The Gathering Storm
It would seem that the eternal and sometimes elusive triangle of man, ship and ocean, particularly under the stress of war, produces the best qualities of courage and compassion, irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the conflict. In war it is inevitable that only one side can triumph but honour and self-sacrifice are not the attributes of the victors alone.
Douglas Reeman
To have anything more than entertainment value Naval maritime history must be analytical and critical. And it must, in so far as it is humanly possible, be truthful.
Naval Staff History, Vol. 1, ‘Introduction’
To the memory of Stoker Albert William ‘Horse’ Goodey of HMS Havock and the others who served through these affairs
Copyright © Geirr H. Haarr 2013
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Seaforth Publishing
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley
S. Yorkshire S70 2AS
The right of Geirr H. Haarr to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by Naval Institute Press
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Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.
First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-931-9 (eBook)
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Print edition by CPI Antony Rowe (Great Britain)
The Close-Range Gunner’s Lament
The wettest bloke out on the sea
Is he who sports an AA3
And really round the bend it’s true
Is the Matloe with an AA2
Now we of Wolsey (hallowed name)
Of E-boat Alley and Dunkirk fame
Have AA guns that sometimes work
By Hector’s leave and pusser’s dirk
Point-fives forebridge-all stoppage three
Forebridge, Oerlikon-Jag in stap me
Dig out all day, all guns tip-top
Rewarded with, Snap, Crackle, Pop
When we try to crash our swede
We wake up screaming: ‘Faulty feed’
Plenty of Aim-off; not too much
Why don’t you swap your job with Hutch?
Sometimes we fire at ‘Left hand masts’
And then the Skipper starts his blasts
It’s ‘Left’ and ‘Over’ hear him sing
‘You’re porous, HIT the bloody thing’
Just when we’re ‘On’ the gun wraps up
So once again we’re sold a pup
Written in the North Sea in 1943 by twenty-three-year-old Ordinary Seaman Peter ‘Buck’ Taylor, gunner onboard HMS Wolsey, a V&W destroyer.
By that time, he had been at war for almost four years, starting in HMS Vindictive at Narvik.
Sadly, Peter passed away in March 2013.
Contents
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 The Allied Navies
3 The German Navy
4 Baltic Eagles
5 What Now?
6 German Home Waters
7 Sinking the Athenia
8 Contact Obtained
9 Learning the Hard Way
10 No Margin for Error
11 A/S Striking Forces
12 The Grey Wolves
13 The Bull of Scapa Flow
14 Pale Death
15 The Thin Grey Line
16 Airwar at Sea
17 Commerce Raiders
18 Mine Warfare
19 Night Stalkers
20 The Northern Patrol
21 Winter War
22 No Friends
23 The Altmark Incident
24 Crossroads
25 Storm Warning
26 Conclusions
Appendices
A Allied and Neutral Merchant Ships Lost, 1 September 1939–8 April 1940
B Allied Naval Ships Lost, 1 September 1939–8 April 1940
