HMS OBDURATE 1944
The first month of 1944 brings death and damage in the Arctic followed by Draft-Chits and dissolution for the ship's company.
The first month of 1944 brings death and damage in the Arctic followed by Draft-Chits and dissolution for the ship's company.
The first couple of weeks of January 1944 were passed in Scapa Flow where there is seven hours of daylight and temperature highs of 7°C to make upperdeck maintenance work tolerable… when there isn't a gale blowing!
On the 12th OBDURATE it was off to sea again at around 2000 in company with OFFA, VENUS, VIGILANT and VIRAGO plus SAVAGE and HNoMS STORD to go up to Seidisfjord, Iceland. On the way OBDURATE and VIGILANT were detached to assist convoy JW56A that had sailed from Loch Ewe on the 12th and had been scattered and damaged by Force 12 storms (70+kts/80mph/125kph). Unable to find the convoy they entered Seidisfjord on the 15th. The majority of the scattered 20-ship convoy and escorts got to Akureyri but 4 returned to Loch Ewe.
The reformed JW56A, now 15 ships - reduced to 14 when one returned to harbour - sailed in more moderate conditions in the forenoon of Friday the 21st of January to make the long, dark and icy 1,100 mile passage to the Kola Inlet. Their .close escort destroyers were OBDURATE, OFFA, HARDY (Senior Officer), VENUS, VIGILANT, VIRAGO, SAVAGE, STORD and INCONSTANT. The distant cover force this time consisted of the cruisers KENT and BERMUDA.
Though all went well for the first three days it was in everyone's mind that SCHARNHORST had been sunk along the route only a month ago and it was therefore entirely likely that the German Navy would be seeking revenge. On the fourth day, the 24th, a submarine was detected and next day the convoy came under attack. Just before 1830 on Tuesday the 25th, OBDURATE was zigzagging at 15 knots when radar contact was made with a target 3,000 yards (2,742M) off. In pursuit OBDURATE lost the closing radar contact but asdic echoes continued on various bearings and, as she was swinging tightly to starboard at 11 knots, a heavy underwater explosion with a column of water and flash occurred about 20 feet off the ship's starboard side abreast the after torpedo tubes. The time was 1836.
Quickly the Engine Room told the Bridge the starboard turbine was vibrating badly so it was shut off and the shaft braked. The port engine appeared to be undamaged and the Captain ordered an increase of revolutions on that to get the ship away from the danger area and back to the convoy. Around the ship Damage Control Teams set about checking the ship's water-tight integrity. Maximum speed on the single engine was 16 knots which got OBDURATE back to the convoy's starboard quarter at 1915. Damage Control Teams established that though the ship was taking water it was only in amounts well within pumping capacity though oils from split tanks were a complication. They also reported damage to plating that was, where possible, being caulked and shored-up to reduce the ingress of water. There was, as well, substantial distortion that had disabled machinery, guns and torpedo tubes.
Now the U-boats turned their attention to the convoy ships. First, at around 2015, the American SS PENELOPE BARKER was torpedoed and quickly sunk followed just before midnight by the American SS ANDREW CURTIN which broke in half. Thirty minutes later, at 0030, the British SS FORT BELLINGHAM was hit and settled very low in the water but stayed afloat. After abandonment some 70nm SE of Bear Island and 120 nm from North Cape she and ANDREW CURTIN had to be sunk by HMS OFFA using torpedoes and shells. It was a costly six hours in terms of ships and equipment so badly needed in Russia as well as tragically wasteful of more lives.
On the 12th OBDURATE it was off to sea again at around 2000 in company with OFFA, VENUS, VIGILANT and VIRAGO plus SAVAGE and HNoMS STORD to go up to Seidisfjord, Iceland. On the way OBDURATE and VIGILANT were detached to assist convoy JW56A that had sailed from Loch Ewe on the 12th and had been scattered and damaged by Force 12 storms (70+kts/80mph/125kph). Unable to find the convoy they entered Seidisfjord on the 15th. The majority of the scattered 20-ship convoy and escorts got to Akureyri but 4 returned to Loch Ewe.
