7
Conference with Admiral Darlan — The Anglo-French Naval Position — M. Campinchi — The Northern Barrage — The Magnetic Mine — A Devoted Deed — Technical Aspects — Mine-Sweeping Methods (Appendix) — “Degaussing” (Appendix) — The Magnetic Mining Attack Mastered and under Control — Retaliation — Fluvial Mines in the Rhine — “Operation Royal Marine.”
IN THE FIRST DAYS OF NOVEMBER, I paid a visit to France for a conference on our joint operations with the French naval authorities. Admiral Pound and I drove out about forty miles from Paris to the French Marine Headquarters, which were established in the park around the ancient château of the Duc de Noailles. Before we went into the conference, Admiral Darlan explained to me how Admiralty matters were managed in France. The Minister of Marine, M. Campinchi, was not allowed by him to be present when operational matters were under discussion. These fell in the purely professional sphere. I said that the First Sea Lord and I were one. Darlan said he recognised this, but in France it was different. “However,” he said, “Monsieur le Ministre will arrive for luncheon.” We then ranged over naval business for two hours with a great measure of agreement. At luncheon M. Campinchi turned up. He knew his place, and now presided affably over the meal. My son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, who was acting as my Aide, sat next to Darlan. The Admiral spent most of luncheon explaining to him the limits to which the civilian Minister was restricted by the French system. Before leaving, I called on the Duke in his château. He and his family seemed plunged in melancholy, but showed us their very beautiful house and its art treasures.
In the evening I gave a small dinner in a private room at the Ritz to M. Campinchi. I formed a high opinion of this man. His patriotism, his ardour, his acute intelligence, and above all his resolve to conquer or die, bit home. I could not help mentally comparing him to the Admiral, who, jealous of his position, was fighting on quite a different front from ours. Pound’s valuation was the same as mine, although we both realised all that Darlan had done for the French Navy. One must not underrate Darlan, nor fail to understand the impulse that moved him. He deemed himself the French Navy, and the French Navy acclaimed him their chief and their reviver. For seven years he had held his office while shifting Ministerial phantoms had filled the office of Minister of Marine. It was his obsession to keep the politicians in their place as chatterboxes in the Chamber. Pound and I got on very well with Campinchi. This tough Corsican never flinched or failed. When he died, broken and under the scowl of Vichy, towards the beginning of 1941, his last words were of hope in me. I shall always deem them an honour.
Here is the statement summing up our naval position at this moment, which I made at the conference:
Statement to the French Admiralty by the First Lord
The naval war alone has opened at full intensity. The U-boat attack on commerce, so nearly fatal in 1917, has been controlled by the Anglo-French anti-submarine craft. We must expect a large increase in German U-boats (and possibly some will be lent to them by Russia). This need cause no anxiety, provided that all our counter-measures are taken at full speed and on the largest scale. The Admiralty representatives will explain in detail our large programmes. But the full development of these will not come till late in 1940. In the meanwhile, it is indispensable that every antisubmarine craft available should be finished and put in commission.
2. There is no doubt that our Asdic method is effective, and far better than anything known in the last war. It enables two torpedo-boats to do what required ten in 1917/18. But this applies only to hunting. For convoys, numbers are still essential. One is only safe when escorted by vessels fitted with Asdics. This applies to warships equally with merchant convoys. The defeat of the U-boat will be achieved when it is certain that any attack on French or British vessels will be followed by an Asdic counter-attack.
The British Admiralty is prepared to supply and fit every French anti-submarine craft with Asdics. The cost is small, and accounts can be regulated later on. But any French vessels sent to England for fitting will be immediately taken in hand; and also we will arrange for the imparting of the method and for training to be given in each case. It would be most convenient to do this at Portland, the home of the Asdics, where all facilities are available. We contemplate making provision for equipping fifty French vessels if desired.
