BRAVE SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 156, 30 December 1944, Page 9

BRAVE SHIPS

"HELL'S PASSAGE" DEFIED

VITAL CARGOES BROUGHT HOME From the west coast of Sweden a long, narrow strip of water stretches out into the North Sea. On the southern flank of it lies Jutland and on the northern the coast of Norway, both of them amply provided wtih German air bases. This is" "Hell's Passage." It is the only route that can be taken by the little ships that have carried vital war supplies to this country from Sweden, writes E. H. Sorensen in the London "Daily Telegraph." Sneaking out from Swedish territorial waters, crossing the Skagerrak on dark nights past German'naval patrols and evading German aircraft overhead, these small ships and their gallant crews persevered with their mission and brought their precious cargoes safely ashore. Not long ago the story was told of | three suctt snips that hazarded this I perilous crossing. One of them was i lost, but the others continued until the late spring, when the nights become too short and light for the crossing. "Ghost-ships" the Germans called them, and rightly so. But "Hell's Passage" is as old as the war, and there were earlier exploits about which at the time, for, reasons of security, little was published. When Germany attacked Norway a number of Norwegian ships took refuge in Swedish waters, liners, tankers, and tramp ships among them. Highly modern and efficient snips they were, and in Sweden they were lying idle. With Britain's increasing need for shipping, it oecame imperative to try to get at least some of them over here. ATTACK BY LUFTWAFFE. An agreement was made between the British Ministry of Shipping and the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission. Preparations were secretly carried out, and in the early afternoon of January 23, 1941, five ships left Sweden —the cargo liners Tai Shan, Taurus, Elisabeth Bakke, and John Bakke, and a tanker, Ranja. They were manned by British and Norwegian sailors. i The log-book of the Tai Shan reads as follows: January 23, 17.45 p.m.—Discharged! pilot outside Lysekil. All ships blacked i out. 2.2o.—Light seen on starboard. Probably a lighthouse. January 24, 7 a.m.—Land on star- j board. The Stavanger coastline. Fortunately the mountains are partly covered in mist. Visibility poor.( 12.30 p.m,-—Warships ahead. What shall we do? Steer straight for them! They are British—destroyers waiting for us. General satisfaction on boardi. January 25, 5.20 a.m.—Took pilot outside Kirkwall. 6.os.—Anchored in the roadstead. That is all. -No superfluous comments, nothing about the long hours of anxiety. t ; ■ The Rahja had a remarkable experience. She took a more northerly course, close up to the Norwegian coastline. In daytime on January 24 a German aircraft on coastal patroi came over. Apparently it mistook the Kanja for a German ship. For a long time,it circled around her, freely offering the "protection" of the Luftwaffe. Later, when she steered straight out into the North Sea, the Luftwaffe became aware of the mistake. The ship was attacked with bombs ana machine-guns. The chief officer was killed on the bridge. There were a couple of near misses from the bombs. By this time, however, it was getting late in the day, and as darkness was:: falling the Ranja made good her escape. SIX SHIPS INTERCEPTED, AH five ships arrived safely in British ports. Cargo: 26,000 tons of pig iron, steel tubing for aircraft production, and carburettors. It was a cargo sufficient to increase aircraft production with some 30 per cent, during a year, "and aircrait" were sorely needed at the time. : That mnrney was followed by a second joifrt British-Norwegian undertaking, involving 10 Norwegian ships. Some 70 per cent, of the crew were Norwegian, the remaining 30 per cent. British, and all of them volunteers. Things did not turn out as well this time. The Germans had been in a high state of alarm ever since the first attempt. Gothenburg, the port where the ships were lying, was full of German spies. The main difficulty, however, was that the ships, which were due to leave about New Year, 1942—when the; weather would have been most favour- ! able—were detained in Gothenburg! until the end of March for reasons i quite beyond British-Norwegian con-. i trol. It was on the evening of March 31 that they left Gothenburg. The weather forecast for the night was fog and snow squalls, but these conditions did not occur till late next day. The Skagerrak was seething with German naval craft and six snips were lost, being blown up by their own crew when they were intercepted. Some of the crew were killed and some were drowned, but the bulk of them were taken prisoners. The Norwegians have since been convicted by a German Court as "blockade-break-ers" and sentenced to various lengths of penal servitude. It was an example of tlie German way of applying the Geneva Convention. Two of the ships managed to make their return to Swedish waters, and two others, the B.P. Newton and the Lind, accomplished the journey after an exciting voyage. The Newton, a brand-new tanker and the biggest of them all, carried in her tanks some 5000 tons of vital war supplies—ball-bearings, aircraft tubing, and so on. Since then she has performed valuable service in the Battle of the Atlantic, carrying petrol to this country. AGAINST HEAVY ODDS. This is the main part of the story of "Hell's Passage." There have been attempts on a small—even an individual—scale to force a way through. Norwegian patriots in exile in Sweden have tried to cross in small fishing boats in order to join the Norwegian forces in this country. Some succeeded: some disappeared without trace. Only a lifebuoy or some wreckage riddled by machine-gun bullets, washed ashore on the coast of Sweden or among the downs of Jutland, will sometimes bear silent witness to the courage and indomitable spirit which led them to make the attempt. There is a long and bloody tradition asosciated with "Hell's Passage." It is a story of tough going against very heavy odds, of a challenge bravely answered to keep the seas open, and bring home the cargo.