1 Plot

Sunday afternoon

Vice-Admiral Starr sat behind his desk and talked to the four men in his office. He had flown from London this morning. The four men were Rear-Admiral Tyndall (better known as Farmer Giles), Captain Vallery, Surgeon-Commander Brooks (Old Socrates) and Commander Turner. He talked about the mutiny of the ship’s crew yesterday which was set up by stoker Riley, a real troublemaker. The four men listened quietly to Starr but Brooks didn’t agree and started to insulate him. He wanted to leave Brooks at home for the next mission but Vallery insisted on Starr to let him go along, because he was indispensable.
The next mission of the H.M.S. Ulysses was Convoy FR77 to Murmansk. They had to sail at 6.00 from Scapa Flow and meet the convoy from Halifax at Wednesday 10.30. In total it were 32 ships.

Monday morning

They sailed away at 6.00. They were accompanied by the 14th Aircraft Carrier Squadron. The Ulysses had been on the Arctic Patrols and the Russian Convoys all its life. She was extremely fast and was equipped with one of the world’s best radars.

Monday afternoon

The whole squadron steamed NNW all day long. The wind was blowing Force 8 (on the Beaufort scale) from the NNW and the mercury was creeping down and everywhere was snow and ice. At 17.30 the Captain broadcast to the crew. The crew consisted of 730 men. After Vallery had spoken, there was silence, terrible silence.

Monday night

Soon after the broadcast, radar reported a contact, closing. It was an enemy plane, but it just, like always, reported the position of the convoy to its base. That night they had been disturbed by enemy U-boats six times. At 8.00 the Invader was making water. Tyndall thought it was torpedoed by a U-boat but the ‘Kapok Kid’ (Pilot Carpenter) said that couldn’t have happened and he was right; it was a mine. Tyndall sent the Invader back to the base, escorted by the Baliol and the Nairn.

Tuesday

The wind was now blowing Force 9 and later even Force 10. It was a really bad storm. They discovered that there was something wrong with the aerial. Ralston, the LTO (Leading Torpedo Officer), volunteered to fix it. But Sub-Lieutenant Carslake, who didn’t like Ralston at all, turned the power on too early and Ralston was almost killed. Ralston hit Carslake and Ralston was put in cells by MAA (Master-At-Arms) Hastings. Tyndall ordered radio silence and at 20.30 the Ulysses and the Sirrus left the squadron and went ahead to the meeting point with the convoy from Halifax. At 21.00 they moved out into the Denmark Strait.

Tuesday night

It was the worst storm of the war. The Ulysses rolled over 45° arc. If it wasn’t for ‘the Dude’ (Engineer-Commander Dodson) the Ulysses had been dead. But they survived and at 10.30 they rendezvoused with the Halifax convoy.

Wednesday night

The 14th ACS was now only two miles away. Tyndall saw there were two ships missing. The Wrestler was hurt bad through the storm and the minesweeper Eager was with it. Tyndall sent them back to ‘Scapa’. At 7.02 the Blue Ranger was torpedoed by a U-boat.

Thursday night

All eyes on the bridge were focussed at the sea now. Suddenly the eighteen-year-old Chrysler gave a warning. He saw two flashes on the sea, but the radar didn’t spot anything. Everybody was looking to the spot now. Nobody saw anything. Chrysler said he saw it again. Tyndall believed him and Bentley rang the alarm. It was a U-boat. A lot of ships were struck by torpedoes; the Stirling, Vectra, Viking and some merchantships. The convoy now consists of seventeen ships of which three had been damaged.

Friday morning

Tyndall just went outside when they were fired at. Radar spotted no enemy. The only solution they could think of was that the enemy also had a radar at least as good as theirs. But that, they thought, was impossible. They went after the enemy with the Stirling, the...








Nog geen opmerkingen of toevoegingen op dit document geplaatst.
Wil jij een bericht plaatsen dan kan dat door op "post message" te klikken.