Book Review - Crime in the Second World War: Spives, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse

Think of the British 'Home Front' during the Second World War and the inevitable image is that of a community spirit not equalled before or since, the British people at their absolute best with everybody striving for a common cause and bravely overcoming all of the obstacles and setbacks placed in their way, whether they be the effects of German bombs, rationing and shortages or worse. By and large, this picture is an accurate one and the majority of people did at least try to carry on as normally as possible. As always though, there was a darker side to the Home Front and although frequently overlooked by historians, there was a dramatic fifty seven percent increase in crime during the wartime years. Some of the perpetrators were seasoned criminals and low life, taking the opportunities presented to them by the blackout and the Blitz, the lack of Police resources and an influx of new overseas customers to exploit, whilst others were new at the game and had a hitherto untarnished reputation but were perhaps tempted off the straight and narrow by hardship or by the wartime conditions imposed upon them. Some of these latter 'criminals' probably didn't even think of themselves as such and once peace returned, resumed their normal law-abiding lives.

In her latest book Crime in the Second World War, historian and author Penny Legg examines crime and criminals as well as the differing types of illegal behaviour in Britain during the Second World War. The book, which is subtitled Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse begins with a look at an aspect of wartime criminality frequently overlooked by historians of the Blitz. Looting was quite widespread, whether it was stealing property from bombed out houses, theft from gas and electricity meters or removing items from bomb damaged businesses. Some of the perpetrators were opportunist thieves, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, whilst others were people who should have known better, such as ARP Wardens or members of the Fire Services, who abused the trust placed in them by the authorities that had appointed them. As the author explains, the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act of 1940 were amended in October of that year to take the crime of looting into account and in theory at least, permitted looters to be punished by death, although this particular sentence was never carried out. We read of a one unfortunate lady in Camberwell who was bombed out of her house during the Blitz and having stayed with friends until her house was made habitable again, then discovered that a neighbour had stolen her piano and a sewing machine. Another householder, this time in Bristol stole £3 7 shillings from her next door neighbour. On this occasion, the thief was sentenced to twenty eight days in prison. A notorious Blitz incident in Central London was the bombing of the so-called 'Bomb Proof' Cafe de Paris in Piccadilly in March 1941. This seemed to bring out the absolute worst in some people, as it was reported that looters cut off the fingers of some of the victims in order to remove rings and other jewellery. Such looters were known as 'Bomb Chasers' - people who swooped as soon as a likely target was bombed and who took advantage of the blackout and the general confusion following a major incident in order to obtain the rich pickings on offer in a wealthy part of London.

In the following chapter, we read of the Black Market and the ways and means used to get around the rationing of food, petrol and clothing in wartime Britain. When one thinks of the Black Market, initial thoughts sometimes stray to Joe Walker, the lovable 'spiv' in the television comedy Dad's Army, always able to procure and supply just about anything for a price. Penny explains that before the war, Britain imported fifty five million tonnes of foodstuffs yearly from around the world, mainly by sea. With the coming of war, much of this was curtailed, either due to the diversion of shipping into transportation of war materials or later, due to the effects of the U-Boat campaigns against British merchant shipping. Rationing was introduced in early 1940 and whilst it was a system designed to ensure that everyone got a fair share of what was available, the reality of the situation meant that almost everybody tried to ensure that they received a little extra food along the way. We learn of how Black Marketeers obtained their wares; sometimes this was achieved by looting bombed out warehouses and shops, sometimes goods were stolen from the docks - often with dishonest dock workers complicit in the operation. Sometimes, livestock was stolen from farms and we read of how Kentish farmers were reported in April 1941 as having to patrol their fields armed with shotguns in order to deter thieves stealing sheep from fields. The Home Guard were also employed to keep an eye open for the so-called 'Butcher Gangs' of livestock thieves. Petrol theft was also a problem, as was the theft of petrol coupons, which were supposed to be the legal method of obtaining fuel for the very few private cars remaining on the roads during the war. The theft of food and clothing coupons was also a problem and it was also an offence to sell ones own legally obtained coupons to others. Sometimes, shopkeepers were involved and it was during this time, that the phrase 'Under the Counter' became a part of the language. An unscrupulous shopkeeper could be discreetly given a list of required items by a known and trusted customer and would usually find a way to produce the goods. Such shopkeepers would never serve strangers in this way for fear of the stranger being an undercover Police Officer. Organised criminal gangs were invariably involved in the Black Market, whether as part of the initial theft of goods, or in the supply of them to the public or to smaller operators.