The reformed JW56A, now 15 ships - reduced to 14 when one returned to harbour - sailed in more moderate conditions in the forenoon of Friday the 21st of January to make the long, dark and icy 1,100 mile passage to the Kola Inlet. Their .close escort destroyers were OBDURATE, OFFA, HARDY (Senior Officer), VENUS, VIGILANT, VIRAGO, SAVAGE, STORD and INCONSTANT. The distant cover force this time consisted of the cruisers KENT and BERMUDA.
Though all went well for the first three days it was in everyone's mind that SCHARNHORST had been sunk along the route only a month ago and it was therefore entirely likely that the German Navy would be seeking revenge. On the fourth day, the 24th, a submarine was detected and next day the convoy came under attack. Just before 1830 on Tuesday the 25th, OBDURATE was zigzagging at 15 knots when radar contact was made with a target 3,000 yards (2,742M) off. In pursuit OBDURATE lost the closing radar contact but asdic echoes continued on various bearings and, as she was swinging tightly to starboard at 11 knots, a heavy underwater explosion with a column of water and flash occurred about 20 feet off the ship's starboard side abreast the after torpedo tubes. The time was 1836.
Quickly the Engine Room told the Bridge the starboard turbine was vibrating badly so it was shut off and the shaft braked. The port engine appeared to be undamaged and the Captain ordered an increase of revolutions on that to get the ship away from the danger area and back to the convoy. Around the ship Damage Control Teams set about checking the ship's water-tight integrity. Maximum speed on the single engine was 16 knots which got OBDURATE back to the convoy's starboard quarter at 1915. Damage Control Teams established that though the ship was taking water it was only in amounts well within pumping capacity though oils from split tanks were a complication. They also reported damage to plating that was, where possible, being caulked and shored-up to reduce the ingress of water. There was, as well, substantial distortion that had disabled machinery, guns and torpedo tubes.
Now the U-boats turned their attention to the convoy ships. First, at around 2015, the American SS PENELOPE BARKER was torpedoed and quickly sunk followed just before midnight by the American SS ANDREW CURTIN which broke in half. Thirty minutes later, at 0030, the British SS FORT BELLINGHAM was hit and settled very low in the water but stayed afloat. After abandonment some 70nm SE of Bear Island and 120 nm from North Cape she and ANDREW CURTIN had to be sunk by HMS OFFA using torpedoes and shells. It was a costly six hours in terms of ships and equipment so badly needed in Russia as well as tragically wasteful of more lives.
SS PENELOPE BARKER (US) position on the edge of the ice near Bear Island.
Surgeon Lieutenant Hood, awarded a DSC in 1942, was still in OBDURATE a year later escorting Convoy JW56A when he was transferred to the PENELOPE BARKER to tend a crewman with appendicitis. Still there when she was hit by two German torpedoes from U-Boat 287 at around 2015 on the 25th of January he continued to care for and tried to get his patient to safety. Tragically the ship sunk within ten minutes taking the 25 year old Doctor, his patient and 14 other crewmen to their deaths in the cold loneliness of the Barents Sea. The remaining 56 crewmen were rescued from lifeboats and the water by the destroyer SAVAGE.
Surgeon Lieutenant Maurice John Hood, DSC, MB, ChB, RNVR was posthumously 'Mentioned in Despatches'.
The following entry, shown verbatim, was made in my Bravenet ‘Guestbook’:
April 18th 2014
09:26:29 PM
(From) Susan Cummins
M.S Penelope Barker (1994)
Surgeon Lieutenant M. J. Hood who lost his life during the sinking of the Penelope Barker in 1994 was on board to attend to my father Harold C. Hazard, a seaman 1st Class with the US Navy. My father was in fact rescued, brought onto the US Savage and then eventually transported by a Russian ferry to a hospital in Murmansk. He served another 2 years in both the European and Pacific Theaters.”
In thanking her I did invite more information on her father’s post-service life but heard no more.
Fully accepting the (1994) errors and attribution of ‘US’ rather than ‘HMS’ to “Savage” I was very pleased to get the information but unable to confirm ’Harold C Hazard’.
