NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2009 45
Raiders: the lost art
Airmen who
were rank
outsiders
IN THE Royal Navy’s two titanic struggles with the
THE dawn of powered fl ight is
German Fleet, the U-boat was generally regarded seen as the domain of pioneers,
as the gravest threat to the survival of the Empire’s
of pukka chaps from well-to-do
mother country.
backgrounds seized by a spirit
Enemy submarines were not the when it came to the laws of the
of adventure.
only scourge of trade on the high ocean, yet the war the commerce
Yet the skies were not solely
seas, however. raiders waged was largely seen as
their domain as former FAA
Overview of
Individual German ships ranged an honourable one.
man Alan Clifford recounts
the seven seas hoping to pick off Commerce raiders did not
in Rating Pilot (Privately
Allied shipping and stir up panic. necessarily sink their prey without
published, £12 ISBN 978-
life overhead
These commerce or surface warning, invariably looked after
0956252401).
raiders could be warships – the their prisoners as humanely as
The author was not a rating
Emden was the most prominent possible, and were almost always
pilot, but in his service with
AS BEFITS the centennial year
in WW1, while the Graf Spee he Graf Spee he Graf Spee captained by mcaptainedcaptained by men of honour b .
the Fleet Air Arm post-war he
of naval aviation, there has been
remains the most ffaaamous of the mous of the KKarl August arl A Nerger,
encountered many who were –
a fl urry of Fleet Air Arm-related
WW2 German raiderders. Wololff’f’ss captain w as one
prompting him to research their
books.
But far more common common ssuch man.uch Nerger
invariably-overlooked role.
The latest to cross the desks
were merchant raideraiders – was charged
Nearly three dozen of the
of the Navy News team is the
merchantmen on the n the wwith wreaking
naval pilots who qualifi ed
offi cially-endorsed history by
surface, but hidden dden hhavoc against
before WW1 were men drawn
Christopher Shores, 100 Years of
behind trapdoororss ththe British
from the ranks.
British Naval Aviation (Haynes,
and other disguises s EmEEmpire in the
The idea was that they would
£35 ISBN 978-1-84425-661-7).
were guns and SSoutherouto n Ocean,
serve as ‘drivers’, while an
The author is a former
torpedo tubes. ‘co‘contaminantan ting’ the
offi cer would be the aircraft’s
RAF man with four decades’
Few, if any, aapproaches to Colombopproaco ,
commander. By World War 2,
experience of writing about the
were more BombBombaayay, Karachi,
rating pilots would ideally serve
history of aviation and has been a
successful than the e CalcuttaCalcutta,, , Rangoon,
in ‘passive’ roles, on transport
guide at the FAA Museum for the
Wolf, whose exploits oits SSingapore and Cape ingapore an Town
or ferry duties.
past ten years.
● See Wolf... The merchant raider Wolf (the dark, rather battered-
between 1916 and 1918 d 1918 esespecially with mines before pecially withw
So he knows his stuff – and
looking vessel beyond the torpedo boat) returns to Kiel after 15
Plans of the Admiralty
were celebrated by Berlin’by Berlin’B li ’s strt ikiiking at mtt merchant ships
demonstrates it in an excellently-
months of waging a guerre de course.
don’t necessarily work out in
propaganda machine – and hine and leavingving AustraliaAustralia for Europe.f
practice; rating pilots found
illustrated book which provides as
in a succession of books in the A nearly-new steamer,
good a cross-section of the deeds
after nine decades. fi nally being paid off in 1931.
themselves very much in the
immediate aftermath of the war. Wachtfels, was converted into an
of naval fl iers as you’ll fi nd in a
It rightly does justice to the Her former captain was allowed
front-line in WW2 (Ben Rice,
Since then, however, the ship auxiliary cruiser, complete with a
single volume.
