Account of Purley on Thames Gallantry should never be forgotten

The Purley Connection While John Chapman was taking Mrs Eileen Goddard from St Mary’s Avenue to the Royal Berks Hospital on a Volunteer Centre trip, she happened to mention that her husband was one of the crew of X6 – one of the three midget submarines sent to try to cripple the Tirpitz in 1943. He had no idea that we had a Purley connection with an event like this and thought a few more people would like to know about it. A second connection emerged in that John had been in contact with Vernon Coles DSM over the war in the Pacific when he was Chairman of West Berkshire Council. Vernon was born in Tilehurst and was a close friend of Edmund Goddard with whom he had served on X-craft. The Tirpitz The Tirpitz was one of the most powerful battleships ever built. Her role was to attack convoys bringing much needed supplies from America to Britain and Russia. At 41000 tons she outgun- Edmund Goddard [M030508] ned any Royal Navy ship and if allowed to roam the Atlantic she would be a terrible danger to our ships, far more of a menace than any submarine. Churchill christened her ‘The Beast’ and put the country’s best minds to work to see how they could counter the menace. She was commissioned in February 1941, the last and most powerful of the Bismark Class and was sent to Trondheim in Norway in January 1942 to prevent an allied invasion of Norway and to attack the Russian convoys. She was responsi- ble for the destruction of the convoy PQ17 with- out firing a single shot – her mere presence was enough to cause the convoy to scatter letting the individual ships to be picked off by U-boats. Two squadrons of bombers were sent out on the 30th Jan to try to sink her but failed to find her. Two The Tirpitz [M070114] more naval squadrons of torpedo bombers tried again in March without success and more attacks by the RAF in April saw 13 aircraft lost with still no success. The solution the navy came up with was the X-craft, midget submarines with a crew of four whose job it was to slip through the defences and lay huge explosive charges alongside the Tirpitz and, hopefully, get away before they detonated. Six craft were built initially and crews started training in great secret at Loch Cairnbawn on the west coast of Scotland. Training was completed in September 1943 and, towed by more conventional submarines, six boats set out on a 1500 mile journey to Norway. Edmund Goddard Edmund Goddard was born in 1921 and attended Woodlands Preparatory School in Deganwy near Llandudno and St Edwards School Oxford. He joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and was sent to HMS Sutlam in Portsmouth to test his suitability as an Engine Room Artificer. He was given five pieces of rough steel which he had to shape before a panel of officers. Although he took a long time over the task he passed as an ERA 5th Class and was sent on a two weeks Ships' Engineering Course. Over the next few months he spent time fir watching on the roof of the Wren's quarters at Portsmouth - not a nice experience with the Germans dropping bombs all around. He went on to HMS Hornet at Gosport to train on marine engines arriving on Christmas Eve 1941 having been on leave at home at Harpendon, expecting to spend Christmas there when his new orders came by telegram. There was no berth for him aboard Hornet so he went ashore to a local pub and met up with four other sailors who offered to speak to their landlady who agreed to take him in and give him Christmas dinner. On Hornet he was employed on maintenance and learned about motor boats. One day he spotted a request on the notice board for volunteers for submarines. He was getting pretty fed up and bored with his job on Hornet so he asked his Chief Petty Officer and was sent off to HMS Dolphin, the submarine base at Gosport. for tests and a medical and was accepted after two days. Here he received further training including as a navy diver. On one occasion he was used to test a new diving suit and was lowered into the water in it. Unfortunately there was deep mud at that point and he sank into it and they had to get a heavy duty crane to pull him out. The X-craft Midget submarines had been pioneered by the Italian Navy The Royal Navy experimented with X1 and X2 but X3 and X4 were the real prototypes. X3 was built at Hamble by Varley Marine and launched 15th March 1942 and X4 by Portsmouth Dockyard. Eventually the Navy were satisfied they had a workable weapons system and ordered six boats from Vickers Armstrongs in Barrow-in- Furness. They were 51 feet 4 in long, 5 ft 9 inches in beam and had a draught of 5 ft 4 inches. They could dive to a depth of 300 feet and travel at 5.5 knots submerged, propelled by a single Gardner diesel or a Keith-Blackman electric motor with a range of about 80 miles. They had a crew of four, originally just a Commander, Pilot and ERA but a diver was added later. They were armed with two 4,400 lb. explosive charges (Amatol) which were strapped to the sides to be dropped with a time fuse set. Training began in great secrecy in September 1942 and in December 1942 and January 1943 the six X5 class were delivered. These were externally similar to X4 but internally very different, having had a wet-dry cabin installed which enabled a frog-man to enter and exit while submerged. Each X-craft was paired with a conventional submarine which acted as its 'mother' and which towed it to the launch point for a mission and then, hopefully, back to base. Operation Source The attack on the Tirpitz was code-named Operation Source and volunteers were called for for 'hazardous duties' Both Edmund Goddard and Vernon Coles volunteered and were designated the ERAs for X6 and X9 respectively. The requirement was that they had to be under 24, single and qualified as a diver as well as being Engine Room Artificers. Edmund was sent to Scotland for training and here met up with Vernon Coles with whom he was to cement a life-long friendship. Each of the X-craft had two crews, one for passage and one for attack, made up of three officers and an artificer. Because of this, many of the naval formalities between officers and ratings were forgotten and very close bonds built, although the ratings and the officers had separate messes while on training. Training took place at Loch Striven at a base near Strone Point on the western shore. This is about twenty miles due west of Glasgow and far from prying eyes. The training was very hard and quite dangerous. One exercise required the men in full diving gear to vent- ure into the sea with a rope tied to their wrist. If they were OK the signal was to give a short tug on the rope and the officer would let out a bit more. If things were X6 docking at Loch Striven [M001862] not OK the signal was four sharp tugs in quick succes- sion. On this one occasion it was Edmund venturing into the depths with a midshipman holding the