THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 17, 1940
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
HAVING IT BOTH WAYS
HEROES OF THE MYSTERY SHIPS
Asked To Be Sunk
Admiralty reports reveal a new Campbell was given three
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papers and
There is something in- congruous about Mr. De Valera's attitude on the war. He wants it both ways. He won't aid Bri- tain, but he will look to Britain to come to his res- cue if he is attacked. Hel has rejected out of hand Ulster's proposal that Eire abandon neutrality and come in on the side of the forces of democracy.. He has repeatedly champion- ed the cause of freedom. He is aware that freedom is the antithesis of the policy pursued by aggres- sor nations, and that the small States which have placed their dependence upon neutrality have run foul of the Nazi mechan- ised warfare. Yet he asks for an Irish neutral- ity which invites Nazi
12-pulled away a black-faced stoker She went to inspect the "panic outbreak of U-boat activity. pounders and a Maxim gun and yelled from a porthole. One of party's" boats. Her periscope came conquest.
But the U-boat menace is not told to make her into a decoy ship, them came back, and picked him so near, one of the party said, a new thing. The Navy faced and
Jup. Meanwhile the real ship's "Don't talk, they'll hear us." She Geography more than beat it in 1917, when this country She was an old ship capable of the bridge
master was belly-crawling across came to inspect the ship, still sub- events has determined, was losing 545,000 tons of ship-
watching the sub- merged, from 10 to 15 yards dis- ping in a month. In the worst eight knots, filthy inside and out. marine through a crack in the tance. Twenty-five minutes passTM Ireland's position in the four weeks of this war British He was given a crew in which wooden screen, and the guns were ed. The Q5 was sinking.
a third of only the gunlayers were
naval manned in cabins and hen-coop. Then the U83 came to the sur- present emergency. Lordships did not suffer
these losses.
men. The others, many from the They practised for weeks, and face a hundred yards away. The Craigavon, Premier of The threat was countered last N.V.R., included a market garat last met their first submarine, conning tower opened. The captain Ulster, has seen that, and time by a combination of science, dener, a commercial traveller and It fired its torpedo, missed, the came out. And the Q-boat received courage and personal ingenuity. some fishermen. They were given "panic party" did their stuff, and the order "Fire!" They fired 45 with commendable cour-Some of the earliest weapons were 30s. per officer and 15s. per man the hidden watchers waited for shells, all hits. The "panic party"
At themselves out in age has taken an unway-first called decoy ships, then "my-to
plain the U-boat to come to the sur-rescued one officer and one man. stery ships, then Secret Ser-clothes. That was to cover their face. It was a tense interval. One The destroyers they hoped were ering stand. He knows vice vessels," finally ships. Their full outfit. When they went on the of the gunners said, "If he didn't in the offing took time to arrive. that Germany's claim to story is worth telling again to-dock in their secondhand slops whistle he'd get scared." Finally Gordon Campbell kept 12 men on.
day, not because U-boats can still people used to give them white the U-boat obliged and came up board. The rest joined their mates "Lebensraum" was mere-be fought by these methods they feathers. None of them had ever 800 yards away. The guns found in the boats. On board they des-
still steered a ship, though one Irish-their mark and the UG8 went to troyed their secret ly devised to cover great can't-but because this is
another story of men using their man said he could do pretty well the bottom.
wirelessed their C.-in-C., "Q5 ambitions, and that the wits against machines and win-with the tiller.
slowly sinking respectfully wishes It was not a bright prospect. safety not only of Eire andning.
The Q-boat made many trips, you good-bye." But one day, as Admiral Gordon with variable fortune. But the toll In fact, she did not sink. The Ulster but also of the en-
Campbell tells the story, "I saw of merchant shipping was mount-timber cargo saved her. She was The U-boat of those days was ala man with a face like a seabooting. It was a time for desperate, towed tire British Isles is im-
away and beached and machine with certain very de-
remedies for desperate diseases. went on sailing under several perilled. The cry for neu-finite limitations. It travelled
And when he set out for a 10-'names till she came to the end of mostly on the surface in order to trality, he realises, merely save the juice in the electric stor-
weeks' trip in Q5 in 1917, Com- her sailing days in May, 1925, as mander Gordon Campbell decided the Hollypark. Gordon Campbell on which it de-
services that there was only one way of was giver his V.C. for encourages insensate am-age batteries
pended, when sailing under water.
making sure of his U-boat. That which were not described till the bitions. Therefore he re-It could carry few torpedoes, each
was to make sure first that the Q end of the war, and was called the jects any suggestion that of which cost a price running into
That "Mystery V.C." four figures. The commander was and I casually asked him if he'd ship should be torpedoed. Northern Ireland become expected to take home proof that ever steered a ship. He gave me way there was a hope the U-boat would surface within point-blank] he had not wasted his precious a look I shall never forget, spat neutral as "repugnant to te doen, so he preferred to get on the deck and asked me if Irange before the ship went There is an equally important V.C. story in Gordon Campbell's every soul in loyal Ulster."hold of a ship's papers or, better realised he had been chief quarter- They outstayed their 10 weeks, next Q ship, H.M.S. Pargust. Par- In this he proves himself, still, if he had room in the sub-master of the Titanic and was now and it was not till something like gust repeated the feat of Q5,
marine, carry off the master as by rights chief quartermaster of
the 17th week that they found 1783 steered into a torpedo and got her a practical supporter of proof positive.
the Olympic. (He didn't tell me freedom.
