The Secret Capture by Stephen Roskill

Author:Stephen Roskill
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473819641
Publisher: Pen and Sword

At 9.48 the Bulldog was also in contact, and came in with her first full pattern, which was soon followed by others from the Amazon and the Rochester. Thus did 55 depth charges, released in six separate and deliberate attacks, rain down upon the U-boat within little more than half-an-hour of the first contact; but Asdic conditions were none too good, and although the attackers believed that they had damaged the enemy, and were hopeful of finishing him off, they realised that they were up against a skilful and wily antagonist. Between 10 and 10.30 p.m. all three ships regained contact, only to lose it again; but at 10.30 the Rochester and Amazon were once more firmly on to the enemy, and the latter carried out her fourth attack with the Rochester directing her movements. Roper considered this to have been his most accurate pattern so far. As the plume from the ten depth charges subsided a large bubble of air came to the surface. The Rochester, however, maintained contact, and just as Roper was about to come in for his fifth attack the U-boat altered course making straight for the Rochester at high speed! This was a cunning manœuvre, for it forced Roper to break off his attack while the enemy passed under Allen’s ship; but the two ships’ Asdic operators both held the U-boat, and the Amazon got in her delayed attack soon afterwards. Roper was now running short of depth charges, and rationed himself to five in each subsequent pattern. The Bulldog, however, got in another full pattern at 11.20, and ten minutes later Roper made his sixth and final attack. Again the target swung rapidly to starboard as he moved in, and the British ships realised that their enemy was not only adept at evading their onslaught, but had probably not yet suffered serious damage.

Soon after midnight the contact seemed to have faded for good, and Baker-Cresswell ordered the Rochester back to the convoy. He and the Amazon, however, continued the search throughout the rest of the night, and not until 9.30 a.m. on the 8th did they abandon the pursuit and set course to catch up the convoy.

To return to the torpedoed merchantmen, it was a curious coincidence that both the Eastern Star and the Ixion seem to have been carrying large quantities of whisky in their holds. The former caught fire at once, and was soon a mass of flames. Baker-Cresswell, glancing at the cargo list at the moment she was struck, thought regretfully of the sad waste of a commodity which was then so strictly rationed in Britain. The Nailsea Manor (No. 94 in the convoy), which had been detailed as rescue ship, at once turned back to assist her stricken comrades, and both Baker-Cresswell and Commodore Mackenzie commended her Master for his promptitude. The Nailsea Manor belonged to the Nailsea Steamship Company of Cardiff; but they sold their last ship in 1949, and it has thus proved impossible to trace the name of the ship’s Master at the time of this incident.

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