Edwyn Gray - Captains Of War: They Fought Beneath the Sea

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CAPTAINS OF WAR

by the same author

Non Fiction
A Damned Un-English Weapon.
The Killing Time.
The Devils Device.
Few Survived.

Fiction
No Survivors.
Action Atlantic.
Tokyo Torpedo.
Last Command.
Fighting Submarine.
Devil Flotilla.
Diving Stations.
Crash Dive 500.

CAPTAINS OF WAR

THEY FOUGHT BENEATH THE SEA

EDWYN GRAY

First published 1988 by Leo Cooper Ltd
Reprinted 1988

Leo Cooper is an independent imprint
of the Heinemann Group of Publishers,
10 Upper Grosvenor Street, London W1X 9PA

LONDON MELBOURNE AUCKLAND

Copyright Edwyn Gray 1988

ISBN: 0850522463

Photoset by Deltatype Ltd, Ellesmere Port
Printed by Mackays of Chatham PLC, Chatham, Kent

To Vivienne with Love

Contents

CAPTAINS OF WAR It was an effort of genius

COMMANDER MAX KENNEDY HORTON, RN Please stand clear while I sink this ship

KAPITANLEUTNANT OTTO WEDDIGEN We wish no lives to be lost

LIEUTENANT NORMAN DOUGLAS HOLBROOK, RN A mighty clever piece of work

KAPITANLEUTNANT ADOLF KARL GEORG EDGAR FREIHERR VON SPIEGEL VON UND ZU PECKELSHEIM I was told it was so

LIEUTENANT RICHARD DOUGLAS SANDFORD, RN Well done Uncle Baldy

KORVETTENKAPITAN LOTHAR VON ARNAULD DE LA PERIERE It was just ordinary routine

LIEUTENANT FREDERICK J. C. HALAHAN, RN The go-under-water war junk

KAPITAN JAN GRUDZINSKI Good luck and God Bless You

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER RUPERT PHILIP LONSDALE, RN Please, O Lord, deliver us

KORVETTENKAPITAN OTTO KRETSCHMER My sincere congratulations on your success

COMMANDER HOWARD W. GILMORE, USN Take er down!

TENENTE DI VACEOLL COUNT LUIGI DURAND DE LA PENNE Cold-blooded bravery and enterprise

COMMANDER DUDLEY W. MORTON, USN Destroyer gunning Wahoo running

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER MALCOLM DAVID WANKLYN, RN I think its time for a mug of tea

COMMANDER SAMUEL DAVID DEALEY, Jr, USN Hit em Harder!

CHU-SA MOCHITSURA HASHIMOTO Hiriho Kenten Gods Will

COMMANDER RICHARD HETHERINGTON OKANE, USN The bravest man I know

Illustrations

We had competent administrators, brilliant experts of all descriptions, unequalled navigators, good disciplinarians, (and) fine sea officers but at the outset of the conflict we had more captains of ships than captains of war.

(Winston S. Churchill)

Unlike other warships a submarine has no peacetime role. She cannot show the flag or be used to entertain foreign dignitaries. She is unsuitable for the pomp and ceremony for which war vessels of all nations are in such great demand and she is hardly the ideal vehicle for carrying a Head of State on official visits. She has no facilities or surplus space available to enable her to provide aid when natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions occur in remote areas; and she can only offer limited assistance in a rescue situation. The submarine, unlike her surface sisters, is solely a vessel of war. Thus, by definition, her Commanding Officer is, in Winston Churchills stirring phrase, a Captain of War.

In my previous books on underwater warfare I have been at pains to stress that submariners of all nations, both friend and foe, share the same dangers and discomforts whether they are at sea in times of peace or on combat patrol during times of war. And, indeed, their techniques, reactions, and attitudes are virtually identical, no matter under which flag they serve. This book, which spans both World Wars, is an attempt to delve more deeply into the characters and personal achievements of seventeen individual submarine captains drawn from the navies of Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy, Poland and Japan. And, although these officers represent only a tiny sample, their actions will, I hope, demonstrate the common bond of courage, determination and dedication that unites all those who fight beneath the sea.

Material has been drawn from a large area of published and unpublished sources and I must thank, as always, Cdr Richard Compton-Hall, MBE, RN (Retd) and Mrs Marjorie Bidmead of the Royal Navys Submarine Museum for their assistance in tracing facts and photographs. My thanks also to my shipmates in the Wymondham branch of the Royal Naval Association and to Ray Rimell, the Editor of Sea Classic International, for permission to adapt my articles on Norman Holbrook and Otto Kretschmer which first saw light of day in his magazine. Finally may I express my appreciation to Leo Cooper and Nat Sobel for their continued support, and, of course, to Vivienne for putting up with me while this book was being researched and written.

Mention must be made of certain works which have provided valuable background information to supplement my research and I wish to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to their authors: Will Not We Fear by C. E. T. Warren and James Benson for details of Seals last mission; the biography of Otto Kretschmer The Golden Horseshoe by Terence Robertson; Orzels Patrol by Eryk Sopocko; and Sunk by Mochitsura Hashimoto.

My grateful thanks are also due to the following publishers for the use of copyright material listed in the Quotation Sources at the end of the book: Doubleday & Co Inc; The Amalgamated Press; Thornton & Butterworth Ltd; Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; Conway Maritime Press Ltd; Leo Cooper; Peter Davies; Mews Books Inc; Seeley Service & Co Ltd; Constable & Co Ltd; The Hogarth Press; Oxford University Press; Herbert Jenkins & Co; Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd; William Kimber Ltd; Methuen & Co; John Murray Ltd; George G. Harrap & Co Ltd; Evans Brothers Ltd; Ian Allen Ltd/Podzun Verlag; Andrew Melrose; Pyramid Books Inc; Hutchinsons Ltd; Longmans Green & Co Ltd; William Heinemann Ltd; Manor Books Inc; and Arthur Barker Ltd. My apologies to copyright holders included in the above list whom I have been unable to trace due to mergers, amalgamations and cessations of trading in the years since original publication.

Photographic material has generally been supplied by the National Archives in Washington and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport. It has, however, proved impossible to trace the copyright holders of four of the illustrations used.

It continues to be my humble belief that the men who fight beneath the sea are the bravest of the brave. It is therefore to the submariners of the world past, present and future that this book is dedicated.

EDWYN GRAY
Attleborough, Norfolk.

April, 1987

In the autumn of 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers made landfall in a deserted bay to the north of Cape Cod. And, together with other like-minded pioneers, they planted the seeds from which was to grow the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. In that same year a Dutch physician working as a tutor to the children of King James 1 of England, Cornelis van Drebbel, demonstrated his submarine on the River Thames and thus set in motion a chain of technological development that would ultimately lead to the nuclear-engined ballistic missile submarine the most powerful warship and weapon-system on earth. These two events, linked by the same birthdate yet separated by nearly three thousand miles of ocean, are proof indeed of the ancient adage that from the smallest of acorns can grow the mightiest of oaks. And, together, they mark a convenient starting point for this account of submarine warfare and the men who fight beneath the sea.

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