3. But we earnestly hope that the French Marine will multiply their Asdic vessels, and will complete with the utmost rapidity all that can enter into action during 1940. After this is arranged for, it will be possible six months hence to consider 1941. For the present let us aim at 1940, and especially at the spring and summer. The six large destroyers laid down in 1936 and 1937 will be urgently needed for ocean convoys before the climax of the U-boat warfare is reached in 1940. There are also fourteen small destroyers laid down in 1939, or now projected, which will play an invaluable part without making any great drain on labour and materials. Total – twenty vessels – which could be completed during 1940, and which, fitted with Asdics by us, would be weapons of high consequence in the destruction of the U-boat offensive of 1940. We also venture to mention as most desirable vessels the six sloop minesweepers laid down in 1936, and twelve laid down in 1937, and also the sixteen submarine-chasers of the programme of 1938. For all these we offer Asdics and every facility. We will fit them as they are ready, as if it were a field operation. We cannot, however, consider these smaller vessels in the same order of importance as the large and small destroyers mentioned above.
4. It must not be forgotten that defeat of the U-boats carries with it the sovereignty of all the oceans of the world for the Allied Fleets, and the possibility of powerful neutrals coming to our aid, as well as the drawing of resources from every part of the French and British Empires, and the maintenance of trade, gathering with it the necessary wealth to continue the war.
5. At the British Admiralty we have drawn a sharp line between large vessels which can be finished in 1940 and those of later periods. In particular, we are straining every nerve to finish the King George V and the Prince of Wales battleships within that year, if possible by the autumn. This is necessary because the arrival of the Bismarck on the oceans before these two ships were completed would be disastrous in the highest degree, as it can neither be caught nor killed, and would therefore range freely throughout the oceans, rupturing all communications. But France has also a vessel of the highest importance in the Richelieu, which might be ready in the autumn of 1940 or even earlier, and will certainly be needed if the two new Italian ships should be finished by the dates in 1940 at which they profess to aim. Not to have these three capital ships in action before the end of 1940 would be an error in naval strategy of the gravest character, and might entail not only naval but diplomatic consequences extremely disagreeable. It is hoped, therefore, that every effort will be made to complete the Richelieu at the earliest possible date.
With regard to later capital ships of the British and French Navies, it would be well to discuss these in April or May next year, when we shall see much more clearly the course and character of the war.
6. The British Admiralty now express their gratitude to their French colleagues and comrades for the very remarkable assistance which they have given to the common cause since the beginning of this war. This assistance has gone far beyond any promises or engagements made before the war. In escorting home the convoys from Sierra Leone, the French cruisers and destroyers have played a part which could not otherwise have been supplied, and which, if not forthcoming, would simply have meant more slaughter of Allied merchantmen. The cruisers and contre-torpilleurs which, with the Dunkerque, have covered the arrival of convoys in the western approaches, were at the time the only means by which the German raiders could be warded off. The maintenance of the French submarines in the neighbourhood of Trinidad has been a most acceptable service. Above all, the two destroyers which constantly escort the homeward- and outward-bound convoys between Gibraltar and Brest are an important relief to our resources, which, though large and ever-growing, are at full strain.
Finally, we are extremely obliged by the facilities given to the Argus aircraft carrier to carry out her training of British naval aircraft pilots under the favourable conditions of Mediterranean weather.
7. Surveying the more general aspects of the war: the fact that the enemy have no line of battle has enabled us to disperse our naval forces widely over the oceans, and we have seven or eight British hunting units joined by two French hunting units, each capable of catching and killing a Deutschland. We are now cruising in the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans. The result has been that the raiders have not chosen to inflict the losses upon the convoys which before the war it had been supposed they could certainly do. The fact that certainly one, and perhaps two, Deutschlands have been upon the main Atlantic trade routes for several weeks, without achieving anything, makes us feel easier about this form of attack, which had formerly been rated extremely dangerous. We cannot possibly exclude its renewal in a more energetic form. The British Admiralty think it is not at all objectionable to keep large vessels in suitable units ranging widely over the oceans where they are safe from air attack, and make effective and apparent the control of the broad waters for the Allies.
