Captivating tales abound of heavy war losses and sinking of four U-boats
GOOD food generated good stories at last Saturday’s General Botha Old Boys’ lunch at a prestigious Newlands venue. From that institution emerged young men who joined the navy or were recruited by many British shipping companies, especially during the post-war shipping boom when that country’s merchant fleet was regrouping and expanding after the wartime loss of over 2 400 British vessels.
To swell their officer complement that had been depleted by thousands during those dark wartime days, shipping lines campaigned widely for cadets to join training programmes, some of which involved a dozen or more cadets serving in special water, the tankermen responded with their ship’s pumps at full bore to douse the RN fellow and his underlings with water. After that incident, the warship sought her freshwater supplies from another tanker.
Another told of his time in a tribal class destroyer during the bitter Arctic convoys, where, as the convoys closed the British or Norwegian coasts, attack from submarine or aircraft was assured.
At the wreath-laying ceremony the following day, he proudly wore his rows of medals, including two Russian medals for his service in those harrowing convoys that terminated at Murmansk or Archangelsk.
One of the convoys was PQ18 that left Loch Ewe in Scotland in September 1942 for Archangelsk. As the previous convoy had suffered enormous losses, PQ18 was given a large escort fleet. However, en route its 40 merchant ships were attacked by 42 Heinkels and 35 Junkers as well as a submarine flotilla. Although the large escort fleet defended the convoy resolutely and sank four U-boats, 13 merchant ships and scores of seamen were lost.
Among the ships in convoy PQ18 was Patrick Henry, the first Liberty ship to enter service. These vessels, of which over 2 000 were built during the war, were designed for rapid construction and had specially strengthened tweendecks and tanktops to carry bulk cargoes and heavy military equipment.
Unlike so many of her class that were sunk – some within days of sailing on their maiden voyages – Patrick Henry served in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and also in the Pacific, but survived the war and was scrapped in 1958.
I saw the last Liberty ship to call at Cape Town. Diverted from the Suez Canal in 1968, the Greek vessel Olga was rolling heavily as she approached the pilot station on a wintry Sunday afternoon, berthing at East Pier, if I recall correctly. She had been commissioned in 1943 as Francis Nash but since she was under Norwegian wartime control, she was renamed Fridtjof Nansen almost immediately.
Her war service included 19 uneventful crossings of the North Atlantic, mainly between US ports and North Africa, with occasional voyages to Liverpool or Belfast. The only time she brushed with German attackers was during an air raid on Algiers harbour. In 1960, she was sold to Greek owners and was scrapped in 1970, not a bad record for a ship whose life expectancy when constructed was a single transatlantic voyage – if she was lucky!
An interesting occasion for all, the Navy Festival, takes place in Simon’s Town at the weekend. South African and German warships will be open to the public and tug rides will also be available.