48 NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2009
Command of Command of Consort
the coast overture
WATCH any documentary of
THIS month marks the 60th
the Battle of Britain and there’s a
anniversary of the beginning of
pretty good chance you’ll hear the
the ‘Yangzte incident’. The deeds
voice of one Charles Gardner.
of HMS Amethyst and her rat-
Gardner was a sports reporter
killing cat Simon have entered
– it perhaps explains his rather
RN history (and folklore – the
excited and slightly insensitive
feline even has his own entry
tone – sent by the Beeb to report
on the internet encyclopaedia
on a clash between the RAF and
Wikipedia).
Luftwaffe off Dover one July day
There is no such entry for
in 1940.
HMS Consort. She was the ship
And he did. “Oh boy, I’ve
relieved by Amethyst on the river
never seen anything so good as
which gave the incident its name
this – the RAF fi ghters have really
– and her role in the 1949 has
got these boys taped.”
largely been ignored, much to the
Gardner also proclaimed that a
chagrin of many veterans.
convoy – the Luftwaffe’s target –
Understandably, for Consort
had not been hit.
was in the thick of the fight as
In fact, CW6 suffered one
Paul Morrison’s outlines in Loyal ● The stern of HMS Thetis sticks out of Liverpool Bay during desperate attempts to save her crew Picture: RN Submarine Museum
ship sunk and two damaged – a
and Steadfast: The Story of
fairly typical rate of attrition as
HMS Consort (HMS Consort
Nick Hewitt shows in Coastal
Association, £10).
Convoys: The Indestructible
Like Amethyst, Consort
Highway (Pen & Sword, £19.99
was subjected to barrages
ISBN 978-1-84415-8164), a
from Communist Chinese
much-needed plug in a gap of
We went unseen – shoreside batteries. Boy Seaman
WW2 naval history.
Terry Hodgins watched as the
Coastal Convoys is overfl owing
spouts of water from Chinese
with fi rst-hand accounts of this
shells moved ever closer to the
long-neglected campaign, almost
destroyer. Projectiles started
all of them from archives rather
to whine over his head and
than previously-printed works.
there was the distinct sound of
Ships in coastal waters moved
but not forgotten bullets ricocheting off Consort’s
everything – coal to London’s
superstructure.
power stations, the landing
“On every run I made between
craft and segments of Mulberry
AS TOMMY Catlow approached the
air that the crew were sacrifi ced to save the Volume two turns its attention to waters the turret and the shell locker, I
Harbour for the Normandy
gangway of HMS Thetis on his way
integrity of the submarine. from Sussex to the Isles of Scilly. It is no less had the distinct feeling of being
invasion – and yet their
to observe the submarine diving
Thetis Down will complement the standard thorough or impressive. completely at the mercy of our
contribution to victory “slipped
reference work on the disaster The Admiralty There are more than three-score boats on Chinese friends, who could be
through the net of History”
trials his Commanding Offi cer, Regrets by C E T Warren and James Benson the seabed in these seas – mostly U-boats, but clearly seen on the river bank,” he
lamented Telegraphist Jack
Conway Lloyd, who was standing
published by Harrap in 1958. many famous RN names too, notably the ill- recalled.
Yeatman of the RN Patrol Service
on the fore casing shouted to him:
Both co-authors had been submariners fated M-class. Consort was hit and sailors
trawler Pearl.
“I think there are too many people
and were writing less than 20 years after the The loss of M1 (1925) – equipped with a were killed or wounded. Among
In all, more than 1,400 ships
accident happened but with little offi cial help 12in gun – and seaplane-carrying M2 (1932) the latter was stoker Tom
were lost in UK coastal waters
on board this submarine, go and although they did have access to some of the are dealt with in depth. Flanagan, who was carried to the
(there were in excess of 130,000
play golf.”
people directly involved. In both cases, it was the boat’s principal wardroom – “awash with blood”
voyages made between 1939 and
With these few words Tommy was spared
Booth approaches the subject with more armament which was their downfall. (M1’s gun – after a shell smashed his legs.
