Description
Object description
British officer commanded submarine HMS Spearfish, 2nd Submarine Flotilla in North Sea, 8/1939-9/1939; commanded submarine HMS Utmost in North Atlantic, 10/1940-12/1940; commanded HMS Inconstant, 12th Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 5/1943-12/1943
Content description
REEL 1 Background in British West Indies and GB, 1910-1939: family; education; reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy and subsequent career. Recollections of operations commanding submarine HMS Spearfish, 2nd Submarine Flotilla in North Sea, 8/1939-12/1940: submarine patrols off Norwegian coast, 8/1939; question of encounter with German submarine, 3/9/1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; patrolling in Heligoland Bight, 20/9/1939; encounter with Danish fishing vessels, 23/9/1939; detection and depth charge attack by German vessels, 24/9/1939; damage sustained to submarine and subsequent repairs; effects of foul air; preparations for surfacing; breaking surface.
REEL 2 Continues: reasons for not surrendering; making way back to GB via Danish territorial waters; rendezvous with HMS Matabele and HMS Eskimo, 26/9/1940; German Air Force bombing of escort; reasons for Germans achieving original contact. Recollections of operations commanding submarine HMS Utmost in Atlantic, 10/1940-12/1940: accidental near attack on British destroyer HMS Encounter off coast of Portugal on route to Mediterranean, 6/11/1940; subsequent ramming of submarine by HMS Encounter, 6/11/1940; reasons for misunderstanding. Recollections of operations commanding HMS Inconstant, 12th Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 5/1943-12/1943: advantage to submarine hunters of previous submarine experience; attack on German submarine U-409 off Algiers, French Algeria, 12/7/1943.
REEL 3 Continues: emergency surfacing of submarine U-409 and rescue of survivors; treatment of German submarine crews; impressions of submarine U-409's captain Oberleutnant Hanns-Ferdinand Massmann; attitude towards German submarine crews and Germans.