The Destruction of Convoy PQ 17
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE DESTRUCTION OF CONVOY PQ.17 the destruction of convoy pq.17 This edition ISBN - -- Publishers of the various editions of The Destruction of Convoy PQ. included Britain: Cassell & Co Ltd, William Kimber Ltd; Corgi Books Ltd; Germany: Bertelsmann AG; Heyne Taschenbuchverlag Italy: Club Degli Editori, Milano Sweden: Liber Förlag, Stockholm United States: Simon & Schuster Inc.; Richardson & Steirman; St. Martin's Press First Printing Revised Printing Electronic Edition Focal Point Edition © Parforce UK Ltd. An Adobe pdf (Portable Document Format) edition of this book is uploaded onto the FPP website at http://www.fpp.co.uk/books as a tool for students and academics. It can be downloaded for reading and study purposes only, and is not to be commercially distributed in any form. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be commercially reproduced, copied, or transmitted save with written permission of the author in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and to civil claims for damages. Passages complained off in the famous High Court libel action JBroome vs. Cassell & Co and D J C Irving have been excluded, by consent. The book was republished in including recently released intercepts. Readers are invited to submit any errors to David Irving at [email protected]. Informed comments on historical points are also welcomed. Focal Point Publications London WJ SE “David Irving specialises in the blunders of war. He also knows how to appraise the unassuming heroism of the ordinary man. From both points of view, his present book on the destruction of convoy PQ. is even better than the one which made his name on the bombing of Dresden. It is a melancholy story, with many separate strands leading to disaster.” A. J. P. Taylor, The Observer “David Irving is the forensic pathologist of modern military history. He dissects, analyses and describes with an unflinching, unsqueamish surgical skill. His knife exposes the tumours, the cancers and horrors of war. The reader becomes a spectator in an operating theatre. Coolly detached himself, Mr. Irving spares him nothing.” The Economist “One of the finest histories of a convoy operation ever written.” Vice-Admiral Sir Norman Denning, Director of Naval Intelligence the destruction of convoy pq.17 David Irving is the son of a Royal Navy commander. Incom- pletely educated at Imperial College of Science & Technology and at University College London, he subsequently spent a year in Germany working in a steel mill and perfecting his fluency in the German language. Among his thirty books, the best-known include Hitler’s War; The Trail of the Fox: The Life of Field-Marshal Rommel; Accident, the Death of General Sikorski; The Destruction of Dresden; The Mare’s Nest; The German Atomic Bomb (The Virus House); The Secret Diaries of Hitler’s Doctor; The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe; Göring: a Biography, and Nuremberg, the Last Battle. He has translated several works by other authors including Field- Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Reinhard Gehlen, and Nikki Lauda. He lives in Mayfair, London, and has raised five daughters. Illustration opposite: Detail of the original Granada cover design for the book by famed British war artist Geoff Hunt David Irving THE DESTRUCTION OF CONVOY PQ.17 Revised, with the inclusion of newly released materials from the files of Signals Intelli- gence and the code-breakers aspects F FOCAL POINT the destruction of convoy pq.17 Hajo Herrmann, holder of the Knight’s Cross for valour (above, right, with the author), flew against England in in the Battle of Britain; in a Heinkel bomber, he operated with his squadron, KG., against the Russian convoys including PQ. in . In , after a saturation bombing raid killed nearly fifty thousand in Hamburg, he improvised overnight the “Wild Boar” freelance fighter technique which saved the lives of perhaps fifty thousand more in the city, and half a million people in other cities like Cologne and the German capital – forcing RAF Bomber Command to call off the “Battle of Berlin” altogether in March . Inevitably Herrmann features in several of David Irving’s books – on the Luftwaffe, V- weapons, Hermann Göring, and Adolf Hitler. When peace came, Hajo Hermann took a law degree, and became a widely respected trial counsel. In 1992, fifty years after the Arctic episodes portrayed in this book, Hermann went into battle in the Munich Law Courts, defending its author for no fee in the political prosecutions brought by the German government under its laws for the suppression of free speech. Contents : the regular millstone : ‘the knight’s move’ : ‘the victim is pq.’ : decisions and disaster : the better part of valour : a duty to avoid destruction : the new land : first back from hell : inquest appendix i: the admiralty’s instructions of 27 june appendix ii: the cost of convoy pq. 17 source notes index the destruction of convoy pq.17 Photographs photographs following page 98 Admiral Sir Dudley Pound Radio Times Hulton Picture Library Admiral Sir John Tovey Imperial War Museum Rear-Admiral L. H. K. Hamilton Imperial War Museum Captain Jack Broome Imperial War Museum USS Tuscaloosa and HMS London US Navy Department Convoy Commodore J. C. K. Dowding Imperial War Museum USS Washington and HMS Norfolk US Navy Department PQ. assembling US Navy Department A convoy conference Imperial War Museum A convoy sails Keystone Press Agency Adolf Hitler and Grand-Admiral Raeder Rear-Admiral von Puttkamer Colonel-General Stumpff Benno Wundshammer Vice-Admiral Otto Schniewind Benno Wundshammer General-Admiral Carls Rear-Admiral von Puttkamer Tirpitz Imperial War Museum Lützow Imperial War Museum Admiral Hipper Imperial War Museum Admiral Scheer Imperial War Museum Tirpitz in Foetten Fiord Crown Copyright reserved. Courtesy: Admiral Denning Photographs, Maps, and Diagrams The German air-raid on Murmansk, July Benno Wundshammer Commander Reinhard Reche Günter Döschner Commander Heinrich Brodda brings U- back into port Otto Bork photographs following page 194: KG.’s Ju.s attack PQ., July Both: Benno Wundshammer The Heinkels of KG. attack PQ. on 4 July Both: Associated Press The British freighter Navarino is hit US Navy Department A torpedo hits the Russian tanker Azerbaijan Associated Press The rescue ship Zamalek Associated Press Paymaster-Commander N. E. Denning Courtesy: Admiral Denning HMS Keppel Imperial War Museum Lieutenant Leo Gradwell Courtesy: Leo Gradwell June : U- puts to sea from for the knight’s move Otto Bork Ju. bomber crews being briefed, July Benno Wundshammer Two lone merchant ships of PQ. after the convoy had been scattered Both: Benno Wundshammer The sinking of Bolton Castle Both: Benno Wundshammer Carlton’s happy survivors, by Signal Benno Wundshammer Paulus Potter, abandoned Benno Wundshammer Captain O.C. Morris and the crew of Zamalek Both: Courtesy Captain Morris Earlston’s barrage balloon Otto Bork Survivors from Earlston approaching U- Otto Bork photographs following page 290: Lieutenant James Caradus Courtesy: James Caradus the destruction of convoy pq.17 Captain F. W. Harvey Imperial War Museum Pozarica and Poppy in Matochkin Strait Courtesy: James Caradus Pan Atlantic, hit by a bomb Olopana breaks in two Courtesy: Hugo Deiring HMS Britomart Imperial War Museum Commander Friedrich-Karl Marks The coup de grâce for Hoosier HMS Dianella Imperial War Museum Ironclad aground in Matochkin Strait US Navy Department The sinking of Paulus Potter Courtesy: Hugo Deiring Colonel-General Stumpff awards decorations to his airmen Benno Wundshammer The crew of U– receive their commendations Otto Bork Maps and Diagrams Screening diagram for Convoy PQ. Layout of merchant ships in Convoy PQ. Low level torpedo-bomber attack The developing threat ‒ Keppel’s signal to scatter PQ. after the scatter ‒ River Afton’s owners are notified of the loss Off the New Land: Novaya Zemlya Völkischer Beobachter’s headline of July The Final Phase, – July Introduction have something which their authors most wish to bring to the readers’ attention. Some authors are suc- Acessful in this, and their readers remain prejudiced to the authors’ points of view for the rest of their reading lives; some authors are not, and when the last page, the last appendix and final wearisome footnote have been scanned the reader asks himself: What was it all about? I fear that I fall into the latter category, and lest this book be misunderstood its readers should know before they enter into the narrative proper that the guiding light in deciding which incidents in this canvas of tragedy to dwell upon, and which to suppress, has been a conviction that gallantry is best portrayed in its real setting; the ships should be shown to be crewed by normal men with normal fears and feelings. Too often one has read histories of individual acts of heroism, and one’s apprecia- tion has been dulled by the picture’s lack of relationship to normal human character. So The Destruction of Convoy PQ. is the destruction of convoy pq.17 primarily a book peopled with ordinary people. We see how men reacted when confronted with a grim situation which meant certain disaster and probably death. But against this sombre back- ground we shall find that the individual jewels of gallantry sparkle most, emerging unexpectedly to dazzle us by their now unac- customed shine. Nor can there be any doubt that in PQ. it is a sombre back- ground; crews mutiny, and are confined in chains below decks; their Masters haul down the Allied flags and display signals read- ing “Unconditional Surrender”; they deliberately run aground and abandon their vessels; nine merchant ships are deserted by their crews even though still seaworthy, some of them before they have even been attacked; and American captains volunteer to scuttle their ships so they can finish their voyage in safety.