WWI Soldier leapt into the sea after U-boat attack

Discussion in 'Prewar' started by Peter Clare, Jul 28, 2014.

  1. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/WWI-Centenary-William-Whitmore-leapt-ship-sunk/story-21946170-detail/story.html

    WILLIAM Whitmore was sleeping below deck as a German submarine lined up its sights on the British merchant ship SS Anna Sofie.
    German submarines had terrorised the seas almost since the start of the Great War and only the decision by Prime Minister Lloyd George to send out merchant ships in convoys had prevented Britain from being starved of food and supplies from abroad.
    But submarines were still a deadly threat and the particular vessel that targeted the Anna Sofie on that day, July 23, 1918, was the U-55, commanded by

    Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Werner – a sadistic killer who would years later join the Nazi party, following the rise of Adolf Hitler.
    Werner had first achieved notoriety on April 8, after he torpedoed an armed merchant steamer called the Torrington. Before the ship sank, he lined up all 34 crew members on the deck of his submarine, before closing the hatches and submerging, drowning them all. He had repeated the same trick four days later with another ship, the Toro.
    Just a few months before he got the Anna Sofie in his sights, Werner had sunk a hospital ship, HMHS Rewa, on January 4, 1918; but had then failed in his attempt to destroy another Red Cross Ship, the Guildford Castle, on March 10.

    Had they known who was lurking beneath them in the waters off the coast of Cornwall, the ship's gunners would have been on full alert while men in the engine room were working full pelt to give the captain extra speed.
    However, the crew had no idea they were in any danger and Lance Corporal William Whitmore, of the Royal Marines Light Infantry – a 41-year-old reservist born at raised at Boothen Street, Stoke-on-Trent – was resting below deck with the rest of the ship's gunners.
    Below the surface, Kapitanleutnant Werner had his crew on red alert as he gave the order to fire torpedoes, at about 2.30pm on July 23, 1918.
    For the crew of the Anna Sofie the torpedo seemed to come from nowhere and struck virtually without warning.
    Perhaps a vigilant crew member scanning the waves for signs of enemy submarines may have seen the waters part as the missile headed for the ship. If so, he would have had no more time than to shout a panicked warning.
    For the vast majority of the crew, the impact was the first they knew of the attack. William, an experienced sailor who had served in the navy years before the outbreak of war in 1914, was instantly awake.
    As the ship quickly filled with water and began sinking into the deep blue, the order came – 'abandon ship'.
    Knowing time was at a premium, William was instantly on deck. He quickly pulled on a lifejacket over the vest and trousers he had been sleeping in and jumped into the rough seas.
    At some point while he was in the water, William suffered a broken arm – perhaps from the initial impact when he leapt into the water, or perhaps the swell later caused floating debris to strike him.
    Whatever happened, he had enough strength to swim a fair distance away from the Anna Sofie, avoiding being sucked under by the pull of the sinking ship.
    The last person to see him alive was a ship's steward called Wilkinson, who had followed William over the side.
    William's wife, Margaret Bessie Whitmore, had written to Wilkinson almost immediately after hearing her husband was missing, imploring him for information about what happened.
    In a reply to her, written on August 2, 1918 – 10 days after the attack – Wilkinson wrote: "We were off Trovose Head, Cornwall, and your husband was asleep at the time with the other gunners and your husband got on deck and then jumped overboard and I went after him and after we swam a good distance from the sinking ship he called me and I went to his assistance and when I got where he was, he had disappeared and I myself was taken out of the water a long time afterwards by a patrol boat, unconscious, and landed at a little place called Padstow, Cornwall.
    "But Madam I may say for sure I was the last one who saw your dear husband alive and there was a fair big sea running at the time and there is no doubt but he has gone to his eternal home and rest."
    Margaret, aged 31 in 1918, and William had been married for 14 years, since 1904 when William was serving in the Navy and based at Portsmouth and she 17 years old.
    As a sign of their love, the couple had each had a tattoo – scratched with ink by William himself – on their left arms, the side closest to the heart; hers a picture of a Marine with the letter 'W', his showing the figure of a lady with the letter 'M'.
    Their first child, Kathleen, was born later that year with a cowl over her face, a thin harmless membrane, which William had stitched into his Royal Marine belt for good luck.
    He had left the Navy after 12 years of service in 1907, and joined the Royal Fleet Reserve, earning extra cash on top of his job as a blast furnace engineer.
    Then in 1910, the couple's second daughter, Norah, was born as the family moved from Wellingborough, Northants to Sheepbridge in Chesterfield.
    When war broke out in 1914, William re-enlisted – he had wanted to join the newly formed submarine service.
    But Maggie, as he always called his wife, persuaded him to rejoin the marines, which she believed would be less dangerous.
    William had served at sea throughout the war, eventually training as a gunner and transferred to the merchant navy, where experienced marines like him were needed to help protect the ships from the threat of submarines.
    He had joined the crew of the Anna Sofie in February, 1918.
    Following the attack of U-55, the vast majority of the crew, about 70 men, were picked up by a patrol boat and taken to Padstow Harbour.
    One man, Private William Moore, a Royal Marine who served alongside Lance Corporal William Whitmore, helping to operate the ship's 4ins aft-mounted deck gun, had suffered torpedo blast injuries to his abdomen
    He died two days later and was buried with full military honours at Padstow Cemetery.
    Nineteen days later the body of another Royal Marine washed up at Tregudda Gorge, a few miles from Trevose Head.
    The man was wearing a life belt over a vest and a pair of trousers, with three buttons marked 'Royal Marine Light Infantry'. He had a cut to the face and his left arm was broken.
    On his left arm was also a tattoo, a picture of a lady, with the letter 'M'.
    The unknown marine was never identified.
    He was given a full military burial and lies to this day in an unmarked grave next to that of Private Moore in Padstow Cemetery.
    Lance Corporal William Whitmore is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, to soldiers lost at sea with no known grave.
     
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  2. arnhem44

    arnhem44 Member

    WWI U-boat commanders


    Wilhelm Werner

    Born:

    6 Jun 1888

    Apola

    Died:

    14 May 1945

    Falkenau, Saxe
    (Normal death or suicide ?)

    Received the Pour le Mérite on the same day as Kaplt. Paul Hundius. Awarded for outstanding leadership and distinguished naval planning and successful submarine operations and also given in recognition of the sinking of a total of 206.000 BRT of enemy shipping.
    After the war he stood accused of a number of war crimes; Sinking without warning the Clearfield, Artist,Trevone, Torrington, Toro and attacking the hospital ships Rewa and Guildford Castle.
    In the course of time this was reduced to a single charge of sinking the SS Torrington and murdering the whole crew save the captain who was taken prisoner.
    He never appeared at the Leipzig trials, he fled Germany to work on a coffee plantation in Brazil. After some years he returned to Germany and even became a National Socialist member of the Reichstag.
    He was placed on the retired list 1st March 1920.
     
  3. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    This is a personal view........

    Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Werner

    I hope the fxxxing bastard died a painful death.

    Peter
     
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