Extract from H.M.S. Cossack Association newsletter No. 3/98
Those of you who have purchased a copy of the booklet "HMS COSSACK 1938/41 - Some Survivors Narratives" will have read the accounts of the sinking of Cossack L03 and the rescue of the survivors. Captain Schlumberger, who served in the sloop F.S. COMMANDANT DUBOC which picked up many of the survivors, has kindly sent Reg Doring an extract from "The Impossible and the Hope", the memoirs of Ship's Captain P. Drouin, published in 1991. Captain Drouin was a Wireless Operator in the Commandant Duboc at the time of Cossack's sinking.
There are one or two discrepancies from what we know from others of the facts but these are not surprising since he would not have been aware of what occurred after the Commandant Duboc left the scene. However, it is good to have yet another view of that very harrowing incident.
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THE IMPOSSIBLE AND THE HOPE
On the 23 September 1941 General de Gaulle set up the National Free French Committee in London - a fresh step forward towards legitimacy, which was the General's constant concern.
As early as the 26th, Moscow recognised this Committee, followed by co-operation agreements within a few months, and particularly the formation of the Normandy-Nieman rifle brigade on the Russian front. Early in October an Anglo-U.S.-Russian conference on urgent aid for the USSR was concluded; Lord Beaverbrook, Averell Harriman and Molotov were involved. The USSR was already calling for the opening of a Second Front, in Western or Southern Europe, and would keep up its demands until 1944. In Occupied France the Resistance was starting to publish underground newspapers, before things became properly organised. This did not take place effectively until '42. But these first "pages" from different sources shelved a desperate will to struggle against the invader; they were as determined as we were but we felt strongly that often they were a lot braver then we were. We still had no real contact with our families, apart from a few short messages through the International Red Cross.
Fully provisioned, the "Duboc" left Gibraltar at about 1500hrs on 22 October; the convoy, the HG 75 - 17 merchant ships - assembled, slowly, majestically, in the Bay of Algeciras led from the middle of the convoy by the "Ariguani", a 20,000 tonne fruit-carrier armed as a "CAM ship" - "Catapult Armed Merchant Ship". The close escort consisted of 2 small destroyers, 4 corvettes, the sloop "Rochester" and the "Duboc". In addition, local backup as far as 10 degrees west was the 4th destroyer flotilla - HMS COSSACK, LAMERTON, VIDETTE, A formidable escort for 17 precious merchant ships.
Amongst the destroyers the "Cossack" was already distinguished in the Royal Navy for having, in February 1940, bearded and taken the "Altmark", the floating "hotel" for the seamen captured by the "Graf Spee" in the middle of the South Atlantic. More than 300 officers and men were set free in a Norwegian fjord. A formidable escort it is true, but the British Admiralty was worried: since the start of that year a monthly average of 180,000 tonnes had been sunk by Doenitz's U-boats. This could not go on, otherwise Great Britain would be choked to death and slow extinction of occupied Europe would end the war in a few months.
But why did they spend hours out there, forming up this heavy convoy watched by the Spaniards, with spies operating from Algeciras to Tarifa? You can almost hear the telephone lines humming, the message being quickly passed on by visual signals or radio between "agents" amazed at having such a target in full view! Unfortunately this was more than just an impression; to try to get through "in strength" knowing that the enemy was there too tracking its prey, ready to pounce at the slightest invitation, was like a trap asking to be sprung.
The course was finally settled - 260, speed 9 knots - and the "Duboc" then without ASDIC, found itself given the place of "Rescue Ship" at the rear of the convoy, with the job of carrying out extensive sweeps covering entirely the 6 lines of the convoy. The "sweep" was a wide "S" which, it seems, put off any submarine intending to surface and take up a position of attack at the rear of the convoy after dark. The "Rescue Ship" was the unlucky one which, instead of pursuing the enemy, had to be content with going to the aid of torpedoed ships providing a regrettably indispensable sort of "safe haven": it was not out of the battle since, during recovery operations, the motionless ship was an easy target for the waiting submarine!
