2441 The final part of the Cruel Sea

I have finished reading the Cruel Sea and commenced the third book in George R R Martin series of Ice and Fire coinciding with the commencement of the third season of Sky Atlantic dramatisation of the work as Game of Thrones and the contrast between these works of fiction is striking.

I ended the second part of reporting on my reading of Nicholas Monsarrat's masterpiece with the sense of achievement by the Captain, Officers and crew of the Compass Rose at having sunk a submarine and taking its captain and crew prisoners. It made up little for all the hardship endured by the ship's company and their experience of so much death,destruction and suffering around them as the German U boats commenced to hunts in packs and destroy increasing numbers of the convoy ships and their escorts. Compass Rose had seen its sister Corvette destroyed.

I felt it important to end the reporting at the point when the ship had its greatest success bringing the German crew of the submarine as prisoners, including the defiant captain who declared their attack coming unexpectedly from behind was somehow unfair.

By the time the final parts of the books commenced with a summary of the war at sea in 1942,what was unfair was the wholesale slaughter of so many brave merchant men with their precious cargoes sent to the bottom of the sea. Germany, as the information emerged after the war ended, had started the year with a fleet of 260 U boats to which it was adding 20 more every month. It was able to deploy 100 submarines in the Atlantic at any one time with up to twenty for every convoy.

While the number of escort ships had increased with Frigates in addition to Corvettes and the navigation and detection equipment improved the loses became potentially catastrophic as 94 ships were sunk March with in May 125 and June 144 that is nearly five a day. Only 42 U boats sunk in first 7 months of that year and that is one every 4 to 5 days or twenty to twenty five allied ships to every one submarine.

The book having covered the passage of convoy across the Atlantic from Liverpool to Newfoundland and back, then switched to the route from Gibraltar, although there is no reference to life in the territory where my father remained to provide the services of a parish priest and keeper of the shrine of Our Lady of Europe as well as assisting in the administration of the church with the departure of the more than half the civilian population.

The story then moves to Scotland and the infamous Arctic route to Northern Russia. Here the problem was the ice and excessive cold which meant that crews were constantly attempting to clear the ice from working parts on deck in extreme unpleasant conditions. Anyone falling into the sea unless they were instantly removed frozen solid. Then there was the experience of visiting a Russian Port and the closed nature of the society to outsiders. The suspicion and tension was mutual although the importance of Russia maintaining the second front while the allies prepared to open the second was also appreciated. It was at this point issues of politics and cultures surfaced briefly and then again as the story was ending with a lecture about the origins and course of the war. Given the emphasis in the radio play on Politics with a capital P including a socialist viewpoint about the kind of society which could be expected after the war I was interested to see if this was included in the full original novel as it was not a subject covered in the film or the cadet edition of the book.

The course of the war lecture led to a question about the failure of the British to prepare for the war. The speaker provided the contemporary explanation that given what happened in the First World War it had not been unreasonable for the government to try everything to prevent another from taking place. In this I would have given my full support but with one significant exception, the lack of preparedness. By all means every action necessary to prevent another so called great war was desirable but at the time every effort should have also been made to ensure we would effectively deal with Germany should negotiations fail. Germany which had been secretly rearming and then took back control of the southern industrial areas was always in the vanguard in terms of war resources until the USA joined in and at first their preoccupation remained in the Pacific.

Their second ship, The Saltash, that of Ericson and Lockhart, also made a visit to the Unites States where they were regarded as Limeys and lumped in with the rest of Europe has having been weak and needed the might of American resources and men to be saved. Many Americans also presented an idealised version of their wives as mothers and of their daughters as models of virtue and innocence and which failed explain why the majority of American servicemen to the UK attempted to establish relationships with British women and girls whether they were married or not and the majority of British Naval and merchant men visiting the USA did the same, leading to many bar room brawls and public and private retaliations on both sides of the Atlantic.

During my first years as a social worker I had responsibilities for visiting a number of single women with children where the father and in some instances fathers were American Service men who had returned home without them, although several hundred girls had married and gone to live in the USA, but again a proportion of these had returned because the conditions in which they were expected to live and work were far from what they had been led to believe from years of watching Hollywood films and the talk of the their partners to be.

Before what must be regarded as the main event of whole book, the loss of the Compass Rose by torpedo Monsarrat builds up his narrative of the reality of the war at sea with descriptions of several incidents. A life boat arrives in the middle of the convoy appearing with only a lone steersman, long dead evidently determined to continue on a journey and this was the forerunner of a group of survivors in the water roped together only to found as skeletons upon close inspection and left as they were. And then there was the horror of the oil ship with the oil afire on board and surrounding sea making any rescue of the men impossible so there was nothing except watch them perish and then go on their convoy way

The sinking of the Compass Rose proved as bad, why should it have been otherwise, from all the sinkings they had witnessed over the years at sea. The explosion caused the only way from those below decks to escape becoming blocked except for where the ocean was pouring in. Nevertheless my impression is that half the crew managed to get into the water and on or around the two life rafts although unfortunately the life boat became snagged and could not be launched, Ericson leading one of the rafts and Lockhart the other did their best to keep the men conscious singing and recitations and stories, but during the night more men slopped into the sea and away from life leaving only a dozen who survived to be picked up with the dawn as one of the other escorts came looking.

