26-02-2013, 06:46 PM
Yes being on the U Boat crew was pretty grim, they didn't last long.
As well as Atlantic, Omaha, North Sea etc my dads ship was also on Operation Tunnel, basically trying to capture or sink the blockade runners that were trying to re fuel and re crew the U Boats at the U boat pens on the Bay of Biscay coast.
In one instance they captured everyone on board a blockade runner before it was sunk by the ship dad was on, he told me that amongst them was a replacement U Boat crew, all blonde haired and barely 19 years old.
A really good account of Opperation Tunnel can be found in a book called Destroyer Captain by Captain Roger Hill who was the captain of a Hunt Class Destroyer which also took part in that operation, basically it was a bloody fiasco which cost many british lives, the usual gung ho shore based commanders etc. Google HMS Charybis.
Dads ship was also in the Western Approaches when HMS Warwick was sunk by a U Boat off Trevose Head down here in Cornwall, the ship headed up the hunt for the Uboat, the U Boat was commanded by Gustav Poel, he gave an account before he died (not that long ago) when they were trying to avoid an attack from the destroyer, my dad was on depth charges, the U Boat escaped, not long after that Gustave Poel left that U Boat and it received a new captain, the new captain and all the crew were lost when another destroyer sank it further up the English Channel some months later.
My dads brother was killed in the battle for Florence in Italy.
My step grandad lost his only son, he was radio op/navigator on a Lancaster bomber, they never came back one night, also a blood relative was in a Lancaster that was on a night raid to the marshaling yards at Achen, none of that crew came back, believed to have been shot down by a German night fighter. Another one was killed just after the war when his Spitfire crashed.
Our lot like many other families did not fair to well in either of the major conflicts of the 20th century.
War is a nasty business, people get hurt, there are no rules...
Lawrence.
As well as Atlantic, Omaha, North Sea etc my dads ship was also on Operation Tunnel, basically trying to capture or sink the blockade runners that were trying to re fuel and re crew the U Boats at the U boat pens on the Bay of Biscay coast.
In one instance they captured everyone on board a blockade runner before it was sunk by the ship dad was on, he told me that amongst them was a replacement U Boat crew, all blonde haired and barely 19 years old.
A really good account of Opperation Tunnel can be found in a book called Destroyer Captain by Captain Roger Hill who was the captain of a Hunt Class Destroyer which also took part in that operation, basically it was a bloody fiasco which cost many british lives, the usual gung ho shore based commanders etc. Google HMS Charybis.
Dads ship was also in the Western Approaches when HMS Warwick was sunk by a U Boat off Trevose Head down here in Cornwall, the ship headed up the hunt for the Uboat, the U Boat was commanded by Gustav Poel, he gave an account before he died (not that long ago) when they were trying to avoid an attack from the destroyer, my dad was on depth charges, the U Boat escaped, not long after that Gustave Poel left that U Boat and it received a new captain, the new captain and all the crew were lost when another destroyer sank it further up the English Channel some months later.
My dads brother was killed in the battle for Florence in Italy.
My step grandad lost his only son, he was radio op/navigator on a Lancaster bomber, they never came back one night, also a blood relative was in a Lancaster that was on a night raid to the marshaling yards at Achen, none of that crew came back, believed to have been shot down by a German night fighter. Another one was killed just after the war when his Spitfire crashed.
Our lot like many other families did not fair to well in either of the major conflicts of the 20th century.
War is a nasty business, people get hurt, there are no rules...
Lawrence.
