The story of the war service of HMS OBDURATE that included long periods on Arctic Convoy escort duties and a leading role in the 'Battle of the Barents Sea'
Last change: 4 Jan 2002 - Sidney Cohen's first hand account of joining the Navy and OBDURATE in 1942.
Out of the builders in September 1942, with her 170 or so ship's company, 'OBDURATE' was soon heading North and to Russian Convoy work.
First though, in October she, the cruiser 'ARGONAUT' & destroyer 'INTREPID', embarked a medical unit the Russians had previously refused to accept and delivered it to the White Sea port of Archangel with the result that better medical services, so badly needed, became available to our sick and injured.
HMS OBDURATE c.1946
With Christmas 1942 fast approaching and discussion continuing on the number of ships that constituted the most secure and defendable convoy it was decided the planned PQ19, mustered in Lock Ewe on the NW tip of Scotland, would be split into two separate groups which were re-designated JW51A and 51B.
They each sailed a week apart. JW51A left on the 15th of December and made a safe passage to enter the Kola Inlet on Christmas Day.
The other half, JW51B (14 ships) sailed on December the 22nd. It was soon into Storm Force 10 conditions before HMS OBDURATE (Lt Cdr C E L Sclater) and her sister destroyers ONSLOW (Captain D), ORWELL, ORIBI & OBEDIENT plus ACHATES - all refuelled and waiting in Seidisfiord on the east side of Iceland - joined them on Christmas Day to the east of Iceland.
Typical routing - 1942 (Enlarged on picture page)
Germany, desperate to inflict another beating upon our convoys - some six months had elapsed since their success on PQ 17 - now had both the heavy cruiser 'ADMIRAL HIPPER' and the pocket battleship 'LUTZOW', plus a squadron of escort destroyers, holed up in Altenfiord (North Cape) waiting for the opportunity to attack.
On Christmas Eve a patrolling German aircraft spotted and reported the convoy sighting and thus set in train events that were to sail the German ships in pursuit of JW51B. What neither the convoy nor the 17th Destroyer Flotilla yet knew was that their every move was now being watched and reported by U-boat U354.
The convoy ploughed on vigilantly through Christmas Day storms and the following four days oblivious to the fact that the German ships and submarines were gathering to attack them.
Then, on the the morning of the 30th the Asdic operator in 'OBDURATE' got back the unmistakable echo that told them they were in the sights of a submarine. U354 was ahead of the convoy, on the surface and lining up a shot as 'OBDURATE' increased speed and set course to ram. The U-boat was not slow to dive and escaped both the intended ramming and subsequent search for her by 'OBDURATE' and 'OBEDIENT'.
Other U-boats were now gathering as their surface units were creeping out of Altenfiord to meet and attack the convoy. Again 'OBDURATE' is credited with the first positive contact as, just before 0900 the next day, her lookouts spotted the German destroyers rising over the horizon on the starboard quarter of both her and the convoy. She was despatched to investigate and very soon came under fire.
Battle had commenced!
17th Destroyer Flotilla action 31 Dec 1942 (Enlarged on Picture page)
The misery of the Arctic was about to get unimaginably worse for many, whilst, for some, it would end forever. The bravery, hardship and endurance of the crews in the escorts and escorted alike cannot be fully imagined nor recognised. We can even now, sixty years later, only say 'thanks' and mean it as we have never done before.
The guns in the 'LUTZOW' were 11" (28cm) and in the 'HIPPER' were 8" (20.3cm) while our destroyer escorts guns were, according to availability at the time of building, either 4.5" (14cm) or, as in 'OBDURATE', 4" (10.2cm) in open single turrets. Our two distant cover cruisers, 'SHEFFIELD' & 'JAMAICA', with 6" (15.24cm) joined the battle at the end to drive off the German ships.
The battle only lasted through the forenoon but it was savage and by the end H.M.S ACHATES had been sunk and 'ONSLOW' had lost both 'A' and 'B' turrets and her Bridge to direct hits from the 'HIPPER'.
The sinking of the battered 'ACHATES' brought the little escort trawler HMS NORTHERN GEM racing once more to pick up survivors. She took 81 men aboard including L/S Scott-Douglas. All of them were suffering from their exposure to the viciousness of the Arctic but some were also badly injured.
There were, I am certain, many acts of bravery by the crew of the 'NORTHERN GEM' & 'ACHATES' in the rescue and caring for the survivors but that has not been mentioned by Mr H.J. Scott-Douglas, one of those survivors, in the e-mail and enclosures he has sent me (Dec. 2000).
Instead he describes the valour of the Medical Officer (Surgeon Lieutenant Maurice Hood) who, having jumped in stormy seas, from 'OBDURATE' onto the 'NORTHERN GEM' then worked continuously for some 30 hours tending the survivors.
This is what Mr Scott-Douglas said in his e-mail:
"Subject: H.M.S. Obdurate
Date: 10 December 2000 19:16
Hi Les,
I was surfing your web site and saw you had an interest in Obdurate. I thought you may like to know about a very brave man who was M.O. aboard in 1942 during the "Battle of the Barent Sea". I was aboard the Achates (I was 19 years old and a L/S.Seaman Torpedoman) we were picked up by a trawler Northern Gem and after the battle while a gale was blowing we required medical assistance (our Doctor had not survived) so Surgeon Lt. Hood jumped from Obdurate onto the Northern Gem, the rest is explained in these official signals I am sending as attachments. At a later Russian Convoy he did the same thing to a merchant ship to operate on a crew member for appendicitis but the ship was sunk before he could get back and he did not survive. I am proud to say I was one of the ratings assisting him on Northern Gem.
