From War of the Worlds, possibly in the future I move back
in time to the World at War and begin with the opening of Nicholas Monserrat’s
important tribute to Navy vessels that attempted protect the convoys of supply
vessels travelling between the UK and the USA and Canada , The Cruel Sea.
As a school boy I bought an edited edition of the book after
seeing the important film with Jack Hawkins in the role of Lieutenant Commander
George Eastwood Erickson R.N.R. The film played to packed audiences throughout
the UK and Commonwealth. I saw the film
again recently shortly before the BBC replayed on Four extra its two one hour
dramatizations. I will comment on the film and he radio plays as I work through the original book which I
recently purchased for one penny plus postage,
a 1987 reprint in The Penguin Great
Novel War at Sea series.
Some readers may want to skip the first part of 74 pages
because there is no action at such, no excitement or events of significance in
the great scheme of the war at sea and yet from my perspective it provides one
of the most important insights of what
it was like for young men to move out of their warm offices, garages or shops
into the ice cold stormy winds of north Atlantic in Winter, together with the
steps necessary for a new crew and a new ship to be authorised to put
to sea and to go to war, that is to kill the enemy and avoid being killed.
Today the navy is rapidly becoming redundant except in hunting pirates and stop
immigrant boats, and smuggled goods especially drugs. Yet it is not so long ago
to me (30 years) that ships and men were lost during the Falklands War to
Exorcet Missiles made and supplied by France to the then enemy Argentina and
even as recently as 2011 naval ships were used off the coast of Libya to attack
with rockets as well as bringing supplies to the rebels. Over seventy years ago
it was little ships like the Corvettes and the crew of cargo vessels which kept
the UK supplied with sufficient for the
home population not to lose morale and for the Services to function.
Recently at the excellent Curtis Auditorium lecture theatre
at Newcastle University I listened to former catholic
Priest and chair of the CND, Bruce Kent on the subject of Is War Inevitable? He
replied to one questioner who said he had agreed with almost everything Bruce
had said but what was his response to the people of the Tyne if the government suddenly offered
the building of a new aircraft carrier. The reply was why not press for a
hospital ship instead to travel the world to wherever there was a natural or man
made disaster? While I agree with his answer today in 1939 and 1940 the
challenge was to build, equip and crew as many new ships as possible if the UK and the Commonwealth nations were
to survive.
The Corvets were the best available in a difficult situation
little more than trawlers with a limited top speed and with cramped conditions
for the crew eating and sleeping in one area where it was difficult to keep dry
from the condensation and with limited armaments of a four inch power, a two
inch anti aircraft and a machine gun plus depth charges. The crew comprised a captain,
a First Lieutenant with two subs, one responsible for communications and depth
charges and the other for course and the guns. In the film a third sub is
added, played by Denholm Elliot,
The small group of officers meant that any of the four could
find themselves in charge of vessel alone for a period of up to four hours
although there would usually be two officers on the watch. The officers were
supported by a small team of senior ratings, middle managers, the chief
responsible for the boiler room and the engines, the teams responsible for
depth charges and the guns, for communications and the asdic later the radar,
the supplies and kitchen.
Monsarrat describes the day from 6.30 until 10pm with first
the process of working with ship builders and fitters and then sea trials to ensure
the everything worked to the required standards and then formal trials to get
the guns on target and the important coordination between the Captain, the
Asdic crew and the depth charge team to ensure that as quickly as a target was
identified and the order given depth charges would immediately be dropped on target and to do all this taking account of
the wind, the sea current and the position of the enemy both with different
speeds and manoeuvrability and tactics.
While the film, and I felt the BBC play paid some attention
to the process of finishing the ship, providing equipment and supplies, and the
various levels of trials of ship and of the crew, it is only in the book that
we are able to gain a depth of insight into the preparations and the naval
traditions and culture and the complex problems facing those who had never been
sea let alone to war and who were strangers one day and living in great
physical and emotional intimacy the next and away from families, friends, and
everything that had previously been familiar to them.
However important the role of the officers, the success and
survival of the ship was dependent on team working at all levels. Towards the
end of the sea trials we learn that the admiral responsible for certifying that
ships and their crews are ready for war writes his report on the officers of
the Compass Rose, a copy of which he shows to the captain. He has gained this
knowledge from his personal unannounced visits at various times and from the
communication with the Captain although the chain of command and responsibility
is such that once commissioned as an officer in the fleet every individual is
expected to function to the highest standards within the culture of the
service.