Alarmed and concerned at the losses and damage to OBDURATE the escorts concentration and effort was more than ever focused on reaching Kola Inlet without further losses, damage or delay. Convoy JW56A which had started badly enough had also been tough for the Merchant seaman and they too were relieved to reach Kola Inlet on the 27th. From there some continued, with local escorts, east to Archangel arriving on the 29th.
For OBDURATE the task now was to make a closer inspection of the ship and, with the help of Russian dockyard workers that included women and children, make her safe to return to the UK. They saw their companion ships OFFA, VENUS, VIGILANT, VIRAGO, HARDY, SAVAGE and STORD depart next day, the 28th, to reinforce the escort of JW56B on its way east. No one then knew it would be the last time they would see HARDY. In the early hours of the 30th she became yet another victim of German U-boats and so too did 35 of her crew. The 17 ship convoy completed its passage in tact.
Surgeon Lieutenant Maurice John Hood, DSC, MB, ChB, RNVR was posthumously 'Mentioned in Despatches'.
The following entry, shown verbatim, was made in my Bravenet ‘Guestbook’:
April 18th 2014
09:26:29 PM
(From) Susan Cummins
M.S Penelope Barker (1994)
Surgeon Lieutenant M. J. Hood who lost his life during the sinking of the Penelope Barker in 1994 was on board to attend to my father Harold C. Hazard, a seaman 1st Class with the US Navy. My father was in fact rescued, brought onto the US Savage and then eventually transported by a Russian ferry to a hospital in Murmansk. He served another 2 years in both the European and Pacific Theaters.”
In thanking her I did invite more information on her father’s post-service life but heard no more.
Fully accepting the (1994) errors and attribution of ‘US’ rather than ‘HMS’ to “Savage” I was very pleased to get the information but unable to confirm ’Harold C Hazard’.
Alarmed and concerned at the losses and damage to OBDURATE the escorts concentration and effort was more than ever focused on reaching Kola Inlet without further losses, damage or delay. Convoy JW56A which had started badly enough had also been tough for the Merchant seaman and they too were relieved to reach Kola Inlet on the 27th. From there some continued, with local escorts, east to Archangel arriving on the 29th.
For OBDURATE the task now was to make a closer inspection of the ship and, with the help of Russian dockyard workers that included women and children, make her safe to return to the UK. They saw their companion ships OFFA, VENUS, VIGILANT, VIRAGO, HARDY, SAVAGE and STORD depart next day, the 28th, to reinforce the escort of JW56B on its way east. No one then knew it would be the last time they would see HARDY. In the early hours of the 30th she became yet another victim of German U-boats and so too did 35 of her crew. The 17 ship convoy completed its passage in tact.
(L) The dished outer bottom plating above the starboard bilge keel. (R) below the bilge keel. These pictures also demonstrate the way ships were then built using riveted plates etc. They were constructed outside in the fresh air as well!
Dished bottom plating above and below the starboard bilge keel and consequential damage in the ship. (Up Zoom level if required)
On Friday the 11th of February OBDURATE in company with VIRAGO left Murmansk for the passage home which, despite some bad weather, they completed with arrival in Scapa Flow on Wednesday the 16th. Debriefed, partially de-stored and de-ammunitioned she said farewell to Scapa Flow late on Sunday to make an overnight passage to the River Tyne. There on Monday the 21st of February 1944 the ship was taken in hand by Wallsend Slipway Company for repairs.
De-storing was completed and the ship then paid-off resulting in the dispersal of almost all of the ship's company. Most of them had been together since the ship first commissioned in September 1942 and, after thirty months, knew the idiosyncrasies of both ship and shipmates. Going on Leave, well earned as it was, meant they would probably never see each other again.
The officers who remained appointed to OBDURATE through the refit period were (CO) Lt Cdr C E L Sclater, Lt(E) A J Williams and Gunner F R Valentine
The officers who remained appointed to OBDURATE through the refit period were (CO) Lt Cdr C E L Sclater, Lt(E) A J Williams and Gunner F R Valentine
THE PEOPLE.
Lieutenant Commander C E L Sclater DSO*, a career officer born in 1910, joined the RN in 1924. Immediately prior to OBDURATE he commanded the destroyer HMS WILD SWAN sunk by German air attack in the Western Approaches in June 1942. For that action he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He subsequently received a second DSO for OBDURATE's part in protecting Convoy JW51B.
