835 Royal Naval Air Squadron Old Comrades Reunion Website

The Nelson Touch

Excerpt from Capt. Walker’s Book on U-boat hunting.
Chapter XIV
The Nelson Touch.

Liverpool to rendezvous off Northern Ireland with the aircraft carriers Nairana and Activity for a hunting strike into mid-Atlantic. The Group was back to full strength - Starling, Wild Goose, Kite, Wren, Woodpecker and Magpie. After the appalling storms of December, fresh paintwork gleamed dully in a pale wintry sun. Leaks had been plugged, damage repaired, tailwags stopped, and there was every reason for this striking force to be fit, ready and eager to destroy the enemy if he could be found. The carriers’ aircraft would be their eyes.

To his officers, Walker confessed his dislike of having to operate with carriers but found some consolation in the hope that they would act as irresistible bait for the u-boats. He grinned appreciatively on the first night out when a a bleak half-obscured moon showed both “flat-tops” clearly visible at 5 miles or more. He mentioned this on the bridge, but the carriers were left in ignorance of their nakedness, it being considered bad for their morale to tell them.

On February 1st they were drawing near to the battleground, steaming in hunting formation, the sloops in line abreast, a mile apart, and the carriers zigzagging independently a mile behind them. Shortly after 10 am all seemed peaceful enough ; it was a crisp, cold morning with a slight swell and a calm sea. In Starling, Alan Burn had exercised his gun crews, Woodpecker had carried out depth - charge drill, and in Wild Goose on the port extreme of the line, Commander Wemyss was discussing their “dead reckoning” position with his navigator in the chartroom. Suddenly a shout came down the bridge voicepipe.
“Captain, Sir, submarine echo to starboard!”

Wemyss rushed to the bridge, and a quick report from the asdic operator made it clear that it was a U-boat trying to penetrate the screen for a close shot at the bait. Wemyss turned to look back at the carriers and, to his horror, saw Nairana turn on a zig to port bringing her in the enemy’s direction. At any moment she would be sitting squarely in the U-boat’s sights. Wemyss rapped out orders.

“Hard a’starboard.....Full speed.......Hoist attacking flag........Tell Leader on R/T I am attacking.” The enemy had passed between Wild Goose and her neighbour, Magpie, by the time Wemyss had turned his ship and was slithering in for the first attack. Wemyss blinked a warning to Nairana to get out of the way and without waiting for a perfect run-in, dropped a ten-charge pattern more to scare the enemy than to sink him. Nairana was still in danger.

As soon as he received Wemyss’s report, Walker flashed a signal to Nairana ordering her to head out to starboard at full steam. He repeated the order to Activity and told off Kite, Wren and Woodpecker to screen them. Then he headed towards the battle while Wild Goose was drawing off and Magpie about to follow with another attack. This yielded no result and Magpie was sent off to assist in screening the carrier, leaving Wild Goose and Starling to continue the hunt.

“Unquestionably, Nairana was saved by Wild Goose’s exemplary speed and decision,” Walker said later. “Another minute or two and she would have been a sitter. When Magpie had left to join the remainder of our force, Wild Goose handed me asdic contact with the Boche on a plate. I could ask nothing better than to take the field again partnered by this doughty, well-trained warrior. Conditions were good, though the wind was rising and stirring up the sea a bit.”