44 NAVY NEWS, JUNE 2009
‘Fiercely proud just
to be part of it’
Designs and
A life less
TEN years ago publishers
technology
learned a valuable lesson:
military history is big
ordinary
business. OF MORE than 600 Type VIIC
BRITISH shipbuilders have often They did so thanks to Antony U-boats built for Hitler’s Navy,
come under fi re from historians. Beevor. His Stalingrad was – and U604 was typical.
They point to the battle- remains – a landmark book on Her accomplishments – just six
cruisers at Jutland blowing up WW2. It captured the Zeitgeist... ships sunk on six patrols – were
(while German battle-cruisers and sold over one million copies typical. So too her fate – sunk,
survived a pounding), the Hood’s across the globe. like nearly 800 German boats.
catastrophic demise, the sinking Since then he’s focused on the Or at least that’s the way it
of Ark Royal as victims of flawed fall of the Third Reich – and appears on the surface.
design or construction. incurred the wrath of Moscow Christian Prag’s excellent No
But more often than not, for ‘tarnishing the reputation’ of Ordinary War: The Eventful
British yards got it right. More the Red Army which advanced Career of U604 (Seaforth, £25
than 350 destroyers flew the
on Berlin and raped and pillaged ISBN 978-1-84832-022-2)
White Ensign in WW2; many
as it went. shows that even typical boats had
were lost to enemy action, but
His latest volume D-Day: The atypical lives.
none foundered to the elements.
Battle for Normandy (Penguin, Lawrence Paterson provided us
Unlike those of other navies.
£25 ISBN 978-0-670-88703-3) with an excellent ‘biography’ of a
Nine modern destroyers fell
covers rather less controversial U-boat on patrol, Teddy Suhren’s
victim to the weather – a French
ground. U564.
vessel broke in half; a wave
Indeed, Normandy is very- Suhren was an ace.
tore the stern off the Soviet
well-covered ground trawled over Kapitänleutnant Horst Höltring,
Sokrushitelnyi (for which her
by a myriad of historians for six U604’s commander, was
blameless CO was shot and her
decades and more. not. Höltring was an unusual
XO sent to a penal battalion);
Which, of course, begs a submariner – he was a naval
and three US destroyers sank
question: what new material is aviator by trade, but when the
in a typhoon at the end of 1944
there to bring to the table? Germans pulled the plug on
(immortalised on celluloid in The
A lot, surprisingly. The author their carrier Graf Zeppelin, he
Caine Mutiny).
has trawled more than 30 archives switched to the U-Bootwaffe.
The study of ‘Weather and
– those at Caen and Saint Lô seem Höltring was a cautious
Warship Casualties’ by the
to be particularly rich – to dig out commander, not one eager to
late David Brown is one of
countless previously-unpublished earn the Knight’s Cross. His
● The Norwegian destroyer Svenner explodes after being struck by torpedoes from German E-boats in
ten articles by eminent naval
accounts, stories, anecdotes.
the small hours of June 6. She sank in under two minutes but 185 men survived.
caution brought few sinkings, but
historians which make up the
For many Britons, D-Day made him popular with his crew
latest edition of Conway’s annual
has come to symbolise the last invasion fleet not only feronly feronly ferried wweeight of ihight oof AAllied material. applauded for finding fresh who were convinced he would
Warship volume (£30 ISBN 978-
great national effort. It was an men and material on to the l on to the The orgy of deaThe or th accounts from Normandy – these bring them home safely.
1-84486-089-0).
honourable crusade – to liberate shores of Normandynddy, it had and destrand a uction are not the ‘same old stories’ And on five patrols he did. He
And as ever, the sweep of its
a nation, indeed a continent, from a direct impact on theon the reached itsre repeated. also inflicted the gravest loss on
subject is wide and varied: RN
tyranny. fighting inland: 12th12th apotheosis inap In fact, perhaps the biggest the American Merchant Navy of
submarine design post-war;
And certainly the men of SS Panzer Divisioniision the Fth alaise revelation to English-speaking the war, the steamer Coamo sunk
Japan’s bizarre battleship-carriers
Overlord were convinced of the Hitlerjugend, perhaps aaps pocket in mid-po readers will be the suffering of the by U604 off Ireland in December
(half dreadnought, half aircraft
justness of their cause. the most stubborrn August where twAugA o French – not at the hands of the 1942. Of the 186 souls aboard,
carrier); Italian coastal forces;
One Royal Marine junior officer – and among the GerG man Arm mies Germans, but the liberators. none survived.