8. We shall shortly be engaged in bringing the leading elements of the Canadian and Australian armies to France, and for this purpose a widespread disposition of all our hunting groups is convenient. It will also be necessary to give battleship escorts to many of the largest convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We intend to maintain continually the northern blockade from Greenland to Scotland, in spite of the severities of the winter. Upon this blockade, twenty-five armed merchant cruisers will be employed in reliefs, supported by four eight-inch-gun 10,000-ton cruisers, and behind these we always maintain the main fighting forces of the British Navy, to wit, the latest battleships, and either the Hood or another great vessel, the whole sufficient to engage or pursue the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau should they attempt to break out. We do not think it likely in view of the situation in the Baltic that these two vessels will be so employed. Nevertheless, we maintain continually the forces necessary to cope with them.
It is hoped that by a continuance of this strategy by the two Allied Navies, no temptation will be offered to Italy to enter the war against us, and that the German power of resistance will certainly be brought to an end.
The French Admiralty in their reply explained that they were in fact proceeding with the completion of the vessels specified, and that they gladly accepted our Asdic offer. Not only would the Richelieu be finished in the summer of 1940, but also in the autumn the Jean Bart.
* * * * *
In mid-November, Admiral Pound presented me with proposals for re-creating the minefield barrage between Scotland and Norway which had been established by the British and American Admiralties in 1917/18. I did not like this kind of warfare, which is essentially defensive, and seeks to substitute material on a vast scale for dominating action. However, I was gradually worn down and reconciled. I submitted the project to the War Cabinet on November 19.
The Northern Barrage
Memorandum by the First Lord of the Admiralty
After much consideration I commend this project to my colleagues. There is no doubt that, as it is completed, it will impose a very great deterrent upon the exits and returns of U-boats and surface raiders. It appears to be a prudent provision against an intensification of the U-boat warfare, and an insurance against the danger of Russia joining our enemy. By this we coop the lot in, and have complete control of all approaches alike to the Baltic and the North Sea. The essence of this offensive minefield is that the enemy will be prevented by the constant vigilance of superior naval force from sweeping channels through it. When it is in existence we shall feel much freer in the outer seas than at present. Its gradual but remorseless growth, which will be known to the enemy, will exercise a depressive effect upon his morale. The cost is deplorably heavy, but a large provision has already been made by the Treasury, and the northern barrage is far the best method of employing this means of war [i.e., mining].
This represented the highest professional advice, and of course is just the kind of thing that passes easily through a grave, wise Cabinet. Events swept it away; but not until a great deal of money had been spent. The barrage mines came in handy later on for other tasks.
* * * * *
Presently a new and formidable danger threatened our life. During September and October, nearly a dozen merchant ships were sunk at the entrance of our harbours, although these had been properly swept for mines. The Admiralty at once suspected that a magnetic mine had been used. This was no novelty to us; we had even begun to use it on a small scale at the end of the previous war. In 1936, an Admiralty Committee had studied counter-measures against magnetic-firing devices, but their work had dealt chiefly with countering magnetic torpedoes or buoyant mines, and the terrible damage that could be done by large ground-mines laid in considerable depth by ships or aircraft had not been fully realised. Without a specimen of the mine, it was impossible to devise the remedy. Losses by mines, largely Allied and neutral, in September and October had amounted to fifty-six thousand tons, and in November Hitler was encouraged to hint darkly at his new “secret weapon” to which there was no counter. One night when I was at Chartwell, Admiral Pound came down to see me in serious anxiety. Six ships had been sunk in the approaches to the Thames. Every day hundreds of ships went in and out of British harbours, and our survival depended on their movement. Hitler’s experts may well have told him that this form of attack would compass our ruin. Luckily he began on a small scale, and with limited stocks and manufacturing capacity.
Fortune also favoured us more directly. On November 22 between 9 and 10 P.M., a German aircraft was observed to drop a large object attached to a parachute into the sea near Shoeburyness. The coast here is girdled with great areas of mud which uncover with the tide, and it was immediately obvious that whatever the object was it could be examined and possibly recovered at low water. Here was our golden opportunity. Before midnight that same night two highly skilled officers, Lieutenant-Commanders Ouvry and Lewis from H.M.S. Vernon, the naval establishment responsible for developing underwater weapons, were called to the Admiralty, where the First Sea Lord and I interviewed them and heard their plans. By 1.30 in the morning, they were on their way by car to Southend to undertake the hazardous task of recovery. Before daylight on the twenty-third, in pitch darkness, aided only by a signal lamp, they found the mine some five hundred yards below high-water mark, but as the tide was then rising, they could only inspect it and make their preparations for attacking it after the next high water.