Later Lockhart meets Ericson in the bar of a fashionable hotel in London after the captain had been on a visit to the Admiralty to learn his future having been promoted and gained a medal for sinking of the submarine and the capturing of its crew. There is amusing account of the reactions of his wife and mother in law as they attended the investiture with the mother in law complaining as ever, this time about the rush for best seats and why it took so long before Ericson was paraded in because of the Victoria Cross and other awards for individual courage and exceptional service. Ericson gained was but one of many awarded as captain for sinking a submarine over the course of the war. Lockhart he announced was also to get a stripe which meant he had become eligible to captain his own Corvette. Ericson was given a new Frigate as head of a Convoy protection team with six other ships and he wanted Lockhart as his number one, a role which Lockhart agreed to take without second thoughts.

The war, the loss of their ship had took its toll on both. Ericson with seven ships as well as the convoy to worry about became even more formal and detached from everyone than before. He confided that had the incident of the able seaman who stayed back to try and rescue his marriage occurred now he would have sentenced to confinement without further inquiry and after thought. Fighting the war, winning it had become a very professional matter.

Lockhart had been to see the wife of Morell only to find her entertaining one of the men in her life and seemingly puzzled by the visit of concern for her welfare from the husband's senior officer. He had also been to see the wife of Ferraby who had survived but had become even more a wreck of a human being than he had already displayed on their most recent long leave before the sinking. His baby daughter had become a child by then who understandably had taken time to appreciate her father before he went back to his post. Lockhart speculated about the future of such a young woman, and child in the new situation although she had been the basis from which Ferraby had survived in body if not in mind and according to the author would spend is life in an institution.

For Lockhart the emotion swept over him as he went to a concert at the National Gallery and he reflected on all the men who had not returned home and tears fell to an extent he felt obliged to leave. I understand this experience so well, on the day after my release from prison and return home, I had gone to central London to see the film Jazz on a Summers Day and purchased two gramophone records of music I had hear during my brief stay at Drake Hall Prison, a Beethoven Piano Sonata, the Moonlight and a Beethoven quartet. I had stood in the centre of Victoria station watching the rush hour crowds going back and forth unaware of the kind of experience I had endured, albeit of my own choice and making and gulf between the kind of world I thought it ought to be and the world as it was was such that I understood for the first time it was unbridgeable. The emotion was raw and uncomplicated. It was only with going to Ruskin and then my first appointment as a child care officer that the pain of previous experience became overlaid by the experiences if the then present.

The two men, Ericson and Lockhart then meet up again on the Clyde to repeat the process described at the beginning of a book with a new ship being fitted out and undergoing sea trials before commenced wartime duty. The crew is twice as big and so are the number of officers with twice as many plus a young midshipman from Eton. They even have their own doctor,a surgeon who asks how Lockhart managed using medical guides in the conditions of the Compass Rose. Lockhart comments on the men he had killed and is reassured by the new man.

There is also the ghost of Bennett, “snorkers good oh” when another of the officers arrives with the same speech and mannerisms. He knows of Bennett who is something of a hero back home, travelling the lecture circuit, boasting of his exploits when he took command as the Captain became incapacitated. The new officer is even more impressed when he learns the truth that the man is no hero,suggesting the author is making a comment about the Australian attitude to life as he had done in relation to the Yanks and the Russians. It was how the British viewed everyone else, then,

It is the new midshipman who draws the attention of Lockhart and the other officers to the presence of an attractive Wren officer at the Naval Operations centre. Lockhart visits and persuades the young woman to allow him into the Operations room to learn something of the recent and present broad state of the war at sea. This leads to putting in name on the “finishing” party on board the ship when it is ready to begin work. Because of his duties ensuring that all the guests are appropriately looked after and engaged. the Admiral and the staff officers, the ship builders and the captains and their officers under their command overall leadership of the convoy task force, he is unable to get close to the woman officer until towards the end, when she makes it clear she has explained to everyone that it is Lockhart who has arranged to see her home

Lockhart begins to rethink his position on forming any relationship during the wartime, a position which they discuss during their infrequent meetings over the subsequent months. But it does lead to a picnic when they are both able to relax out of uniform and then to a weekend away at a cottage in the wilds provided by a friend and where they become lovers for the first time and consider a future together. But this was only one of many things that are not to be as she is killed, drowned in a packet boat in a storm going from one side of the lock to the other in a part of the Clyde I came to know well in 1961 when helping to organise the Holy Loch demonstrations.

The Saltash was a very different ship to the Compass Rose in terms of fire power with three big guns, four double pom poms and a dozen machine guns added to which there was improved automated loading to enable continuous fire power. But the enemy was also using the dive bomber and release of airborne torpedoes so with the additional submarines, the threat remained just as strong.

The major event of this part of the war is when Ericson is not convinced that they have sunk a submarine when there is just oil and some debris which easily have been released to put them off the scent. He insists on commencing a search of area by area which as it continues creates doubt among his increasingly weary men. However his persistence pays and a submarine is identified and sunk although whether this is the same sub as before cannot be verified.

There is one final event of noteworthiness when they are asked to stay on station as the end of the war with Germany is announced and they are to accompany surrendering U boats in their area. This is a bitter sweet experience accepting that these men like themselves will now go back to their former lives and remembering their colleagues who did not live to see the day.

I cannot say I enjoyed this book, the film and the radio play, for to have done so would place the work as one of many works of fiction using this and other wars to tell a tale which interests and engages. This is a book of truth about war and the Sea, a cruel sea, because of it nature and because of war.

Forty years were to pass before British Naval Forces were to be deployed in war following the invasion by Argentina of the Falklands Islands and I suspect most people have no idea of the scale of naval forces that there deployed with four aircraft carriers whereas at the moment we have none. There were eight Destroyers with Sheffield and Glasgow sunk, one other hit by a missile and two by exploding bombs; fifteen Frigates, later versions of the Saltash with two sunk, one with major damage and others hit together with half a dozen Submarines with one sinking the Belgrano and over thirty other naval vessels together with three cruise liners, eight ferries, a host of tankers and supply ships, tugs, repairers and support craft. After Falklands British sea power was to be significantly reduced. In 2016 decisions will be taken on replacing the four Trident Nuclear Missile carrying submarines presently in operation. However the British Navy with its traditions remains an important and powerful presence.