We then move on to crimes committed in the blackout. Designed to hinder enemy aircraft in identifying targets on the ground, the blackout was also a boon to criminals, as it presented a curtain of gloom in which they could continue their activities. Breaking the blackout was a serious offence in it's own right and whilst some early offenders were simply absent-minded in not covering windows or by showing lights, some people clearly couldn't be bothered and the usual penalty for showing a light was a fine of £5, no mean sum in 1940. By the end of the war, there had been 114,000 prosecutions for blackout violations. As mentioned earlier, the blackout itself presented ample opportunities for offenders, ranging from theft of luggage from blacked-out trains to more serious offences such as prostitution and murder. The darkened streets of major cities presented an ideal opportunity for street walkers and pimps and in London, the darkened parks were a favourite haunt of prostitutes and the influx of servicemen, particularly the Americans who generally had more money to spend, ensured that there was no shortage of customers. Unfortunately, whilst many prostitutes did well out of the war, there were those who were unlucky enough to encounter the 'mad or the bad' as the author describes them. Such an individual was Gordon Cummins, a Royal Air Force pilot cadet who became known as 'The Blackout Ripper' who was eventually convicted of murdering four women and attempting to murder two others in 1942. It was during one of the attempted murders, when Cummins was disturbed by a delivery boy whilst attacking his victim, that he fled the scene and left behind his gas mask, which was stamped with his RAF service number. The first victim had been murdered in an air raid shelter and apart from the incriminating evidence of the service number, the gas mask also contained grit from this shelter. Cummins was also left handed and forensic evidence from wounds on the victims had determined that the attacker was also left handed. This, aided by other solid police work by Chief Inspector Ted Greeno, ensured that a solid case against Cummins was built up and when he came to trial at the Old Bailey on 28 April 1942, it took the jury just thirty five minutes to find him guilty of murder. He was duly executed at Wandsworth Prison on 25 June 1942.

Penny Legg tells us that the murder rate went up by twenty two percent in the period from 1941-45. Some of these crimes were premeditated, such as that described above, whilst others such as the death of Royal Navy Captain Ralph Douglas Binney CBE, were a result of crimes that went wrong. I wrote about this incident in one of the very first pieces to appear in this blog in June 2010, updated in February 2015 and so will not repeat the story in full again, suffice to say that the Captain intervened in a raid on a Jeweller's shop and would today have no doubt been described as a 'Have a go Hero' in the media. Unfortunately, he was run over and killed by the getaway vehicle and following a huge manhunt, Thomas Jenkins and Ronald Hedley were swiftly arrested. Hedley was identified as the driver of the getaway car but whilst having  been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, he was reprieved just two days before sentence was due to be carried out on 28 April 1945. He was sentenced to life imprisonment instead but only served nine years and was released in 1954. Many people were angered by this seemingly soft treatment of a murderer and claimed that it was a major factor in the rise of armed gangs after the war.

We also learn in this book of the 'Babes in the Wood' murders as well as John George Haigh, the 'Acid Bath Murderer' and also John Christie, who whilst not convicted until after the war, committed some of his murders at 10 Rillington Place during the war whilst employed as a Special Constable. Whilst some of these cases are well known, the author gives many insights into the circumstances of the crimes and explains how in the case of Christie, an innocent man also went to the gallows as a consequence of his actions.

