U 852

The screening of the series Das Boot brings home the reality of the war at sea. Brilliantly done but to an on the surface seafarer a deadly menace and sickening when the U boat Captain refers to sinkings as the 'happy times'.
In 1972 I sailed on the Dart Atlantic (Charles Hill of Bristol) with a Chief Steward, name of Stacey, the subject of submarines came up over a meal including Sauerkraut when he said that on one day in the war he was torpedoed twice, once in the water rescued by a convoy ship which was then itself torpedoed and back in again. He was taken POW and incarcerated in Germany after rescue. Presumably by the submarine, he was lucky as limited space and provisions and orders not to pick up survivors. He now hated the site of Sauerkraut, being one of the staple foods in the camp.

The Japs were worse if that is possible, I read an article on our Sydney Vindi news that I will have to find, in it a Jap sub commander ordered his men to shoot the blokes swimming in the water off the two ships he sunk in the Indian ocean. I remember reading about one Jap sub Commander that tied men onto the deck of the sub and then submerged. The Commander of the sub involved in the shooting was tried after the war and given only eight years jail, after six years he was released by the Jap Govt, so much for justice.
Des

#10. I printed out a letter from a trooper in the First World War on this site written by I believe a relative of mine and while not saying so , but by just pondering on the letter most medals for gallantry are not awarded for bravery or only partially , but for anger , temper, hatred and the main one self preservation, sometimes knowing that you are going but going to take as many as possible with you. I don’t believe the individual described in the letter actually received any high honours but he certainly deserved them, and there were many thousands like him. JS....

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

#10. I printed out a letter from a trooper in the First World War on this site written by I believe a relative of mine and while not saying so , but by just pondering on the letter most medals for gallantry are not awarded for bravery or only partially , but for anger , temper, hatred and the main one self preservation, sometimes knowing that you are going but going to take as many as possible with you. I don’t believe the individual described in the letter actually received any high honours but he certainly deserved them, and there were many thousands like him. JS....

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cant recall that letter john ...may have been offsite .....would be pleased to see it if you have a mind.....regards cappy

Will try and hunt it out again Cappy , have just finished printing out an old crew list and my fingers are sore. However for 1/3d will see what can do. I found the letter in my mothers effects and as her surname was Douglas assume it was her Uncle who wrote it. Will try and get it for your breakfast of bacon and eggs, And your Times crossword . Cheers JS.

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

Will try and hunt it out again Cappy , have just finished printing out an old crew list and my fingers are sore. However for 1/3d will see what can do. I found the letter in my mothers effects and as her surname was Douglas assume it was her Uncle who wrote it. Will try and get it for your breakfast of bacon and eggs, And your Times crossword . Cheers JS.

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ah you are such a nice old seaman.....for your sore fingers ....stick them gently in a warm damp place ......but wash your hands properly afterwards .....with all this covid about.....regards cappy

No.36, Pte. J.K. Douglas
16th.N.F.
ward 10.
Edinburgh war Hospital.
Bangour, west Lothian,
8th. July , 1916


Dear Sir,
The task I am taking upon myself of writing you regarding poor Simpson is not, by any means,an envious one, but I feel sure that you would like to have some details as to the manner in which he met his death.;also the way in which we, who have worked and fought alongside him for so long - cherishing his memory-demands that you should know the high esteem in which he was held and the true soldier he proved himself to be. We took our position in the firing line on Friday night, June 30th., in expectation of making our attack the following morning at dawn. All this time the artillery bombardment ,on both sides was intense, and the trenches were getting knocked into a shapeless mess. When dawn came,the order was given to stand fast, and our guns kept putting an ever increasing number of shells into the enemy’s front line trench. At 7.30the artillery lifted and commenced shelling the German communications and second line . Then we began to go forward, but the Huns were waiting for us and almost as soon as our first wave of men showed themselves , fritzpopped upand decimated our ranks with ma nine gun and rifle fire. The barrage of zhells( mostly shrapnel) which the. Germans had stretched across no mans land made it Absolutely impossible for anyone alive to get through, so after advancing a hundred yards towards our objective , ourthinned ranks were forced to lie down and await orders. The German soldiers in front of us were very brave and not afraid to expose themselves as they rose up in their trench to take aim at us. It was here poor Simpson fell .I was away to his left and did not see what happened , but a chap who was near to him told me that Simpson was sitting up on one knee and potting and potting at the Huns for all he was worth , and I bet he gave a good account of himself . This chap saw him hit and he ( Simpson) immediately fell forward and never moved.
The. Bullet must have caught him in a vital part and I am glad to think he would suffer no pain. His death has robbed us of one we were whom we were proud to have as a comrade.

There is more to this and if you wnt the remainder you will have to wait untilI get my fingers back . However it is already on the site somewhere. Cheers JS. Think it’s under Army and Ward 10 Edinburgh war hospital , page 2 In Army. JS.

How hard to read this..... my belief is any country who declares war and is beaten shoulld expect all there pollies and families to be hanged in public .....what a sad story and .....yet today we have folk crying the government has stolen xmas ......this in a time of countless deaths to a unseen enemy ........where have all the flowers gone.....regards cappy

Both wars Cappy was when their Xmases were truly stolen, we have a pampered population today. God help us if we are ever called for another war. In the days before the two wars, RN were on the China station for up to two years, same as us seamen, i had seven years in the MN, and six Xmases spent at sea, no contact with home in those days, only by letter when reaching port, ah well better stop moaning now, just the privilege of an old git, kt

#16.. Cappy the $840 dollars that Gwen won in the raffle last night she gave me $100 .the source of the raffle ticket was that for every pint of beer you drink you get 2 free raffle tickets , for what they call cutting the Ace ( of spades) it was due to my hard work of getting these raffle tickets which I had to force myself to drink all this beer that we had the chance to cut the cards, which I let her do. She now says it was her skill that she won. So my sore fingers are now watching where she puts her handbag. Alls fair in love and war. Cheers JS