Introduction
1. V E Tarrant, The U-Boat Offensive 1914–1945, London, 1989; John Terraine, Business in Great Waters, London, 1989
Chapter 1
1. Robert M Grant, U-Boat Intelligence, Archon Books, Hamden, USA, 1969 (reprint by Periscope Publishing, Penzance)
2. David K Brown, ‘Defeat in the Atlantic’, Warship (2002–3)
3. Richard Compton-Hall, Submarine Warfare Monsters and Midgets, Poole, 1985
4. George Franklin, Britain’s Anti-Submarine Capability 1919–1939, London, 2003, p. 18
5. G C Peden, British Rearmament and the Treasury, Edinburgh, 1979
6. Franklin, Britain’s Anti-Submarine Capability
7. PRO ADM 116/2607
8. David K Brown, ‘Sir Rowland Baker, RCNC’, Warship (1995); also Nicholas Monsarrat, East Coast Corvette and Corvette Command, London, 1943, 1944
9. Arnold Hague, The Allied Convoy System 1939–45, London, 2000
10. Adm Sir William James, The Sky Was Always Blue, London, 1951. James claims to have thought out his organisation in the bath.
11. Willem Hackmann, Seek and Strike, Basingstoke, 1994 (general technical reference for this book)
12. David K Brown, ‘Defeat in the Atlantic’, Warship (2002–3)
13. The meaning of ASDIC. The letters ‘ASD’ represent the initials of ‘Anti-Submarine Detection’, but ‘IC’ does not stand for ‘Investigating Committee’ as often stated. Hackmann and Franklin have both shown that the ‘-ic’ here is the suffix meaning ‘pertaining to’. To preserve secrecy about the nature of the equipment, the term ‘ASDivite’ was coined to refer to quartz. Asdic is now known as ‘sonar’.
14. Hackmann, Seek and Strike, p. 135
15. Peter Gretton, Convoy Escort Commander, London, 1964; D A Rayner, Escort, London, 1955; Gretton was in command of Sabre, Rayner of Shikari
16. Operation Catherine was Churchill’s proposed foray by the Royal Navy into the Baltic in 1940 to interrupt German seaborne trade. Churchill was eventually persuaded against the operation and it was cancelled
17. Rayner, Escort
18. A Raven and J Roberts, V and W Class Destroyers, London, 1979; A Preston, V and W Class Destroyers, London, 1971; these are both excellent books, dealing with these ships in both wars, and are very well illustrated
19. March suggests in British Destroyers that some of the last Ws had ungalvanised frames
20. Working in the Channel in February 1944, Warwick had her Hedgehog replaced by a 4in QF gun
21. In riveted construction, rivets were spaced closer in oil-tight (OT) work than in merely watertight (WT) (spacing was 4–4½ rivet diameters for OT, and 4½–5 diameters for WT). I suspect that this was ignored in the conversions
22. D K Brown, ‘V & W Conversions’, Warship Supplement (101), World Ship Society
23. Fuel tanks that, because of their position in the ship, were not considered suitable for that purpose in time of war were known as ‘peace tanks’
24. A15039, Imperial War Museum
25. Arnold Hague, Sloops 1926–36, World Ship Society, 1993
26. David K Brown, ‘Sir Rowland Baker’, annex concerning Baker’s views on pre-war sloops, p. 152
27. Older sloops fitted with Hedgehog by October 1945: Stork, Fleetwood, Aberdeen, Deptford, Lowestoft, Wellington, Leith, Fowey, Folkestone, Scarborough, Hindustan (ADM 239/75)
28. Hague, Sloops
29. Eberhard Rössler, The U-boat, London, 1981
Chapter 2
1. Arnold Hague, The Allied Convoy System 1939–45, London, 2000
2. Geoffrey Carter, ‘She is not what she pretends to be – the Special Service Squadron’, Warship World (9/12)
3. G A Rotherham, It’s Really Quite Safe, Belleville, Canada, 1960; Rotherham says (p. 123) that she was hit by one torpedo but other sources suggest two
4. John Terraine, Business in Great Waters, London, 1989, p. 247
5. John Campbell, Naval Weapons of World War Two, London, 1985
6. J S Cowie, Mines, Minelayers and Minelaying, Oxford, 1949
7. Even after lengthy repairs, Belfast’s keel is still bent
8. Willem Hackmann, Seek and Strike, Basingstoke, 1994
9. PRO ADM 229/20
10. PRO ADM 229/20
11. Adapted from a table in PRO ADM 229/20
12. Goodall diaries, 25 March 1939
13. She was requisitioned in August 1939
14. J H Harland, Catchers and Corvettes, Rotherfield, 1992
15. A W Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1947)
16. H T Lenton, British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, London, 1998
17. Thomas G Lynch, Canada’s Flowers, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1981
