"Battle of the Atlantic" Topic

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22445864

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22434753

Cheers Chouan,

I'll show those links to my cadets later this week. They're involved in the establishment of a permanent war memorial in the village of St Dogmael's, which suffered massive losses during the Battle of the Atlantic for such a tiny place with a population of less than 500:

link

I also had the enormous privilege at my last cadet unit, to meet and host British and Australian veterans of the RAF Pembroke Dock flying boat Squadrons, including the Australian pilot who did this: YouTube link . Again, they suffered massive losses and in many cases there is simply no record as to what happened to many of them – Runnymede Memorial is packed with the names of Coastal Command crews.

I could email people with a couple of Powerpoints that I use, if you're interested.
Thanks for the links. The Memorial one makes for depressing reading. People always imagine tankers to be the most dangerous ships to sail on, but "Ore bashers", were far worse, as the Memorial suggests. The lack of buoyancy of the cargo would mean that a vessel carrying manganese ore, for example, would be gone in about 30 seconds, when torpedoed. No time to launch boats, no time to get out of the accomodation, certainly no time to get out of the Engine Room if it wasn't where the torpedo hit.

Thanks Chouan, that would be great.

My e-mail address is oc.1429@aircadets.org

[Edited to add] I see what you mean. I'd not noticed the very high incidence of men lost on board ore carriers among that list.

Cheers,

Mark

link

link

If anybody is in West Wales, there are Battle of the Atlantic commemorations at Pembroke Dock this weekend:

PDF link

There was a most enjoyable discussion panel on this at RUSI last week.

I understand there are symposia at King's London and in Liverpool coming up shortly, too.

All the best,

John.

Dear Mark,
email sent. I hope they're of use. The C/E mentioned in the last slide, of the "Arabistan" was my father's cousin. He reired after a career at sea, still as a Marine Engineer, in the early 70's.

Thanks Chouan,

Bloody e-mail's down at the moment (my account's been accidentally locked out), but it should be back up this week, so I'll have a look then. Thanks very much indeed.

Mark