Moving away from murders, we next take a look at some other crimes such as Fraud, Theft, Bootlegging and Treason amongst others. Examples of fraud included bogus or exaggerated claims under the War Damage Compensation Act - this was effectively simple insurance fraud and was very hard, if not impossible to check upon. People submitted multiple claims for loss or damage, or sometimes claimed for damage that had never occurred. People learnt how to play the system and a lack of enforcement staff ensured that this particular avenue of criminal behaviour was not closed until after the war when more personnel became available. Bootlegging, or illegally supplying alcohol was rife. Sometimes, this was simply stolen booze from bombed out houses, pubs or warehouses or which was intercepted by criminals whilst it was in transit but more often than not was illegally produced alcohol made from wood spirit, meths or worse, which could lead to illness and in the worst cases, permanent blindness of those unfortunate enough to drink it.

Treason or espionage was less frequent but there were instances of this occurring and we read of the bungled attempts of George Johnson Armstrong, a 39 year old marine engineer to sell shipping information to the German Consul in Boston, Massachusetts in November 1940 whilst he was visiting the USA on business. Armstrong was a known Nazi sympathiser who made little secret of his views. Unknown to him, he was already on a 'watch list' and his letter to the Consul was intercepted by the American authorities and duly reported to the British. Upon his arrival back in Britain, he was immediately arrested and charged under the Treachery Act. He was tried 'in camera' on 8 May 1941 and was executed at Wandsworth Prison on 9 July 1941, having failed in his appeal. We also learn of Charles Amery, who was one of the few people to join the British Free Corps, a unit of the Waffen SS and who actively toured POW Camps looking to recruit British and Dominion Prisoners of War into changing sides.  Amery was the son of the MP Leo Amery and was arrested in Italy in April 1945. At his subsequent trial in November 1945, Amery who was a committed Fascist, pleaded guilty to all eight counts of treason that he had been charged with and was hanged at Wandsworth Prison in December 1945. We also hear of the story of William Joyce, aka Lord Haw-Haw, another committed Fascist whose broadcasts from Nazi Germany achieved notoriety during the war but in reality, were largely treated with derision by the majority of people in this country, who listened illegally to his broadcasts. As has often been pointed out by other authors, the legality of his arrest and subsequent execution is somewhat questionable as Joyce, an Irish-American who had a British passport on account of having a British mother, was captured near the German border with Denmark by the British in May 1945. He was charged with treason against Great Britain between 3 September 1939 and 2 July 1940, which was the date his British passport had expired. He therefore had ceased to be a British citizen from that date and had already taken up German citizenship. However, neither the Americans or the Irish claimed Joyce after the war and the prevailing mood in the UK in 1945 was unsympathetic towards him and he too was hanged at Wandsworth Prison, in his case on 3 January 1946.

We also learn of Helen Duncan, the last person prosecuted in this country for witchcraft, as well as crimes committed by overseas servicemen such as rapes, riots and desertion.

This is a nicely written, well illustrated and attractively presented book which covers an important and often overlooked aspect of the Home Front during the wartime years and which should appeal to both the general reader as well as those with a more specialised interest in crime or the history of the Second World War - I highly recommend it to you.

Crime in the Second World War: Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse by Penny Legg is published by Sabrestorm on 28 April 2017 and is priced at £19.99

ISBN 9781781220092

Book Review: Heavy Rescue Squad Work on The Isle of Dogs - Ann Regan-Atherton

Cover to the book - Bill Regan at front, extreme right (author's photo)

Christmas seems a long time ago now but during the Festive Season, several new books arrived at Blitzwalker Towers but only now am I beginning to make some headway with reading them. One excellent addition to my 'Home Front' library comes in the form of Heavy Rescue Squad Work on The Isle of Dogs: Bill Regan's Second World War Diaries, which were discovered by Bill's daughter Ann Regan-Atherton as they were on the verge of being thrown out - indeed Bill had already disposed of some pages. Being a History Graduate, Ann immediately recognised the importance of these diaries, not just as a family heirloom but as a document of wider historic value and originally transcribed them in the late 1980s. This latest version has been edited by local Island historians Con Maloney and Mick Lemmerman, whose recent book The Isle of Dogs During World War II was reviewed in an October 2015 edition of this blog.