Hope this is of interest.
Regards
H.J. Scott-Douglas "
Mr Scott-Douglas's enclosures are reproduced in full on the next page - War Service Picture Page. Click Here
Despite the losses it was a remarkably valiant and successful defeat of a German Squadron that had the element of surprise, overwhelming firepower and freedom of movement against six destroyers that had a convoy to defend.
Convoy Plan (Enlarged on Picture page)
Captain R StV Sherbrooke ('ONSLOW' and Captain 'D') received the Victoria Cross in recognition of the 17th Destroyer Flotilla's valour in winning that unequal contest. 'OBDURATE' with 'OBEDIENT' then had the task of bringing home the badly injured survivors, including Sherbrooke, making the dash from Kola on the 11th of January 1943 to land them at Scapa Flow on the 15th.
Convoy escort duties continued over the same waters as the winter continued towards spring with little easing of the risk of attack from the enemy on and under the sea, as well as in the air, before Russian convoys were suspended for the summer.
It was about now, in the early months of 1943, that HMS OBDURATE, subsequently to be my first ship (1955) and HMS BERMUDA, my second ship (1957) first crossed courses. They would meet again on later Arctic convoys.
Whilst the Battle of the Barents Sea was taking place, out in the Atlantic the Germans were increasing their U-boat activities with devastating effect on convoys there. The Allies lost over 300,000 tons of shipping in February and even more in March.
The Atlantic was indeed a dangerous place with marauding submarine wolf-packs inflicting such huge losses on our ships and their contents that something had to be done about it and fast. The Allies decided to set up Hunter/Killler Groups of one aircraft carrier with a destroyer escort screen and it was to this that 'OBDURATE' was sent.
In May she was one of the escort to the carrier 'BITER' assigned to defend Convoy HX237 en-route from Halifax, Nova Scotia to the UK, that did, as usual, come under attack from U-boats. How many there were no one knew but there had been 'packs' of as many as thirty-five operating. The attacks on HS237 were unsuccessful as other recent attacks had been and by the end of May Admiral Donitz had ordered the withdrawal of his U-boat packs from the North Atlantic.
The Allies had won the Battle of the Atlantic but it had been a close run thing.
I would not, of course, suggest 'OBDURATE' swayed the German High Admiral but she was there on the day and the skills, determination and courage of her crew, with those of other ships like her, again won the day.
In the autumn of 1943 Arctic convoys were resumed and 'OBDURATE' was back there in the escort business once more, so to was 'BERMUDA'.
U-boat wolf-packs were now being pushed out to intercept convoys around the North Cape - as if it wasn't bad enough anyway - and in the early weeks of 1944 it was one such pack that set upon Convoy JW56A that 'OBDURATE' and seven other destroyers were protecting with 'BERMUDA' and two other cruisers providing distant cover.
The convoy had encountered extreme weather soon after sailing from Loch Ewe on the 12th of January the effect of which was to scatter them. They were directed to re-assemble in Eyafiord on the north coast of Iceland and although all arrived there safely to lick their weather inflicted wounds five of them were still unfit to resume passage when the rest sailed on the 21st.
With the sinking of the 'SCHARNHORST' just a month past the Germans were intent on revenge when they found Convoy JW56A on the 25th of January and in no time scored direct hits on two of the convoy ships. 'OBDURATE' in defence set off at speed in pursuit of a U-boat but was hit by an acoustic mine and disabled with damage to her plating and starboard shaft and propellor. She was lucky the submarines did not press home their attack upon her as she carried out damage control before regaining the convoy some hours later.
She and the convoy arrived in the Kola Inlet on the 28th where she was made sound before returning to the UK within Convoy RA56 leaving on the 3rd of February.
She was fully repaired and returned to sea in time to join the escort flotilla on the very last convoy to Russia. That convoy left the Clyde on the 12th of May 1945, just five days after Germany surrendered - and whilst some U-boat commanders were being tardy in complying - and made a safe, direct and unchallenged passage to arrive at Kola on the 20th.
HMS OBDURATE and the other escort's final task was to bring home the last convoy, RA67. They left on the 23rd of May and arrived home into the Clyde on the 30th of May 1945.
With lights on and the horrors of both war and the Arctic behind them it is not hard to imagine the elation and hopes for the future each man must have felt. Would there also, perhaps, have been some sorrow at the breaking up of a close-knit community of ships and men who had spent so much of themselves for the freedom of us all?
I wonder!
Just before Christmas 2001 Sid and his son Michael sat at their computer and wrote me an e-mail of what life was like at sea in OBDURATE in World War 2. On the eve of the 59th anniversary of the Battle of the Barents Sea this is Sid's recollections.
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
The open 4" guns Sid mentioned.
What a coincidence that Sid's e-mail was received almost exactly a year (369 days in fact) after the last first-hand account that came from Mr Scott-Douglas.
Please don't wait another year to send your story.