1945). Dover was hellfi re corner.
the catastrophe that was to engulf the boat and
scholarly objectivity but I did fi nd his was wrenched from its fixings; M2 sank with “When Surg Lt Bentley arrived
One in every fi ve convoys passing
claim the lives of 99 men.
description of the men’s fi nal death throes to her hangar doors open.) And in both cases, the he explained that he would have
through the strait was attacked
When Tommy returned to Cammell Laird’s
be quite harrowing. boats sank with all hands. to amputate immediately to
(although the huge German
shipyard he was given the task of telling the
In previous works this aspect of the disaster The list of all who died in both boats are give me any chance of survival,
coastal guns in northern France
assembled families that there was no hope
has been glossed over. It is diffi cult to take listed in this excellent book. even though all of his drugs and
did more damage to Dover than
of rescuing their loved ones. His prepared His prepared His prepared
issue because this appearississueue becbecaause s to have been But the authors do not stop there: they also medical instruments had been
they ever did to shipping).
statement was received in stunned silence.ned silence.
wriitten in an eartten inn nest way and not just list those killed and wounded on merchantmen blown to bits earlier,” the stoker
As the war progressed,
He was then witness to “the most pitiful most pitiful
for the shock effect.forr the by the various U-boats before they joined their recalled.
the coastal convoy’s chief foe
and heart-rending scenes of wholesale whholesale
The author has evidently T prey at the bottom. Tom Flanagan doesn’t
switched increasingly from the
grief – screaming, hysterics, faiainting inting
researched his subject wres ell Not every boat had a tragic end. remember what happened next
skies to the seas – German
and every other manifestation of n of
and he has managed to access an There’s the Narwhal, sunk as a sonar training – mercifully. The doctor used a
E-boats and Dönitz’s U-boats.
human hopelessness”.
manma y offi cial records. This target 15 miles off Falmouth. After a quarter of straight razor to cut through the
It was a merciless war from
When I received Tony Booth’s s
makes the book an impormak tant a century she’s in remarkably good nick – and ankle joints and sever the left
fi rst to last. HMS Tintagel Castle
book Thetis Down: The Slow
addition to the caadddit talogue of still covered with the rubbery coating designed foot before bandaging the rating’s
pursued U878 relentlessly on
Death of a Submarine (Pen
Thetis literaTheetis ture and I can highly to baffle sensors. right foot.
April 10 1945 – making as many
& Sword, £19.99 ISBN 978-
recommend it.recommme Narwhal is the exception rather than the rule Consort suffered 40 per cent
as ten attacks on the German
18441-58591), writes George
I am cerI amm c tain that this book will in this book: most boats, especially the British casualties and fired between
boat. “Finally we got him,”
Malcolmson, RN Submarine e
introduce a new generaintroduce ae tion to the ones, were lost with all hands. 300 and 400 shells at Chinese
recalled CO Robert Atkinson. “I
Museum archivist, I remembered ered
subject.subject. The general reader maThe T y fi nd It is left to German witnesses to describe positions that afternoon,
was almost sorry for the U-boat.”
Tommy’s story and wondered if the if the
some of the detailed technical descrsome of the det iptions the horrors of a sinking submarine, such as knocking out more than half a
This is an excellent addition to
relatives and descendants of the 99 men e 99 men e 99 men
diffidifficult cult to comprehend such as the escape cult to compto co U1195, depth charged off the Isle of Wight just dozen gun emplacements.
WW2 naval literature – detailed,
would welcome another Thetis book to open book to open
arrangements in the submarrangements in ine. Many a month before the end of WW2. She was, however, unable to
authoritative, and above all very
old wounds.
references were made in the text to frame One man, recalled Franz Sellinger, “ascended help Amethyst and headed down
human.