2440 Easter in the Midlands

I am home after almost two weeks away for the second time this year although despite an excellent visit which I enjoyed very much it has ended in a most unsatisfactory manner as I have a streaming cold brought on from moving from back and forth from hot to cold, and which together with losing a remote for the garage door and then find I had bought the wrong black ink cartridges what started as a good day end somewhat disastrously.

So I shall try and look back remembering the positive experiences commencing with an early morning train journey from Newcastle to Newark North gate. I decided to pay the £3.20 Metro fee rather than wait until 9.30 and risk the rush to the platform for the 10,25. It proved he right decision because the train arrived on the platform around 9.30 and was ready for boarding just after 10am. I enjoyed a small Americano coffee as I had dome a couple of hours later the previous Thursday and assisted a young woman who was being seen off by her aunt and wanted to know which end of compartment E was her seat. I speculated if this yet to be another journey where I would have interesting encounters as occurred on my visit to Croydon the previous weekend.

I had been allocated an aisle sweat at a table at the opposite end of the compartment and was free only until Durham when I was joined opposite by two men, one a teacher, I suspect going to London for a union conference The fourth seat was taken up at Darlington but by then I earmarked on of two free seats on the other side of the carriage and with the second seat free throughout the journey. I took care to keep all my luggage close to hand and at Newark Northgate remembered to take the lift up to the cross track bridge and then the second lift down to exist where I was being met. There was an excellent lunch where I opted for a stew with unlimited vegetables and a glass of Pepsi before heading to Travel Lodge where I was allocated a familiar room with a flat screen television and remote only to find that I had left the connect cable at home. I also forgotten to bring an extension cable to checking that there was time to take the bus into Mansfield centre and go in search.

The bus stop was only a short walk in the cold air from the Travel Lodge and with a selection of four buses taking the five to ten minute direct route to the bus station by the Four Seasons shopping centre which I had visited once before when I thought I lost a mobile phone, only to find it had slipped under the carpet of he back seat of my car over six months later. A walk around the main shops and then in the revealed no where likely to provide the items but having seen what appeared to be a second centre the other side of the bus station I made my way to find a large Argos store opened until late on the Thursday evening.

The connect cable was expensive given that I had two already at home rather like the SCART leads where I seem to have several and where a different kind of cable now connects the Blue ray DVD Played and Sky box to the TV for 3 D and HD films. However the extension cable for the Sleep Apnoea machine was on discount and both will now be kept in case to ensure they are available for future trips. The next planned in May is also to Croydon and London for the cricket at the Oval when Durham play Surrey.

Returning to the bus station I noted that its days are numbered as on the 1^st of April the new station located close to the railway station, and some three minutes away is to open. The existing station appeared more than adequate to me although the waiting area is covered it also open to the weather on one side whereas the new centre has a fully enclosed waiting area space as I was driven past at one point.

For the evening I eat the three small rolls I had baked early filled with pate and a few pimento olives. There was a few dried digs and pieces of liquorice to finish and I also had a mushroom cuppa soup instead of coffee. I was ready for sleep early but was disturbed by the constant banging of a door which I subsequently discovered involved two teenagers with their parents in rooms either side of the corridor. After I remonstrated the noise ceased and I was able to have a good overall sleep.

The following morning I made my way back into Mansfield for a coffee and toast at Debenham’s after using the two £1 boots vouchers for responding to the Daily TV and radio survey exchange as part payment for two packs of the shop brand of digestion tablets.

The subsequent intention was to walk in Clumber or Rufford Park. It was colder than anticipated and the walking comprised a visit op the Roast Buffet restaurant where coffee was drank until the food was ready at midday. The road was satisfactory but the vegetable choice limited and the cost comparatively expensive but given the circumstances the meal was appreciated. Every two years one of the local dance studios puts on a show at the Palace Theatre In Mansfield and in the evening I made my third visit. The studios takes pre school children through dance examinations including the General certificate level school examination. This was only one of three similar studios performing at the Theatre over the Easter period. My information is that the studio premises is rectangular whereas the stage at the Palace Theatre is more square which does create some problems adjusting routine and coupled with the atrocious weather over the past weeks this has prevented many students from attending all the practice sessions and couple with attempting to included all the students in one or more performances I thought that overall the show failed to match the previous two although saying this the overall level of performance is remarkable given that the young people attend classes outside of the full range of school activities, other interests and their family lives. I particular enjoyed the grand finale which included several big band swing numbers including Sing Sing Sing made famous by the Benny Goodman band and Gene Krupa’s drum solos in particular,

Given that the school provides classes in traditional dance-the ballet, the modern which comes under the umbrella of Jazz and Street, plus tap dancing and theatrical where singing is added the cost of attending plus providing for the multi costume changing is significant especially if parents decide to send more than one of their children to the activity. It is not just the poor who are being accepted by the policies of the Coalition government in terms of welfare benefit reforms with the loss of the child allowance part of the family credit for those in the middle class together with the controls on public sector incomes and significant reduction in public sector jobs.

I introduce this aspect because yesterday on April the 1^st, traditionally April Fools day, marked the start of the bedroom tax where those living in public funded social housing had their income reduced for every bedroom of a certain size regarded as unoccupied and where there was also a reduction related to Council tax although generally the level has been maintained which means that although there has been a freeze on wages with a maximum 1% overall for the coming year with also pressure for authorities and agencies to hold back on incremental increases where pay scales are in operation, the outcome has been severe reductions in some services as well as reducing the managerial and supervisory levels which always is to the significant detrimental impact on quality.