18. Goodall diaries, summary entry, 1940
19. Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’
20. John English, Amazon to Ivanhoe, World Ship Society, 1993
21. Vice Adm H G Bowen, USN, Ships, Machinery and Mossbacks, Princeton, 1934, appendix 17
22. D K Brown, ‘Stability of RN Destroyers during World War II’, Warship Technology (10), Royal Institution of Naval Architects
23. Hackmann, Seek and Strike
Chapter 3
1. Jean Kessler, ‘U Boat Bases in the Bay of Biscay’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
2. Derek Howse, Radar at Sea, Basingstoke, 1993
3. Jürgen Rohwer, ‘The Wireless War’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
4. Arnold Hague, Convoy Rescue Ships, World Ship Society, 1998
5. Richard Baker, The Terror of Tobermory, London, 1972
6. The figures for horsepower and speed are suspect. Group D, with much less power, cannot be so much faster than the others. Admiralty confidential reference book CB 1815 for October 1945 gives these figures for Leeds but the others are 24,000–25,000shp for thirty-five knots. I suspect these were as-built figures and the lower speeds quoted in table 3.2 for groups A, B and C are the best possible in the war
7. Arnold Hague, The Towns, World Ship Society, 1988. Mainly a set of individual ship histories but with an excellent introduction covering their design features and changes. See p. 10 concerning leaks
8. Cdr A H Cherry, Yankee RN, London, 1951; the personal story of a New York stockbroker who joined the RN and served in HMS Reading (see chapter 11 for steering problems)
9. Willem Hackmann, Seek and Strike, Basingstoke, 1994
10. PRO ADM 225/24
11. D K Brown (ed), The Design and Construction of British Warships 1939–1945, London, 1996
12. Private letter from Mr R F Linsell, formerly Lt Cdr (E) in Gorleston. See D K Brown, Nelson to Vanguard, London, 2006, p. 132
Chapter 4
1. The survival of Kearney was attributed to her unit system of machinery – boiler/engine/boiler/engine – and was an important factor in the adoption of this system in the RN. See D K Brown, Nelson to Vanguard, London, 2006
2. U-110’s commanding officer was Lempe, who sank the Athenia
3. John Terraine, in his book Business in Great Waters (London, 1989), refers to this period of the battle as ‘False Dawn’, contrasting with my ‘Gleam of Light’. I consider that developments in radar, asdic, numbers and training of ships, together with increasing US support, justify my interpretation despite the dreadful losses of 1942
4. Derek Howse, Radar at Sea, Basingstoke, 1993
5. A waveguide is a device to guide electromagnetic waves along a defined path with the minimum of energy loss
6. W H Smith, Old Trafford
7. Donald Macintyre, U-Boat Killer, London, 1956
8. P G Redgment, ‘High Frequency Direction Finding in the RN’, Journal of Naval Science (8/1)
9. Arnold Hague, Convoy Rescue Ships, World Ship Society, 1998, pp. 11 and 18; see also Jürgen Rohwer, The Critical Convoy Battles of March 1943, London, 1977, p.19
10. Howse, Radar at Sea
11. Rohwer, Critical Convoy Battles
12. Rohwer, Critical Convoy Battles, photos opposite p. 193
13. PRO ADM 225/24
14. Deveron, Mourne and Tweedie
15. A W Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1946)
Chapter 5
1. The Type X U-boat was designed as a minelayer: 1,763 tons surface; endurance 18,450 miles at 10 knots
2. Rowland Baker in a personal letter to the author; original in National Maritime Museum RCNC file
3. Goodall diaries
4. Arnold Hague, Sloops 1926–1946, World Ship Society, 1993
5. PRO ADM 234/76 in CB 1815 gives the following as fitted with Hedgehog by October 1945: Black Swan, Erne, Sutlej, Flamingo and Stork
6. Admiralty confidential reference book CB 1815 gives none by April 1944 and the following by October 1945: Amethyst, Hart, Magpie and Pheasant
7. D E G Wemyss, Relentless Pursuit, London, 1955
Chapter 6
1. Much of this chapter depends heavily on: Peter Gretton, Crisis Convoy, London, 1974; Jürgen Rohwer, The Critical Convoy Battles of March 1943, London, 1977; Jürgen Rohwer and G Hummelchen, Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945, London, 1992; S W Roskill, The War at Sea, vol II, London, 1956
2. Pink, Alisma, Snowflake and Loosestrife
3. Inglefield, Eclipse, Fury and Icarus (one hour later). Fury’s asdic dome had been lost in bad weather. Icarus lost hers later