Soon, at about midnight we could make out Cape Spartel a few miles away - the night being very bright not good for us. An hour later the first alarm sounded, but it was a false one which nevertheless made us send up a few flares. The "berloque" (bugle call to stand down) sounded shortly afterwards. From then it was difficult to sleep soundly.. we were all - or nearly all - aware of being under threat; we were not anxious as much as realistic, taking account of how vulnerable we were defending these fine merchantmen entrusted to us! Threatened we were indeed, because the Admiralty knew that a week previously a convoy going in the opposite direction from Ireland down to Gibraltar had been stalked by a pack of 5 or 6 submarines coming from La Palisse and Bordeaux, they had had no success, thanks to an excellent escort backed up by air protection. This pack must still have been prowling around there, hoping for revenge and excited by the information supplied by the pro-German agents in Algeciras. Maybe the alert that night was caused by signals from one of them, and the pack had only come over to "sniff at us!
The 23rd passed without incident and we carried on towards 10 degrees west, where the convoy would then turn north. Suddenly at 2300hrs the sky lit up; first a red rocket, the distress signal, about 3000 metres to starboard; then we saw a ship on fire and made straight for it. This glow quickly intensified and as we approached were met with 3 salvoes - no doubt confusion on the part of an escort ship; bow low in the water we could easily be taken for a submarine on the surface. It is true that our Captain had not wanted to give a signal of recognition, in view of the probable presence of an enemy lying in wait.
It was the "Legion" which had fired at us, and the torpedoed victim - a top quality victim - was the famous "Cossack", ~which the "Legion" now let us approach, having recognised us.
One by one we picked up 5 men on a raft; the sea was covered in oil ... flames coming from the burning "Cossack" gave the scene a feeling of Dante's "Inferno". We rescued 16 men, one an officer, from a second raft. They were exhausted, paralysed by the cold, poisoned by the oil. We had to take hold of them and hoist them aboard; in some cases we had to get into the water ourselves to help them to take hold.. The captain of the "Cossack", together with some of his crew, hadn't wanted to leave the ship and had stood on the poop-deck, hoping the fire wouldn't reach that far.
At 0100 the "Legion" ordered us to rejoin the convoy, staying itself on the scene. We later learned that the "Legion" sank its sister-ship, doomed and ravaged by fire.
We took up our post again at about 0300 on the 24th. The sides were covered in oil and the men we rescued were scattered here and there, relieved, but in some cases traumatised and apprehensive.
At 0500, combat stations ... 2 red rockets ahead, 2 others to starboard. The entire convoy, on the orders; of the Commodore, moved left; 2000 metres ahead a torpedoed vessel broke in two and sank in 30 seconds. We stopped where the first rockets had gone up, and found 2 ship's boats from the first victim, which had not gone down too fast., the oarsmen, with precision as if in training, come alongside with oars shipped; the bosun stood at the bow and completed the manoeuvre. The second boat then came alongside; the captain, at the tiller, came aboard last - there were 34 men in all.
I remember that the Captain, a big Scotsman with white hair and ruddy complexion, was welcomed by EV Arnold, and said to him: "Sorry to be such a nuisance to you". He told us they were from the "Alhama", 2,000 tonne cargo-boat; Captain Cameron was his name.
But there was no time to lose! With regret we cast off the 2 boats from the "Alhama", and the "Duboc" sped towards the little flashes of light bobbing on the surface over to the North-West, 3000 metres away. The "Duboc" was all alone and the convoy ships were off to the north; dawn was approaching - a few gleams of pink between two layers of grey and black cloud over a flat, joyless sea.
We came to the little lights - the cargo-boat had rapidly broken two and had gone down in 30 seconds.. these twinkling little lights fixed to the life jackets could fortunately be spotted from quite a long way off in good weather. The lifeboat was lowered; it was a lot harder than with the "Cossack" because all the survivors were badly shocked, many of them wounded, clinging to floating debris. There were shouts, calls - veritable yelling, when the terror of not having been "spotted" gave them that extra awful strength to shout out to show where they were.
