General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
Posted by:
Alan Ferguson
()
Date: August 14, 2003 12:29PM
<HTML>I am trying to discover the truth (or otherwise) of a story told me by my late father.
As a young man, he was employed in a "reserved occupation" by the Royal Navy to drag telegraph poles across the peat bogs above and around the installations opposite Greenock/Gourock - the area known as the Tail of the Bank on the River Clyde.
He came upon this good fortune (that is to say, my good fortune as he would otherwise have been called into miltary service and I might not be here!) by the usual route - pure chance. He owned a horse, sharing with it an experience of dragging timber, his first post school job having been in the woods and forests of the area.
He told me two memorable stories of this time.
One, just for interest, concerned having been persuaded by the mate working with him on the project, to visit a dance in Helensburgh. It being a friday evening, he was particularly tired. Although a VERY keen dancer, he had thought to give this event a miss as it would involve a round trip of many miles by bike in black out conditions. By next morning, it became clear how lucky he was to have such a persuasive mate as a Luftwaffe bomber, engaged in a raid on Greenock and pursued by a heated defence had escaped across the river - jetisoning his bomb load as he went, probably concerned to gain height to overcome the hills just beyond. Although none of the stray bombs actually hit directly, my father returned to their wooden shack in a clearing early on Saturday morning to discover that at least two had landed so close that most of the shack was now deposited in the branches of nearby trees. Oddly, in recollection, he semed more upset that the dance itself had been abandoned only minutes after it started as the air raid sirens warned of the coming raid on Greenock.
Which brings me to my real reason for raising this note. The second story concerns what my father described as "an unholy commotion" that arose on the river one night (as a guess I'd say maybe in 1941/2?). Not unusually, convoy vessels were assembling in the pool by the Tail of the Bank along with other (non convoy related) elements of the Royal Navy.
The approaches to the area were of course heavily defended both further down the Firth and, I think, by a boom cordon somewhere in the region of the narrows watched over by the Cloch Lighthouse.
There had been a number of repeated scares that U Boats had attempted to breech the defences and enter the Tail of the Bank. Although these occasions had precipitated activity on the river as you might imagine, it was "as nothing" comapared with the evening of which my father spoke. Apparently the searching and occasional depth charging went on most of the night.
The newspapers made no reference to the event the next day or thereafter. This might be hardly surprising given the needs and aims of censored war propaganda but apparently it was quite common for there to be reports of successful repulsion of German naval attacks - real or otherwise - and my father was always puzzled that such an event should simply disappear in this way
Among the locals, the conclusion that was drawn and largely passed down was that an attacker had indeed managed to penetrate - under the hull of a large merchant man as the boom was dropped to allow it entry. Further, the U Baot had been chased down all night, was unable to launch any attacks and was either sunk or became stuck on rocks or whatever.
I have had a look at various sites to see if there was any U Boat activity or incident that might explain this story but simply don't know enough to zero in on what I looking at. Was it all a post Scapa Flo panic set running by an over anxious sonar operator? Was there such an attempt - unsuccesful, with the U Boat concerned high tailing back to deep waters? Or was there indeed a successful incursion?
One final thing bothers me. If a U Boat got loose inside the boom in a position and condition to attack, it would have been a duck shoot with so many targets hoved to. But subsequent escape would seem almost impossible. The only possibility would be to run into and lie low in one of the deep water lochs that spur out of the Clyde, making a reverse attempt to sail out under a ship once the peril was assumed to have perished.
I would be very grateful for any factual information that appears to relate to such a event or pointers to other specific sources (I am a complete novice in all matters naval and submarine, so you will need to be very specific).
Notwithstanding this, I hope that at least the report itself and the story it tells is of interest to those of you who know more about and are genrally interested in these matters.
Alan</HTML>
As a young man, he was employed in a "reserved occupation" by the Royal Navy to drag telegraph poles across the peat bogs above and around the installations opposite Greenock/Gourock - the area known as the Tail of the Bank on the River Clyde.
