Six Men in a Dinghy.

On 27 September 1943 a Handley Page Halifax GR.II, aircraft serial HR982 ‘B’, of 58 Squadron took off from RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest, north of Christchurch, at 11:28 mid-day for a U-Boat patrol in the Bay of Biscay.

The crew of eight, normally the crew was seven, was joined by the Station Commander, Gp. Capt. R C Mead AFC, as second pilot.

58 and 502 Squadrons, equipped with Halifax Mk.II with Merlin engines, were the only two operational Halifax squadrons in Coastal Command specially modified with extra fuel tanks in the wing bomb bays to give an endurance of 12 to 13 hours. They were also equipped with the latest Mk.III Radar, Gee navigation aid, Mk.XIV bombsight and a quantity of several types of Flares for night attacks. They also carried up to eight 250lb. depth charges for attacks on U-Boats or six 500lb. bombs when on Anti-Shipping patrols.

HR982 had reached the southern extreme of its patrol, about 150 miles out in the Atlantic from northern Spain at 17:05, still daylight, when a radar contact revealed a surfaced U-Boat. Eric Hartley flew in to attack at 50 feet and, on pilot release, crossed the U-boat at an angle of 30 degrees to the port bow, dropping eight depth charges. Gunfire was exchanged, but the attack was successful, straddling the U-boat just aft of the conning tower. The U-boat was seen shortly afterwards with the bow rising at an angle of 20 degrees before sliding under (The attack on U-221, actually took place over five hundred miles from Northwest Spain and 786 miles West Southwest of their base at Holmsley).

The exchange of gunfire with the U-Boat, resulted in the forward starboard fuel tank, stowed in the wing bomb bays, being set alight. The resulting fire spread to the number 3 engine, which in turn resulted in a huge fire which threatened to engulf the fuselage. Ordering an SOS to be sent, the only option left was to ditch, at 110 kts without flaps because the fire had severely damaged the control wires, rendering the flaps unusable. At such speed, the aircraft hit the water tail first, standard ditching procedure, and the tail broke off. Water began to rush in, and the aircraft stood on its nose. Thankfully, most of the flames were extinguished on ditching and the crew then began to abandon the aircraft by using the upper fuselage escape hatches. Only seven of the crew escaped the aircraft. Rear gunner, Sgt Triggol, was last seen in transit from the turret to his ditching station just before the aircraft went into the water but was not seen again. The front gunner, Sgt Griffiths, escaped the aircraft but was unable to be pulled into the dinghy. He was briefly held by the others, but slipped from their grasp and was pulled down with the aircraft.

Fortunately, the dinghy was undamaged, inflated, and was boarded with some difficulty. Unfortunately, however, there had been no time to bring the emergency dinghy equipment (e.g. food, water, dinghy radio etc.) which was housed in the aircraft and not with the dinghy, unlike modern rescue dinghies which have all the equipment stowed in them. The ditching was three miles or so away from the U-boat’s last position and the crew remained in the area for a week in the hope of rescue. There was doubt whether the SOS message had been received since it was sent in haste at a height of about three hundred feet and seven hundred miles from England. But an entry in 58 Squadron’s Daily Record shows that a SOS was picked up at the same time HR982 ditched, but it was reported as an unknown contact due to poor signal quality.

Fg. Off. Hartley kept a diary for the duration of their time adrift and it only became known when his family sold his Distinguished Flying Cross at auction.
The six remaining members of the crew were adrift for 11 days, they kept moral up by praying twice a day, were capsized by waves, kept awake by freezing spray and had to use their boots to bail out the dinghy. They sucked on rain-soaked handkerchiefs for water and hung a pair of pants on a pole to try to catch fish. Their only catch was a jellyfish, which tasted terrible.

Despite the efforts of the group to keep each other’s morale up, two crew members went delirious. They waited close to the crash site for about a week before fashioning a sail from two shirts to be blown to safety.

On the 8th of October at 1430 hours the mast of a ship was sighted. Three Very cartridges were fired-three naval vessels came to them-in twenty minutes came alongside to pick them up. The rescue ship was the destroyer MAHRATTA homeward bound from Gibraltar in company with two other destroyers Matchless and Valiant. Six weary survivors were given wonderful care and attention. They were landed at Plymouth two days later and were taken to the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth.

It was sheer chance that they were found by HMS Mahratta as no SOS had been received. The U-boat was later identified as U221, sunk with the loss of all hands by B/58. Eric Hartley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Ken Ladds the Distinguished Flying Medal.

As a sad footnote, Eric Hartley was to read, not long after, that the Mahratta was sunk while on Russian Convoy duty, with only three survivors.

The crew were:
Fg. Off. Hartley - 1st Pilot
Gp. Capt. R C Mead AFC - 2nd Pilot
Fg. Off. T E Bach (RCAF) - Navigator
Sgt. A S Fox - Wireless Operator
Sgt. G R Robinson - Flight Engineer
Sgt. M Griffiths (KIA) - Front Gunner
Sgt. R K Triggol (KIA) - Rear Gunner