rope. He mis-interpreted the emergency signal and merely let out more rope until he was left with just the end. By this time Edmund was in a pretty bad way – no air and close to drowning. By the time the mistake was realised and he was hauled back to the beach he was almost gone, his suit had to be cut off and he had to be resuscitated with oxygen.. The midshipman was packed off to HMS King George V in disgrace. Social Life At the base they were isolated from much of the traditional Navy formalities although one or two officers were sticklers for discipline. The men were billetted at a farm house called Glen Striven House and base HQ was at the Rothesay Hotel. There was very little to do in their rare moments of free time and few roads to anywhere. However being sailors they could make their way by motor boat to Rothesay where there was a cinema or cross the loch to where there was a road to Dunoon. Being ratings they were not allowed access to the duty-free alcohol which the officers enjoyed and had to be content with the watered down standard issues of rum. Although the officers occasionally let the men have some of their beer supplies, on one occasion the men decided to go to the pub. They borrowed a whaler and rowed across the loch and then ran 15 miles to the pub, only to find the landlord calling ‘time’ as they arrived. Deprived of their pleasures they ran 15 miles back only to find the whaler stranded by the receding tide and had to manhandle it over the mud to get back to base. On another occasion they went to a pub in Sandbank where the beer was stored in the yard and guarded by a fierce alsation. They came prepared with kippers which the dog wolfed down and while it was pre-occupied they stole a barrel of beer and smuggled it back to base where the contents were soon distributed among the other men. To get rid of the evidence they broke the barrel up into pieces and let the tide take them away. Unfortunately just as the police arrived to ask questions the tide returned together with the pieces of barrel. To compensate the landlady, the men had a whip around and she finished up much better off than if she had sold them the beer. One time in Rothesay they tried to gatecrash the cinema. They ran in and sat down before the management realised what was happening. The management tried to evict them but a near riot ensued and in the confusion they slipped out before the police could catch them. The Pavilion at Rothesay was the venue for dances but as with the cinema the men were reluctant to pay admission charges. Eddie shinned up a drainpipe and through an open window, only to find himself in the ladies toilets. The manager was called amidst screams fro the ladies but he managed to scuttle out through the front door on his hands and knees. They did have a brief leave in London and after visiting Leicester Square decided to take a taxi - literally. In those days the taxis had a toggle on the steering wheel to start the engine and Eddie spotted one devoid of driver with the toggle left in place. It was usually taken by the driver when he left his cab. Eddie hopped in and drove it away but another group hopped in another one to find the toggle missing and had some questions to answer when they were caught. On another occasion when in Rothesay one of the men had stolen a number of grenades to use to catch fish. When they were in a lift he was fumbling with them and accidentally removed the safety pin. All he could do was to drop it down the liftshaft where it exploded causing a great deal of damage. They were trapped in the lift and arrested by the police who gave them the option of sewing mailbags in jail or ? - they chose ? There are still many tales to tell of this bunch of virile young men living life to the full while facing considerable dangers. But eventually the time came in September 1943 when they set off for the attack. The Voyage In order to get ready for the attack they all moved to Loch Cairnbawn in the far north of Scotland. On September 6th 1943 the six X-craft were hauled aboard the depot ship HMS Bonaventure for the trip to Cairnbawn. Here they regrouped and had their final briefings. Six of the X-craft departed at staggered intervals, each towed by a conventional submarine and with their passage crew aboard. Edmund, being one of the attack crews, travelled in somewhat more luxury in the towing submarine. X5 was towed by HMS Thrasher X6 by HMS Truculent, X7 by HMS Stubborn, X8 by HMS Sea Nymph, X9 by HMS Syrtis and X10 by HMS Sceptre. HMS Sea Dog was stationed at Scapa Flow to act as a replacement if required. The operational crew of X6 was Lt Don Cameron (CO) Lt J T Lorimer (2nd Lt) Lt R H Kendall (diver) and ERA Edmund Goddard. Vernon Coles was Eddies equivalent in X9. HMS Truculent rose to fame in January 1950 when she foundered in the Thames estuary with a huge loss of life. X6 left Cairnbawn with X9 at 16:00 on September 11th The weather was good and they rendezvou- sed at a point 75 miles west of the Shetlands and then travelled on parallel courses, 20 miles apart. Meanwhile the RAF had been keeping track of Tirpitz and its companions and on September 14th the final targets were confirmed, X5, X6 and X7 were to attack Tirpitz at its berth in Altafjord, X9 and X10 to attack Scharnhorst and ? and X8 to attack Lutzow at Langefjord. During the passage they had to pause every six hours to let in fresh air. During the passage the Herrip tow ropes broke regularly. X7 and Stubborn managed to keep in contact when their rope broke on the 15th and they were able tp pass an auxiliary towrope. X8 and Sea Nymph were separated for over 36 hours before they were able to make contact but X9 vanished and was never heard of again. Vernon had been designated as a member of the attack crew of the X9 and so escaped the fate of the passage crew. The other boats used nylon tow ropes which did not part. On the 17th X8 developed leaks and its periscope became inoperable, but when they tried to jettison one of their explosive charges it detonated and so damaged the craft that it had to be scuttled. X7 had a narrow escape when a loose mine became impaled on its bows, but Lt Place, its Commanding Officer booted it off like a football. Eventually, after 12 days, the four remaining craft arrived off Söröy sound on September 20th 1943 and the attack crews were put on board to set about their missions which had been very carefully timed to ensure that. they did not interfere with each other. The Fate of X5 Nothing is known of the fate of X5 – they joined in the good luck exchanges between the boats at 23:15 on the 20th September and that is the last definitive sighting. Tirpitz reported spotting a third submarine at 08:43 outside the netting and it was attacked by AA fire and depth charges. It was damaged and disappeared. This could have been X5 but it was never found. X7's Attack X7 had had an uneventful voyage up to the Rendezvous off Soroy. At 