The critical operation began early in the afternoon, by which time it had been discovered that a second mine was also on the mud near the first. Ouvry with Chief Petty Officer Baldwin tackled the first, whilst their colleagues, Lewis and Able Seaman Vearncombe, waited at a safe distance in case of accidents. After each prearranged operation, Ouvry would signal to Lewis, so that the knowledge gained would be available when the second mine came to be dismantled. Eventually the combined efforts of all four men were required on the first, and their skill and devotion were amply rewarded. That evening Ouvry and his party came to the Admiralty to report that the mine had been recovered intact and was on its way to Portsmouth for detailed examination. I received them with enthusiasm. I gathered together eighty or a hundred officers and officials in our largest room, and made Ouvry tell his tale to a thrilled audience, deeply conscious of all that was at stake. From this moment the whole position was transformed. Immediately, the knowledge derived from past research could be applied to devising practical measures for combating the particular characteristics of the mine.
The whole power and science of the Navy were now applied; and it was not long before trial and experiment began to yield practical results. Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker was appointed to co-ordinate all technical measures which the occasion demanded. We worked all ways at once, devising first active means of attacking the mine by new methods of mine-sweeping and fuse-provocation; and secondly, passive means of defence for all ships against possible mines in unswept, or ineffectually swept, channels. For this second purpose a most effective system of demagnetising ships by girdling them with an electric cable was developed. This was called “degaussing,” and was at once applied to ships of all types. Merchant ships were thus equipped in all our major ports without appreciably delaying their turn-round; in the Fleet progress was simplified by the presence of the highly trained technical staffs of the Royal Navy. The reader who does not shrink from technical details will find an account of these developments in Appendix H, Book II.
* * * * *
Serious casualties continued; the new cruiser Belfast was mined in the Firth of Forth on November 21, and on December 4, the battleship Nelson was mined whilst entering Loch Ewe. Both ships were, however, able to reach a dockyard port. Two destroyers were lost, and two others, besides the minelayer Adventure, were damaged on the east coast during this period. It is remarkable that German Intelligence failed to pierce our security measures covering the injury to the Nelson until the ship had been repaired and was again in service. Yet from the first many thousands in England had to know the true facts.
Experience soon gave us new and simpler methods of degaussing. The moral effect of its success was tremendous, but it was on the faithful, courageous, and persistent work of the minesweepers and the patient skill of the technical experts, who devised and provided the equipment they used, that we relied chiefly to defeat the enemy’s efforts. From this time onward, despite many anxious periods, the mine menace was always under control and eventually the danger began to recede. By Christmas Day I was able to write to the Prime Minister:
December 25, 1939.
Everything is very quiet here, but I thought you would like to know that we have had a marked success against the magnetic mines. The first two devices for setting them off which we have got into action have both proved effective. Two mines were blown up by the magnetic sweep and two by lighters carrying heavy coils. This occurred at Port A [Loch Ewe], where our interesting invalid [the Nelson] is still waiting for a clear passage to be swept for her to the convalescent home at Portsmouth. It also looks as if the demagnetisation of warships and merchant ships can be accomplished by a simple, speedy, and inexpensive process. All our best devices are now approaching [completion]. The aeroplanes and the magnetic ship – the Borde – will be at work within the next ten days, and we all feel pretty sure that the danger from magnetic mines will soon be out of the way.
We are also studying the possible varying of this form of attack, viz., acoustic mines and supersonic mines. Thirty ardent experts are pursuing these possibilities, but I am not yet able to say that they have found a cure….
It is well to ponder this side of the naval war. In the event a significant proportion of our whole war effort had to be devoted to combating the mine. A vast output of material and money was diverted from other tasks, and many thousand men risked their lives night and day in the minesweepers alone. The peak figure was reached in June, 1944, when nearly sixty thousand were thus employed. Nothing daunted the ardour of the merchant navy; and their spirits rose with the deadly complications of the mining attack and our effective measures for countering it. Their toils and tireless courage were our salvation. The sea traffic on which we depended for our existence proceeded without interruption.
