Kleber's Convoy (3 page)

Redman assumed the torpedo to be acoustic and acted instantly. The running time would be under a minute. When
Vengeful
completed her turn he steadied the ship on the HE bearing and ordered, ‘Fire one – set shallow.' Seconds later the depth-charge exploded astern of the ship. He at once called, ‘Starboard twenty. Stop engines. Anything on radar along that HE bearing?'

‘No, sir' said Wilson, the officer-of-the-watch.

The buzzer from the quarterdeck sounded, followed by the voice of the gunner (T), ‘Torpedo passing astern.'

From the wing of the bridge Redman saw in the fading light the tell-tale track crossing the ship's wake. It was less than fifty yards astern, turning away, making for the
turbulence
created by the depth-charge. The torpedo's acoustic device had locked on to the noise of the explosion just in time. Redman sighed with relief and informed
Bluebird
by TBS. Mountsey immediately ordered the group to stop engines. They've already done it, thought Redman, as the escort commander's cheerful voice added, ‘Thanks for
passing
us your hot potato.' Not long afterwards they heard the torpedo explode at the end of its run.

In
Bluebird
Mountsey was looking at the chart of the Minches, doing some quick thinking. The U-boat somewhere south of
Vengeful
was probably a loner. Several had been reported in the Irish Sea close to the Minches. But it might be a trap. An attempt to draw escorts to the south of Loch Ewe. U-boats waiting to the north would then be freer to deal with the merchant ships as they came out. This was the first time Mountsey had experienced an attack on leaving Loch Ewe. It was by no means unusual at the other end,
outside the Kola Inlet But not here. It might be a new tactic. To play safe he assumed it was. Over the TBS he ordered
Vengeful
and
Violent
to hunt the U-boat while the remainder of the group continued the A/S sweep over the ground to be covered by the convoy.

‘Can't spare you for long,' he said. ‘Try for a quick flush. Rejoin in thirty minutes if no joy.' He then reported the contact to C-in-C Western Approaches. The operations room there would decide whether to call on coastal command for aircraft. With a ten-tenths sky, cloud ceiling almost zero and heavy rain, Mountsey didn't think aircraft could do much.

Vengeful
was the senior ship. As Redman ordered
Violent
to take station a mile on his port beam, the buzzer from the asdic cabinet sounded. ‘Plot gives one-nine-five as probable bearing of U-boat's firing position.' It was Groves reporting.

‘Steer one-nine-five,' ordered Redman. ‘One-five-oh,
revolutions
.' Then to the asdic cabinet, ‘Carry out normal sweep.' He went to the chart-table in the wing of the bridge. Pownall was plotting the ship's position. Redman waited impatiently. Every minute counted. ‘Shake it up, Pilot,' he urged. He knew he was being unfair but couldn't contain his irritation.

‘We're here, sir.' Pownall made room for him under the screen, pointing with his pencil. ‘Three-two-one, Rubha Reidh, five-point-two miles.'

Globules of rain fell on to the chart from the sleeves of their oilskins. Pownall dabbed at the damp patches with a towel.

‘Good. He'll have dived immediately after firing. Sliding away south now on electric motors. Making for deep water.' Redman screwed up his eyes, concentrating on the chart. ‘Down in that long reach towards Rona. Outside the
fifty-fathom
line.'

Pownall was silent, weighing what the captain had said. It was not in his nature to agree out of politeness. Nor did he like being told to ‘shake it up' when he was plotting a position. But he knew the captain was tired and that
allowance
had to be made for occasional outbursts.

‘Yes, sir,' he said eventually. ‘I think that's possible.'

‘Probable,' snapped Redman. ‘He won't go north into a pack of escorts. He wants to stay alive.' Redman stared at the chart, deep in thought. ‘Tell the plot to assume a course of one-eight-oh, speed six knots. Where does that put him now?'

While Pownall spoke to the plot Redman looked at his watch: 1437. Three minutes since the firing of the torpedo. The destroyers were doing fifteen knots. The U-boat was somewhere within half a mile if his assumptions were correct. He went to the forepart of the bridge. ‘Steer one-eight-five. One hundred revolutions.' The yeoman passed the new course and speed to
Violent
by TBS, adding, ‘Captain thinks U-boat's making for the deep water towards Rona.'