4. On the first run, the charges failed to drop. Manoeuvring the big aircraft under low cloud was difficult.
5. Offa, Obedient, Orwell and Onslaught joined Oribi
6. David K Brown, ‘Stability of RN Destroyers during World War II’, Warship Technology (4/1989), Royal Institution of Naval Architects
7. ‘Canso’ was the nickname for the Canadian-built version of the famous American Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat
8. David K Brown and Phillip Pugh, ‘Ramming’, Warship (1990)
9. ‘Deadlight’ was the British operation to dispose of surrendered U-boats after the war, by scuttling or otherwise sinking them. See David Miller, ‘Operation Deadlight’, Warship 1997–8
10. Peter Hodges, Royal Navy Warship Camouflage, London, 1973; David Williams. Naval Camouflage 1914–1945, London, 2001
11. CAFO 679
12. Norman Friedman, U S Destroyers, Annapolis, 1982
13. Bruce Franklin, The Buckley Class Destroyer Escorts, Annapolis, 1999
14. Peter Elliott, American Destroyer Escorts of World War 2, London, 1974
15. C E Preston, Power for the Fleet, Eton, 1982
16. D K Brown, ‘Atlantic Escorts 1939–1945’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
17. D J Collingwood, ‘WW II Anti-Submarine Vessels’, Warship World (summer 1997), Liskeard
18. Capt Donald Macintyre, U-Boat Killer, London, 1956
19. R E Johnson, ‘The Tacoma Class Frigates of World War II’, Warship International (2/82)
20. Nicholas Monsarrat, HM Frigate, London, 1946
21. Johnson, ‘Tacoma Class Frigates’
22. Monsarrat, HM Frigate
Chapter 7
1. St Croix, Polyanthus and Itchen sunk; Lagan damaged.
2. John F White, U-Boat Tankers 1941–1945, Shrewsbury, 1998
3. Eberhard Rössler, The U-Boat, London, 1981
4. Rössler, The U-Boat
5. John Campbell, Naval Weapons of World War Two, London, 1985
6. Willem Hackmann, Seek and Strike, Basingstoke, 1994, p. 271
7. Goodall diaries
8. Bob Whinney, The U-Boat Peril, London, 1986
9. ‘Watson is a really good man’ (Goodall diary, 18 June 1940)
10. Loch class cover, note by Goodall, 30 October 1942. (The cover was a record of the design and construction of each class of ship. These invaluable documents are now held by the National Maritime Museum.)
11. Goodall diaries, 7 May 1943
12. Goodall diaries, 23 February 1944
13. A W Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1947)
14. Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’; discussion by Adams, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1947)
15. Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, discussion by C J W Hopkins, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1947), p. 179
16. Here and in the next paragraph, the numerous references to the Goodall diaries are identified by the date in the main text
17. D A Rayner, Escort, London, 1955; note also his description of the sinking of U-1200 by Launceston Castle with one salvo from her Squid (p. 226)
