M.L’S. IN ACTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 12 August 1942, Page 6

M.L’S. IN ACTION

NEW ZEALANDER’S STORY GUARDING BRITAIN'S LIFELINE Most of you have heard of the Auxiliary craft of the Coastal Forces, but it’s only recently that the M.L., or Motor Launch, has come into the limelight. Little so far has been told of their numerous actions, and apart from perhaps on a few newsreels, very few people have any idea of what they look like said Lieutenant M. C. Waylen, It.N.Z.N.V.R . speaking of New Zealanders in the coastal forces in a 8.8. C overseas programme. As the captain of an M.L I am going to have a try at giving you some idea of the jobs these little ships do, but I warn you from the start, J*m a sailor, and not too good at this yarn-spinning business. Perhaps the best way of tackling the job will be to tell you first the type of men who are in the ships, then something about the ships themselves, and finally a little about a few of the actions they take on. IT’S TOUGH We're all volunteers on this job, it’3 a hard one and we know it before taking it on. There's one thing which every man on board an M.L. must have, and that is the power to take whatever comes along with a grin. It may be a tough spot of weather for a week or so, long hours without being able to 1 get proper rest, or to get wet through without being able to get dry, they have all to be borne with the best of spirits, for a fellow with a permanent growl is not very popular when we more or less live in one another’s pockets day in and day out. M.L.’s are often called pocket destroyers and I think that this is a very good description. They're fast, handy little ships and do almost any job a destroyer does even having one advantage over the bigger ships, they can sail in much shallower waters. Motor Launches are well armed, the guns, of course, are secret, both in number and type, but we have plenty of them. The next most important thing is, of course, their speed. Again this is secret, but 1 can tell you this, they can show quite a few ships in the Navy a clean pair of hetls. T will never forget the day when I saw my ship for the first time In my eyes, she looked just too good to be true and coming along the wharf to her my chest nearly burst with pride to think I was going to command her Still. I will be frank, since then I have cursed her, too. Coming home from patrol in the bitter cold hours of a winter morning can freeze a bit of that love TIIEIR JOB Now to try and give you some idea of the kind of job these ships do. There are three kinds of jobs for M.L.’s that we can talk about. They are, Anti-sub-marine, Anti-aircraft and Anti-E-boat. I will take you on a trip with me on my ship and we’ll see what we can run into. Right, cast-off, and away we go. We start off on our anti-submarine patrol all keyed up. on top-line as the Navy call it. As usual, as soon as we leave port, the anti-aircraft lookout is set. so don’t expect submarines yet, not so near the land but the little white cloud over there which looks so pretty against the clear blue sky, can easily hide a Messerschmitt. If it’s a very good day I give the A.-A. crews permission to have their lunch at their guns. Jim Mitchelson and I usually have ours on the bridge And one day when we were just getting down to it a warning shout came from the lookout, “Plane in the clouds astern, sir.” Instantly those gun crews had their plates down and round came the guns. It was hard to see her at first, for she was just lurking in and out of the clouds. The same sort of white clouds which looked so harmless before, now held a deadly menace to us if she should be an enemy plane. Down she came in a power dive and started to machine gun the ship at the other end of our line. By now. too. the ships were starting to open up rt her as she passed over them. Soon she would be within range of our guns and we would have a chance to see what we could do. As she approached we saw that she had been hit by one of the other ships, but the pilot was game, he meant to get one of us. Little splashes started to bob up in the sea near us and the order was given Open Fire. With a terrific clatter ail our guns started firing at once, tracer bullets went up like Roman Candles on Guy Fawke’s night, and it seemed that she must be riddled with bullets, but still she carried on and sailed away over our heads until finally she was out of the range of our guns. We were all bitterly disappointed for we were sure that two had got her that time. Suddenly, a cry from the forward lookout, “She’s on fire,” then crash, down into the sea she went about three miles ahead of us. One of us had hit something vital, which ship we never will know, but we all claimed that it was us. As we increased to our full speed we hoisted the code signal for the ship astern of us to take over the lead of the flotilla and away we dashed to where she had come down. By the time we reached the patch of oil which marked the end of another Nazi, there was not even a piece of wreckage left on the surface, she must have gone down like a bullet, taking her pilot with her. Nothing else happened during that afternoon but a strong wind was springing up and by dusk we knew we were in for an unpleasant night of it. once the night was done we would be on our way back home again, and that is a wonderful thought when you’re cold and wet. When darkness fell we all got close together so that we should not lose sight of one another in the night. By this time it was cold with the wind blowing icy spray everywhere. I can tell you, keeping a lookout into that wind was just plain hell. After about ten minutes of it, your eyes feel as if someone is trying to pull them right out of their sockets. Actually it is the salt water getting into them, and it is not a comfortable feeling at all. LIKE TERRIERS About midnight, when we were all thinking we had only another 12 hours to go, then back to port and a nice warm bod. a light from one of the other M.L’s. flickered a warning. “Submarine on the surface.” Instantly the tension could be felt on board, fingers stroked lovingly the (riggers of guns, eyes peered even harder into the darkness. Then wham! the ship who had spotted the U-boat opened fire. Following the direction of the tracer shell, we spotted her and opened fire with every gun we could bring to bear on her. Obviously v»e had caught her by surprise, for increasing to our maximum speed, and a bit more, we were almost on top of her before she had dived below the surface. In we went, like a lot of terriers after a rat. We knew we had her now. we were in the right position and in the right formation for a depth charge attack, and she had no hope of getting away. Over those depth charges went, each ship dropping one. then steaming on before drooping the next With tremendous thuds the charges started to go off sending up huge columns of water astern of us. and shaking us as if they were trying to shake our engines out of their beds. Finally we had covered such a huge area that she could not possibly have got outside it. We stopped and waited with our guns ready and searchlights ; shining on that area where the charges were still sending up the huge fountains. No luck for the gunners this time, however, for gradually oil began to come to the surface, spreading over a large area of the sea, then in a tremendous air-bubble, a lot of wreckage appears we were certain that we had

