were at first used only to patrol threatened areas. The enemy easily evaded them and hunted elsewhere. The main stress now fell between Charleston and New York, while single U-boats prowled over all the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, with a freedom and insolence which were hard to bear. The sinkings were nearly half a million tons, mostly within three hundred miles of the American coast, and nearly half were tankers. Only two U-boats were sunk in American waters by American aircraft, and first kill off the American coast by a surface vessel was not made until April 14, by the United States destroyer Roper.

In Europe March closed with the brilliant and heroic exploit of St. Nazaire. This was the only place along all the Atlantic coast where the Tirpitz could be docked for repair if she were damaged. If the dock, one of the largest in the world, could be destroyed a sortie of the Tirpitz from Trondheim into the Atlantic would become far more dangerous and might not be deemed worth making. Our Commandos were eager for the fray, and here was a deed of glory intimately involved in high strategy. Led by Commander Ryder of the Royal Navy, with Colonel Newman of the Essex Regiment, an expedition of destroyers and light coastal craft sailed from Falmouth on the afternoon of March 26 carrying about two hundred and fifty Commando troops. They had four hundred miles to traverse through waters under constant enemy patrol, and five miles up the estuary of the Loire.

The goal was the destruction of the gates of the great lock. The Campbeltown, one of the fifty old American destroyers, carrying three tons of high explosive in her bows, drove into the lock gates, in the teeth of a close and murderous fire.

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