Wolf whose captain was portrayed no such graceful end. After taking
for example, became the fi rst
has rather been forgotten (unlike radio transmitter to send signals
The forerunner of the Fleet Air
by the Allies as “a typical Hun” up a management position with
person in the war to sink an
the Emden, for example). Now 5,000 miles, 5.9in and 2in guns,
Arm, the Royal Naval Air Service,
who possessed “no gentlemanly Siemens, he was courted by the
enemy submarine from the air).
authors Richard Guilliatt and Peter torpedo tubes, a changeable funnel
is often overlooked, or its life
instincts”. Nazis as a war hero in the 30s –
As Clifford shows, rating
Hohnen hope to elevate the raider to conceal her identity, and a new
concertinaed, in general histories.
Empire historians also criticised and certainly benefi ted from their
pilots had to endure snobbery;
back to her pre-eminent position
Nearly one fi fth of Shores’
name, Wolf.
Nerger (for temerity, although anti-Semitic laws by buying a villa
one offi cer observer refused to
in The Wolf (Bantam, £17.99
book is devoted to the fi rst decade
In a 15-month voyage, Nerger
they did praise his humanity), they from a Jewish family for a song.
fl y with a pilot from the ranks,
ISBN 978-0593-060705-9).
of naval fl ight – and it’s worth
and his crew dispatched more
pooh-poohed the impact of the That was about as far as his
while the upper echelons of
remembering the achievements
The duo have trawled the than three dozen ships – more
Wolf, and the commerce raiders dalliance with Nazism went, but
the Senior Service often turned
of the RNAS (which is usually
archives of the world, contacted than 100,000 tons in all.
especially. in 1945 Nerger was thrown into
their noses up at the whole
eclipsed by the Royal Flying
the families of crew or prisoners of More than a dozen ships were
Privately, however, the view of Sachsenhausen – once a Nazi
concept.
Corps).
the Wolf and pored over newspaper mined by the ‘eggs’ Wolf dropped
the Admiralty was very different. concentration camp, now a Soviet
First Sea Lord Ernle Chatfi eld
By the time it was swallowed
cuttings and ship’s logs to recount in the oceans. One washed up as
Raiders had disrupted maritime concentration camp – where a
didn’t want “too many people
up by the new RAF in April 1918,
a cracking tale of humanity in an recently as last December in New
trade and kept Allied warships fellow prisoner beat him to death
of the lower deck type in the
there were 100 RNAS aviators
otherwise inhuman war. Zealand.
occupied. “It seems extraordinary with an iron bar for refusing to
wardroom”, while another stuffy
with the distinction ‘ace’, none
For in an age of total war, the This is a story of skill and bravery, that they were not used on a larger surrender his shoes. admiral inspecting a unit was
more so than Canadian Raymond
surface raiders have somehow of luck, of political machinations, scale,” one offi cial report noted in It was an end unbecoming a incandescent after seeing an
Collishaw, credited with more
maintained an air of romanticism. of wartime propaganda by both 1940. man described by a sailor he took able seaman sporting wings
than 60 kills.
Submarines were underhand sides, told with panache which By then, the Wolf was no more. prisoner aboard Wolf as “one of on his left sleeve. “There is no
Two decades later the RN
and damned un-English and all brings the ship, her crew and Post-war, the ship traded on the the greatest seamen this world has such thing and never has been
possessed the largest carrier
that, Q-ships were very dubious especially her captain to life again routes she had once stalked before known”. a rating pilot.”
force of any of the world’s navies
He was wrong. There were
(larger than either the USA or
many and as the author shows
Japan), but Shores argues that 20
years of RAF control over naval
aviation had stripped the RN of
its core of fl iers and aircraft which K for catastrophe
pilots drawn from the ranks
have served the Senior Service
with distinction in both World
Wars, Korea, the Falklands, and
were obsolete or obsolescent, so
as recently as the 2003 confl ict
its accomplishments in the fi rst
in Iraq.
couple of years of WW2 are all the ON THE last evening of January court martialled but, fairly, was less than one page and would be
Five rating pilots fought in the
more impressive. 1918 Vice Admiral Hugh Evan-
Indeed, the author devotes Thomas, fl ying his fl ag in the 15in-
The Grove
exonerated from any negligence. thin for an undergraduate essay.