I visited the Subway adjacent to the Travel Lodge for breakfast less and one morning the breakfast comprised half a chocolate Easter egg although I did have two rounds of toast with coffee on the motor way journey home which came around £4.50 more that the cost of a McDonald’s Chicken sandwich meal which included a coffee rather than soft drink enjoyed not once but on successive evenings at the branch across the way from the Travel Lodge.

There was an added bonus because the company has reintroduced its Monopoly Board give way with literally millions of prize. In addition to the buy six get one free coffee stickers the coffee and the French Fries have additional stickers added and these provided instant prizes which yielded two apple pies (99p) each and one fruit bad fresh grapes and apple slices and a breakfast porridge carton where I assume the normal cost is similar, In addition one collects monopoly prizes which includes weekend breaks, and more expensive holiday and 3D TV’s. However given the limited number of these prizes most people will have to settle for the freebies. In addition to those mentioned there is a third category of award made available to everyone who registers on line and then enters the code of individual properties. I have not completed this task but so far there has been a 20% discount for Raleigh cycles, a free swimming lesson, 20% of other purchases as yet unidentified as the voucher has to be printed out and a free printing of digital photos for the cost of postage although this appears too good to be so.

The highlight of Easter Sunday was a visiting in the city centre of Nottingham to watch the Nottingham Panthers Ice Skating team beat the Fife Flyers in the second leg of the quarter finals of the play offs competition at the cities FM arena. I have a vague recollection of being taken to an ice rink to watch while other relatives went on the ice and noting how cold it was and to gaining the impression that this was professional sport pone to fights and rough stuff and where decisions and results were often questionable.

Having said that when Sir John Hall attempted to establish the idea of general sporting club attached to Newcastle United with sponsorship of both the local Basketball and Ice Hockey team I know a former colleague switch his time and money from Sunderland AFC because the enjoyed the atmosphere and also the winnings. There is no longer a Newcastle Ice Hockey team. The team was originally based in Durham, the Durham Wasps and then appears in various guises and continued despite financial difficulties up until 2011-2012 season.

There is now no club in the north east with Hull and Sheffield from Yorkshire, Belfast, Northern Ireland, four from Scotland and one from Wales and another the Midlands Coventry. There arr teams playing at Ice Rink include the Whitley Bay Warriors and also matches between Universities There are teams Notting playing at all levels with the National Ice Skating centre built next to the FM arena.

I enjoyed the game in which the Panthers showed the great individual skills and team play although for long periods they were held by the opposition who came tot eh second leg 4 goals to 2 in the lead but the Panther went to the semi finals and possibly the final next weekend winning 5.4 aggregate. I noted that the given the small size of goalmouth and heavily protected goalie it was difficult for anyone to score with a direct shot coming at the goalkeeper and that the hat appeared the only way to score is to create a situation where one players appeared to be bearing on the goalie to shoot but was able to accurately pass to another player able to immediately hit the small puck into the goal before the goalie had time to turn.

So I am back full of cold and I have spent the first day watching TV and sleeping with little inclination to write. Yesterday was little better and today Thursday I have attended to more which I hope to report before the week ends

2439 The reality of the Cruel Sea II

I commenced to read the second part of reading the Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat on my train journey from Newcastle to London King Cross a week ago, dividing the three hours between the books and reading the material for P L A C E visits. It is now Thursday 28^th March 2013 and I am at Newcastle station once more on a train to Kings Cross although I will be alighting this time at Newark Northgate spending Easter in the Midlands and staying at the Mansfield.

 

In the first part of the book the reader is introduced to the officers and some of the crew of Compass Rose, a British Royal Navy Corvette, hurriedly designed and built for convoy escort work in the north Atlantic. We are taken through the process of commissioning and sea trials and the escort journey as the crew discovers the difficulty of accommodating eighty men in the cramped ship, no more than a large trawler, as she rolled in the ocean rough with water splashing in everywhere or condensation from the close quartering of men and supplies for war and for body.

 

The only experienced officer is Ericson, the captain, with experience of the Royal Navy and of Merchant shipping making him the ideal individual to attempt to shepherd convoys from the prowling sea serpents in the form of the German submarine. His home is Liverpool but he had mixed reactions on learning that their ship was to base in the port such was his appreciation of the demands of command in war. During the year covered by part 2 although his sea going son was also based in the city port they were never to meet.

 

The bane of everyone’s life was Bennett the number 1, second in command, just as inexperienced as the rest but gaining seniority because of his age and the ability to project himself through the confidence of being a former salesman. He loved tinned sausages which he selected for breakfast, lunch or tea at least once a day. There were two subs, Lockhart who had sailed a boat on the Solent, a free lance journalist writer who had mixed in what he describes as a bohemian world and who had experience of relationships with women but now knew it was wrong to engage in a new relationship until the war ended. His views as those of the husbands and wives who remained loyal to their partners during the long years of separation were much more common than more recent generations.

 

The second sub Ferraby was a very different man inexperienced of the sea and of life although newly married. He had jumped at the opportunity to train as an officer but quickly found the process of giving orders to experienced seamen as well as other novices, a challenge which he repeatedly failed to meet to his own and the satisfaction of his colleague. As in life outside the Services the weak have a tendency to attract the attention of the bully and in the close confines of small ship the bullying and the exploitation can become relentless. He had wanted to move his wife up to Liverpool but Bennett refused to pass his request to the captain.

