My Life My War - Chapter 13a

MY LIFE MY WAR

By
Bernard Hallas

Chapter 13a - We Bombard Salerno

Once again I shall have to return to the “Poem of the Day”

Salerno, September 1943

We had flown our flag all over the world
For the war had caused us to roam,
But now things were better, or so it would seem
And we were on our way home.

The heights of Spain lay to starboard
Morocco stood off our port beam,
Once we were clear of the Straits of “Gib”
We were home, our long hoped dream.

But before we were clear, high up in the sky
An Aldis lamp flashes like mad,
A Catalina was transmitting in code
We guessed that the news would be bad.

The words “Hard to port”, were passed to the wheel
“Hard to port” the wheelhouse replied,
We turned half circle and made our way back
To a man, we bloody near died.

The tannoy crackled, “This is your Captain.” It said
“You’ll have guessed what it’s all about,
Our forces on land are in a bit of a fix
And we’re going to help them out."

Soon Sicily was way astern
And Salerno lay ahead,
The harbour was jammed with landing craft
"A fix is right," we said.

The Germans were holding the high ground
The passes too, they controlled,
The only way to dislodge them
Was to do something really quite bold.

So the Warspite entered the harbour
And bombarded the enemy tanks,
We plastered the heights and North of the pass
And cleared a way for the Yanks.

The American 5th army swept forward
British Commandoes took care of the pass,
For the moment the danger was over
They were now advancing, en mass.

Suddenly, as of old, “Aircraft Red” was the cry
Three planes came out of the sun,
The centre plane was really a bomb
In that harbour, no way could we run.

The bomb hit us almost amidships
The damage was bad we could tell,
For the water rushed in and we listed
Our steering had gone as well.

We had always been the victors
Except for that one-day at Crete,
And to be at the enemy’s mercy
Was really not up our street.

Every submergible pump was in use
And parties were baling below,
With fear in our minds, but not in our hearts
Thinking, this is no way to go.

We manned our guns but dare not fire
The list we had was severe,
What would happen when the bombers came?
Was our one and only fear

Two American tugs were struggling
To keep us on the go,
Our lights were out we worked in the dark
But to our stern there shone a faint glow

The Enemy bombers saw the glow
And came in for the kill,
But what they found was a fighting ship
That didn’t quite fit the bill.

When the dawn came, the bombers withdrew
No damage had they done,
For the ‘Glow’ astern was the Valiant
Showing lights to lead them on

For seeing ‘Her Sister Ship’ crippled
She had swung astern in our wake,
And steaming along with her lights switched on
She had taken, what we couldn’t take.

The straits of Messina were dead ahead
We were swinging into the rough,
The American tugs were doing their best
But it seemed it wasn’t enough

Then as the morning sun rose high
And the sea mist disappeared,
The ‘Oriana’ and the ‘Nimble’
Two London tugs appeared.

With expertise they cast their lines
Their hawsers took the strain,
And so, with the Americans giving their help
We were picking up speed again.

No water, no sleep, with a five-day beard
And the island of Malta in sight,
We relaxed and took our second breath
It appeared everything now was all right

Only too soon, we were towed into place
The hawsers screamed their protest,
But the cables held fast to the side of the dock
Where she shuddered and then came to rest

Every ship in the harbour was now sounding off
The Maltese, First cheered, then cried,
For rumour had spread all over the isle
That the veteran “Old Lady” had died

The Captain, Thanked us “For bringing Her home”
We thanked him in return “For the ride,
Then he ordered the bugler to sound off “Secure”
And we dropped where we could and just ‘Died’

You can probably guess, that was one journey we could very well have done without, but it had one redeeming feature. The “Grand old Lady” Flagship, in which every fleet she was serving at any particular time, was now out of the war for some time. She was no longer an active member of the fleet. But that did not stop the Grand Old Lady from taking action against her enemy once she had been repaired.

Some months later, with one boiler room and one fifteen inch turret out of action, she took up her position as a bombardment ship with the rest of the invasion force.