16:30 they spotted the Scharnhorst returning to its base and then spent the rest of the evening hidden by the island of Brattholm making sure their batteries were fully charged. They left Brattholm at 00:45 on the 23rd and slipped unseen through the boom guarding the entrance to Karfjord at 03:50. At this point they ran into the anti-submarine netting in the middle of the fjord and spent over an hour of violent movement trying to wriggle free. Eventually they succeeded although in the process their gyro compass and a trim pump were damaged. By 06:00 they were free and Lt Place decided to go very deep to avoid further entanglements. He had been told that the netting extended only about 60 feet from the surface but in fact it went a lot deeper than that and twice more they became entangled. After more frantic manoeuvring they were clear and found themselves about 90 feet from Tirpitz. At around 07:20 Place dropped to a depth of 40 feet and managed to shed half his explosives beneath B turret and then going even deeper placed the other half beneath X turret. At this point they heard the grenades exploding which were being thrown at X6. They then descended to 100 feet and tried to make their escape through the gap they had slipped through earlier. However without a proper compass navigation was very difficult and they soon became enmeshed again. After several rounds of shaking free and getting entangled once more they rose to the surface and scorning the small arms fire directed at them went over the net and then down again. Then however at 08:12 they were rocked by a violent explosion and although the pressure hull held the boat was useless with damaged machinery making a return voyage virtually impossible. Place decided to surrender and surfaced again close to a German target used for gunnery practice and although he was still being fired upon he waved his sweater to indicate surrender and as he stepped onto the target X7, badly leaking slid beneath the surface for the last time. Place was taken prisoner but the other three men were still inside. Sub Lt Aitken made an escape from the frogman's exit some three hours later, but Sub Lt Whittam and ERA Whiteley had run out of air before they could effect an escape. The problem was that they had been forced to use their escape oxygen for some time as the sea water was reacting with the battery acid and filling the craft with chlorine. X6's attack X6 left the rendezvous and travelled on the surface until 01:25 on the 21st at which point they submerged and, with Eddie steering, they crept up to the entrance to Stjern Sund. By dusk she too was nearing Tommelholm where she resurfaced to charge her batteries. An approaching patrol boat caused and emergency dive but by 21:00 they were back on the surface and by midnight had found a spot between large rocks where they could wait for the dawn of the 22nd. Their attack started at 06:30 and they managed to slip through the anti-torpedo netting at 07:00 without being spotted. However at 07:07 she ran aground on the western shore of the fjord where she was spotted by Tirpitz's lookout. He identified it as a porpoise and no action was taken. After some violent manoeuvring they got free. and broke surface about 90 feet from Tirpitz. This time there was no mistake in identification and although they were too close for heavy guns to be brought to bear they were subjected to a hail of small arms fire and grenades and Cameron realised that escape was going to be impossible. Secret papers were desroyed and they they got beneath Tirpitz and dropped their charges close to B turret. Then they rose to the surface, scraping the side of their target and the crew escaped. Cameron scuttled the X6 and they were all picked up by a motor boat from the Tirpitz. X10's Adventures X10 suffered a number of technical problems and its captain, Lt Hudspeth spent all of September 21st in a sheltered bay near Sternoy trying to effect repairs, but with little success. At 17:50 the abandoned the attempt and resumed their mission but had to make a sudden dive at 01:35 on the 22nd to avoid an oncoming vessel. The technical problems had meant it was impossible to navigate properly while submerged so at 02:15 he surfaced again and the crew again set about repairing the defects. but when daylight came they had to dive again and lay in 180 feet of water all day. During this period they heard the explosions from Tirpitz and Hudspeth decided that to continue their attack would be suicidal so at 18:00 he surfaced and began the journey to the rendezvous point due at 23:00 on the 23rd. For another 36 hours they searched for a towing submarine without success and at 04:30 on the 25th he made for a secluded beach at Ytre Rappefjord where the crew were able to get some rest. At dawn on the 27th they set out for Ofjord where an alternative rendezvous had been arranged. This time they were successful and HMS Stubborn took them in tow at 01:50 on the 28th. with the passage crew aboard. As they were on their way back to Lerwick a gale warning was received and the Admiralty ordered X10 to be abandoned and the passage crew taken aboard Stubborn. X10 was hit by the gale and sank at 20:45 on the 3rd October. The End of Tirpitz The crew of X6 and the two from X7 were taken aboard Tirpitz for interrogation. At the same time Capt Mayer ordered the Tirpitz to be made ready to sail immediately to escape any possible dangers. Most of the crew were unaware of the submarine threat as they had been wrongly given just the signal to close watertight hatches prior to sailing. Divers went overboard to check for limpet mines as it was not feasible to scrape the hull with wires as she was tied up to her berth. At 08:12 while the X-craft crews were being interrogated, there was a violent explosion followed almost immediately by a second. Tirpitz rose about six feet feet into the air. The charges had been designed to break the back of Tirpitz at this point but this did not happen as they were not as precisely planted as had been planned. Nevertheless the damage was severe. The gun turrets were badly buckled and most of the electrics were put out of action. Some flooding occurred as there were splits in the hull plates but the main damage, not obvious at the time was to the hull which was badly twisted as was the main propeller shaft. It took several months before Tirpitz was seaworthy again. In February 15 Russian bombers each carrying a 200 lb bomb tried to finish her off but all failed to score a hit. Eventually after all possible work short of dry-docking was completed in March 1944 she began to move under her own steam. The threat to Allied shipping remained and many more attempts were made to sink her with attacks from a variety of aircraft but to no avail. Had the British but known it the Germans had already written her off as a warship and at a conference in September 1944 it was agreed to send her to Tromso