8th March 2016

8th March 2016 - U-boat Warfare on The Clyde

Alistair Alexander

The club President, Nigel MacKenzie, welcomed a good turnout of members along with visitors from both Carluke and Larkhall Probus Clubs and introduced the speaker, Alistair Alexander. Since retiring from both the building industry and a career as a sports commentator on TV and radio, Alistair has been researching U-boat activity on the Clyde during WWII, having been born and brought up within 50yds of the river.

At the outbreak of war, Admiral Karl Dönitz, head of the U-boat fleet, was determined to avenge the humiliation which the German navy suffered at the hands of the Royal Navy in WWI and ordered the U-boat attack which sank HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Floe on 14th October 1939. This resulted in the British fleet being dispersed, many of them to the Clyde, where the upper reaches were protected from submarine attack by a boom stretching from the Cloch lighthouse to Dunoon. Dönitz ordered U32 to enter the Clyde estuary and plant mines in the Skelmorlie area in the hope of sinking a large ship and blocking the channel. Despite getting as far as Cumbrae, the captain ‘chickened out’ and retreated, laying his mines off the Ayrshire coast. A repeat attack was mounted by U33, this time with heavier mines, but HMS Gleaner, on patrol off the south of Arran, detected it using its ASDIC equipment (a precursor of SONAR) and dropped depth charges causing U33 to take on water. On surfacing the captain ordered his crew to abandon ship, which they did, with the exception of himself and 3 officers who planted charges and scuttled the sub because on board was an Enigma machine which they could not allow to fall into enemy hands.

Alistair went on to describe other interesting events on the Clyde during WWII, including the maiden voyage of RMS Queen Elizabeth. Member’s interest in the subject was reflected by the number of questions and the warm applause following the Vote of Thanks by Jim Watt.

Back to 2015 - 2016 programme