 

As in the film and radio play a fourth officer was to appear before the departure of Bennett for a suspected duodenal ulcer. Morrell also married, to an independently minded minor actress, Morell had the measure of Bennett and new how to put him down without being insubordinate. It was Lockhart who expressed concern at way Bennett treated Ferraby arguing that instead of constantly picking on the young man words of encouragement would help to bring confidence. Such was the expression of dissent that Bennett insisted on putting him on report to the Captain who tried to defuse and then side step confrontation, supporting his deputy as the service code dictated but refusing to go beyond a reprimand as Bennett requested.

 

Bennett had spent his leave picking up a woman of the night at the hotel in which they stayed although I cannot remember if this is the same woman who he brought to the Christmas Party before their first convoy venture. She had his measure too.  It was also Bennett who when they returned from leave made the infamous remark about Morell and Ferraby having left a bun in the oven which provoked gasps in the cinemas given era when it was  first released..

 

But the initial focus of the second part of the story was not any of the officers but Tallow who lived with his sister Gladys at 29 Dock Road and who the first leave when half the ships company were granted six days he brought with him his friend Chief Watts from the engine room. Gladys had been widowed four years previously and quickly struck a friendship with the chief a mild mannered man who went off for a drink with her brother while she prepared them some tea. It was a year later when the two returned from one of many convoys that they were given shore leave along with those who had family or loved ones after the news that Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside had been blitzed for more than a week and they feared the worst when the phone to warn of their arrival was not answered. The street was badly damaged with so many died that the Mayor and Corporation had attended the mass grave burial. She would have known and felt nothing was the attempt to soften the horror of what had happened.

 

There was irony for these men had by then become accustomed to the prospect of being sunk once the fall of France had occurred and the German Navy was able to use French Dutch and Belgium ports for its submarines and its fighter escorts were also based along coastal airfields. There had been no meeting the enemy on those first convoys and no convoy ships sunk only finding that the corvette rolled its innards out when the water was rough and they were more often than not. Then the first ships was lost and less than a third of its crew survived and by the time of the second year they were losing up to a third of a convoy as the submarines commenced to hunt in packs. They became sued to sending out a boat to pick up the survivors while they went in vain search of the submarine before returning for the boat and then to bury those who did not survive and were recovered. Sometimes a ship would just exploded or split in two before sinking within seconds and as the author comments men learned quickly how to die without making a fuss.  This will have been true for some, but only some I suspect a comfort for families and loved ones left behind, as with Gladys someone on hand to declare she did not know anything, she did not therefore suffer

 

They all learned how to cope with the four hours on and then off, barely sleeping but knowing that when on duty they were required to function at their best, especially in storms when the convoy was dispersed on fogs when there was risk of collision so the normal zig zag pattern had to be abandoned. It was Bennett who was found out, eventually, and who got himself out of the service. He managed to  spend most of his Watch hiding from wind and the cold checking on the asdic or using some other excuse and delegation to others as a means of escaping the elements

 

His departure had a bonus for Lockhart who was made up to Number 1 as they had to depart before a replacement could be found. He had already been promoted to Lieutenant on Ericson’s recommendation so after assuring the captain he could cope and doing well on the first convoy in the new role, the appointment was confirmed.

 

 

We also learned of the problems which Morell was to encounter when he returned home to find that his wife had carried on leading the same social life as hen he had been with her before enlistment. He wanted to spend time with her quietly recovering at home but she wanted to be out eating, and partying on every night. She seemed to know people mainly men everywhere they went and one telephoned to enquire if she would soon bring her great body to wherever he was. An instead of showing any interest in what his experience was like she only commented that he had only one stripe and not three.

 

Worse was to come for Morell during the long leave while the ship underwent a major refit but before then we learned another lesson of war. This concerns another crew member, Able Seaman Gregg, who failed to report for duty having gone ashore during a period of leave before their first convoy of 1941. There was surprise at his failure because he was considered a dependable crew member and that he had missed his ship entirely when on active duty was a very serious charge. That he offered no explanation but was prepared to take whatever punishment the captain ordered was something that neither the Captain or Lockhart was prepared to accept without making some effort to establish the cause.

 

His story and that of Morell was to become one familiar during the war, of those who when parted from their loved ones for any length of time find it difficult to resist the opportunity of a relationship should such a circumstance arise, and there have and are likely to always remain men willing to approach a woman even though she wears a wedding ring who he fancies. Admittedly there are also some women, more now than then who do not need much persuasion whether their partner is long away or not should opportunity come their way, but in general it is some men, not all who are on the constant look out for an opportunity.

 

In this first instance Gregg returned home early to discover a vehicle outside his home and the lights on upstairs. There was an attempt on the part of the couple to bluff their way out of the situation and then remorse and promises which might have been sufficient for the man to have returned to sea, but before he was due his wife disappeared and he went in search only to eventually find her abandoned once a pregnancy was established, and so being dependable he had agreed to take the woman back and make the child his. His reason for silence had been the wish that nothing of the circumstances would get the other ratings which would normally have proved the situation if recounted during the official hearing before the captain. Because the captain arranged for Lockhart to question in private it was possible to conduct the official hearing in such away that these details were not exposed and for the captain to order a punishment which void custody. This was not to prove a blessing in disguise.

 

But as I say he was not alone among the ship’s company as I have already hinted that the actress wife of Morell did not restrict her active social life while he was away or when he returned. But it was only on the long period ashore during the full refit and she had gained a part in along running production in the Westend, and she made excuses why she had to go off for some evening meal or to some party without him as a means of securing her acting future and the ardour of her passion disappeared that the dark thoughts arose and lingered.