to act as a floating gun platform in case the Allies tried to invade and she limped there in October at a maximum speed of 11 knots. She was eventually despatched by the RAF on November 12th 1944 when Lancasters of 9 and 617 Squadrons took her out with the Barnes-Wallis Tallboy bombs and she sank in Hakaybton Bay with the loss of over 1000 lives. Interrogation The six men were taken on board Tirpitz for interrogation. Before they left Scotland they had been briefed on how to conduct themselves, but to expect respect and courteous treatment from German naval personnel. They were also warned as to what would happen to them if they were handed over to the Gestapo. They were taken below on Tirpitz and could hear the grinding of chains and the preparations for putting to sea. Then the explosions occurred and they were dragged back on deck where they were bombarded with questions. They were aware that the towing submarines were still prowling around awaiting the return of the X-craft and they were terrified that if they did crack and reveal the rendezvous places their comrades would be in severe danger. This was an even bigger worry to them than the threat of being shot themselves. The Brits kept silent and the Germans then threatened to shoot them one by one. They picked out John Lorimer from the X6 as the first victim and Eddie as the first to be threatened as being a rating rather than an officer they believed he would crack first. However when they made the threat to Eddie he replied - 'go ahead and shoot him, he has been nothing but trouble to me and I will be well rid of him.' The Germans did not see the funny side and lined them all up facing guns. But after a period of stand off they were bundled back below deck to cells in the bowels of the ship. Eddie had a cell with a wooden bunk and immediately dropped off to sleep. The Germans came and woke him to move him to another cell without a bunk but Eddie fell asleep again on the cold steel. When he awoke next morning he banged on his door shouting that he was hungry and the Germans brought some ersatz coffee and food which he was unable to eat. Several times that day he was taken up for interrogation. The first time he was asked to identify his gear which had been confiscated but when he attempted to pick up his woodbines he was shouted at and made to drop them. By the time they left Tirpitz they were all very lonely and depressed. They were put aboard and E- Boat and had a very rough passage to Tromso. The crew were quite pleasant to them and the food was good. They even had wine with their meals. At Tromso they were taken by car to some Army barracks where interrogations began again. They were housed in a small wooden building with toilet facilities a short distance away patrolled by an alsation secured to a running wire. Thought was given to escape via the toilet window but the dog had their scent and they would not have got far. After two days they were taken back to the harbour and put aboard another E-Boat heading south. Attempts at Escape Edmund was kept in a cabin with a deadlight covering the porthole. With the help of the rail from the bunk he managed to free the deadlight and while he was doing it he jabbed a hole in the deckhead. The noise brought the sentry in who refixed the deadlight and investigated the hole in the deckhead. Eddie managed to get it open again and using a handkerchief to measure the porthole he reckoned he could just squeeze through. He could see the shore but dreaded the thought of swimming to it in the cold water. He stripped off and tried to get through only to get stuck with head and one arm and shoulder sticking out. It took some time before he was able to extricate himself. At Narvik they were taken to a big house with all the windows covered with barbed wire. They each had a room to themselves and at certain times during the day were allowed to speak to each other, the first time since leaving Tirpitz. They were closely watched however and had to leave the door open when they went to the toilet. Eddie managed to get into the bathroom and found some razor blades, old hacksaw blades and a piece of electric cable which he stuffed into his sea boots. He used the cable on three occasions to short the electricity supply byt sticking the ends into a socket. This created merry hell with the Germans and they searched everywhere without success to find what had happened. After three attempts he had noted that the short circuit had not affected the floodlights outside the windows and he figured the tools he had found might come in useful later as Sweden was only a few miles away over the mountains. Don Cameron too was planning an escape via a staircase which led downstairs from his room.but before he could exploit it the Germans put an extra guard in place and secured the door. On the whole relations with the German naval personnel were relaxed and even cordial at times. Their common bond of the sea tended to obscure the national differences. On one occasion one of the guards allowed them to examine his tommy gun and explained how it worked. As they came to leave Narvik on another E-Boat the piece of wire Eddie had used to short circuit the electrics worked its way over the top of the seaboots. A German officer spotted it and solemnly drew it out. At this point Eddie was searched and all his other trophies were found and confiscated much to his chagrin although the rest of the prisoners were reduced to gales as laughter as the Germans tried to hide their smiles. The passage to Trondheim was uneventful if a bit rough. When they arrived they were escorted individually along the quay by an officer with a luger and two soldiers following, one with a rifle and the other with a machine gun. They were put aboard a motor boat and taken to a fort on a nearby island for an overnight stay. Next morning they were handed over to the Army and put on a train. Army food was distinctly inferior to navy fare and all they got was a slice of black bread. Journey to Germany The train took them to Oslo and during the long journey Eddie mused about tales he had read of World War One prisoners escaping by jumping from trains. He didn't think much of the idea! There were lots of naval personnel aboard the train, Eddie noted that even though he was young most of the German submariners looked more like children than sailors. The Naval officers were full of questions - where do you come from? how did you get by the netting? etc etc. At Oslo they were taken to a German Barracks and each allocated quite large room to themselves. They all had a large picture of Adolf Hitler on the wall and Godfrey Place of X7 objected to this and turned it to face the wall and was shouted at the German guard. The next day they were taken to the docks and taken on board an empty merchant ship where they were locked up in partitioned compartments in the cargo hold, one to a compartment which they shared