Battle of Britain (when the Royal
Indeed, many of the offi cers Putting Wikipedia as a major
Navy’s role as a whole is almost
much time to the Mediterranean gun-armed ‘large light cruiser’
– Taranto, Matapan, Pedestal – Courageous, led to sea a ‘light
Review
involved rose to high rank in the source says more for the author’s
always ignored), four helped
service. honesty than it does for his
to sink the Königsberg in the
but away from these ‘trademark cruiser force’ from the Firth of The whole affair could be put scholarship.
spring of 1940.
battles’, the FAA was in harm’s Forth to join with the main body down to experience and the price I was tempted to feel rather
This is not the defi nitive
way every day, such as May of Admiral Beatty’s Grand Fleet of the leading fl otilla, K14, one sometimes has to pay for sorry for the perpetrator of this
account of rating pilots, as
8 1941 and the struggle for a for a major exercise in the North suffered a mysterious and short- the development of new tactical hapless work until I came to the
the author acknowledges, but
convoy, Operation Tiger. Sea. lived steering failure and was hit combinations. fi nal appendix on the K-class
it most defi nitely succeeds in
Nearly 300 tanks, plus 180 This was no normal cruiser by K22. The latter was something It has, however usually been boats.
highlighting their commitment
other vehicles and more than 50 force but an innovative mix of of a jinxed boat as she had sunk on seen as another nail in the coffi n It is full of factual and analytical
and sacrifi ce.
Hurricanes were dispatched from battlecruisers, fast battleships her contractors trials to be raised of the reputation of the fast steam errors but then crowns these by
And above all it gives a
Gibraltar to Alexandria to support and steam-powered fast fl eet and commissioned with a new submarines of the ‘K’ class. dismissing a fascinating defence
human face (aided by numerous
the campaign in North Africa. submarines, writes Prof Eric Grove number. This is certainly the line taken by of the K-class submarines and
cheerful portraits) to brave
Two carriers, Formidable and of the University of Salford. She was certainly partially lucky N S Nash in his new book on the affair, their role written in 1919 in the
men, so often overlooked in the
Ark Royal, would provide air Each submarine fl otilla was led on this night as she was not fatally K Boat Catastrophe: Eight Ships Naval Review by an offi cer clearly
proud history of naval aviation.
cover with Fairey Fulmars – a by an experienced submariner damaged and, in a second collision, and Five Collisions (Pen and cognisant of the boats’ potential.
■ Available from Mr Clifford at
sluggish fi ghter which was just carried in a fast surface ship in suffered only a glancing blow from Sword, £19.99 ISBN 978 1 84415 Having read it, I was able to
Rosemary Cottage, High Street,
about a match for the Heinkel an attempt to provide better the battle cruiser Infl exible, as she 984 0).84 0). understand why, as Norman
Queen Camel, Somerset,
111s it would face during three command and control than was passed on her wway. K22 could 2 could He He has had access,hass had albeit Friedman had told me, the BA22 7NE.
days of battle. possible from the submarines well have been sunk.n suunkunk. appareapparently aently n t second Americans had been very
Tiger got through, but mauled themselves. Leading the 13th Flotilla,e 133th Flotilla, hanhand,nd, to to the Leir court impressed by these fast and
– more than 230 tanks and The 13th Flotilla was led by the Cdr Leir, a submarsuubmariner mmartial records seaworthy submersibles.