Monsarrat provides a summary of what we have learned about
the Captain and his officer’s team. There were two inter-related problems, The
First Lieutenant; a former car salesman is a bully, workshy and a sponger. How
he talked his way from officer training course to an instant promotion is
beyond the Captain and the reader, except that it is war and men with self
confidence, ambition and aggression will be needed. Similarly the man he
bullies Ferraby, married only weeks before departure, should never have been accepted for officer
training or once accepted should not have been allowed to complete the course
although again it was an unplanned war and it is important not judge how recruitment and deployment was
approached then rather than since.
Oddly in the radio play there is little reference to the
First Lieutenant while in the film the crack included, not in book, about
Ferraby having left a bun in the oven as well as the man’s obsession with
“snorkers, good ho,” his passion for tinned sausages at least for one meal a
day. However in fairness to number 1 the
depth charge crew also have no confidence in their officer and the senior naval
rating attempts to take charge something which the young sub finds it also
difficult to cope with.
It is the mature mid twenties other sub Lieutenant Lockhart
who provides the buffer. A single man, former self employed journalist, no longer innocent about the
ways of men and women, who sides steps
and ignores Bennett played in the film brilliantly by Stanley Baker. He is not
prepared to tolerate the way the First Lieutenant expects one of the subs to
buy his drinks and at one point her cannot resist suggesting that if he wants
to get the best out of Ferraby he needs to support and help his confidence and not
constantly undermine. When Bennett insists on reporting Lockhart to the
Captain, Erickson is faced with a dilemma. Lockhart was out of line but he is
only too well aware of the behaviour of Bennett who he feels obliged to support
but the rebuke he gives fails to satisfy the bully who insisting on pressing
his concern once he is with the captain on his own but Erickson is not prepared
to take the matter further which is of itself a message to Bennett.
The other aspect of the book is that the line between
officers and crew is kept pretty tight
and it is Ferraby who engages in conversation with a rating, just as
young and new as himself over a mug of cocoa the night he is left in charge for
a couple of hours while the skipper catches up on sleep. He is sufficiently
confident to alter course away from the Scottish coast when they encounter a
fishing fleet. The manoeuvre wakes the captain who calls the bridge to know
what happened having been awakened as the change of course affected the noise
of the engines. That he went straight back to sleep was a proud moment for the
young man revealing that in normal circumstances he was
able cope but the circumstances are not normal.
Captain Erickson (in the film was played by Jack Hawkins),
immediately inspires confidence despite the
fact that he has been out of the Royal Navy for ten years and worked as
the captain of a cargo ship before his recall as a reservist. He is a strong
disciplinarian determined to get the ship and the crew in condition to go to a
war which fears is going to be a long one. He has reservations about the
ability of the ship as designed to do the job required, especially its lack of
speed and tendency to roll badly. He can
be sharp and comes down hard when mistakes are made and individuals fail to
reach the standard required if they are to survive and cope with what is likely
to come their way.
Monsarrat, himself a naval officer during World War II also
understood the need that seamen have to separate the lives they lead, and in
fairness to Bennett he also appreciated the distinction to be made, a man with
his mind on matters ashore, was no good to his colleagues when things go wrong,
in moments of crisis and as the were to find when involved with the War at sea.
From the start the sea is their demanding mistress and dominates their lives
rather than the enemy who face the same challenges as themselves.
It is the partners left at home who also have to learn to
cope in their own way. Ferraby’s young newly married wife appears stronger and
more understanding than her husband. She is disappointed when Bennett refuses
permission for her to join him, more for the sake of her husband than herself.
Erickson’s wife has become experienced as coping with the separations, she has
her knitting. She knows that however much her husband enjoyed being with her
when ashore, there always comes a time when his real mistress demands attention 24 hours a day, weeks on end. Lockhart
also appears to have adjusted quickly to what is expected of him and has no
intention of complicating his life even with a casual relationship. Bennett on
the other hand brings someone unsuitable, probably picked up at his hotel to
the wardroom party just before they set off for their sea trials on Christmas
Day. (To be continued)
The Cruel Sea is a work of fiction but recently I
have also seen one of the two films about important actions at sea. One is the
Battle of River Plate and the sinking of the pocket Battleship Graf Spee which
had sunk nine allied ships in two months in the autumn of 1939 before being
cornered in Montevideo as the year ended.
The other film is Sink
the Bismarck, The 1939 completed Battleship pride of the German Navy,
superior to anything else afloat and launched with international publicity by
Hitler. Britain received intelligence that the Battleship
was ready to leave anchorage in a Norwegian fjord and cause havoc to the
convoys in the North Atlantic as she broke cover with the pocket battleship Prinz Eugen.
All the available British Warships are put on alert based North of Scotland at Scapa Flow between
the Shetland Islands some 300 square kilometres and forming the great natural
harbour of the world and used as the Headquarters of the British Fleet
throughout the two World wars, continuing until 1956.