He came upon this good fortune (that is to say, my good fortune as he would otherwise have been called into miltary service and I might not be here!) by the usual route - pure chance. He owned a horse, sharing with it an experience of dragging timber, his first post school job having been in the woods and forests of the area.
He told me two memorable stories of this time.
One, just for interest, concerned having been persuaded by the mate working with him on the project, to visit a dance in Helensburgh. It being a friday evening, he was particularly tired. Although a VERY keen dancer, he had thought to give this event a miss as it would involve a round trip of many miles by bike in black out conditions. By next morning, it became clear how lucky he was to have such a persuasive mate as a Luftwaffe bomber, engaged in a raid on Greenock and pursued by a heated defence had escaped across the river - jetisoning his bomb load as he went, probably concerned to gain height to overcome the hills just beyond. Although none of the stray bombs actually hit directly, my father returned to their wooden shack in a clearing early on Saturday morning to discover that at least two had landed so close that most of the shack was now deposited in the branches of nearby trees. Oddly, in recollection, he semed more upset that the dance itself had been abandoned only minutes after it started as the air raid sirens warned of the coming raid on Greenock.
Which brings me to my real reason for raising this note. The second story concerns what my father described as "an unholy commotion" that arose on the river one night (as a guess I'd say maybe in 1941/2?). Not unusually, convoy vessels were assembling in the pool by the Tail of the Bank along with other (non convoy related) elements of the Royal Navy.
The approaches to the area were of course heavily defended both further down the Firth and, I think, by a boom cordon somewhere in the region of the narrows watched over by the Cloch Lighthouse.
There had been a number of repeated scares that U Boats had attempted to breech the defences and enter the Tail of the Bank. Although these occasions had precipitated activity on the river as you might imagine, it was "as nothing" comapared with the evening of which my father spoke. Apparently the searching and occasional depth charging went on most of the night.
The newspapers made no reference to the event the next day or thereafter. This might be hardly surprising given the needs and aims of censored war propaganda but apparently it was quite common for there to be reports of successful repulsion of German naval attacks - real or otherwise - and my father was always puzzled that such an event should simply disappear in this way
Among the locals, the conclusion that was drawn and largely passed down was that an attacker had indeed managed to penetrate - under the hull of a large merchant man as the boom was dropped to allow it entry. Further, the U Baot had been chased down all night, was unable to launch any attacks and was either sunk or became stuck on rocks or whatever.
I have had a look at various sites to see if there was any U Boat activity or incident that might explain this story but simply don't know enough to zero in on what I looking at. Was it all a post Scapa Flo panic set running by an over anxious sonar operator? Was there such an attempt - unsuccesful, with the U Boat concerned high tailing back to deep waters? Or was there indeed a successful incursion?
One final thing bothers me. If a U Boat got loose inside the boom in a position and condition to attack, it would have been a duck shoot with so many targets hoved to. But subsequent escape would seem almost impossible. The only possibility would be to run into and lie low in one of the deep water lochs that spur out of the Clyde, making a reverse attempt to sail out under a ship once the peril was assumed to have perished.
I would be very grateful for any factual information that appears to relate to such a event or pointers to other specific sources (I am a complete novice in all matters naval and submarine, so you will need to be very specific).
Notwithstanding this, I hope that at least the report itself and the story it tells is of interest to those of you who know more about and are genrally interested in these matters.
Alan</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Alan Ferguson | 08/14/2003 12:29PM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Brian | 08/15/2003 09:00PM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Sandy Christie | 08/16/2003 01:06PM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
phil gilmer | 01/08/2014 11:02AM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Brian Donald | 08/16/2003 05:33PM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Howard | 08/16/2003 10:09PM |
|
Re: U Boat penetration of River Clyde Defences
|
Bob Doiron | 08/20/2003 02:39AM |