 

And then the reality, the horror, the full nature of the war hit them. The hunting packs of submarines grew larger and the number of sinking increased despite the gaining greater Navy support for the convoys they now went to meet off Gibraltar.  First their sister Corvette, which had travelled with them from the beginning, The Sorrel had gone with only a handful of survivors including the Captain fund on the raft nestling a dead rating who he had attempt to help survive the night before the rescue party arrived.

 

And then there was what was to become their second or third darkest moment of the war although when it happened for the captain in particular and also for Lockhart who as number 1 became responsible for the Asdic and advising on the nature of object thrown up on the screen. It was when they were going to rescue men from sunk cargo vessel that Lockhart was certain there was a submarine below and Lockhart the Captain made the decision to drop the depth charges only for their to be no sign of the enemy afterwards, only the dead of their own. Afterwards two of the previously rescued captains, tried to bring comfort but for Ericson the war had changed and that Lockhart said his was the greater responsibility failed to help. They had done what had to be done and for them there was not even the knowledge that they had saved countless others by getting the submarine.

 

But worse was to come when the ship with a party of wrens some 20 who they had seen taking air on deck was sunk but worse still was when those rescued were also killed when their second ship went down.

 

Then their engine had to be repaired to avoid a complete breakdown and they sat motionless and alone listening to hammering as they felt sure would any submarine coming their way. Then as they strove to catch up the convoy they spotted something on the radar and as they approached the coning tower of an enemy submarine could be seen trailing the convoy and waiting for the night to attack. They had manage to fire couple of shots before the sub dived but they were quickly upon it with depth charges as the pinging grew louder and quicker.  They watched as the U boat rose to the surface and there was an element of surprise when someone fire back at them from the machine gun so their two pounder was then even quicker in its response. They watched as the U boat crew swam towards them, their craft doomed.

 

The German captain was held separate in Erickson’s cabin and was none to please by the greeting of Heil Hitler saying he had been taken by surprise and by implication that Ericson’s tactics had been somehow unfair. Ericson warned the guard that the prisoner was dangerous and that if he made any move to shoot him. After burying the one man of their crew killed by the machine gun and one of the German who had also not survived Erickson commented of he enemy that they looked a scruffy lot and said to Lockhart, I think we ought to win the war, don’t you?”

2438 Journey to Croydon and visits to Wallington, Mitcham, Wimbledon, Waterloo and the Millennium Dome

I do not have the time before making my third visit of the year to provide a considered account of my short visit to Croydon, Wallington, Wimbledon and the Millennium Dome experienced in artic conditions, including one blizzard. True the visit cannot compare with visits made to the Olympic and Paralympic games last summer but the experience was of interest and enjoyable apart from the walk to find an oriental buffet restaurant on the Sunday morning.

 

The greater part of two days was taken up with private talk with three relatives but I did see the prequel to the Wizard of Oz- Oz The Great and Powerful in 3 D and a viewing of one of the last showings of Les Miserables advertised in London. There were three very good meals, some reading and a little television and several noteworthy encounters with strangers.

 

Thursday morning was sunshine bright when I set off and the weather was such that I took the decision to turn off the central heating having kept it on low throughout the two weeks I was away over Christmas and the New Year, and again over the long weekend visit for my birthday.

 

On the walk to the Metro station I went around the green on the hill rather then crossing diagonally because of the steps, loaded as I was with the case, the rucksack and the Sleep Apnoea machine. I noticed, a young woman in dark glasses because of the sunshine taking the route I would normally, with another young woman exercising her dog and as the two paths converged so did I with the young woman in the dark glasses and unexpectedly she smiled and asked if I was going anywhere interesting. I do not recollect having previously identified the same person from my street or having previously encountered on the hill and while greetings of the day or comments on the weather are passed between strangers I could only think it was someone whose home I called upon in relation to the subsidence in the back lane. Later realised I must have looked similar to those men (and some women of the street, who carry all their possession  in a shopping bag trolley loaded with other bags and who dress for  being outside, including sleeping in all weather, with wool hat, gloves as well as coat and good walking shoes or boots.

 

I found myself telling her where I was going and what I would be doing as well as having a short return before going off again and afterwards debated whether this had been wise. She said she would pray for God to be with me so on balance I decided that she spent her day attempting to put into practice her spiritual beliefs and I was one of many with whom she spoke.

 

I enjoyed a coffee at the station after eating the three small roles I had baked earlier, filled with a Belgian Pate and a few olives with pimento. I watched a train for London arrive on platform 3 shortly after 11.30 which surprised as the 11.58 I was taking was scheduled for platform 4. My first reaction was that the train would turn round platforms for the noon train which meant there would be opportunity to find a good seat and store luggage at leisure. Alas I was mistaken for this was the 12.25 to Kings Cross, a train which I could have booked but at twice the cost of my selected ticket.

 

The consequence of the train from Scotland arriving was that everyone rushed to get on and could find nowhere to place their luggage with my case close to an exit door, the Sleep Apnoea machine in a vacant space on the luggage rack some distance from my seat and my seat part of twosome at the aisle and not a table. It also took sometime to reach my seat because of people coming in both directions However the journey was a good one with only stops at Darlington and York.

It was always a gamble to arrange a trip to London in March although for the past two years the weather in March and April had proved better than most weeks of the summer, especially two years ago when the sun shone hot at the start of the Cricket season and I sat in shirt sleeves, proclaiming how good it was to be alive. Having paid the accommodation and travel in advance I took the decision to make the journey.

 

I attempted to retrieve my luggage before the train reached Kings Cross only to locate but after going up and down the carriage several times I could not see the Sleep Apnoea machine bag. I had to wait until the last person left the carriage and saw the machine covered by a coat and the luggage of the last passenger a middle aged man on his own and I wondered if he had seen the orphan lap top looking bag and hoped it was unclaimed. I was too relieved to challenge his failure to alert me.