After leaving the ship he was appointed to a Staff job in Antwerp through 1945 then went on to command the 18th Minesweeping Flotilla through 1947. Later he was the Resident Naval Officer in Orkney and retired from the navy in 1955.
Commander Sclater then became a Bursar at Kings College Cambridge until retiring in 1964 and continued to live in Cambridgeshire until his death in 1986.
Ordinary Seaman Sidney Cohen, a conscripted lad, fresh from his initial training in Plymouth, was at the other end of the heirarchy in HMS OBDURATE when he joined the new ship in 1942. His accommodation was a little different to the CO's and so too was his role but together they made the ship work.
Just before Christmas 2001 - on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the Battle of the Barents Sea - Sid sat with his son Michael to compile an e-mail of what life was like for him in OBDURATE during World War 2. Here it is:
'Hi Les,
Thanks for your reply. Dad has arrived safely and was really chuffed when I showed him your site. Of course he couldn't wait to tell you of his time on the Obdurate and I hope his following tale is of some interest.
Mike Cohen'
'Dear Les,
Thanks for sending me the information on the Obdurate, I never knew what happened to her after we came home. Unfortunately I don't have many good memories of her.
I joined her at Scapa Flow in 1942. I had come from basic training at HMS Raleigh in Plymouth when I was 18 years old. I still remember when we finished our course, we were lined up on the barrack square & given a lecture by a Chief Gunners Mate Fenton. He said, "So you think you are sailors - WRONG!" he barked. "The real sailors are dead, they died for you - now its your turn to die for them. If any of you go on the Russian convoys you will know what hell is!"
You can imagine how we all felt when he finished. We thought it can't happen to US. So we left Raleigh with its beautiful bunks & white sheets & headed off to HMS Drake, a dispersal barracks in Plymouth. Being an OD I was not aware there were no beds to kip in. We had to sling our hammocks for the first time & if you were lucky you found a couple of hooks. As no-one had showed us how to use them I had trouble getting into it. It was ironic that it was the only time we would use them, once on board the Obdurate we slept on the deck or on the tables - 4 hours on, 4 hours off in the seamans mess. We stacked our hammocks in the stowing section only to be used in harbour.
My first trip on the Obdurate was part of an escort for the Duke of York, the battleship which was taking Winston Churchill to Halifax in Canada. Then in the States we picked up the Queen Mary which was loaded with yanks for the return voyage to the UK. My job was a loading number on one of the 4" guns, sometimes, even though I was seasick all the time, I was on masthead lookout duty. When we arrived back and were tieing up at Scapa I was picked to go on a lowered boat to take me to the bobbing buoy which I had to climb onto. They fired a line with the cable attached which I had to tie with a munroe shackle to the buoy.
The fun started as I was about to place the shackle on the ring when a squall came up in the harbour and heavy sleet started to fall. The buoy was dragged under with me on top and I had to let go of the cable in order to hang on and save myself. When I surfaced the skipper was screaming at me through a loud-hailer that we were the last in the fleet to tie-up. Oblivious to the fact that I nearly drowned, I was stopped 7 days pay.
When we were supplied with Sheepskin coats, boots & long-johns, I knew we were going North to Russia. We headed out to Iceland first to muster the convoy in cold weather and a heavy sea, being in the for'ard mess deck didn't help. Heading North, the convoy (consisting of about 20 ships) made way at about 10 knots into even colder weather. It was 33 degrees below zero and when the spray turned to ice as it hit the deck I knew it would be no pleasure cruise. Entering the Barents Sea in the Arctic the lookouts spotted surface vessels which turned out to be the Hipper and the Ludzow. To assist us were our "big ships" the Belfast & the Duke of York. We went in with torpedoes but were struck by a shell from the Hipper which knocked out a turret causing casualties. Despite this we got the convoy through to Murmansk safely.
Upon our return to Blighty we received a well-earned leave and returned to find our ship sea-worthy once more. After 12 months I was made an AB and our next convoy left in December 1943. On watch with the gun crew in the open turrets of the 4" guns was always freezing, and when we had a stern sea we were up & down like a yo-yo as the ship had a displacement of only 2,000 tons.