the struggle to convert a fleet
looked at the men around him as most vicious – wweere trapped.re trr In Calvados, 76,000 people lost It wasn’t enough. The U-boat
powered by wind to one powered
his landing craft headed for shore German units DeaDeath reapedt their homes – and most of their arm’s chief, Karl Dönitz,
by coal in Victorian Britain;
on June 6. in Normandy a tera teerririble harvest. possessions – during the fighting. rebuked Höltring frequently
the work of the John Brown
“Some were scared shitless, lost its Burned-out panzernedd-ou s Long after the battle, French for his supposed timidity.
yard in WW1 – with particular
others fiercely proud just to be commander Fritz z were covveered in scraps of re children were killed played with “Unsatisfactory” or “More was
emphasis on the construction
part of it,” he wrote. “Anticipation Witt to a barrageage uniform while body parm wwhil ts live ammunition and grenades expected from this commander
of battle-cruiser HMS Repulse,
with nervous excitement showed from HMS Rodney on nney on were stuck in hedgeroere stuck iin h ws. which still littered Normandy. during this operation,” he
built in just a year and a half;
everywhere.” June 14. “Cor“C pses lay in pools ofy In all, 35,000 French civilians scrawled angrily in his diary.
the Japanese battleship Mutsu
About the same time, aboard The Allied armada did not dried blood, staring into space i died before, during and after the U604 was one of the lucky
which blew up in harbour in
HMS Largs, the future broadcaster have it all its own way, however. as if their eyes were being forced invasion by Allied action. ones, however. In the first six
mysterious circumstances in
and author Ludovic Kennedy Sometimes the Germans fought from their sockets,” one airmen It was, the author argues, a months of 1943, an average of 18
1943 (the Imperial Navy blamed
found the wardroom set up for back. touring the battlefield wrote. “Two price worth paying. Without the boats were sunk every month.
a suicidal sailor for the tragedy,
breakfast as normal. “We might HMS Nelson – her ship’s grey-clad bodies, both minus their invasion, a Nazi Europe could With such a fine line between
but the latest research presented
have been alongside the jetty in company probably won’t like her legs, leaned against a clay bank as have been replaced by a Stalinist life and death, it was hardly
here suggests a fire caused her
Portsmouth – the white tablecloth being described here as a ‘monitor’ if in prayer.” Europe with Fritz in his Atlantic surprising that the U-boat men
demise).
was laid, and then along came a – joined a force pummelling It’s such vignettes which bring Wall bunkers perhaps replaced by let their hair down ashore, chiefly
The emphasis in Warship is
steward saying ‘Porridge or cereal German positions on the Cotentin D-Day alive: the birds in the Ivan. at the magnificent red-brick
invariably on the machine rather
this morning, sir?’” peninsula during the battle for Orne estuary driven mad by the There are British accounts of Château de Trevarez. It was
than the men who served in
And ashore, a Frenchwoman Cherbourg. naval bombardment on June 6, Normandy, American accounts supposed to be a sanctuary of
them.
cycling through the countryside The foe bit back. “We got salvoes while a few miles away in Caen, of Normandy, French accounts, peace and relaxation.
The research is of the highest
near Caen shouted: “They’re screaming over,” one Nelson locals hoarded baguettes – as did a smattering of German ones But as one U604 crewman
landing! The sea is black with
order, however, as too is the
officer recorded in his diary as the Germans, who also helped already lining bookshelves, but recalled, it was full of champagne,
ships! The Boches are screwed!”
reproduction of images, trawled
a German coastal battery fought themselves to bottles of alcohol; D-Day offers the best panoramic wine, food and Frenchwomen.
Despite the title, the story is back. “The first salvo straddled a senior officer sitting on his jeep overview of the human story of “We had unrestricted use of
from the private and public
rather less about the invasion itself us.” The battleship was not hit, in a landing craft was less-than- the invasion from all sides. everything,” said the submariner.
archives spanning the globe.
(or at least the maritime aspect but HMS Glasgow and the USS amused by the stench from his It won’t be the last word on They left the château for the
But back to the Admiralty and
of it) and rather more about the Texas were. seasick soldiers blowing in his the summer of 1944, of course, last time in the spring of 1943,
its pre-eminence in designing
fighting on land. The Germans, of course, direction. but it will become the benchmark headed to Brest then took U604
warships...
Yet long after D-Day, the suffered far worse under the Indeed, the author is to be account for many. on her final patrol.