with the ship's rats. Eddies next bread ration was eaten by the rats before he could. Thereafter he learned to keep the food with him rather than let it stand about. Dicky Kendall, the diver of X6 was in the next compartment to Eddie and they worked a knot hole clear so they could talk and play battleships. The German officer in charge had himself narrowly esacped capture on the Russian front and took them on deack for a while when passing through the Skaggerat and Kattegat where they could see Swedish ships and wished they could hop over to freedom. The ship docked at at Alborg in Denmark where they were transferred to a train to take them to Bremen. En route at Frederica a Red Cross unit served them soup which was very welcome. The trains were packed but the prisoners were only two to a compartment so other passengers treated them with great curiosity. One old couple while they were still in Denmark did flash them the victory sign however. Interrogation Camp at Bremen The interrogation camp at Bremen had pretty sparse accommodation - a cell about 9 ft by 6 ft with two bunks, a table, a stool and a small solid fuel stove. The food ration was a slice of bread, a bowl of soup and potatoes served late morning. You could hear the food arriving for ages as it was brought on an iron-wheeled hand drawn cart. They did get one Red Cross parcel but thought it was a mistake. They communicated with each other by singing out loud, although Eddie claimed he couldn't sing and ruined everyone else's efforts. Once or twice a day they were taken out and interrogated. The normal interrogating officer was quite reasonable and despite the lies he was told never really took offence. On one occasion he remarked that Eddie did not look well to which he replied "If you lived in a bloody rabbit hutch day after day, week in week out with little food, nothing to do, freezing cold - you would not look well either!" He was offered some coal brickettes which he stuffed in his tunic but because he would not answer the questions had to put them back. Another interrogator was not so pleasant. He sat in a shadow and played a light on the prisoners. Eddie used to feel a cold chill when he took over. One day he said to Eddie that the Admiralty had sent him on a suicidal mission with boats that were unseaworthy and only good for 100 ft - Eddie was very proud of his boat and his reaction was enough to tell the officer all he knew. Occasionally they were allowed to take a walk in the compound where they had the opportunity to steal a brickette or two. One time John Lorimer was allowed out at the same time and they could exchange a few words. Two other prisoners there were believed to have been taken when the Tirpitz attacked Spitzbergen but the X-men were suspicious that they were in fact German plants so conversations with them were very guarded. On one occasion the Germans tried to take advantage of the fact that he was an NCO whereas the rest were officers. He was summoned out of his cell and given a brush and told to sweep the hut. Eddie refused and before the German officer, who was quite small, could draw his Luger Eddie was back in his cell with his feet against the door despite the officer hammering away for a while, eventually he gave up but on reflection Eddie was sorry he missed the opportunity possibly to act as a message passer, but his pride had been dented!. Eventually the Germans despaired of getting any information from them, despite threats to hand them over to the Gestapo. They were all given a final interrogation and told they would be sent to Berlin. Next morning they were taken to the railway station and placed in a compartment. The train never moved. All day they sat there wondering what was going to happen but in the evening they were taken back to the camp and later found out that this had been the date for a Red Cross inspection and the Germans wanted them out of the way. When they got back to their rooms they found their stocks of stolen brickettes had been found and confiscated - the two per day which was the official entitlement was not rea;lly enough to keep them warm. Shortly after that they were all moved into one room but they believed it was bugged so conversati- ons were very guarded. After being in solitary for about six weeks the shock of being with others again made it difficult not to become hysterical. Prisoner of War This was the point at which they became normal prisoners of war and had to be separated. The officers to an officers' camp and Eddie to one for NCOs The camps were adjacent but no communication was allowed between them - at least not officially - there were ways and means. Eddie found himself in a very difficult situation in the NCOs camp. He was continually asked about himself and how he came to be there but as he had been on a very secret mission he had to be very guarded in what he said. This withholding of information was resented by many of his fellow prisoners. Escape was foremost in their minds for most of the men. Some had been imprisoned for so long that they had virtually given up and did not want trouble but for the rest it was a goal which helped them keep their sanity. A group of six of them got together to explore possibilities. Tunnelling was ruled out so the method of choice was to cut the barbed wires when the RAF were bombing Bremen because during raids the exterior lights were switched off. The first problem was to obtain wire cutters. Someone found some flat steel bars and one man named Worthy drilled, hardened and filed them to make very effective wire cutters. A pad made from blankets served to dead the twang as the wire was cut. The second problem was food. - cigarettes were pooled and swapped for chocolate which was melted, mixed with other things and then moulded using Red Cross tins from parcels. Don Cameron smuggled them some maps and another man made a compass out of an old watch and a pointer made from a razor blade which had been stroked for hours to magnetise it. The plan was to head for Lubeck and find a Swedish ship. They dig some sunpits as close to the wire as they dared - these were ostensibly to be used for sunbathing but the real purposes was to provide shelter for the men who would cut the wire. At last all was ready and they gathered their gear together each evening awaiting an air raid. When it came they packed their home-made haversacks, had a tot of home brewed alcohol (called snake bite) and eased themselves into the pits. They waited for the sentry to pass and then two men went forward to cut the wire. They made a good hole in the first fence and had just cut one wire in the outer fence when the sentry returned and they had to slip back into the pits. Unfortunately at this point the sentry decided to relieve himself and hung his greatcoat on the outer wire while he did so. When he finished he reached for his coat and it snagged on the one strand of wire that had been