Arriving at Sword beach, she provided covering fire for the army as requested, moving from target to target as required. Villerville batteries were engaged and Gonneville-sur-Mer received it’s fair share of one-ton shells after which Villerville was once more re-engaged. Then it was the turn of Benerville and enemy transports on the roads approaching or leaving the coastal areas.

By this time Warspite had fired 314 fifteen-inch shells, 133 armour piercing shells on the forts and 181 high explosive shells on the concentrations of enemy troops and transports.

It was now time to return to Portsmouth to re- ammunition the ship. After a short stay repairing superficial damage, she set sail once again to the Normandy beachhead as the American bombarding ships were running out of ammunition. The targets were enemy guns and 96 15-inch shells were dropped on these targets and were rewarded by a complimentary signal from the American commander.

On June 11th, her presence was requested off Gold beach to engage enemy tanks hiding in the wooded area and her accurate firing drove the tanks out into the open. Once again she was congratulated by the Commanding Officer of the 5th Division. By this time Warspite’s gun barrels were worn out and she was ordered to Rosyth for replacement barrels.

Once more the Old Lady’s luck ran out, on the 13th of June, just off Harwich, she became the victim of an enemy mine. 1500 lbs of explosive caused extensive damage to her hull. Her speed was affected and she arrived off Rosyth on the 14th of June. All the warships in the vicinity of the Forth Bridge cleared lower deck to cheer the battered ‘Old Lady’ as she passed by.

After two months of extensive repair. On the 24th of August she went back to war, there was no keeping this fighting ship away from the action. 40,000 German troops were cut off on the Brest peninsular protected by a ring of old French forts. These were to be Warspites next targets.

The American troops were bogged down and could not move. It was a reminder of Salerno and once again it was HMS Warspite to the rescue. Of the five targets, the first was Kerringar (11” Guns) This fort became the recipient of 57 one-ton shells. In quick succession, over a period of 2½ hours, the remaining four were attacked.

Les Rospects, (6” Guns) received 47 shells, Toulbroch Fort Received 32 rounds, Minour Fort received 51 shells and Montbarey Fort received a final salute of 26 rounds. It was then that the control on shore signalled that Warspite’s time was up. It had not been a complete success, as the Old Lady turned seawards, 11” shells from the Keringar battery fell so close that shell splinters splattered her upper deck. In all, Warspite had fired another 213 shells. The results had been disappointing; most of the forts had remained intact and could still fire on the advancing troops.

It must seem obvious that the old Lady was beginning to fail and those of us who were at Narvik through to Salerno, could notice the comparison. It was on record that at Calabria, Warspite had damaged an enemy Battleship at a range of over 15 miles. That was some shooting. It was still not the end for this wounded warrior, on the 10 September 1944, she sailed from Portsmouth to Le Havre. Six targets of enemy gun batteries were engaged and a further 304 15” shells were expended, firing at maximum range some 35,000 yards.

It was now time for a short rest and after eight weeks in Portsmouth it was off once again to the Dutch Island of Walcheren. In this attack, mainly to take pressure off the Royal Marines, this now tired Old Lady fired a further 353 one ton shells and at that moment in time her ships company did not know, that at last her mighty guns had fallen silent for ever. She set course for Portsmouth and this once proud ‘Flagship’ was anchored to the specially prepared “Reserve Fleet” buoy and remained there from February 1945 until August 1946 when she was taken to Portsmouth main harbour and relieved of all her heavy Equipment. Her huge 15” gun barrels alone weighed in at 100 tons each.

Before her ultimate destruction there were many requests that this most famous of all Battleships should be saved for posterity, but the powers that be, never having served on her, showed to the world that they had no soul and no national pride, and she was sent to the scrap yard. “Or was she?” It took more than seven months to strip her of her glory and on the 12th March 1947, the skeleton of this still proud ship was towed out to sea. Metal Industries were going to make a fortune.

Fate however had decided otherwise and the prayers of all who had sailed the seas were about to be answered. Fifteen miles off Land’s End, the sky suddenly turned black, a storm arose which took command of the situation and after a long struggle, overpowered the tugs and drove Her Majesty’s Ship, Warspite, onto the rocks at Prussia Cove. This then was the final answer to the world, that “The Grand Old Lady” was defiant to the end.

Pr-BR

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