 

At St Pancras I topped up my Oyster Travel card with £20 and did not have to wait long for the next cross rail train to Brighton. It was cold when I left the station at East Croydon for the short downhill walk to the Travel Lodge. At booking in I asked if a flat screen TV was available but I was advised that they had no way of knowing which rooms had one. It was agreed I would go back if not successful which I did. Unfortunately the next room did not and I had to make do with a traditional set.

 

For the evening meal I purchased some chicken wings from Waitrose, four pain au chocolat, and a Ben and Jerry chocolate and fudge tub of ice cream for £1.69, (£1.50 at Asda). I turned the heating on the electric convector fire to the maximum.  Lunch was the Toby Inn in Mitcham where mine host had lost a great deal of weight and clearly had a health problem from which he made a recovery. From the bus stop we crossed the grass because of the driving sleet finding the round muddy, taking the path way round on the return journey. I enjoyed a beef roast dinner with a mountain of vegetables and shared the free chocolate fudge sundae, free for my birthday, normally £3.98 so it was a good gift.

 

On my journey to Wallington I had missed both the direct buses the 154 and 157 and waited in the cold as three other buses all with longer routes and different stops came and went. Then the 154 and 157 came together and I checked which was direct and which went round the former London overspill estate on the former site Croydon Airport, Roundshaw Park. Because of the threat of heavy rain I was advised to catch the 454 single decks bus which although went round the islands, as the expression goes, but stopped just before the Travel Lodge. What I did not appreciate was just how around the island we would travel. First there was the circuit around the Roundshaw Park estate but it did means passing the new St Elphege School. I say new although it is at least four decades since it moved from Demesne Road, now a day nursery, to its present location and where the school did not bring its records although I cannot believe that they were destroyed.

 

The bus then went down Beddington Lane from the Plough Inn to the ASDA supermarket where it turned around and then did of the local industrial and commercial factory area close to Mitcham before stopping lose to the Ikea store at the end of Purley Way and then heading for Croydon Ampere Way, Waddon, stopping at Reeves Corner, West Croydon Bus station and Katherine Street my stop. Along the journey were more than twice as long than necessary I enjoyed visiting familiar and some unfamiliar areas of my heritage.  I crossed over the road to Sainsbury where cheese twists were purchased for the morning, a sandwich and a chocolate bar for the evening meal which I enjoyed with some soup.

 

Snow was falling heavily elsewhere and although I was committed to visiting the Millennium Dome I was not sure that my relatives would be able to make the journey from the country to the station for the journey to Waterloo.

 

Saturday morning was cold with snow falling and settling but nothing like as bad as the Whiteout encountered travelling home from Mansfield and although I missed the next available train to London Bridge I was able to get a direct train with a change of platform a few minutes later. As on my journey to Croydon I noted the extent of new and converted building going on south of the station along the railway tracks.

 

I like Waterloo station where trains go to Teddington, Richmond and Kingston reminding of the three years I lived at Teddington, came to know Richmond, Twickenham and Brentford/Chiswick as well as Hampton Court and Kingston and the route from there to Cheam, Sutton and Wallington. The station remains busy despite its loss as the start of the Channel Tunnel High Speed trains which have moved to St Pancras. It was too old to sit so I moved around looking in Smith, noting the restaurants with one public. Time was taken for coffee when my relative arrived and then the short journey by the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich.

 

There was no security check at the Dome although security guards with dogs were noted. After showing the layout the focus was the Oriental buffet which was deserted on arrival and only had half a dozen table customers when le around 2.15 for the cinema. I managed three plates in the hour and half of the three hour midday slot attended and one sweet bowl. It proved a well balanced mixture with a first plate of meat appetisers, then some deep fried prawns, chicken and noodles in various sauces including chilli, then five deep fried crab claws and a number of pieces of chicken in different forms. Finally two scoops of chocolate ice, one of vanilla over which was piled some fresh fruit and some tinned fruit salad. The account for two plus drinks was £20. Coming out of the cinema between five and six a transformation had occurred with thousands of people making their way to the arena eateries and bars including the Sky before for a performance of The Script. There were fifty plus queues waiting to enter the twenty or so restaurants in the main thoroughfare inside the dome but fewer queuing in the open air for the restaurants situation at the of bottom offices blocks on the between  the station, the river and the Dome. With the coloured lights shining brightly the atmosphere inside the Dome had been transformed. There was a similarity between the black and white opening of the original Wizard of Oz film, and the Prequel and our morning arrival changing to the glorious digital colouring of afternoon film and the sense that the place had come alive as we left. 

 

Returning to Croydon  taking the Teddington train from Waterloo to Clapham Junction and then a crowded standing all the way coastal train ending at Portsmouth and Southsea but with a first stop at East Croydon, where I made do with soup and a couple of hot cross buns, some dried figs and liquorice.

 

My morning was leisurely and I decided to investigate if the oriental buffet option close to the Travel Lodge was opening for Sunday lunchtime. The place looked closed closed although there had been a Sunday noon time opening. Possibly the lack of trade and weather was a factor. I decided to investigate if there was another in the main restaurant area in South Croydon.  There are some sixty establishments on the walk from the Travel Lodge down George Street, along the High passing the Grants complex and along the South End where there is a greater variety of food cultures including the Beirut. There was one other Oriental Buffet which was decidedly closed closed. The quality and price range was also significant from the sandwich bars and takeaways to those where a two course with drinks before and coffee for two would cost between forty and fifty. I passed the site of the Davis Theatre now apartments but could not remember the location of the Grand.  On the way back I considered the Wetherspoons at Grants but this was already packed out and decided that unless I fancied something else I would settle for the one in George Street. It was bitterly cold, was it cold!