Readers of MJ Gaskin's excellent book Blitz: The Story of 29th December 1940 will be familiar with the exploits of Bill Regan and his wife Vi, as their efforts in reaching home on the night of 'Second Great Fire of London' forms an integral part of her book.

Bill Regan was a bricklayer by trade but for the majority of the War, served in the Heavy Rescue Service, which like the majority of the various arms of the Civil Defence network, had been originally regarded by many members of the public during the 'Phoney War' period as a waste of space but with the onset of the Blitz, were now viewed as heroes by those same fickle members of the public. Bill was an intelligent man, widely read and whose inspiration for keeping a diary was Samuel Pepys, whose own journal he had borrowed from his local library. He was also a keen amateur self taught artist as well as an amateur photographer. 

This latter hobby also helps to illustrate this collection of Bill's diaries, as he took many photographs of the bomb damaged local area. This activity was strictly illegal in wartime and was punishable by up to three years in prison. It was ironic therefore, that his photos were developed by a friend who served in the Metropolitan Police!

Bill's Heavy Rescue Squad, like similar teams across the country, were trained to deal with bomb incidents where damage was serious enough to warrant using heavy lifting and excavating equipment in order to reach victims who were trapped in the debris. Like Bill, many of the Squad members were experienced in peacetime as civil engineers, carpenters and bricklayers as well as from other areas of the construction industry, where their knowledge was particularly valuable in understanding the layout and construction of buildings in order to work out the safest and quickest ways to reach trapped people. Like many others in the Civil Defence service, Bill's squad was based at a school vacated by the wartime evacuation of school children. Bill Regan's Squad was based at the former Millwall Central School in Janet Street on the Isle of Dogs.

The diary starts on 7th September 1940, 'Black Saturday' and the first day of the Blitz on London. The first 'rescue' for Bill's squad turned out to be in his own words 'a non-survivor' - an elderly man who was found still sitting in his armchair but totally embedded in rubble. Bill tells us in great detail about the work his squad undertook on that day and night as well as providing fascinating insights into the other events on the Island, such as the Anti Aircraft gun site in the area we now know as Mudchute (the remnants of which can still be seen incidentally). The Squad's subsequent rescues that day proved to be more successful, with people being evacuated alive from buried Anderson Shelters and into Rest Centres, although as Bill remarks in the diary, such was the noise "You would have to be stone deaf to rest in any kind of centre."

As well as accounts of the action during and after air raids, Bill's diary also tells of the more mundane facets of life in wartime London, such as the rare moments of leisure and time spent with his beloved wife Vi, as well as some more stressful and personal times in their relationship. There are also moments of humour such as the foul-mouthed (or beaked) parrot, discovered in a bombed out house on the Island. According to Bill, "It was well educated, and after preening itself, it gave a most wonderful recital of obscene language I have ever heard." You will have to buy the book to find out exactly what the parrot said!

Being a Greenwich boy, I was also interested to read many references to my own locality, including the damage to Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which although repaired, can still be seen to this day. Bill mentions the damage in his diary as well as the fact that during the period that the tunnel was closed, "Rowing boats from Greenwich are ferrying people across at 2 shillings (10p in today's money) a time." This seems quite a steep fee for the time and was presumably an unofficial arrangement by local opportunists.

Wartime damage repairs to Greenwich Foot Tunnel still apparent today (author's photo)

Arguably the saddest part of the diary also shows that despite becoming hardened to the worst that the Blitz could throw at him, Bill Regan's humanity remained intact in the aftermath of the bombing of Saunders Ness School, in use by the Auxiliary Fire Service and which was largely destroyed on the night of 18th September 1940 with great loss of life. It soon became clear that the majority of the work for Bill's Squad would be recovery of victims, rather than rescue and he writes with great tenderness of how he personally insisted on removing the bodies of two young AFS Firewomen who had been recovered some time after the actual incident. These two girls were quite unmarked, looking to all effects as if they were sleeping and Bill's account of how he gently removed the two girls is extremely moving. Bill later learned that the two girls were named Joan Bartlett, aged 18 and Violet Pengelly, aged 19. They had the same Christian names as his own daughters (as well as his wife, Vi) and this fact moved Bill to tears.

