The Royal Navy’s most effective weapon - May ‘96 WorldWar II Feature

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Captain Johnnie Walker was the Royal Navy’s most effective weapon against the German U-boat menace.

By Allan W. Stevens

Of the 21 million tons of Allied shipping lost during World War II, 15 million tons were sunk by U-boats. The Allies retaliated by sinking 781 U-boats, which resulted in a loss of nearly 35,000 of the 38,000 Kriegsmarine personnel serving in the U-boat arm of the German navy.

There was nothing accidental about this victory at sea. It was the direct result of a relentless pursuit of the enemy by the "little ships," largely inspired by the brilliant exploits of one man, Captain Johnnie Walker of the Royal Navy. Today, Walker is officially recognized as "the man who did more to free the Atlantic of the U-
boat menace than any other single officer."

In 1941, Great Britain and Canada maintained 400 assorted escort ships along the Atlantic convoy routes, but the rate of U-boat sinkings remained dismally low, approximately two per month. Then Johnnie Walker took command of an escort group of nine ships–two sloops and seven corvettes. While defending his first convoy from England to Gibraltar, he sank three U-boats in 10 days, and on the 22-day return trip with another convoy he sank four more.

These were major victories won without loss and by unorthodox methods. Since the outset of the war, it had been accepted that escorts should stay close to their charges to ward off U-boat attacks. Walker, then holding the rank of commander, had achieved his successes by ignoring this principle and hunting his victims well away from their quarry. Two U-boats had been destroyed 40 miles from the convoy he was protecting.

In high places at the Admiralty there were powerful forces at work seeking to brand Walker as a lucky heretic. Only his success and the unqualified backing of Admiral Sir Max Horton, the commander in chief of Western Approaches, prevented Walker from being posted ashore.

While Admiral Horton was in a favorable mood, Walker persuaded him to try a revolutionary theory: Six modern, fast, specially equipped sloops, freed from the fetters of convoy duty, should be given a roving commission to hunt down U-boats in their most vulnerable grounds, the Bay of Biscay, which they crossed when beginning or completing patrols, and far out in the Atlantic where they surfaced with immunity because the sky was clear of aircraft.

In the spring of 1942, Walker took com-
mand of the Second Support Group, first of the new striking forces. From the bridge of Starling, his own sloop, he drilled Wild Goose, Cygnet, Wren, Woodpecker and Kite until they became a team, swinging into action with few orders, no fuss and no mistakes.

In June, Walker found an opponent worthy of his guile, a fair, lithe German officer, Kapitänleutnant Gunter Poser, commanding officer of U-202. This U-boat was returning home after a special mission in which she had landed five Nazi agents in the United States on Long Island’s Amagansett Beach. It was U-202’s ninth operational trip of the war, and 27-year-old Poser was a quick-witted, capable captain.

On June 13, Poser’s officer of the watch sighted mastheads through the periscope and called him to the control room. Poser took over the eyepieces and went suddenly rigid. "My God!" he exclaimed. "They are destroyers. Diving stations!" Horns sounded, and within seconds U-202 was down to 500 feet. Poser had met Walker’s Second Support Group hunting in fresh pastures.

On Starling, the asdic (sonar) officer was already reporting, "In contact, sir." The captain turned to the asdic officer and announced, "Going in to attack now." Starling surged forward, her bows cutting swiftly through the placid sea. The "ping" of the sonar beam echoing from the hull of U-202 came faster as the range shortened. "Stand by depth charges…Fire!" came the order.

Tons of high explosives rolled from the stern rails and shot from throwers on either side of the quarterdeck to curve gracefully downward through the air. Ten charges rumbled through the water toward the hidden enemy.

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