Richard Woodman - The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943

The Real Cruel Sea

Other books by the author

THE DRINKWATER NOVELS

An Eye of the Fleet

A Kings Cutter

A Brig of War

The Bomb Vessel

The Corvette

1805

Baltic Mission

In Distant Waters

A Private Revenge

Under False Colours

The Flying Squadron

Beneath the Aurora

The Shadow of the Eagle

Ebb Tide

OTHER NOVELS

Voyage East

Wager

The Darkening Sea

Endangered Species

Waterfront

Under Sail

The Accident

Act of Terror

The Captain of the Caryatid

The Cruise of the Commissioner

NON-FICTION

Keepers of the Sea

View from the Sea

The History of the Ship

The Victory of Seapower, 18061814

The Story of Sail (with Veres Lszl)

Arctic Convoys

Malta Convoys

The Sea Warriors

The Lighthouses of Trinity House (with Jane Wilson)

The Real Cruel Sea

The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic
19391943

RICHARD WOODMAN

Illustrations by John Morris

Pen & Sword

MARITIME

First published in Great Britain in 2004 by John Murray

Published in this format in 2011
and reprinted in 2013 by
PEN & SWORD MARITIME
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Richard Woodman 2004

ISBN 978 1 84884 415 5

The right of Richard Woodman to be identified as Author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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

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This book is dedicated to the memory of all Allied seafarers who served in the Atlantic, 19391945

It was forgotten by the British people that the British Merchant Navy had a war history dating back to a period anterior to the founding of the Royal Navy.

Archibald Hurd, 1921

A useful chapter in naval history and tactics could be written on the defence of convoys, by which it might perhaps be made manifest, that a determined bearing, accompanied by a certain degree of force, and a vigorous resolution to exert that force to the utmost, would, in most cases, save the greater part of the convoy, even against powerful odds.

Captain Basil Hall, RN (17881844)

CONTENTS

Inanda

CONVOY SL71

C onvoy Escort leaving Freetown: HM Cruiser Mauritius, HM Corvettes Maguerite, Cyclamen, Clematis and Crocus, with Armed Merchant Cruiser Cilicia (ex-Anchor Line).

Cruiser order was changed on 17 April with Commodore B.S. Thesiger leading the Fast Section in the Blue Funnel liner Rhesus in position 51 with the fast ships capable of making at least 9.5 knots in positions 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 51, 52 and 53. Commodore G.W. Jones in the Ellerman City liner City of Yokohama led the Slow Section in position 81, with slow ships in positions 61, 62, 63, 64, 71, 72, 73, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 101, 103, 104, 111, 112, 113 and 114. At this time the corvettes had returned to Freetown and the Ocean Escort consisted of HM Cruiser Mauritius and AMC HMS Cilicia. Mauritius was relieved by HMS London on 23 April off the Azores in Posn. 3610N and 02300W. On 29 AMC HMS Malvolian joined together with destroyers Campbeltown and Sherwood, whereupon London departed. Destroyers Beagle and Eridge, and corvettes Sunflower and Alisma also joined, and Cilicia left. Other escorts joined that afternoon as at 1515 in 53N 23W, Fast and Slow Sections proceeded independently. Slow Section was escorted by Vanquisher, Viscount, Rockingham, Londonderry, Freesia and the yacht Philante, and arrived in the Clyde on 4 May.

Anglo-Saxon

W HAT HISTORY CALLS the Battle of the Atlantic began a few hours after the declaration of war on Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939 by the then Prime Minister of Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain. It ended on 8 May 1945, the day upon which Hitlers successor as Fhrer, Grossadmiral Karl Dnitz, surrendered. It was the western arm of the great pincer movement by which the German Third Reich was crushed, complementing the Red Armys war on the eastern front. It was not a battle in the conventional sense, but a series of actions, mostly around slow-moving convoys of merchant ships bearing the sinews of war across the ocean from the manufactories of the United States to the Allies remaining stronghold in Europe, the beleaguered nation of Great Britain. The outcome of this long Atlantic campaign depended on the resolution of a simple problem: could the Allies build, fill with cargoes and man more merchant ships than the Axis could sink? At first it seemed possible that they could not, although Hitler had committed the Kriegsmarine to hostilities before Germany had the requisite resources. But ultimately the energies unleashed by the ambitions of Hitler proved unable to prevail against the full sea-power of the Western Allies, just as they proved inferior to those of the land-power of Soviet Russia.

The importance of sea-power in the Allies eventual victory in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theatres can scarcely be exaggerated. The battle was not so much of the Atlantic as for it, a ceaseless contest in which the enemy might secure a local superiority that, no matter how temporary, could have a cumulative and pivotal effect on events elsewhere. Thus, even when struggling for that mastery, the Allies had to maintain the continuous transport of war material across the North Atlantic.

This book is concerned only with the principal struggle in the Atlantic, only for the first, most critical part of that battle, and largely with only one aspect of it. Although much has already been written on the subject, I believe there is room for another work dedicated to this titanic event. To the British of today, and to a great extent to the people of the United States of America, both of whom know little and understand less of the sea-faring life in peace or in war, study of the Battle of the Atlantic is a matter of singular significance. I believe it epitomises the moral high point of their maritime endeavour.