sunk her. Never again would she prey I on the lives of our merchant seamen. I The baby greyhound had chased and killed the wolf of the deep. Wo made j a report of the action, and after pick- , ing up pieces of the U-boat for con- - formation, we resumed our patrol. BRIEF RESPITE Dawn finally broke, and as the sea had been getting rougher and rougher all night, we received a signal from our base to return to port. Now came I the long hard drive against the biting wind and rea, but this time we were homeward bound, and knew that at the end of it we had a glorious sleep to look forward to. However, we had still to keep a sharp watch for planes, and it was no fun I can tell you,; we were soaking wet, and absolutely tired out. When we did reach base, there is no describing the feeling of that hot soup and bed. Naturally, next morning, we had a pretty good cause for a little celebration, still the war has to go on, and while it lasts we will have our guns to keep clean, food, water and fuel to get on board, everything to get ready for immediate sailing. When we are in port, we do not have a lot of time to ourselves, if we want to go ashore, and provided the ship is not on immediate notice for sailing, we can go to places such as the local shows, or a pul? handy to the ship, anywhere that we can be recalled within that short fifteen minutes’ notice. Many is the time that I have been sitting in the pictures, my mind far away from the war, when the film has been interrupted, and my ship’s name been flashed on the screen, with the “Officers and crew to report on board immediately” following. ACTION WITH E-BOAT Well, now for a few words about an action with the wily E-boat, We were out one night, patrolling along our usual beat with the rest of the flotilla. It was as dark as the inside of a coffin, no moon, and a slight fog over the sea. As this is the kind of night the E-boats like we were all on top line, as you see, they have a habit of slipping out of the darkness, firing a torpedo and away back again out of sight before they can be chased, so not" to be caught napping, we were on the alert. We waited, not really expecting any excitement, but ready for whatever came along. Gradually, above the noise of our own ships, we noticed the sound of engines. At first it was like aircraft in the distance, and we thought perhaps it was the Royal Air Force out on a Target for To-night. As the noise slowly increased, we realised it was not aircraft but something moving on the sea, and what was more, coming towards us. As quietly as we could we increased speed and turned our bows in the direction from which the noise was coming. We did not know quite what was approaching us —we guessed an E-boat —so we set off to investigate. I suppose they had considered they were well outside our usual patrols, for they were not using their silent engines, but were puffing along like express trains. We were getting very near to them, judging by the increase in the sound, when one of my gunners sang out that he could see three dark shapes crossing our bows about 500 yards ahead of us. The next ship in line spotted them too, and opened fire. Believe me then the fun started, all the ships seemed to have seen one another at the same time, and away they all went, firing at the gun flashes form the other side. It, seemed pretty obvious that the E-boats had not seen us, and as we had not opened fire at them yet, I tried to get my ship in a position to cut off their retreat should they try and run for it. We had a real grandstand seat to watch the firing, and I can tell you it was a marvellous sight, two lines of ships firing masses of tracer at one another across a few hundred yards of water, it looked like a brilliant curtain of light across a black No Man's Land of sea. As abruptly as it had started, it all died down. Jerry had decided that he had had enough, making a smoke screen, he plunged into it and hid his three ships from the rest of my flotilla. GREETINGS NEW ZEALAND Well, these actions I’ve described didn’t all happen to me but they’re typical of the actions we fight ever> day in M.L.’s. If I told you stories true in every detail, I could not help but give away valuable information to the enemy, so to avoid this I have given you a rough outline of what we do. This life in M.L.’s is a life of real thrills and hard work, and much as we all are longing to get home, naval warfare has now become a war of the Seven Seas, and we New Zealanders over here feel that we are defending our own homes even as far as away as this. Well somehow I think I had better pipe down now. I hope all of you who have menfolk over here will realise a little from this talk that we are really getting down to the job and although we are looking forward to coming back soon, there is a job of work to do here first. Good luck New Zealand, we’ll be seeing you.