The sinking of the Lylepark

[Lou Barron]

i have just read the story of this event the Lylepark was sunk by the German raider Michel and the sinking was the same approach that the Captain of the raider Von Ruckteschell did when he sank other ships .
First of all let me give you a few facts about Michel she was run by a very efficient crew and the discipline was spot on .
She was awell armed ship with plenty of fire power she had two small torpedo boats as well as well two seaplanes .
They use to pick up ships in the morning unbeknowing to the victim
They could do this as they had telescopic mast that give it a range ofabout 27miles so the victim could not see it the also a a very poor radar but the did not rely on that to much .
The raider the waited till night fall and approached the victim on the starboard or port bow and opened fire the firing was the bridge and radio room in the case of the Lylepark they said to have fired 47 6inch shells and over 2000 rounds of cannon fire plus 5 torpedoes(now i ask you why all the fire power to sink a ol d tramp ship who could offer no resistance what so ever.and never stopped firing still the ship sank.
He did the same when he sank my old ship the Gloucester Castle
What was the reason to my way of thinking it was
to kill as many as the crews as possible
I hope these war stories dont bore you people


.

[Doc Vernon]

Not boring at all Lou
I don't know much on the issues as they happened then,but as it was War yes I think that the Germans at that time did try and kill as many as possible,this making the Enemy less if that were possible,but then I suppose the same may have applied to other Forces?? As said I am not up with what actually happened!
War was a very nasty time for all concerned,and it was to me the old saying "May the best Man Win" And we know who won!
Cheers

Hope you are keeping well there,i see thay had some bad Weather on the other side of the Islands!
Take Care

[gray_marian]

#1, 'I hope these war stories dont bore you people'

Not at all Lou, 'tis a privilege to read of your experiences. Hopefully some of our other members in similar age will share also.

[Lou Barron]

Must mention that the treatment we got from the Germans was not to bad at all and the food on the raider was the same as the crew i even had ice cream when i was in the hospital and most of the crew would be ok .
They say that the Captain was not very well liked but they would obey all the orders he gave .
when they went into action we was batten down in the pow quarters and we could hear they guns going it was a bit hard on the nerves.
But i know that i would prefer the Germans to the Japanese

[cappy]

####what you write lou is not only the true happenings but history for the future generations .......i think i would rather be taken by a german commander than a jap also i think the german is more efficient at a job and will carry it out to the letter they were europes mercenaries for centuries .....and they take some beating .......i enjoyed the company of some german crew in the seamens club in the abadan seamans place were you could get milk and steak .....a god night ....but i also had truble between our crew and themin a spanish honky in santander .....a proper carry on but we took them out .........the next night they came in and we waited but it ended up all buying beers for each other and no carry on......we were all just seamen togetherregards to you lou cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

Keep them coming Lou, nothing like first hand accounts to remind the young (and old) of what really occured. War has a strange affect on people who do things they wouldn't (probably) countenance at other times, but when in war you're 'in it to win it'

Like Cappy have also experienced good and bad times with German sailors immediately post war years, but always parted on good terms because we all had a common enemy, the sea. Even in the cold war Soviet and ourselves would exchange waves as we passed each other, why? because again we were seamen and politics couldn't transcend our mutual respect for what we endured against mother nature and we knew that politics would never interfere with our going to assist each other when needed whilst on the briny. Even when I was working in Ethiopia I had occasion to be thankful to a Russian ship, it's Captain and doctor to rending full assistance to one of my AID crew who had an accident in Assab.

Politicians could learn a lot from seamen

[Captain Kong]

Good on you Lou for writing these stories of the Gloucester Castle and its sinking, people should know the real story and not a one liner in some dusty library book.
As you know I had an interest in that ship and sinking through Joe Farnworth who was killed and later with the Memorial Service over the site of the wreck south of Ascension.
Keep it up Lou
Cheers
Brian

[j.sabourn]

Was another approach the Germans had the less seamen the less ships could be manned, and in those days ships had to have larger crews than today. So to them was just another form of mathematics ships had to be manned, take that away and you arrived at the same conclusion. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI Lou
Like everyone else on site I enjoy reading about your experiences, and the ones you know about. I suppose there were good and bad German commanders, The commander of the Michel was a noted fascist. I would like to find out what exactly happened to HMS Sydney, there was no way that all those [around six hundred ] seamen would have perished unless there was a war crime. The Captain told his men on pain of death to say nothing, many of his men survived. I believe that the Sydney caught the raider supplying a jap submarine but that she was on the blind side, and that the captain of Sydney made a mistake in getting too close, but I also believe that the jap sub machine gunned all the Sydney's men in the boats and in the sea. I also believe that the Australian Naval authorities knew more than they revealed.
Cheers Des

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[happy daze john in oz]

LOU mate keep writing the stories. It I only persons such as you who know the truth and that is what we need, not the media version that are often so slanted.