43 Hurricanes reached their specialist fl otilla leader Ithuriel known for both the both the aand his account The article also confi rmed that
destination – and at a price. (half as big again as a contemporary high professional skills nall skills ddoes shed some many submariners disliked the
Among those condemned to destroyer) and the 12th by the and scruffy perrssonal onal lilight on what K-class not only because of the
death in the Mediterranean skies ‘scout’ (ie small cruiser) Fearless. habits of the thhe went on. real problems that were the price
was one of the leading FAA In between the fl otillas was the submarine ‘trade’,e’’, TThe rest of the of their virtues.
aces, S/Lt Philip Sparke, killed 2nd Battle-Cruiser Squadron with now made boobook hok wever leaves They also disliked the whole
when he tried to close in on a the four oldest battle cruisers (their a fatal but mucmuch to be desired.h idea of serving with the Fleet
Heinkel. Their wings touched, demotion to ‘light cruisers’ being IncludIncluding index,ingg it only because of their natural cultural
and German and Briton plunged signifi cant). The three available understandable ruruns to 145 pages (plus a ns to 145 antipathy to “being ‘one of a
into the sea. Queen Elizabeths of the 5th Battle decision thaatt fewfew blanks a blanks at the end).t crowd’ instead of having a little
Tiger is one of a myriad of Squadron brought up the rear. converted a mishap ishhap FoForrty-two of these are,o o action alone and consequently
operations, most lost to history, As so often with innovation, not into a disaster. however taken up by an er takener take reaping all the credit.”
conducted by the Fleet Air Arm all outcomes had been foreseen He turned Ithurthuuriel aniel and d amazingly-badamamazingly-badly-informed The author dismisses this
daily between 1939 and 1945. and the result was disaster. It was his remaining submarsubmarsubmariinesines ‘Setting‘Setting the Scene’the Scene’ chapter which excellent, thoughtful and
With the turn of each page of this the usual World War 1 problem – round to give assistance to the two plays the old, discredited tune important piece of fi rst hand
book, the reader is reminded that the very advanced hardware was boats in distress. As he crossed of the Royal Navy’s supposedly analysis as “naïve” and its
naval aviators were in the thick of commanded and controlled by the path of the other submarine defective record of technological appearance in Naval Review as
the fi ght – wherever that fi ght was. grossly inadequate ‘software’. fl otilla its leader Fearless sliced innovation. “breathtaking”. On what grounds
This is a wonderfully- As the force deployed in into K17 and sank her with the It is hard to take anything the he makes these extreme assertions
illustrated book – there are many darkness a small but signifi cant loss of 47 of her ships’ company. book says at face value after this is far from clear.
photographs, among them a good diffi culty might lead to events In the confusion two submarines disastrous start. The author, It is hard to see in his profi le HP BOOKFINDERS: Established
number readers perhaps will getting out of control. There of the 12th Flotilla, K6 and K4 apparently a soldier and a writer any reason why Nash should have
professional service locating out
not have seen before – and an was no radar or voice radio for collided, the latter being cut in half on military matters who lives the temerity to disagree with the
of print titles on all
excellent general introduction to instant situational awareness and by the former, the wreckage being overlooking the scene of the sad professional views of someone
the fi rst century of naval fl ight. command response, only coded touched by K7 on the way down. affair, has taken the advice of who was clearly intimately aware,
subjects. No obligation or SAE
If there’s a disappointment, wireless telegraphy that took many Fifty-fi ve men were lost from K4 naval offi cers on some things but fi rst hand and at the time, of the
required. Contact: Mosslaird,
it’s that the book rather breezes minutes to get through. and 104 men died in all. he has had little contact with naval K-boats and their potential.
Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT
through the modern era of the Things did go seriously wrong The events were soon historians either in person or in In many ways the book is
Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377
Fleet Air Arm (the last 20 years on this terrible night. First of all, dubbed, ironically, ‘The Battle print. summed up by its mis-spelling of martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk
are dealt with in under 12 pages). the middle of the fi ve submarines of May Island’. Cdr Leir was The bibliography amounts to ‘court marshal’ on the dust jacket. www.hp-bookfinders.co.uk
NEW 045_NN_August.indd 1 20/7/09 16:36:26
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