Chapter 8
1. The Mk 7 ‘Heavy’ added to this problem.
2. Paint is surprisingly heavy; forty-five tons was removed from the outside of a Leander after ten years in sevice
3. For example, Peter Gretton, Convoy Escort Commander, London, 1964. Gretton commanded HMS Duncan
4. D K Brown, ‘Stability of RN Destroyers during World War II’, Warship Technology (10), Royal Institution of Naval Architects
5. Letter from Sir Peter Gretton
6. Goodall diaries, 22 June 1941
7. D K Brown and P D Marshall, ‘Small Warships in the RN and the Fishery Protection Task’, RINA Warship Symposium, London, 1978
8. D K Brown, ‘Atlantic Escorts 1939–45’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
9. This author would claim to be just about average in susceptibility
10. After the war, with more emphasis on speed in rough seas, the guideline became 1.3 x √(length)
11. A W Watson, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1947), London; ‘They would roll on wet grass’ (Monsarrat)
12. Unreferenced quotations are from the ship’s cover, held in the National Maritime Museum
13. K Monk, ‘A Warship Roll Criterion’, Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (1987), London
14. James B Lamb, The Corvette Navy, London, 1979
15. J P W Mallalieu, Very Ordinary Seaman, London, 1944; Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea, London, 1951
16. Report of the Talbot Committee
17. D K Brown, ‘Atlantic Escorts 1939–45’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
Chapter 9
1. Goodall diaries, 2 June 1942
2. Ian L Buxton, Warship Building and Repair During the Second World War, Centre for Business History in Scotland, Glasgow, 1997
3. Ian L Buxton, ‘British Warship Building and Repair’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
4. Matt McCarton, Emergency Production Historical Study, NAVSEA 05D-134-dtd. Nov 19, 2004, Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington DC, per P Sims
5. History of the British Admiralty Technical Mission, National Archives of Canada, RG 28, vol 29, per I L Buxton
6. Cdre (now Rear Adm) James Goldrick, email of 19 March 2005. He also comments that the fictional Australians in Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea are both very closely based on real men and have been identified
Chapter 10
1. G Franklin, Britain’s Anti-Submarine Capability 1919–1939, London, 2003
2. Realistic convoy exercises are very expensive as they involve chartering merchant ships
3. G C Peden, British Rearmament and the Treasury, Edinburgh, 1979
4. Franklin, Britain’s Anti-Submarine Capability
5. D K Brown, ‘Atlantic Escorts 1939–1945’, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994
6. D J Collingwood, ‘WW II Anti-Submarine Vessels’, Warship World (summer 1997), Liskeard
7. The 2nd Escort Group destroyed twenty-three U-boats, of which nineteen were sunk by Black Swans
Postscript
1. Eberhard Rössler, The U-Boat, London, 1981
2. Rössler, The U-Boat
3. J F Starks, ‘German U-Boat Design and Production’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1948), London
Appendix I
1. David K Brown, ‘The Technology of Submarine Design’, Interdisciplinary Sciences Reviews (September 1990, vol 15/3)
2. David K Brown, ‘Submarine Pressure Hull Design and Diving Depth between the Wars’, Warship International (3/87), p. 279
3. Goodall diaries
4. Personal letter from Eberhard Rössler, September 1993
Appendix II
1. Edgar J March, British Destroyers, London, 1966
Appendix III
1. E Lacroix and L Wells, Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War, London, 1997, p. 719
2. Amiraglio di Squadra G Politri and D K Brown, ‘The Loss of the Destroyer Lanciere’, Warship (1994)
3. P Kemp, Convoy, London, 1993, p. 114
4. D K Brown, ‘The Great Pacific Typhoon’, The Naval Architect (September 1985); Capt C R Calhoun, Typhoon: the Other Enemy, Annapolis, 1981; T H Sarchin and L L Goldberg, ‘Stability and Buoyancy Criteria for US Navy Surface Ships’, Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1962)
Bibliography
The books listed below are all from my personal library.