* * * * *
The first impact of the magnetic mine had stirred me deeply, and apart from all the protective measures which had been enforced upon us, I sought for a means of retaliation. My visit to the Rhine on the eve of the war had focused my mental vision upon this supreme and vital German artery. Even in September, I had raised discussion at the Admiralty about the launching or dropping of fluvial mines in the Rhine. Considering that this river was used by the traffic of many neutral nations, we could not, of course, take action unless and until the Germans had taken the initiative in this form of indiscriminate warfare against us. Now that they had done so, it seemed to me that the proper retort for indiscriminate sinkings by mines at the mouths of the British harbours was a similar and if possible more effective mining attack upon the Rhine.
Accordingly, on November 17, I issued several minutes of which the following gives the most precise account of the plan:
Controller [and others].
1. As a measure of retaliation it may become necessary to feed large numbers of floating mines into the Rhine. This can easily be done at any point between Strasbourg and the Lauter, where the left bank is French territory. General Gamelin was much interested in this idea, and asked me to work it out for him.
2. Let us clearly see the object in view. The Rhine is traversed by an enormous number of very large barges, and is the main artery of German trade and life. These barges, built only for river work, have riot got double keels or any large subdivision by bulkheads. It is easy to check these details. In addition there are at least twelve bridges of boats recently thrown across the Rhine upon which the German armies concentrated in the Saarbrueck-Luxemburg area depend.
3. The type of mine required is, therefore, a small one, perhaps no bigger than a football. The current of the river is at most about seven miles an hour, and three or four at ordinary times, but it is quite easy to verify this. There must, therefore, be a clockwork apparatus in the mine which makes it dangerous only after it has gone a certain distance, so as to be clear of French territory and also so as to spread the terror farther down the Rhine to its confluence with the Moselle and beyond. The mine should automatically sink, or preferably explode, by this apparatus before reaching Dutch territory. After the mine has proceeded the required distance, which can be varied, it should explode on a light contact. It would be a convenience if, in addition to the above, the mine could go off if stranded after a certain amount of time, as it might easily spread alarm on either of the German banks.
4. It would be necessary in addition that the mine should float a convenient distance beneath the surface so as to be invisible in the turgid waters. A hydrostatic valve actuated by a small cylinder of compressed air should be devised. I have not made the calculations, but I should suppose forty-eight hours would be the maximum for which it would have to work. An alternative would be to throw very large numbers of camouflage globes – tin shells – into the river, which would spread confusion and exhaust remedial activities.
5. What can they do against this? Obviously nets would be put across; but wreckage passing down the river would break these nets, and except at the frontier, they would be a great inconvenience to the traffic. Anyhow, when our mine fetched up against them, it would explode, breaking a large hole in the nets, and after a dozen or more of these explosions the channel would become free again, and other mines would jog along. Specially large mines might be used to break the nets. I cannot think of any other method of defence, but perhaps some may occur to the officers entrusted with this study.
6. Finally, as very large numbers of these mines would be used and the process kept up night after night for months on end, so as to deny the use of the waterway, it is necessary to bear in mind the simplification required for mass production.
The War Cabinet liked this plan. It seemed to them only right and proper that when the Germans were using the magnetic mine to waylay and destroy all traffic, Allied or neutral, entering British ports, we should strike back by paralysing, as we might well do, the whole of their vast traffic on the Rhine. The necessary permissions and priorities were obtained, and work started at full speed. In conjunction with the Air Ministry we developed a plan for mining the Ruhr section of the Rhine by discharge from airplanes. I entrusted all this work to Rear-Admiral FitzGerald, serving under the Fifth Sea Lord. This brilliant officer, who perished later in command of an Atlantic convoy, made an immense personal contribution. The technical problems were solved. A good supply of mines was assured, and several hundred ardent British sailors and marines were organised to handle them when the time should come. All this was in November, and we could not be ready before March. It is always agreeable in peace or war to have something positive coming along on your side.