James Leasor - Boarding Party (The Sea Wolves)

JAMESLEASOR

Boarding Party

With a Forewordby
Admiral of the Fleet, THE EARL MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA

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ISBN 978-1-908291-03-5

First published1978
This edition published 2011
James Leasor 1978, 2011

To BILL CATTO,

formerly of theCalcutta Light Horse, with my warm thanks for his greathelp.

FOREWORD

by

Admiral of theFleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, PC, GCSI, GCIE,GCVO, DSO

As the lastBritish Viceroy and Governor-General in India, I was also, by longtradition, Honorary Colonel of the Calcutta Light Horse.

This regiment owed its origins to the first British GovernorGeneral, Robert Clive, who in 1759 raised a formation of irregularcavalry from Europeans in Calcutta to frustrate a Dutch attack on what wasthen a new British settlement.

Inmore recent years, members of the Calcutta Light Horse served withdistinction in both world wars. But not all could be accepted intothe services because of their age, or their value to India and thewar effort as civilians. This book tells how fourteen of them, withfour colleagues from the Calcutta Scottish, another Auxiliary Forceunit, volunteered for a hazardous task which, for reasons theauthor makes plain, no-one else was able to undertake.

This happenedshortly before my arrival in India in 1943, as Supreme AlliedCommander, South East Asia, and immediately saw how valuable werethe results of this secret operation.

I am pleasedthat at last credit may be given to those who planned and carriedit out.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like tothank many people who helped me with my enquiries in Britain,Germany and India. I am especially in the debt of Mr W E Catto, MrDan G Haigh, and Major-General Lewis Pugh, CB, CBE, DSO, for theirkindness in supplying me with recollections, anecdotes andincidents concerning the Calcutta Light Horse and OperationCreek.

I would alsolike to thank the following people for their assistance:

Mrs J PArcher-Shee;

Herr W Asendorpf, Stadtb cherei,Kiel;

Captain P NBatra, Director, Marine Department, Calcutta

PortTrust;

Mrs DorothyBardock;

Mrs JillBebbington;

Herr ReinhardBettzuege, Embassy of the Federal Republic of

Germany,London;

Mr W DBryden;

Sir JohnBurder;

Captain A NChackerbutty, Deputy Director, Marine

Department,Calcutta Port Trust;

Miss S ACoombes, Lloyd's Register of Shipping;

Mr RN Coppock,Ministry of Defence, Naval History Branch;

Major John F FCrossley;

Mr Samir Datta, The Statesman, Calcutta;

Mr T K Datta,Calcutta Port Trust;

CommanderBernard Davies, RN;

Mr R WDennis;

Herr FritzDimzak;

Mr T M Dinan,Librarian, Lloyd's, Lime Street, London;

Mr Desmond Doig, TheStatesman, Calcutta;

Mrs A EDuffield, Department of Printed Books, Imperial War

Museum,London;

Mr RobertDuguid;

Mr Lindsay Emmerson, TheStatesman, Calcutta;

Herr WalterEssktichen;

Mr F DFarmer;

Mr K RFergie;

Mrs GisellaFerrari;

Mr HFowler;

Mr RolandGant;

The Rt Hon LordGlendevon, PC;

Mrs DorisGrice;

Mr R Groom,Foreign & Commonwealth Office Library and

RecordsDepartment;

Mr ABGupta;

Mr D J Hawkins,Naval History Branch, Ministry of Defence;

Lt Col J D SHenderson;

Mr SidneyHerbert;

The directors ofthe Hansa Line, Bremen;

Herr C Jansen,Schiffsfotos, Hamburg;

Mr Roger WJordan, MAlE, Editor, Lloyd's Log;

Mr Y P Kamat,Hotel Mandovi, Panjim, Goa;

Mr M KKavlekar;

Herr ArnoldKludas, Stiftung Deutsches, Schiffahrtsmuseum,

Bremerhaven;

Mr Kolhatkar, The Times ofIndia, Bombay;

Frau Kossack,Marineschule Mrwik, Flensburg-Mrwik;

Mr P RadhaKrishnan, The Reader's Digest, Bombay;