Memorial Plaque at Millwall Fire Station to Joan Bartlett and Violet Pengelly (author's photo)

From the violence of the First Blitz, Bill Regan's diary goes on to cover life on the Island during the relatively quiet years of 1942 and 1943 before covering the Little Blitz and the V-1 campaign of 1944. The diaries end rather abruptly in mid-August 1944 without covering the remaining part of the V-1 campaign and omitting the V-2 Rocket incidents and VE Day completely, so perhaps this is the portion of the diary that Bill had already disposed of when his daughter Ann discovered it.

Despite this minor disappointment, Ann Regan-Atherton, together with Mick Lemmerman and Con Maloney have produced a fascinating and invaluable record of life in wartime London and I highly recommend it to you. The book runs to 200 pages and is priced at a very reasonable £10.95, with all proceeds from sales being donated to the Friends of Island History Trust, which is a charitable trust run by local people who wish to preserve and record the local history of the Isle of Dogs.

Heavy Rescue Squad Work on the Isle of Dogs: Bill Regan's Second World War Diaries - Ann Regan-Atherton, editors Mick Lemmerman and Con Maloney - CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015. ISBN 9781519610867

Dr Carrot, Potato Pete and Making do and Mending

Today, in 2011 after 66 years of peacetime and with fewer and fewer survivors of the wartime years to tell us about it first-hand, it is easy for us to look back upon those times with a certain amount of bewilderment at the way things were done in wartime London and the manner in which Londoners conducted themselves and to make comparisons with today's capital city.

For example, with an almost complete lack of private motoring, the general public were far more reliant on public transport than today; bus services especially, were hard pressed and could be few and far between, even in central London. Despite all this, Londoners queued patiently for their bus and woe betide anyone who tried to barge their way to the front. Compare this behaviour with the rugby scrums that pass for bus queues today!

In 2011, recycling is back in fashion. Quite rightly, people are being urged to save their waste paper, glass, tin cans and all manner of other refuse for re-use. Despite post war complacency, when society became increasingly 'throw away' in it's outlook, we are becoming all too aware of the finite resources of our planet and the urgent need to recycle and re-use our precious raw materials. In 1941, this need to recycle and re-use was even more urgent but for somewhat different reasons. Then, as now, we were a nation dependent on international trade but in 1941 shipping shortages were becoming acute due to the German U-Boat menace; raw materials could not be relied upon to be imported in sufficient amounts for use other than in war production, so 'Make-do and Mend' became one of the catch phrases of the day. Waste of anything could not and would not be tolerated. Everything, but everything was re-used, whether it be waste paper, glass, timber, rags, metals and even waste food which was 'recycled' for use in feeding pigs. Today, the recycling message hasn't hit home with everyone yet, although things are improving. Once again, we have a long way to catch up with our counterparts of 70 years ago.

Which brings us to rationing. We will explore rationing, not just of food but of petrol, clothing and much else, in a future blog entry but rationing was brought in during wartime as a means for providing fairness in ensuring that what supplies were available could go around to all who needed them. The coupon system worked surprisingly well and although there were cheats who tried to buck the system, the vast majority of the populace saw the common sense and fairness of the system and patiently waited their turn in the queues for food. Some foodstuffs, like eggs, became incredibly rare whilst others, such as bananas and lemons became almost non-existent. What rationing did encourage however, was the need to become as self-sufficient in food as possible. Everyone with a garden or with access to an allotment grew vegetables. Every scrap of land was converted to food growing - even prestigious open spaces such as Hyde Park had large areas given over to food production and the upshot of this campaign to 'Dig for Victory' was that by the end of the war, this country had halved the figure of 55 million tons of food that had previously been imported annually prior to the outbreak of war.

