Page 720 - Reading Mercury

the end of the aerodrome nearest the appropriate runway. After about the fifth circuit,
the bomber pilot tested his flaps and came in to make a wizard landing.
This article was crowded out from the last issue. Ed.

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Sat 27 Feb
EXPLOITS OF H.M.S. GARTH
Story Of Attack On E-Boats
Wokingham and district people will be proud to hear of the exploits of H.M.S.
Garth, the destroyer they adopted by the success of their Warship Week in February,
1942, when they invested £480,634 in war savings. Their target was £400,000.
H.M.S. Garth, a magnificent, swift war vessel, is a Hunt class destroyer.
The full story of this attack on a group of German E-boats has been told by Lt.-
Commander J.P. Scratchard, D.S.C.,R.N.) commanding officer of the Hunt class
destroyer, H.M.S. Garth. It was by the light of star shells, fired by another destroyer,
H.M.S. Montrose (Lt.-Commander W,J. Phipps, O.B.E., R.N.), that the Garth
smashed up the formation of E-boats with gunfire, destroying one of the enemy boats
and damaging another.
“It was shortly after midnight that we sighted the E –boats,” said Lt. Commander
Scratchard “The star shell from the Montrose showed up the E-boats in orderly line
ahead formation. We too were well illuminated and must have presented a lovely
target for a torpedo, but the E-boats were in no mood for action, except avoiding
action. When we brought our pom-pom to bear and scored hits on the second in the
line, they broke formation and manoeuvred in wild zig-zags in an effort to escape.
“Visibility was poor, and the smoke from our gunfire added to our difficulties, but
we kept firing at one E-boat after another. Then we saw that one of the E-boats was
on fire, though she was still going ahead at about 20 knots. Our fire was accurate, and
still further reduced this E-boat’s speed. We scored repeated hits with our close-range
armament. The fire in the E-boat spread rapidly, but she managed to keep going,
dodging around in circles in a most amazing fashion, and making an elusive target. At
last her engines stopped, so we ceased fire. “We could see a group of men clustered
together on the afterdeck of the E-boat. They were shouting for help.”
AMMUNITION EXPLODING
Sub-Lt. H. Brierly, R.N.V.R., was then sent away in the destroyer’s whaler in
charge of a party which had orders to take off the survivors from the E-boat while
Garth continued the pursuit. “When we approached the blazing boat,” said Sub-Lt.
Brierley, “ammunition was exploding and there was also the risk of fuel tanks going
up. We could make out six men and a dog huddled together as far away from the
flames as they could get. I decided that 10 to 15 yards was the nearest that we could
approach with reasonable safety, and I remembered thinking that this was an
opportunity for which I had long waited—to try out my knowledge of German. I
shouted to the survivors to throw away their arms and swim for it. They hesitated, and
then only one of the party swam over to us. I assured him that nothing terrible was
going to happen to the survivors, and he shouted to the others to follow his example.
“The rest of them, bringing the dog with them, abandoned ship and swam over to us
to be taken aboard the destroyer.”
A seventh survivor who had jumped overboard before the arrival of the whaler, and
had been swimming around for some time, was also picked up.
This was the Garth’s first engagement with an E-boat.

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