Back in 1870, HMS Captain
With the Battle of the Atlantic
was cutting-edge, incorporating
now lost, Dönitz sent the boat to
the lessons of the American Civil
strike at Allied shipping between
War – not least the gun turret –
South America and west Africa.
with all that the Senior Service Last voyage of a master navigator
Despite the gravity of the
had learned since HMS Warrior
U-bootwaffe’s situation that
had arrived on the scene a decade
WRITING a thought-provoking book using harm as they scoured the coast for the coast for the coast for the records of narecords of n tive people which have since summer, Dönitz ordered the
before.
material fi rst published in 1784 and closely mythical Northwest Passage which stawhich stay-at- proproved inede invaluable to ethnographers – a ‘crossing the line’ ceremony
There had been six previous
studied ever since is quite a feat, but James K home ‘experts’ confi dently predicted.edicted. ffaacet of the vcet c oyage which Barnett celebrated by his boats.
Captains before this one; there
Barnett has achieved that with his account of Cook had little help – virirrtually tually examines in detail,exa capitalising U604 did so 40 metres below
has been none since such is the
Captain Cook in Alaska and the North Pacifi c fi ctitious Russian maps proovveed d on his local expero tise. the Atlantic. The men ate a
ironclad’s infamous reputation.
(Todd Communications, £22.50, ISBN 978-1- useless – but he produced a a The British made copious foul ‘pill’ (comprising mustard,
Her infamy is well deserved
57833-408-7). rough outline of a coast obserob vations about the people marmalade, pepper, curry and
– her birth was troubled by
Barnett’s local knowledge puts Cook’s which shipmates, including they met – customs,the language, spices), before downing a glass
political, media and naval circles
explorations in a different context – the author, George Vancouver, later dress and habitadrress tion – and of schnapps and receiving a
all sticking their oar in.
an Alaskan attorney, is president of the Cook used to fi ll in detail with speculaspeculattion over links and migration certificate.
The result was a ship with just
Inlet Historical Society and a scholar of early astonishing precision. papatterns prons pr ved far-sighted. It was to be the last fun the
8½ft freeboard (instead of the West Coast history. The ships – converted collierierss Ultimately the foratelt y y to 65˚ north and
boat had; U604 was mauled by
planned 14ft). His Alaskan perspective adds even more – were ridiculously small; Cook’Coook’s beybeyond,ond, t the he h Admiralty’s objective, was
Allied bombers mid-ocean.
There’s a strong whiff of the lustre to Cook’s achievements, as the explorer’s fl agship Resolution displaced little edd little ffrruitless, endi ending ang t a wall of Arctic ice, and here
She did not sink, however.
ill-starred R101 or the Tay Bridge work in the region is easily overlooked when over 450 tons and was 28 metres long aes long at again Barnett cnett cono veys the sense of frustration. Instead, Höltring rendezvoused
disaster about the Captain. compared with the outcomes of his other the waterline (barely bigger than a tennis an a tennis PaPainfully sloinfully sloww progress and thwarted hopes with two other U-boats and
Sailors dubbed her the Coffin – voyages. court, as Barnett points out – a cramped home of fi nding the fabled sea passage to Europe transferred his surviving crew.
some even refused to sail in her The tone is set early on with a description for over 100 men), while Discovery displaced (and its associated prize fund) are recorded in Some found sanctuary in U172
– but Captain’s chief advocate of Cook’s ships groping through fog on the just 298 tons. locations which reek of disillusion, such as Cape and reached Lorient. Others,
and designer, one Capt Cowper coast of “one of the loneliest and least-known Cook’s third voyage was, at four years and Flattery, Turnagain River and Foggy Cape. including their captain, were
Coles, scoffed at such nicknames. spots on earth” – the Aleutian Islands – in June three months, the longest journey of exploration Barnett concentrates on early 1778 off rescued by U185.
“There is not the slightest 1778. ever undertaken, yet only 15 men died – seven Oregon to their return home in late 1780, with She too was sunk by Allied
danger,” he insisted. Barnett brings life to droll, understated from illness and eight by accident or in Cook’s a fi nal chapter looking at the consequences of air power taking many U604
But there was. Cowper Coles journal entries as Resolution and Discovery fatal skirmish in the Hawaii. Not a single man the voyage. survivors with her. Among them
paid for his hubris. Unfortunately rode out violent storms offshore before creeping died of scurvy, a testament to Cook’s rigorous Although the material is not new the book was Horst Höltring – he chose
so too did 471 shipmates, lost in to pick their way through rocks and shoals. health regime and relentless pursuit of fresh remains an enjoyable and informative study to shoot himself rather than be
when HMS Captain capsized in a Superb professionalism, inspired intuition provisions. of enlightened exploration beyond the limit of killed by the chlorine gas filling
squall off Finisterre. and enormous good fortune kept them from Before his death Cook and his crews created European knowledge. the crippled boat.
044_NN_June.indd 1 21/5/09 14:22:43
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