As can be imagined, 70 years ago, there was nothing like the variety of foods available that we are accustomed to today. Foods were seasonal and people were encouraged to make the best of what was available. Lord Woolton was appointed the Minister of Food and in a series of brilliant campaigns, encouraged the British people to use what they had and even had a vegetable based pie named after him. Characters such as 'Potato Pete' and 'Dr Carrot' made frequent appearances in various advertising campaigns extolling the values of these and other vegetables, which could be grown cheaply and easily.

As mentioned previously, there was a 'Black Market' and certain goods could always be purchased 'under the counter' if one had sufficient money or knew someone 'in the know.' Even 70 years on, this writer finds it hard to hide his disdain for people who cheated the system and not only did this but were proud of it. When one thinks of the huge dangers that British and Allied merchant seamen faced in bringing their cargoes through U-Boat infested waters, it is doubly hard not to feel utter contempt for those who cheated the system. The novelist and former Royal Navy officer Nicholas Monsarrat perhaps described it best:

"Petrol-wanglers, like traitors, merit a special hell. Probably enough has been written about the hazards of bringing an oil tanker across the Atlantic, and the fate of the ones who don't make it, to establish the background and impress it on the dullest mind. None of it has been exaggerated: tankers are dynamite, and their crews are heroes of a special quality.

What then, is one to make of people who licence their private cars as taxis, in order to get extra petrol coupons; who obtain additional petrol to go to church on Sunday and then don't go: who drive hundreds of miles to a race meeting already served by special trains: who treat petrol as if could be got from a tap? What sort of men are they? Stupid? Incurably selfish? Traitorous? Do they feel clever when they've got their extra whack? Does it give them a sense of power to know that men, foolishly valorous, have fought and perished in hundreds, just to keep their cars ticking over sweetly? Once again, ten such men are not worth the skin of one of the man who dies for them."

Even 68 years after these words were written, it is hard to disagree with them, especially when one knows that the author saw the sacrifices made by the merchant seamen and their naval escorts first-hand.

Some readers of these writings over the past year or so might think that this writer harbours a secret desire to have lived in the London of 70 years ago. Perhaps surprisingly, this is not so; I am happy to live in the present day and enjoy our rebuilt, vibrant city and to enjoy a rationing free life but perhaps if we could adopt some of the values and courtesies of those Londoners of 70 years ago and combine them with the fruits of their victory that we enjoy today, then maybe London would be a more pleasant place in which to live.

Published Sources:

Backs to the Wall - Leonard Mosley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1971
East Coast Corvette - Nicholas Monsarrat, Cassell 1943
London at War 1939-45 - Philip Ziegler, Sinclair Stevenson 1995
London Transport at War - Charles Graves, Almark Publishing 1974

Enemy Aliens, Internees and the Arandora Star

One aspect of the Home Front of the Second World War that today is often forgotten is the internment of all so called 'Enemy Aliens' at the commencement of the War. At the outbreak of war, there were in the region of 80,000 potential enemy aliens in Britain, who it was feared could be potential spies or be willing to assist our enemies in the event of an invasion.

Therefore, all Germans and Austrians over the age of 16 were interviewed by special tribunals and afterwards placed into three categories - Category 'A' high security risks, numbering about 600 who were immediately interned. Category 'B' numbering about 6,500 were 'Doubtful Cases' who were supervised and subjected to restrictions. Category 'C' numbered about 64,000 who were deemed to be no security risk and of whom about 55,000 were Jewish refugees from Nazi oppression who had escaped from Europe.

The situation was further compounded in the Spring of 1940 with the combination of Italy's entry into the war and the failure of the Allied campaign in Norway, which led to agitation amongst certain elements of the press for more alien internment. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that all of the 19,000 Italians in this country be interned even though many of these people had lived in this country for ages. Many of the additional Germans and Austrians rounded up were the very same Jewish refugees who had months earlier been deemed to have been no threat. Many of these internees were held on the Isle of Man as they had been during the Great War and in one camp on the island, over 80 per cent of those held were Jewish refugees. An outcry in Parliament led to the first releases of internees in August 1940 and by the summer of 1941, only 5,000 of those deemed genuine security risks were left in internment camps.