Against this had to be set the his chief duty was probably look--or she found them. They could U-boat, but did it in such circum- fact that his U-boot presented aing after the ladies deck chairs.) see the wake of the torpedo. They stances and with such elan that most difficult target for any gun asked him if he would do a were going to make sure il found the whole ship got the V.C.
Such an award is allowed her to hit (even a direct hit on con- stunt. He came and remained till its target. "I put the helm over to
avoid unnecessary loss of life," under clause 13 of the statutes of ning tower or periscope need not the end of the war."
So at least there was one man says Gordon Campbell, and the V.C., though this was the first Whether the acid test prevent the submarine from get-
ting home safely). Depth charges for the wheel. They hid one of the brought the torpedo just abaft time in naval history that it had happened. The award was given comes or not, we have were already being used, but not 12-pounders in a dummy steering the engine room."
In the event nobody on the Qto one officer and one man, chosen always effectively. Submarines engine-house aft. The real steer- some time or other to re- were not yet being bombed from ing engine was amidships, but ship was hurt except those of the by secret ballot of the crew; and value our democracy and the air. The problem was how to they ran a steam-pipe to the dum- "panic party" who were under- on every man's service certificate our lives, the one in terms get a naval gun close up to a U-my so that it sighed realistically.neath when the chief steward, a the notation is made that he served
boat. Hence, the Q-ships. - They put the other two in'dummy heavy man, Jost his balance and in the ship that got the V.C.
It The Q-boat's day is over. of the other. Democracy The plan was for innocent-cabins on the main deck, hid the fell into the boat, squashing two.
lended with the introduction of the in the path of submarines and
engine convoy system and with Irnom was flooded. The engineers heavier arming of submarines. But thought of merely in wait to be captured. At the last
moment they would reveal their Then there were disguises and crawled on the top gratings and it remains as an example of what terms of political machin-midden guns, run up a white En-rehearsals. There had to be dis-watched the water rising. The a few fishermen and a commer- guises, bechuse a coal tramp that crew of the after gun were practi-clai traveller and a markét gar- ery. Its object must be,
is seen one day sailing due north cally awash. The submarine was dener can do with an old tramp, now and always, the en-
and the next day south-south-west not apparently in any hurry tolfour guns, and wits and guts to-
gether. richment of the indivi-vice to those who offer is liable to arouse suspicion. The come to the surface.
appearance of the ship was dual life. But, beyond their bodies to the steel, changed every night after dark. this, we must recognise But their sacrifice can At first that the individual life's have little meaning to us Tevery morning belonging to à enrichment is of no gen-unless we realise, as they new company. eral interest unless the in-have done, that the demo- There were movable stanchions, The four years of the World, in a blood-soaked soil.-(Harold dummy boats, telescopic masts; war, 1914-18, were among the Dearden, "The Wind of Circum- dividual contributes crea-cratic ideal of the sanc-spare yards and trestle trees, a tively, in small things or tity of the humblest hu- spare crow's nest, sidelight light-happiest I over spent.
houses, and a spare donkey-boiler a task with men of every type common man being can be main-funnel. All these could be shifted and every social station, and was One of the most mawkish pt great, to the welfare. A purely selfish tained only by those who around. When they wanted admitted to a fellowship so rare human delusions is the notion major disguise they would turn as almost to justify the boastliness that friendship should be life- individualism withers at hold liberty more sacred her into a timber ship, for they which made it possible. There is long. The fact is that a man of
carried.
mind outwears timber at least this to be said for war: resilient enough the roots. If the appall-than anything that is always
to board up the ship
friendships just as cértainly as he the you live simply, if at all, and you ing conflict which we are theirs, even to their lives. whole way round with timber do so in the company of men at outwears his love affairs and his They become thread- now witnessing destroys This is a heroic doc-screens which looked as though their best, spurred to a passion-politics.
ate unselfishness by a common are, and every act and altitude that kind of individual-trine. It should not de- they covered the deck,
Then there were rehearsals. It purpose which at other times is that they involve becomes an net
of hypocrisy. ism, it will have paid back generate into heroics. But a submarine appeared a crew af lacking.
A prudent man, remembering a little of what it is cost- in cold logic there is no some 30 were to abandon ship. The tragedy of war is that the
leaving the other 50 concealed on sense of fellowship it engenders that life is short, examines his ing.
escape from it.
board. This had to be done reall4 [seems unable to survive the com-}friendships · critically, ́ ́ now, We who are not at the sign, and, with luck, sink their atically. The "panic party" yelled ing of peace. It is an arresting then. A few he retains, but the
assallant.
for help, let their boats down with paradox that, mutual service, the majority he expunges from his moment. about to die can Q1 was a coal tramp, the a run, one end up. The "Master" seed of that all-embracing sym-Iminutes and tries to forget.-(H. with poor grace give ad-derer. Lieutenant-Commander of the panie party carried a stuff-pathy which would make war im L, Mencken, "Selected Preju-
(later
Rear-Admiral). Gordon ed parrot in a cage. As the boats possible, appears to flourish best dices.")
DEMOCRACY
By William Walwyn
down.
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has little meaning if it is looking tramp steamers to patrol Maxim in a hen coop, and sailed. On board the Q5 the
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new funnel marks would be painted, She'd come up
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Paradoxically
Speaking
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