About 3 days after we left Iceland we received a signal from an American liberty ship in our convoy asking for a doctor urgently as a young sailor had acute apendicitis. Our doctor, a Glaswegian, said he would go. We got him over in a bosuns chair and he performed the necessary operation. He then asked for permission to stay with the patient if he was not needed right back and would re-join the ship in Murmansk. The ship was torpedoed a day or so later and he was last seen putting his patient into a boat, unfortunately the doctor went down with the ship.
A few days later the skipper spoke to us over the tanoy to say that as it was Christmas Eve we would receive a double tot of rum. We didn't even know it was Christmas Eve as each day seemed the same - dark & miserable. He told us not to get merry as intelligence warned that a wolfpack lay ahead about 5 hours. A few hours later Asdics picked up a u-boat and we started laying depth-charges but it got us first with a magnetic torpedo that was heading for our screws. Fortunately we were fitted with a steel gadget on the stern which was designed to act as a decoy in just such an event. Still the force of the explosion smashed our starboard engine and I can't understand why the sub never finished us off, maybe it was his last torpedo. With luck on our side and no casualties we left the convoy and headed for Murmansk under the power of the port engine. The Russians did what they could but the engine was stuffed and while the enemy was busy with a new convoy we slipped home alone and arrived in Newcastle in January 1944 where, after kissing terra-firma, the ship was paid off and I ended my time on the Obdurate. Every Christmas Eve since, I think of how close we came to being sunk and am grateful that I am still here.
Hope this fills in a bit of the Obdurate's history for you and I wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Sid Cohen'
Though Sidney and his family moved many years ago to Australia Mike and his wife brought him back to the UK to visit family in 2005 when I was pleased and privileged to meet and talk with them all at Portsmouth Dockyard.
Sidney Cohen passed away after a short illness in April 2008 aged 84.
'Hi Les,
Thanks for your reply. Dad has arrived safely and was really chuffed when I showed him your site. Of course he couldn't wait to tell you of his time on the Obdurate and I hope his following tale is of some interest.
Mike Cohen'
'Dear Les,
Thanks for sending me the information on the Obdurate, I never knew what happened to her after we came home. Unfortunately I don't have many good memories of her.
I joined her at Scapa Flow in 1942. I had come from basic training at HMS Raleigh in Plymouth when I was 18 years old. I still remember when we finished our course, we were lined up on the barrack square & given a lecture by a Chief Gunners Mate Fenton. He said, "So you think you are sailors - WRONG!" he barked. "The real sailors are dead, they died for you - now its your turn to die for them. If any of you go on the Russian convoys you will know what hell is!"
You can imagine how we all felt when he finished. We thought it can't happen to US. So we left Raleigh with its beautiful bunks & white sheets & headed off to HMS Drake, a dispersal barracks in Plymouth. Being an OD I was not aware there were no beds to kip in. We had to sling our hammocks for the first time & if you were lucky you found a couple of hooks. As no-one had showed us how to use them I had trouble getting into it. It was ironic that it was the only time we would use them, once on board the Obdurate we slept on the deck or on the tables - 4 hours on, 4 hours off in the seamans mess. We stacked our hammocks in the stowing section only to be used in harbour.
My first trip on the Obdurate was part of an escort for the Duke of York, the battleship which was taking Winston Churchill to Halifax in Canada. Then in the States we picked up the Queen Mary which was loaded with yanks for the return voyage to the UK. My job was a loading number on one of the 4" guns, sometimes, even though I was seasick all the time, I was on masthead lookout duty. When we arrived back and were tieing up at Scapa I was picked to go on a lowered boat to take me to the bobbing buoy which I had to climb onto. They fired a line with the cable attached which I had to tie with a munroe shackle to the buoy.
The fun started as I was about to place the shackle on the ring when a squall came up in the harbour and heavy sleet started to fall. The buoy was dragged under with me on top and I had to let go of the cable in order to hang on and save myself. When I surfaced the skipper was screaming at me through a loud-hailer that we were the last in the fleet to tie-up. Oblivious to the fact that I nearly drowned, I was stopped 7 days pay.