Jackie Dixon,
Violent
's Royal Naval Reserve captain, said, ‘Probably. Cheeky bastard joining the party uninvited like that.'

Redman heard him on the bridge-speaker and sighed. He wished he had Jackie Dixon's temperament. The light-hearted approach to war was the only one that made sense. Yet Redman knew it was impossible for him. Was it a façade or did it really all seem rather fun to Jackie?

Minutes went by. For the men on the bridge the
ping
of the asdic dominated all other sounds. The wind freshened, bringing squalls of rain from the south-west, wet grey curtains drenching the bridge and upper deck. Visibility was down to half a mile at times and
Violent
would be lost in the mist. But the PPI Showed her in station as the destroyers moved south, their ships' companies closed up at anti-submarine action stations; ASCO's and their operators hunched over asdic sets, concentrated and alert; depth-charge parties
standing
by the throwers and chutes, charges primed, itching to fire them; gun's crews at their guns hoping desperately to see a submarine surface.

There was tension and a high degree of alertness in both ships but an underlying cynicism. The attack had come too soon, too unexpectedly. Only a handful of men in
Vengeful
had seen the torpedo track though in both ships the terminal explosion had been heard, but even that many believed to be just another depth-charge.

At least on
Vengeful
's and
Violent
's bridges it was known there
was
a U-boat. It was known, too, that it might at any moment fire another acoustic torpedo from its stern tube. In the asdic cabinets the operators were listening for HE –the hydrophone effect which would give warning of this.

Redman looked at his watch. It was 1452. Mountsey had given them thirty minutes. Eighteen had gone.

‘Position, Pilot?'

Pownall's head and shoulders jerked nervously behind the chart-table's canvas screen. He was plotting a snap bearing of the lighthouse at Rubha Reidh, taken in a brief clearing of rain.

‘Position, Pilot?' Redman's voice was insistent.

Pownall's head came out of the screen. ‘Two-eight-two, Rubha Reidh, four miles, sir.' Redman looked at the chart and checked the depths ahead of the ship … 64, 66, 68 fathoms … about 400 feet He
must
be round about here, he thought, U-boats dived deep after firing a ‘gnat',
otherwise
it might circle and home on the submarine's own diesels. If the U-boat had surfaced in the rain, mist and failing light, in an attempt to get away at high speed, the destroyer's radar would have picked it up.

Redman said, ‘Well hold this course for …' He stopped as the asdic's
ping
was echoed by an unmistakable
pang.
The buzzer from the asdic cabinet sounded. ‘Contact, sir. Green oh-two-seven … drawing right … range eight hundred … closing … submarine.'

Redman contemplated a pounce attack, but they weren't often successful. He wanted to get this U-boat. Not just scare it. With
Violent
in company he could carry out a ‘creeping' attack. He reduced speed, ordered, ‘Starboard ten, steady on two-one-two.' He put on the TBS headset. From now on he'd speak direct to
Violent
instead of relaying messages through the yeoman. He found time to glance through the small window into the asdic cabinet where Lofty Groves and his operators sat at their instruments. He held up a thumb and Groves did the same, grinning. Then the sub-lieutenant was all serious concentration again.

Redman spoke to
Violent.
‘Contact eight hundred yards. Dead ahead. My course two-one-two. Cease asdic
transmissions
. Take station for “creeping” attack. Approach at eight knots.'

‘Altering course now and reducing speed,' came Jackie Dixon's cheerful voice. All ships of the group had practised the ‘creeping attack'. Only once before had Redman used it in action. Then he'd been the attacking ship. Now his was the directing ship.

‘Bearing two-oh-five – range seven hundred. Closing slowly,' came from the asdic's bridge-speaker. Lofty Groves's voice was calm. He rarely got excited. He was the best ASCO
Redman had ever had.

‘Steer two-oh-five,' Redman ordered. There was no need to report the contact to Mountsey. He'd be listening to the TBS chat.

Redman saw that
Violent
was now on a converging course. He turned to Pownall. ‘Get radar to report
Violent
's range and bearing at each minute.'

Immediately came the first report – range 1500 yards – bearing 163 degrees. On
Violent
's bridge Jackie Dixon was conning his ship on to a course which would put
Violent
immediately ahead of
Vengeful
in the shortest possible time.

