Alan Burn - Fighting Commodores Convoy Commanders In

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THE FIGHTING COMMODORES

by the same author
The Fighting Captain (Leo Cooper, 1993)

THE FIGHTING COMMODORES

The Convoy Commanders in the Second World War
by

ALAN BURN

Britain will depend as far ahead as we can see, not on the
Royal Navy, but on the merchant ships that actually carry
(the) basic requirements, both in peace and in war.
A.T. Mahan

First published in Great Britain 1999 by
Leo Cooper
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright 1999 Alan Burn
ISBN 0 85052 504 7

A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by
Phoenix Typesetting, Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Printed in England by Redwood Books Ltd,
Trowbridge, Wilts

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the officers and men from the British, Allied and neutral merchant services, who sailed in the merchant ships that kept Britain alive and freed Europe during the Second World War. In particular, it is dedicated to the Convoy Commodores who came back from retirement to lead the many thousands of convoys, and to the Consigs, their signals staff.

CONTENTS

PUBLISHERS NOTE

Sadly, shortly after he had delivered the first draft of this book the author suffered an incapacitating stroke and was unable to do any more work on the text. It was thought, however, that the book was sufficiently near to completion to justify publication, particularly in view of the enthusiastic reception of, and continuing demand for, his previous work, The Fighting Captain the story of Captain Frederic Walker. The publishers crave the readers indulgence for such rough edges as remain.

The help and advice of Len Bridge have been invaluable.

GLOSSARY

A/S	Anti-submarine
BdU	Befehlshaben der U-boote (U-boat Command)
COMINCH	C-in-C United States Fleet
Connav	Convoy Navigator
DBS	Distressed British Seaman
DCNS	Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff
DEMS	Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship
D/F	Direction Finding
DNI	Director of Naval Intelligence
EG	Escort Group
FAT	Federapparattorpedo
HF/DF	High Frequency Direction Finding
HO	Hostilities Only
LST	Landing Ship Tank
NCSO	Naval Control Service Operation
OIC	Operational Intelligence Centre
OOW	Officer of the Watch
RCN	Royal Canadian Navy
RMO	Recruitment and Manning Organization
RNB	Royal Naval Barracks
RNLI	Royal Naval Lifeboat Institution
RNR	Royal Naval Reserve
RNVR	Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Sigint	Special Intelligence derived from Ultra decrypts
SOE	Senior Officer of Escort
VLR	Very Long Range (aircraft)
WOMP	Western Ocean Meeting Point

If an enemy wishes to conquer us, not a man needs to be landed, not a bomb dropped on our territory. Cut our sea communications and we are left with a choice of starvation or surrender.

Vice-Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, when he opened HMS
Eaglet, the shore base of the Royal Naval Reserve
in Liverpool in 1971.

In 1940, before Hitler made the disastrous mistake of invading Russia, the outcome of the Second World War depended on the ability of the British to survive and to provide a platform from which, eventually, the might of the German armies could be challenged and the Allies could return to the offensive and drive them out of the conquered countries of Europe.

Britains ability to hold out alone and to resist invasion depended on seaborne supplies of food and fuel, and on raw materials both for armaments and to keep her vital industries going. None of these activities could have been maintained without enormous regular seaborne cargo movements.duties, and arrangements made to put them in their stations as soon as war broke out. This was the Naval Control Service Operation (NCSO).

After the German armies swept through Europe ocean-going ships could not be risked in the English Channel or on the east coast. Imports had to be brought in to the west coast ports and much of the cargo transferred to coastal ships for onward distribution. The First World War had shown that the problem of distribution started at the port of origin and did not finish until the goods reached their destination in this country. It had taken three years, from 1914 to 1917, for Lord Milner to overcome the resistance of British shipowners to any intervention in, or control of, their activities, the latter stubbornly maintaining that they had a right to direct their ships where they liked. However, the Ministry of Shipping had been wound up in April, 1921. All controls had been dropped and armaments removed from merchant ships to make space for more cargo.

In 1939, without overall control of the distribution system by ocean, coast, road and rail, the lesson had to be learnt all over again. Because of the restrictions on the east and south coast ports, the road and rail services were not able to cope with the extra load and the goods that could no longer be delivered to them were transhipped at west coast ports to coastal convoys, many of which had to face the long journey round the northern tip of Scotland and down the east coast.

The first regular convoys ran between the Thames estuary and the Firth of Forth on 6 September, 1939, and outward-bound ocean convoys (including the first Gibraltar convoy) started from Liverpool and London the next day.

With the introduction of convoys, the efficiency of the ships fell dramatically. There were delays while the ships in each convoy were sorted out according to characteristics, capacity, speed and destination. There were delays as the ships took up their sea-going stations. Each convoy could only travel at the speed of the slowest ship; breakdowns were frequent and delayed all ships, and there were bottlenecks in the ports caused by air raids. When a large convoy arrived at the port of destination there was a scramble for the available berths and offloading facilities. At the same time the volume of cargo to be carried by sea increased enormously. Planners had estimated that, if all ports between the Tyne and Southampton were unusable, the additional rail transport needed would mean an increase of one sixth of the rail systems carrying capacity, equivalent to nearly one million ton-miles per annum.

To keep London alone supplied with food would take up an additional 375 trains per week. The railways were already at full capacity and couldnt hope to deal with this additional load, so by October, 1939, 25% of the east and south coast trade had been diverted to coastal convoys. Because of the delays in the shipping sector of the distribution system, imports fell to 50% of peacetime levels. The shipowners used these circumstances as a reason for continuing to fight stubbornly against Government controls.

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