U-Boat Battle – Convoy ONS5

Author

Downes, A.M., Captain

Subjects

Biographies and personal histories, WWII operations, History - WW2

Tags

U Boats, HMS Tay, HMS Duncan, Anti-submarine operations

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

September 2010 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

The main reasons for our success in the late spring of 1943 was the fact that there were more escorts being commissioned, the formation for the first time of the Support Groups and the very intensive training of ships and crews. New tactics were being worked out and practised by the Groups. Hedgehog was being fitted to frigates and sloops and this made a big difference. H/F D/F was being carried in one or two ships of every escort group and that also helped. But the main help was coming from the air.

First of all there were CAM ships – that stood for Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen – and this Heath Robinson contraption comprised a Seafire or Hurricane aircraft mounted on a catapult on the bows of the ship. This could be flown off to attack a shadowing Fokker Wulf aircraft. Very useful on the Gibraltar run. Of course the Seafire could not land and had to be ditched near an escort so that the pilot could be picked up.

Then there were the small Escort Carriers – aircraft carriers built on merchant ship hulls – which initially carried four Swordfish aircraft which were sufficient to force a submarine to submerge so that it could not keep up with the convoy. If a gale blew up quickly, when these 80 knot aircraft were astern, the carrier had to turn back to pick them up.

And finally, there was the bridging of the air gap between the USA, Greenland, Iceland and Britain by Liberator and similar long-range aircraft, although some of those airfields were often closed by bad weather.

I knew Peter Gretton very well as he frequently sailed in Tay before getting his own ship Duncan. He afterwards rose to be Rear Admiral and Chief of Naval Staff, but in those days was the youngest confirmed Commander in the RN. Bob Sherwood was my Captain for three years in Tay and he came from the Holyhead/Dublin Ferries and subsequently returned to the ferry service, eventually becoming Marine Superintendent for all ferry services running out of Britain to the Continent and Ireland. Ray Hart in Vidette was a Canadian and Harold Chesterman an Australian. The other two skippers were British. I still keep in touch with four officers from the Tay, even after all these years. It was a very happy ship and B7 was an extremely efficient Escort Group.

But those eight days were some of the most hectic of my life.