Author Tony Booth has a fi ne literary track
numbers and a clearly-annoted diagted diagted diagram ram too early and became entangled.too early and He river, leaving the sloop to endure
record with several successful books about
would have helped. A map wwould also ould also drodrowned.wned.e Maschinenmaat [Mechanic, 101 days trapped on the Yangzte.
naval salvage to his credit.
have been useful to help underrstand the stand the 2nd Class] Schw2nd d andt wanted In the spring of 1949, the men
Cox’s Navy dealt with the recovery of the
geography associated with the tragedyragedy.. to help bto ut got stuck in the of HMS Consort were equally
German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow and
While it was obviously a coup to get p to get hatch. He was freed by three fêted. Every ship in Hong Kong
included a chapter covering the company’s
such a distinguished author as Len Len comrades bco ut found to be acknowledged the destroyer on
involvement in the Thetis story. This original
Deighton to write a foreword I can can dead.de her return.
research was the seed from which the book now
only wonder if he was being ironic ic “This led to some men “I have never felt so proud and
under review grew.
when he stated that “the Royal losing their nerlosinl ve.” An officer emotional as when the crew of
Although the title mimics the recent book
Navy did not have accidents, took charge and ushered sixtoook every vessel lined the guard rails
and fi lm Blackhawk Down, and despite the
let alone disasters”. comrades to safetycomradm . and cheered us as we passed,”
rather macabre sub title, Tony Booth has
The Area of Remembrance Ten daen de ys later U1063 suffered a Hodgins remembered. “It was an
at the Royal Navy Submarine similar fsimilar fr ate off Land’t s End. unforgettable moment.”
produced an extremely readable account of
Museum in Gosport is proof, if iif Her 28-yHer 28-y2 ear-old captain, in charge of For a ship which ‘only’ served
the loss, salvage, refi t and subsequent wartime
it were needed, that in the past the stt the his firhis first wst war paar p trol, panicked after being in peacetime, Consort had an
career of the submarine Thetis/Thunderbolt.
Submarine Service has paid enough enough depth charged,depth chargeg d surfaced the boat and – eventful career: atom bomb tests,
Like the story of the Titanic, many will already
blood for the ‘Price of Admiralty’.y’. according to witnesses – waccording to witn as the first up the the Queen’s Olympic cruise, war
know the dreadful outcome but the narrative
His assertion that “before the Second SecondWorld orld conning toconning tower and into the wer and ater in a dinghy. in Korea, unrest in Malaya.
is compelling and dramatically conveys the
War the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service had Kapitänleutnant Karl-Heinz Stephan did And it is fitting that this lively
terrible situation of the men trapped inside.
been a dumping ground for diffi cult offi cers, not survive his boat’s loss. Seventeen of his small volume is brimming with
We learn the reasons why only four men
alcoholics, misfi ts and those with ideas of their comrades did, among them 19-year-old radio first-hand accounts – upper and
managed to escape from what was Britain’s
own” is an astonishing generalisation and quite operator Franz Neumayr. lower-deck.
worst peacetime submarine disaster.
at odds with the true state of affairs. He was picked up by HMS Loch Killin – That reason alone lifts it
The subsequent legal arguments and the
one of the vessels responsible for crippling the head-and-shoulders above the
HP BOOKFINDERS: Established
years of cross-litigation are well described and THETIS was salvaged and served with honour U-boat – and was astonished by the reaction many privately-published books
professional service locating out
many of the myths and misconceptions about as HMS Thunderbolt – a fate not shared by of the British sailors, who handed the U-boot- flooding the naval market.
of print titles on all
this tragic accident are examined. most of the boats in Ron Young and Pamela Mann dry clothes, food, cigarettes and a warm Consort’s men are still awaiting
subjects. No obligation or SAE
The author also investigates ‘SOS Thetis’ – a Armstrong’s Silent Warriors: Submarine cuppa. recognition for their deeds in
series of German black propaganda broadcasts Wrecks of the United Kingdom, Volume Why, one of his Kameraden asked in halting 1949. This book goes some way
required. Contact: Mosslaird,
and a book designed to damage the confi dence Two (History Press, £19.99 ISBN 978-0-7254- English, were his enemies being so nice. towards that goal.
Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT
of the British war effort. Elements of this plan 47896). “We treat you just as we would expect to be ■ Available from association
Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377
were so invidiously subtle that even the author, Their acclaimed first volume, published in treated,” their captor told them. treasurer Terry Hodgins, 21
martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk despite having covered the known facts, cannot 2006, focused on wrecks off the East Coast It is an endearing – and enduring – quality Belmont Road, Abergavenny,
www.hp-bookfinders.co.uk
resist leaving the accusation hanging in the and Kent. of the British sailor. NP7 5HN.
NEW 048_NN_Apr.indd 1 17/3/09 11:34:16
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