cut. He went to investigate and found the hole in the inner fence and shouted to the watchtowers who turned their searchlights on. Eddie led the men back to the huts, lying prostrate when the searchlights flickered over them and the buried the gear, dashed into his hut, undressed and slipped into bed. The Commandant ordered a search of the huts but nothing was found. The rest of the camp had been very much affected by having to stand on the parade ground for hours while the huts were searched but things were back to normal very quickly. As they were searching the Germans found two men in a bunk together - The Commandant remarked that this was strange as it was not cold that night - they were punished by being put in solitary confinement - together!! Lofty Woods, a commando captured at Dieppe tried a solo attempt at escape, but as he was partly deaf he did not hear the warnings that a sentry was approaching. He stood up threw the cutters over his shoulder and surrendered to the sentry but his accomplices had slipped back leaving the precious cutters behind. The loss was a severe blow to their future plans.. Another man went mad. He was kept in the sick bay under constant care but kept escaping from there. One time he jumped into the pond and had to be hauled out. He was later repatriated leaving the rest to wonder who really needed the mental treatment - him or them. Time dragged by very slowly with little to do except play rugby and dream of escaping. Eventually the distinction between officers and NCOs was broken down and the NCOs moved into the officer's camp. The major difference, Eddie recalled, was the way they served the food. Instead of each man having his own portion each mealtime two cooks were selected from each room to deal with the food. This was doled out onto 14 plates and at the word go the remaining twelve men made a grab for what they thought was the biggest plateful. The two cooks getting the last two plates. so they had a vested interest in sharing the food out fairly. When the order came for them to be moved to another camp all the remaining Red Cross parcels were distributed to make sure nothing was left behind. They all looked forward to a good meal but their stomachs had shrink and most men could manage only a small mouthful. That afternoon they were formed up in columns and told they were going to march back to Denmark. Escape As they marched they paused awhile at a little village called Westertimki which had a mill. Eddie part of the column stopped adjacent to this mill and Eddie spotted an opportunity to slip away and hide under a staircase. A few minutes later he saw a pair of German jackboots going up the stairs so he slipped back out again and rejoined the column, not wanting to be caught trying to escape. A bit farther on an RAF plane attacked the column, evidently thinking it was a column of German soldiers on the move. As they leapt for shelter in a nearby ditch in the hope of another attempt at escape Eddie felt that it was bad enough trying to combat the enemy, but when your own side started to work against you, it was almost beyond human endurance. Nevertheless Eddie, John and Worthy agreed that if the opportunity did arise they would stick together. The chance came late in the afternoon when the column was rounding a bend in the road such that for an instant they were out of sight of the German guards. and there was a wood on the right hand side of the wood. They broke away from the column and ran for the woods and found a dense part where they could pause and consider their position. They decided to stay put until dusk and then try to make their way back to their camp and await the arrival of Allied armies. They could see a cottage in the distance and a woman hanging clothes out to dry and they opened a tin of spam to get some food into themselves before setting off. Just as they were about to eat two shadows passed by and they froze. Eddies heart beat 'like hell' and he felt his nervous system shattered as they waited for the shadows to pass by. It was a long time before they could eat the spam. They walked most of the night but got hopelessly lost, having scaled walls and fences trying to keep out of sight. Just before dawn they had come close to a farmhouse and they were walking down a narrow country lane. As they rounded the bend they spotted a man and a woman walking towards them. There was no way of avoiding them so they kept straight on and John greeted them in some language Eddie could not understand and they passed by without any attempt to stop them. They then came a cross a small stream with a tree trunk across it as a bridge. Worthy stated he had no sense of balance but he was egged on by the others - and fell in! They dragged him out and tried to dry his clothes before setting out again walking around any signs of habitation but generally trying to head south using the sun by day and the north star by night. They bumped into another man in the early afternoon but he turned out to be a foreign worker who gave them no problems. Most of their journey so far had been over fairly level ground but later in the day they came across a small hill with a wood. They were very tired and decided to camp there. They dug a hole about 6 ft by 5ft and 2ft depth using their frying pan, placed pegs around the hole and tied a blanket covered in heather to the pegs to make a roof. They then camouflaged the site with branches and leaves and with water to drink from a nearby stream settled down for the night. The camp site was very well disguised and could not be spotted even from just a few feet away so they planned to stay put, sleeping by day and walk about at night and await being overrun by the Allied armies. They tried to catch a deer with a home made chopper and Worthy tried to catch rabbits but without success. One night he went off foraging and came back with some potatoes. The next night they started to cook them over a fire made of fir cones as they believed they would not smoke - they were wrong the smoke was terrible. Just before the spuds were ready someone shouted 'Allo Allo' and Eddie tipped the water over the fire cutting his finger on the frying pan in the process. The man had a dog with him and the three of them scattered after covering up the hole and kept out of their way. Eventually they returned to the camp when all was quit but didn't try lighting a fire again. By this time they were all a bag of nerves jumping at the slightest noise and constantly on edge. One day as they were lying in their dugout it began to hail and the blanket roof collapsed so they decided to move on, carrying only the bare essentials. They moved off heading south again and after a few hours came upon a small wood. As they emerged from the other side they saw a timber barracks with soldiers everywhere so they retreated back into the wood and sat down on a log to discuss their next move. As they were talking