 

At the restaurant I secured a table for four with a comfy bench seat against the wall in the far corner where I enjoyed a half roast chicken with a good range of vegetables and a pint of Carling Black Label for £7- £6.95 to be precise. I thawed out fortunately as I missed the next tram to Wimbledon and explored the Alders Arcade now given over to eateries but with wind howling down there were few customers for the seating although some hardy souls had come to purchase and take away. I was able to peak in at the now empty Alders store closed after 150 years for the second time and one suspects permanently.

 

 

The journey to Wimbledon involved going round the Reeves corner site where the insurance claim is still to be settled and the neighbouring shops are still bordered up. There was and remains something odd about what happened here and the protracted negotiations over a settlement.

 

As the on board announcer constantly reminded it is essential to swipe the Oyster card before getting on the tram as the route ends as part of the Wimbledon Underground and Railway station and if you just swipe on departure you are charged the full underground rate.  For the second occasion I forgot the location of the Odeon Cinema where one of the last showings of Les Miserables was taking place just before 3pm I was tempted to go for a coffee at the adjacent Morrisons supermarket but decided to book the ticket to ensure an aisle seat.

 

The young pretty assistant at the ticket desk then said “You come from Mansfield? I come from Mansfield but in a in a mid European perhaps Polish accent. I had obtained the Odeon cinema points card on one of my rare visits to the cinema there several years before and by coincidence had exchange some of my accumulated points for a free ticket on last visit to see Song for Marion on my birthday. The young woman added that she had never met anyone from Mansfield since coming to London. I checked and a queue was forming so I resisted asking her why she had come to London forgetting to look on her hand to see if there was a ring or rings. However she asked about the book I was carrying, The Cruel Sea, which so far I had not made time to read further since the train journey south. I first briefly explain how I cam from London, lived in the North East but obtained the card in Mansfield where I stayed several times a year and then something of what I knew about the Cruel Sea. She added that her best friend still lived in the town.

 

I went over to the Morrisons and although there was no café they had a coffee machine. I then purchased two packs of roast beef sandwiches at half price and one of prawn mayonnaise, a packet of crisps, a bounty bar and three Eccles cakes for the price of 2, cheap at £1. I returned to the cinema for a read of the local free paper and to keep warm before the film commenced. My ticket was an anywhere seat but there were also bookable premium seats indistinguishable from the rest as far as I could see.  I sat in the wrong seat and had to move with cinema almost full. Behind me there were two rows of seating which looked different from the rest and which I assume were the premium seats. There were only a couple of people in the end row so I risked sitting at the aisle more comfortable and with a better view. I therefore had opportunity to enjoy the film in almost perfect conditions. 

 

I enjoyed an Eccles cake back at the cinema and one in the evening with sandwiches. I also had the Bounty Bar at the cinema and the crisps in the evening, with the third Eccles cake and second lot of sandwiches for breakfast which was leisurely as I did not have to leave until around 11.30 for the 1.30 train to Newcastle. There was time for another hot shower to brace against the continuing sharp winds.  At the station I missed the 11.45 as I reached the platform so with 17 mins before the next there was time for a small Americano at £1.95 it was disappointingly not hot.

 

The cross rail train is no stop to London Bridge where I did not initially notice a woman enter to see her face but she was struggling with her luggage and getting it placed out of the passage way between seats at the allotted was space was already full including with case and bag, I clutched the Sleep Apnoea machine to me as I would for the rest of the journey. As she had grey and white hair, admittedly longer than usual and was small in build and stature I assumed she was old and frail so I went to her aid only to discover she was less than 25 and making a fashion or identity statement. I guess.             

 

My last encounter with a stranger was disturbing at the time and since. At King Cross I noticed the area waiting before the departure notice boards was unusually crowded with the explanation that passengers were held back on Trains to Scotland and to Sunderland until 5 minutes before scheduled leaving and the train to Leeds was being cancelled. The cause was some trackside problem requiring attention. I therefore made my way through the ticket barriers and position against a wall close to the main exit from the first five platforms and where two empty East Coast Trains were being leaned and prepared from fresh journeys. As I waited I noted a hunched figure of what appeared to be a well dressed woman with her head in her hands turned towards the barrier. She did not appear to move. She was possible a druggy asleep and out of the cold but given that she was well dressed in quality and warm what if my assessment was wrong. There were station personnel close by and other walking by but they were concentrating on tasks to hand. A train arrived on the end platform and several hundred passengers alighted some making for the exit barriers where she was sitting. No one went to enquire. I decided to approach a group of four station staff and one went over to investigate. My worst dears appeared justified as although he bent down towards her and was talking. She did not appear to move.  After what seemed several minutes and   communicating via  a radio a wheel chair arrived and the staff helped what appeared to be a semi conscious woman  on the chair and away. As an ambulance had not be called or the police my first assumption may have proved correct. The woman was at least in her thirties. I would never know her circumstances and if my intervention had been for the good or not. I have written to Network rail but do not anticipate a helpful reply.

 

Although the train was crowded with few vacant seats I was lucky in getting the window seat and having the aisle seat unoccupied except for between York and Darlington where I enjoyed a conversation about the weather and the economy which centred on South Shields. However before Doncaster we were held up for about three quarters of an hour because of trackside repairs. This entitles to fifty percent rebate on ticket paid but nothing was said to passengers or the extent of the delay. Reimbursement is available in the form of travel vouchers on line.

 

Back home the house was OK, the pipes were not frozen and the Cricket season ticket arrived. The snow had kept away but cold winds remained artic.