Sir GilbertLaithwaite, GCMG;

Mrs Joan MLeasor;

Mrs JanetLodge;

Mr ColinHercules Mackenzie, CMG;

Mr DouglasMatthews, the London Library;

Dr Maiehfer,Bundesarchiv, Militrarchiv, Freiburg;

Herr Mirow,Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft, 'Hansa';

Herr HeinzMarx;

Mr Ron MelIor,Public Record Office, London;

Mr K S K Menon,Editor, The Navhind Times, Goa;

Admiral of theFleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, PC, GCSI, GCIE,GCVO, DSO;

Mr DenisMullick;

Mrs EileenPaterson, John Moore Public Relations Ltd;

Mr TParameshwar, The Reader's Digest, Bombay;

Mr and MrsPartap Sharma;

Mr AlexanderPeterson, OBE;

Mr CharlesPick;

Mrs BarbaraPickering;

Mr C Stan Pinto,Manager, Aguada Beach Resort, Goa;

Herr KurtReimers (Deutscher Marinebund e.B);

Professor JurgenRohwer, Bibliothek fr Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart;

Miss LeesaSandys-Lumsdaine;

Mr P GSandys-Lumsdaine;

Mr V MSalgoacar, Chairman and Managing Director, V M Salgoacar &Brother Pvt, Ltd, Goa;

Dr Sareyko(Auswrtiges Amt, Bonn);

Mrs Joan StGeorge Saunders, Writer's and Speaker's Research;

Mr N KSen;

Dr MauriceShellim;

Mrs JillSherratt;

Mr RuhulSingh;

Mr Derek Smith,Museum Assistant, Department of Ships, National Maritime Museum,London;

Sir NicolStenhouse;

Mr Colin BurtonStewart;

Mrs BridgetStoddart;

Mr J DTanner;

Herr KurtThamm;

Mr C Tharoor, The Statesman, Calcutta;

Mr lanTurcan;

Herr RVoigt;

Herr LudolfTimm, St Pauli Landungsbruechen 3;

Colonel J LWardle;

Or Weinandy,Foreign Ministry, Bonn;

Herr JohannWellhausen;

Mrs JeanWhitburn;

Mr A H d'AWillis;

Herr J Witthft,Hapag-Lloyd Aktiengesellschaft, Hamburg;

Mr P G Wood,Assistant Private Secretary to Permanent

Under-Secretaryof State, Ministry of Defence;

Mrs MargaretWylie.

I would also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Gallop, the magazine ofthe Calcutta Light Horse; The CalcuttaScottish Regimental Chronicle; Years of Shipping Under the Maltese Cross by Leonard Gray of the World Ship Society inco-operation with R Popper of Hansa Lines, Line Drawings by Frau EPopper, published by the World Ship Society, Kendal, 1967; Files ofThe Statesman, Calcutta; The Times of India, Bombay; The Sphere, London; The Illustrated Weekly of India, and Calcutta Light Horse, A.F.(I.) 1759-1881-1947, published by Gale &.Polden Ltd., Aldershot, 1957.

FROMTHE WRITER TO THE READER

This is a truestory.

At the requestof several people - British, German and Indian -involved in theevents described in this book, I have changed or omitted some namesand altered certain physical characteristics. Also, at theirrequest, a few incidents have been paraphrased.

JL

CHAPTER ONE

Against theevening swell and sweep of rollers half a mile long, where flyingfish skimmed from one foam-capped mountain of water to another, theU-boat periscope stood no higher than a small shark'sfin.

A million tonsof seawater streamed over the outside lens. Inside the U-boat therubber eye-pieces trembled against the look-out's skull as hehalf-crouched, half stood, in the control room lit by dim red bulbsto accustom the crew's eyes to darkness.

The weight ofwater shifted restlessly. He saw a deep green haze, then bubbles ofsalty foam, then blue evening sky above the Indian Ocean, betweenCeylon and East Africa.

He moved thehandlebar controls slowly, two degrees, at a time. More water, moresky, a further froth of waves, and then, 500 metres to the south,the tossing outline of a cargo ship, her shabby grey hull streakedwith rust.