Now that
Violent
was no longer making asdic transmissions the U-boat would not hear her and her slow speed of approach on an astern bearing meant that the destroyer's propeller noises would be drowned by the U-boat's. The submarine would still hear
Vengeful
's transmissions, but since the distance between the U-boat and Redman's ship was opening the submarine would not take evasive action. That would only come when and if the range closed and the U-boat commander heard the destroyer's speed increase for the run-in to a depth-charge attack. With a ‘creeping attack' that wouldn't happen and the U-boat commander, 300 to 400 feet down and blind, would have no means of knowing that an attack was taking place.

A stream of ranges and bearings came to Redman from the asdic cabinet. The range was opening slowly – what he wanted – and the submarine was making slight alterations of course, evidently keeping to deep water. Redman decided that the U-boat commander was either a very cool type, or his boat's wake and the noise of her own propellers were masking
Vengeful
's asdic transmissions. Most probably, he concluded, the German, aware that the range was opening, believed the destroyer had lost contact.

The asdic cabinet reported the range to be one thousand yards. Redman adjusted
Vengeful
's speed to keep that
constant
. To port,
Violent
was closing in. Only four hundred yards to go. On the bridge-speaker the note of the asdic
transmissions
changed and became confused before resolving into a series of double echoes. Redman frowned, the knot in his stomach tightening as he waited for Groves's report.

It came after what seemed a long time. ‘Bearing
one-nine-oh
… drawing left … range steady. She released a
pillenwerfer
just before altering, sir. We've sorted out the double echoes.'

‘Well done,' said Redman. ‘We heard something funny going on.

A
pillenwerfer
was a decoy used by U-boats to throw off a pursuer … a canister which released a stream of bubbles to reflect an asdic transmission in much the same way as the U-boat itself. Experienced operators were quick to detect the absence of change in range and bearing.

‘Steer one-nine-oh,' the captain ordered, and gave the new course to
Violent.
From the chart-table Pownall called, ‘He's heading for the Inner Sound; sir. West of Raasay.'

‘Good. He's either cunning or plain stupid.'

‘There's thirty fathoms in the Sound, sir. Close inshore. Perhaps hell bottom there. It's steep-to.'

Raasay was twelve miles ahead. At six knots the U-boat needed at least two hours to make it submerged. Redman hoped to deal with it well before that. It was 1503. The light was going under a dark sky with low cloud and continuous rain. Light was not essential, asdics and radar were
independent
of it, but it helped enormously in a ‘creeping attack'. The quicker they could get on with that the better.

A figure in oilskins came to the bridge and stood behind him. ‘Cup of hot cocoa, sir?'

Redman turned and saw Topcutt pouring steaming cocoa from a jug. ‘It'll drive away the cold, sir.'

‘Thank you, Topcutt. You shouldn't have troubled this early.'

The able-seaman's expression conveyed polite disagreement, but he said, ‘Yes, sir,' and left the bridge.

Pownall said,
‘Violent
's range three hundred, bearing
one-one-oh
, sir.'

‘Good.' Redman's voice was steady in spite of the tension. ‘That'll do. She'll be in station within ten minutes.'

He switched on the ship's broadcast and spoke to the crew. ‘We're in firm contact with a U-boat.
Violent
will be in station within ten minutes. We'll carry out a “creeping attack” and catch him with his pants down.'

Those ten minutes seemed long ones to the men in both ships but eventually
Violent
was in station, directly ahead of
Vengeful
, and the attack began. Maintaining his distance from the U-boat at a thousand yards, Redman conned
Violent
up the U-boat's track, the asdic cabinet giving the submarine's range and bearing, while Pownall repeated
Violent
's range and bearing by radar. Suspense built up on
Vengeful
's bridge as the destroyer ahead crept slowly, silently, unheard, along the U-boat's track.

Redman passed the final distances to Jackie Dixon. ‘One hundred yards to go … fifty … twenty-five …' The time intervals could be measured in seconds but they seemed to take infinitely longer as if the attack were paced by a watch that had stopped. Now
Violent
was over the U-boat, the German commander, oblivious of her presence, hearing at best only the
ping
of
Vengeful
's asdic – still a thousand yards away and thus no threat – held his course.