Apart from those detained in this country and the Isle of Man, over 7,000 internees were deported. Some of these were sent to Australia, where those sent on the s.s. Dunera suffered from appalling conditions and also the humiliation of having their personal possessions either stolen or thrown overboard by the British military guards. The vast majority of those deported were sent to Canada and it was on board one of the vessels destined for that country, the s.s. Arandora Star that tragedy struck.

The Arandora Star was a passenger ship owned by the Blue Star Line which had been built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead in 1927. Before the war, she had operated mainly in the luxury cruise market to such destinations as South America, Norway, Florida and the West Indies.

Requisitioned as a troopship on the outbreak of War, she had sailed from Liverpool on 1st July 1940 carrying a total of 1,673 people of whom 1,299 were male German and Italian Prisoners of War and internees broken down as follows - 174 Officers and crew of the Arandora Star, 200 British Military Guards, 565 Germans, of whom 86 were military POWs of 'bad character' and 734 Italian civilian internees. The vessel was not marked with a Red Cross, nor had the Admiralty requested 'free passage' for her and to compound the error, she was sailing without an escort.

At 06.15 on the 2nd July, barely one day out of Liverpool, she was torpedoed by the German U Boat U-47, commanded by Gunther Prien, one of the 'Ace' U Boat commanders. Prien supposedly mistook the vessel for an Armed Merchant Cruiser but in all probability thought that he was sinking a loaded troopship, which he was, but not loaded with the cargo he had thought. The Arandora Star sank after less than an hour but in that time, did manage to transmit a distress signal, which guided a Sunderland flying boat to the scene, which in turn guided HMCS St Laurent, a Canadian destroyer which had been escorting the battleship HMS Nelson, to the scene of the sinking.

The St Laurent reached the site of the sinking in the early afternoon and found that the doomed vessel had managed to launch 10 lifeboats and scores of rafts. There were also many survivors in the water, clinging to pieces of wreckage, many of whom were coated in oil and unable to help themselves. In a remarkable rescue, the St Laurent managed to pick up all of the survivors in the boats and rafts, together with all those that could be found in the sea. The numbers saved included 322 Germans, 243 Italians, 163 Military Guards and 119 of the Officers and Crew of the Arandora Star. This left a total of 826 who perished, including the vessel's master, Captain Edgar Moulton and over 470 of the Italians, who bore the brunt of the casualties

Memorial to Captain Edgar Moulton at his home village of Broadhembury, Devon (author's photo)

Once the survivors were picked up, many tales of heroism emerged - Captain Edgar Moulton was posthumously awarded Lloyds War Medal for Bravery at Sea and a German Merchant Navy prisoner, Captain Otto Burfiend was posthumously cited for his heroism in the rescue attempt for staying aboard the sinking ship supervising the evacuation. Commander Harry De Wolf of HMCS St Laurent received a Mention in Dispatches for his supervision of the rescue operation.

When U-47 returned home to Wilhelmshaven, Prien discovered the truth about what he had unwittingly done. Needless to say, the fact the he had been responsible for the death of 713 Germans and their Italian allies on the Arandora Star was kept from the Axis public. Prien himself was lost along with U-47 and the rest of his crew on March 7th 1941, depth charged by HMS Wolverine in the North Atlantic.

The memorial pictured is located at St Peter's Italian Church in Clerkenwell Road, London.

Published Sources:

Engage the Enemy More Closely, Correlli Barnett - Hodder & Stoughton 1991

Hitler's U-Boat War; The Hunters 1939-42, Clay Blair - Weidenfield & Nicholson 1996

The Battle of The Atlantic, John Costello & Terry Hughes - Collins 1977