two German officers approached and they remained stiil as the officers passed by within about ten feet of them coming from the direction where they themselves had come. There was little option but to stay fast and wait until dark. They had a wait of four or five hours and took the time to have a look around the wood. The Germans had cleared a path about ten feet wide eight through the wood and erected poles capped by what looked like porcelain bowls. There were other smaller paths. They set out at dusk but had gone only about twenty yards when a German on a bicycle approached. They froze and he passed by so close they could have pushed him off his bike. They could hear the German sentries calling to one another so they knew roughly where they were. They crawled out of the wood on hands and knees for about half a mile until they came to a road. At this point one of them tripped over a wire which set off flares about two hundred yards away and they dived for cover in a ditch. A lorry came up the road but did not stop and they figured that the wire and the flares were unconnected and the flares were just a signal for the lorry to approach the German camp. They carried on walking in the moonlight through a forest of large trees. At one point they spotted some men moving around but they seemed as afraid of stumbling across an enemy as the ex- prisoners were of being discovered. Eventually they reached a railway line and found a spot where there were no sentries so they could cross in safety. After another few miles they found another wood and bedded down for the night. They were cold, tired and miserable but slept, awaking even colder and stiffer. The next morning they set off again over open country towards the Bremen to Hamburg Autobahn. There was no cover for miles. It was flat and bare with one tint group of trees in sight. Their trackway took them past these trees but as they passed they saw a German AA gun-emplacement on the right. There were two German soldiers there, they stared at the group who waved but the soldiers took no notice and made no effort to stop them. As they walked on for a few more miles they were always fearful of a bullet in their back but nothing happened. They crossed the autobahn via a small bridge but just as they got to the other side an Allied aircraft zoomed over strafing the road and the AA battery came to life in reply. After another spell in a ditch they carried on when it was all quiet again and came to another wood. They had another uncomfortable but uneventful night and, waking early set off to reach the Wummer River. This had overflowed its banks and had created a small island in the middle. John and Eddie waded across to the island. Worthy refused to cross the main stream so Eddie and John took off all their clothes and swam across several times holding up their gear on their heads to keep it dry until they had got it all across. Then after a bit of vigorous exercise to warm up again they dressed and set off leaving Worthy behind as he steadfastly refused to follow them. By now the sun was shining and with a brisk walk their circulation was beginning to return. They came to a wood and as they could hear firing they decided to stay put until nightfall. All of a sudden John shouted 'Camerade' and thre his hands into the air. Eddie followed his gaze to see the end of two rifles pointing at them - he too raised his hands. The rifles were held by two German soldiers and John spoke to them - one of them wanted to leave the pair of them alone and the other to hand them in at a nearby farmhouse. They believed they were deserters and they decided in the end to leave them alone and move on. John and Eddie retired to the wood and made a shelter out of moss and lay quiet with only their heads showing. However after a short while smoke started streaming through the wood and they figured the Allies were trying to burn the Germans out. They did not stop to fund out but ran from the wood. As they emerged the saw a man with a Red Cross armband and dived for cover as another aircraft flew overhead. After they raised their heads again the Red Cross man had disappeared and the saw a small hut. This had a mud floor but was reasonably dry and provided them with some shelter for the night which was punctuated with gun fire. When Eddie awoke he heard John talking to someone. It was a Pole who invited them to join him with a party of five Russians who were living in the wood nearby. The Pole said they were about to kill a cow and cook it. This sounded very inviting so they agreed to go. As they walked into the wood the Pole whistled and the five Russians appeared out of nowhere. The leader was an enormous man and although there was a language barrier they were greeted with huge smiles. Somehow John managed to make himself understood and they stayed all day with the Russians. They did not in fact kill a cow but boiled a milk churn full of spuds which were very good. Eddie had now developed a prize carbuncle on the back of his neck which made movement very painful but there was nothing they could do about it. John tried to make them understand that he and Eddie wanted to cross to Allied lines but the Russians indicated that they should just sleep. They made two beautiful semi-circular sheters for them and the head Russian allocated two Russians each to Eddie and John and they slept in a Russian sandwich which kept them beautifully warm even if the Russians smelt a bit high. It seemed that the Russians had been POWs in a nearby camp and had escaped when an attacking aircraft had blown a hole in the perimeter wire. The Russians too were anxious to cross into Allied held territory and expected John and Eddie to lead them. They had no idea where they were but having consulted their maps and home-made compass they decided on a route and set out with their six followers in tow. They reached a road and turned south, only to come across a village which had been shot up and damaged and which was deserted save one old woman. The Russians searched for food with very little success and John and Eddie found two rifles and some ammunition. They set off again with the Russians carrying the ammunition and passed some trenches soon after leaving the village.. Then they heard rifle fire and someone returning the fire so they dived into the trenches. They decided it was better to bury the rifles as whichever side spotted them would be sure to shoot at men with rifles. It seemed that the German army had retreated leaving a few snipers to hold up the advancing Allied forces. They could see Allied troops at a farmhouse and several more around. The Russians had scattered but then two German soldiers came down the road towards them with hands raised. Eddie and John took them to the road and made them walk towards the Allied troops waving a white flag with them following discretely behind. They reached the forward post at which pont another wire