Russian Arctic Convoy memories: “A periscope was sighted, and all hell broke loose…”

JOCK Dempster from Dunbar is chairman of the Scottish Arctic Convoy veterans and one of the leading veterans in the campaign to award them a medal.

At 84 he is one of the youngest of the convoy veterans. He set sail from Loch Ewe in 1944 as a 16-year-old in the Merchant Navy on the MV San Venancio.

Even late in the war, when the worst of the convoy trips across the Arctic were over, he saw some dramatic and terrifying action as Nazi Germany tried to stop the supplies getting to the Soviet Union.

“The weather was extremely cold and snow showers prevailed. The ship’s deck was like a skating rink and we had to take care touching anything metal with bare hands – the skin would be torn off. Our luck continued to hold until we were approaching Kola Inlet, north of Murmansk, where U-boats lay in wait. The blizzards prevented our carrier-based aircraft making contact with the enemy, and the inevitable happened – the U-boats struck. At about 5am, the ship just ahead of us, the Horace Bushnell, was torpedoed. We went to lifeboat stations, and a few minutes later the Thomas Donaldson was torpedoed.

“A periscope was sighted, and all hell broke loose. The guns on the merchant ships opened up - everyone was shouting and yelling. The noise, the absolute bedlam, scared the wits out of me. All of us knew that our ship, a tanker, would be the prime target on the convoy

“The thought of death didn’t frighten me. I was very religious at the time, a firm believer that there was a life thereafter, but I was terrified of being badly burned, losing a limb, or my senses. I like to think I hid my fear from my shipmates. They certainly seemed calm enough, but, as I later learned, we all experienced the same emotions. Our ship was ordered to ‘Run for it’. There was a natural boom ahead, which once crossed would mean safe waters. The whole ship trembled and shook as the engines went full speed ahead.

“The sloop HMS Lapwing was then torpedoed. The bow shot up in the air and sank in minutes, the stern about 15 minutes later. The stench of burning metal, the screeching as it was torn apart, the screams of the wounded, filled the air.

“Words cannot describe the emotional havoc that racked my mind, wanting to help but unable to, as we steamed rapidly away from the scene and saw men clinging desperately to lifeboats and rafts; many, because of the intense cold and their sodden clothing, sliding back into the sea.

“The crews of the destroyer HMS Savage and the corvette HMS Allington Castle rescued many from Lapwing, but 158 seamen were lost from a complement of 229. Merchant seamen always felt special sympathy for Royal Navy crews. They were packed in like sardines, and loss of life was always heavy. On our return trip six weeks later, the frigate HMS Goodall was torpedoed at the entrance to Kola Inlet and again there was heavy loss of life: 112 lost from a complement of 156.”