When we were supplied with Sheepskin coats, boots & long-johns, I knew we were going North to Russia. We headed out to Iceland first to muster the convoy in cold weather and a heavy sea, being in the for'ard mess deck didn't help. Heading North, the convoy (consisting of about 20 ships) made way at about 10 knots into even colder weather. It was 33 degrees below zero and when the spray turned to ice as it hit the deck I knew it would be no pleasure cruise. Entering the Barents Sea in the Arctic the lookouts spotted surface vessels which turned out to be the Hipper and the Ludzow. To assist us were our "big ships" the Belfast & the Duke of York. We went in with torpedoes but were struck by a shell from the Hipper which knocked out a turret causing casualties. Despite this we got the convoy through to Murmansk safely.
Upon our return to Blighty we received a well-earned leave and returned to find our ship sea-worthy once more. After 12 months I was made an AB and our next convoy left in December 1943. On watch with the gun crew in the open turrets of the 4" guns was always freezing, and when we had a stern sea we were up & down like a yo-yo as the ship had a displacement of only 2,000 tons.
About 3 days after we left Iceland we received a signal from an American liberty ship in our convoy asking for a doctor urgently as a young sailor had acute apendicitis. Our doctor, a Glaswegian, said he would go. We got him over in a bosuns chair and he performed the necessary operation. He then asked for permission to stay with the patient if he was not needed right back and would re-join the ship in Murmansk. The ship was torpedoed a day or so later and he was last seen putting his patient into a boat, unfortunately the doctor went down with the ship.
A few days later the skipper spoke to us over the tanoy to say that as it was Christmas Eve we would receive a double tot of rum. We didn't even know it was Christmas Eve as each day seemed the same - dark & miserable. He told us not to get merry as intelligence warned that a wolfpack lay ahead about 5 hours. A few hours later Asdics picked up a u-boat and we started laying depth-charges but it got us first with a magnetic torpedo that was heading for our screws. Fortunately we were fitted with a steel gadget on the stern which was designed to act as a decoy in just such an event. Still the force of the explosion smashed our starboard engine and I can't understand why the sub never finished us off, maybe it was his last torpedo. With luck on our side and no casualties we left the convoy and headed for Murmansk under the power of the port engine. The Russians did what they could but the engine was stuffed and while the enemy was busy with a new convoy we slipped home alone and arrived in Newcastle in January 1944 where, after kissing terra-firma, the ship was paid off and I ended my time on the Obdurate. Every Christmas Eve since, I think of how close we came to being sunk and am grateful that I am still here.
Hope this fills in a bit of the Obdurate's history for you and I wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Sid Cohen'
Though Sidney and his family moved many years ago to Australia Mike and his wife brought him back to the UK to visit family in 2005 when I was pleased and privileged to meet and talk with them all at Portsmouth Dockyard.
Sidney Cohen passed away after a short illness in April 2008 aged 84.
Able Seaman Stephen Firkin followed the same route as Sid Cohen to join OBDURATE in 1943. He stayed with her through the refit and into 1946 and so witnessed both the horrors of Arctic Convoys and also the aftermath of war in Germany beyond VE Day.
After all that Stephen, a gunlayer and 'star' of the ship's football team, was discharged to Civvy Street on the 24th of June 1946 and spent his working life in the trade of a toolmaker in Birmingham.
Since 1946 he has kept a series of photographs from his time in HMS OBDURATE and has, via his son Gary, now kindly copied some of them to me. They will strike a chord, I am sure, with a lot of you who took part in the 'adjustments' necessary at the war's end and show those interested a glimpse of those times. His picture below shows the ship's football team at Scapa Flow in 1943/4.
OBDURATE's successful team were renowned for issuing challenges to play any ship that passed Scapa Flow!
Stephen seated left next to J Bland. More of his pictures are in HMS OBDURATE 1945 and 1946 sections.
Stephen seated left next to J Bland. More of his pictures are in HMS OBDURATE 1945 and 1946 sections.
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This HMS OBDURATE 1944 section first published online 2000 and since revised