was tripped and a flare set off. One of the Allied troops asked if they were British to which they responded 'Ja' having got so used to responding in another language. They were taken before an officer of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps to whom they told their tale. They never saw the Russians again. Behind Allied Lines John and Eddie though they were home safe but there were many frustrations to come. The KRRC officer evidently was very suspicious and although they were given a good breakfast, the best they had had for eighteen months, they were shipped off to Verden for further interrogation. Then they were taken to a German POW centre where John took pleasure in booting a German soldier hard up the backside to the accompaniment of much profane language. Eddie would have done the same but his carbuncle was causing too much trouble. The Army were having to cope with very large numbers of German prisoners and two more here or there made little difference. They were moved to Goch where they were kept waiting for four hours by an army sargeant.. It seemed that the further they were from the front line the less anybody seemed to care From Goch they were moved on to a camp in Belgium. They had a long and thoroughly rotten trip and were just about at the end of their tether. They both felt like killing the fist man who spoke out of turn to them. As they got off the lorry however a Major realised their predicament and took charge of them - said Eddie "He was wonderful - he got us food and tea, had our beds made for us and saw we had everything we wanted: our faith in human nature was somewhat restored." They moved on again to Brussels where a doctor lanced Eddies carbuncle but it made little difference. Some kind soldiers had given them some money and they went into a bar and ordered two beers.. They were just about to take a drink when a sergeant burst in and shouted "All out - hurry" They then waited hours with a load of other prisoners with their beers sitting untouched on the bar. Some of the other ex-pows were in terrible shape - so sick that many could hardly walk. They were marched to an old building where they could lie down on the cold floor to sleep as best they could until morning. They assembled outside next morning when they were taken off to The Hague and a Red Cross ship which took them to Tilbury. England From Tilbury they were taken to Chatham Barracks to be processed. The officer of the watch seemed to think they all should be back in the POW camp but they were too exhausted to argue. The processing involved visits to doctors and dentists, stores and other places, at all points there were queues and they had to keep getting their cards stamped. However someone took command of them, sat them down in a hallway and carried out all the bureaucratic routines on their behalf. It was now time to go on leave. When he returned from leave he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant and awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. He went up to Bucki- ngham Palace to receive his medal along with his skipper Don Cameron who was awar- ded the Victoria Cross.

Vernon Coles Vernon never got to participate in the Tirpitz attack as his boat X9 had been lost on the voyage to Norway. He made it back to Kirkwall with the other passage crews and the survivors from X10. The first batch of X-craft had all been lost so a new batch were ordered, X20 to X25 were operational craft and XT1 to XT6 were for training purposes only. Vernon was allocated to X22 and went with the rest of the crew to Markham's in Chesterfield to collect her. Being so small the X-craft could be transported by rail but it was very difficult to explain to railway policement guarding a marshalling yard far from the sea, that the unlikely bunch of sailors trying to gain access were really rejoining their submarine!! X22 collided with HMS Syrtis on February 7th 1944 while engaged in training and sank with the loss of all aboard. Luckily Vernon was not one of them. He transferred to X24 and participated in the attack on a floating dock at Bergen. It is now in the submarine museum at Gosport. After the end of the war in Europe the flotilla was moved out to the Far East to man a number of XE craft. These were slightly improved versions of the X5 class but with a small air conditioning unit added to deal with the tropical climate. Unfortunately they ran into a great deal of American prejudice - they did not want British forces doing special assignments in what they regarded as their theatre. The result was that a lot of American lives were lost needlessly. They were finally called into action in August 1945. Together with their depot ship HMS Bonaventure XE1 to XE6 arrived in Labuan in July 1945. In August XE1 and XE3 attacked Japanese ships in Sin- gapore Harbour. XE4 and XE5 were deployed in cutting signal cables conne- cting Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The reason given at the time belied the fact that America was plann- ing to drop the Atom Bomb on Japan and while they could intercept and decode wireless messages, traffic on the underwater cables was undetectable. President Trueman was anxious to know XE4 in Sydney Harbour [M000265] whether or not Japan had got wind of the Manhattan project and so overrode Admiral Chester Nimitz's prejudice against the Royal Navy and called upon the X-Craft to cut the cables thus forcing the Japanese to use radio communications. Vernon was in XE4 and they successfully cut the cable from Saigon while XE5 did likewise in Hong Kong.. For his efforts Vernon was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He now lives in Newbury. In all twelve of the XE type were built but only the four saw operational service. After the war four more boats were built X51 to X54 and named Stickleback, Shrimp, Sprat and Minnow. Stickleback was sold to the Swedish Navy after they had had problems with Russian submarines and Sprat to the US Navy. Postwar After the war Eddie went to work at Harwell with Vernon Coles but later moved to Newbury Diesel Co Ltd One of his jobs was trialling diesel engines and one time he was sent to Norway to do some tests. When the Norwegians discovered he had been on the raid he was presented with a clock from one of the Tirpitz’s engine rooms which was being broken up at the time. This clock is now with his daughter Penny. He moved on to become manager of the Reading branch of C W Glover. Edmund died in 1992 after a stroke in the Fox and Hounds pub in Tilehurst where he was a regular. Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to Eileen Goddard for making me aware of her husband and for loaning material for this article and to Penny Goddard who supplied the photograph of the clock. Also to Vernon Coles DSM who has so many stories to tell he could fill a book with anecdotes. N1291 20/12/2016 The clock from Tirpitz presented to Edmund by the Norwegians