We shouted encouragement to them, but it took time, having to steer carefully to prevent the hull going straight over them - not easy, as they were quite scattered; in one sense that was better... they were frozen, unable to swim, and without help couldn't grab the ropes we threw to them.
EV RECAMIER, commanding the lifeboat, tried above all to rescue the worst of them the wounded and those suffering most. EV LEBOUCHER dived into the water to take a lifeline to those within reach who were too weak to swim. STOCKY did the same, and he too dived in to get a lifeline to one poor man.
The last one we spotted - pure chance and tradition came together here was the Captain of the cargo-ship, sitting on a sort of wooden chair, serving as his personal raft, probably thrown out from the bridge together when the ship exploded. He was Captain MUIR; the cargoboat itself- the CARSBRECK, 3500 tonnes was shattered into a thousand pieces.. It was a miracle that there were 22 survivors no, sorry, only 21, because the Captain we had rescued unconscious didn't come round and despite 2 hours spent trying to revive him with artificial respiration and injections, we couldn't save him.
He was buried at sea around midday; the officer from the "COSSACK", still on board, said the Royal Navy regulation prayers - an emotional experience for all present, one of them his chief steward who had survived. He had recovered his Captain's watch and took it to his widow, whom he told us he knew.
About 10 minutes after the first ones another cargo ship was torpedoed, but we weren't ordered to deal with it. At 0800 on the morning of the 24th there were we weren't ordered to deal with it. At 0800 on the morning of the 24th there were
on board the "Duboc":
21 crew members from the COSSACK
34 from the ALHAMA
22 from the CARSBRECK
We couldn't keep these 77 survivors on our little ship, especially if the weather started getting even slightly worse! We moved over to transfer some of our precious passengers to the ARIGUANI at the centre of the convoy, and, on the orders of the Commandant of the escort, another group was transferred to the sloop ROCHESTER. After this we still had 15 on board...
When we were transferring men to the ARIGUANI, high in the water compared to us, I can remember a young gunner from the CARSBRECK, with an open fracture in his thigh and in terrible pain; he still thanked us when we gave him a cigarette... The stretcher he was tied to tossed about along the hull as he was hoisted on board, and his jaw was clenched with pain at every bump. But he didn't cry out, brave young lad.
On the 25th we off-loaded 3 more passengers onto the ROCHESTER. On the same day before midday - action stations: a Focke Wulf had been spotted; it flew around, very high up, probably co-ordinating another attack by the submarine pack. A Catalina from Gibraltar was also up there, at 180 degrees to the other aircraft; apparently they had no wish to confront each other! The ARIGUANI ought to have launched its aircraft, which we could see on its catapult. Why didn't they do it? ..a mystery.. A few escort ships including the "DUBOC" fired, but the FW stayed out of range and soon disappeared to the north-west, having of course taken careful note of the course and speed of the convoy, identifying the most tempting targets to be transmitted to the "grey wolves"..
At 1200 - a success announced: HMS LAMERTON had just sunk one of our attackers of the previous night. We were again at our posts to the rear of the convoy and resumed our "sweeps"....What would the next night have in store for us?
On the 26th at 0200, a violent explosion was heard to starboard; a red rocket went up, as if to tell us: "Another one gone. It was dark, and we sent up flares on our way to the victim.. It mas the ARIGUANI, finest ship in the convoy, hit astern, propeller and rudder smashed as well as part of the poop-deck. A 140 gun was visible, its barrel pointing skywards; fortunately the ammunition around it didn't go up.. Our first thought was to lower the boats, but the ARIGUANI was still afloat, the crew still on board. From the DUBOC we could see the little lights on their life-jackets as they scurried about on the deck - but this wasn't aimless panic, clearly just disciplined sailors rushing here and there carrying out orders.
Was this the SILVERBELL incident again? We went all round in the company of the corvette HELIOTROPE. Three hours later, we were relieved by HMS VIDETTE and the DUBOC was ordered to rejoin the convoy. We set off northwards in pursuit of the convoy, but the HELIOTROPE'S engines broke down and the corvette asked us to stay close to her and to look into a suspicious signal they'd picked up, which we did.
Far in the distance in the direction of the convoy - more rockets...