The 1960’s film centres on the coordination of the British
attempt to stop the Battleship getting into the North Atlantic by patrolling
all the four of the recognises routes into the Ocean, organised from the
Admiralty Operations room in London
where the head of operations is played by Kenneth Moore, a man deployed in
London after the sinking of his ship by the German Fleet Commander who he
learns is sailing on the Bismarck, a
staunch Nazi who persuades its Captain to demonstrate the new power of
the German Navy as a means that they both find glory and favour with the German
leader and his hierarchy. All fictional speculation.
At first the Battleship has dramatic success in blowing up
and sinking the regarded best battle cruisers in the British Navy the Hood, and damaging other vessels so
that they had to disengage. This was a great blow to the UK as the German triumph was announced
worldwide. In the film Churchill tells the Admiralty that they must do
everything they can to find and sink the Battleship in retaliation. The course
of war let alone the fate of the convoys hang in the balance.
In addition to losing his ship Kenneth Moore returned home
to find that his house had been destroyed in a bombing attack killing his wife.
Fortunately their son was away, also at sea, on station with the Mediterranean
Fleet at Gibraltar . The mission is personal one for
him and refusing to give way to emotion except in relation to work performance,
he sets the tone, intolerant of slackness, spending days and nights without
leaving his post except to snatch a few hours on a bunk in his personal office.
In the film given the demand of Churchill Moore appears to
be the man who recommends taking naval vessels away from convoys in order to
locate and destroy the Bismarck In fact by the time the ship was sighted and
destroyed more than 100 allied and German ships were involved plus respective
airforces.
Although the ship is sighted it is then lost because of poor
visibility and the adoption of a zig zag pattern. It was on the 26THE May
that an aeroplane using a secret corridor provided by the Irish Government spotted an oil slick which
led to sighting the Battleship and the Admiralty were aware that a fuel tank
had been damaged in the previous encounter than the Battleship was heading to
port for repairs, but which? In the film Moore also advises that in his view
the battleship would head for the port of Brest in France where other major
German ships were now moored and thus with the support of submarines and the
German airforce they would break out in force into the Atlantic where the
combined power would cause great damage.
The plan was to hope that a battle group which was diverted
from Gibraltar would be able to intercept before
they ran out of fuel and German submarines and air cover from the mainland
would enable to ship to reach port. In the film this poses a challenge for Moore as his son serves as a pilot on an
aircraft carrier. He is notified that his son is missing along with several
other pilots after searching for the Battleship having run out of fuel or
developed engine problems. The film then faithfully records what a near
disaster there was when planes with torpedoes from the Ark Royal launched an
attack and mistook the British light cruiser HMS Sheffield. Fortunately the
detonators were defective and this not only prevented a blue on blue disaster
but ensured that the problem was remedied before the next attack search was
made.
The Bismarck was found in darkness and a single
torpedo fired by John Moffat hit the vessel in the stern and damaged its
steering so that it could only sail in a circle. Although short of fuel the
advancing British ships were able to corner the battleship and destroy its
potential firepower before causing irreparable damage to an extent that the
captain ordered the ship to be scuttled with the consequence that many of the
2000 crew on the lower decks did not survive before the sinking. While here was
an attempt to rescue those in the water the effort was limited by the
appearance of U Boats so that British ships only rescued just over 100 men. It
is my understanding that only five members of the crew were rescued by German
ships with the deaths of some two thousand. The sinking was times at 10.39 in
the morning. The ship had refused to surrender in he accepted tradition of the
German Navy and thus fact gives some authenticity
to the view of a command set on ending
with glory than ignominy.
The sinking was timely because the Mediterranean Fleet was
to suffer enormous losses where four destroyers and six cruisers sunk, and an
Aircraft carrier, two Battle ships and four cruisers were
damaged at the Battle off Crete leaving only two battle ships and
three cruisers to oppose four battleships and eleven cruisers of the Italian
Navy.
As is the custom in such films the opportunity is taken to
feature one or two “human interest” stories.
His son reported as missing is found and the iceman breaks down in tears
of relief and joy. Early on he establishes a good working relationship with a Wren
personal assistant one of several who has lost her fiancée, when she is given
the opportunity of going on an official visit to New York she decides to accept his request
that she should be assigned as on a permanent basis. With job done re invites her
out for a meal that evening only to realise when they exit the Admiralty that
it is morning so the invitation changed to breakfast. However the tone is not
one of romance but rather of comrade friendship having successfully been part
of a distressing and dangerous time.
In addition to Kenneth Moore Maurice Denholm, Michael Horden,
Geoffrey Keen, Jack Watling also featured and Dana Wynter played the Wren. The
Famous USA Wartime Newsman Edward R Murrow appeared as himself. Next I shall
continue with the Cruel Sea and the War in the Air.
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