General History
Franklin, G, Britain’s Anti-Submarine Capability 1919–1939, London, 2003. Review of tactics, training and, above all, exercises between the wars. Upsets many long-held ideas. See also the article by the same author, ‘Asdic’s capabilities in the 1930s’, Mariner’s Mirror (84)
Gretton, P, Crisis Convoy, London, 1974
Howarth, S and Law, D (ed), The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945, London, 1994, Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Conference (I was chairman of the organising committee). A much-neglected but excellent source, with papers on a wide range of topics by the relevant specialists
Macintyre, Donald, The Battle of the Atlantic, London, 1961
Rohwer, J and Hummelchen, G, Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945, London, 1992; excellent detail source
Rohwer, J, The Critical Convoy Battles of March 1943, London, 1977
Roskill, S W, The War at Sea, 4 vols, London, 1954–61; the official history – good but written before the Enigma story was released (though Roskill was aware of it)
Showell, Jak P M, U Boat Command and the Battle of the Atlantic, London, 1989
Tarrant, V E, The U-Boat Offensive 1914–1945, London, 1989; an excellent history of the two world wars. I have followed his chronological breakdown
Terraine, John, Business in Great Waters, London, 1989; another fine book, particularly good on the air side
Weapon Systems
Hackmann, W, Seek and Strike, London, 1984; almost the only work dealing with A/S weapon systems. Very comprehensive.
Hezlet, Arthur, The Electron and Sea Power, London, 1975
Howse, Derek, Radar at Sea, Basingstoke, 1993; the story of the development of radar in the Royal Navy, written on behalf of the Naval Radar Trust.
Ships – General
Brown, D K (ed), The Design and Construction of British Warships 1939–1945, London, 1996; the DNC official history
Buxton, Ian, Big Gun Monitors, London, 1978
Elliott, Peter, Allied Escort Ships of World War II, London, 1977
Elliott, Peter, Destroyer Escorts of World War 2, New Malden, 1974
Hague, Arnold, Convoy Rescue Ships 1940–1945, World Ship Society, Gravesend, 1998; almost the only book on a little-known subject
Hague, Arnold, Sloops 1926–1946, World Ship Society, Kendal, 1993
Lenton, H T, British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, London, 1998; the most comprehensive listing
Rössler, Eberhard, The U-Boat, London, 1981
Watson, A W, ‘Corvettes and Frigates’, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, vol 89, London, 1947; text follows DNC above but discussion is most important
White, John F, U-Boat Tankers 1941–1945, Shrewsbury, 1998
Ships by Class
Dickens, Peter, HMS Hesperus, Windsor, 1922
English, John, Amazon to Ivanhoe, World Ship Society, Kendal, 1993
Hague, Arnold, The Towns, World Ship Society, Kendal, 1988
Lavery, Brian, River Class Frigates and the Battle of the Atlantic, Greenwich, 2006; as well as addressing the River class, provides material on general topics such as training and messing
Lynch, Thomas G, Canada’s Flowers, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1982
Preston, Anthony and Raven, Alan, Flower Class Corvettes, London, 1973
Preston, Anthony, V & W Class Destroyers 1917–1945. London, 1971
Raven, A and Roberts, J, V & W Class Destroyers, Man o’ War, London, 1971. This and Anthony Preston’s are both excellent books. The different approaches make them complementary rather than rivals
Some Miscellaneous Topics
Buxton, Ian, Warship Building and Repair during the Second World War, Glasgow, 1997
Collingwood, D J, ‘WWII Anti-Submarine Vessels’, Warship World (summer 1997); statistics of sinkings by class.
Hague, Arnold, The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945, London, 2000; vital to an understanding of the battle.
Hodges, Peter, Royal Navy Warship Camouflage, London, 1973
Kent, Barrie, Signal!, Clanfield, 1993
McCarton, M and Garzke, W, Emergency Production Historical Study, Washington, 2004
Moore, George, Building for Victory, World Ship Society, Gravesend
Williams, David, Naval Camouflage 1914–1945, London, 2001
Winton, John, Ultra at Sea, London, 1988
Personal Accounts, Mainly Autobiographies
Chalmers, W S, Max Horton and the Western Approaches, London, 1954
Cherry, A H, Yankee RN, London, 1951
Gretton, Peter, Convoy Escort Commander, London, 1964
Lamb, James B, The Corvette Navy, London, 1979; Canada’s Flowers
Macintyre, Donald, U-Boat Killer, London, 1956
Monsarrat, Nicholas, HM Corvette and HM Frigate, London, 1942, 1946. Also The Cruel Sea; though fiction, it is closely based on fact and is the best account of life at sea in the battle
Rayner, D A, Escort, London, 1955
Wemyss, D E G, Relentless Pursuit, London, 1955; the story of Capt Johnny Walker
Whinney, Bob, The U Boat Peril, 1986