Prologue

Battle of the Atlantic 1943

Able Seaman Albert ‘Nutty’ Sweet hated the Middle watch with a vengeance. Mind you, getting up at midnight and being stuck for four hours on a bitterly cold bridge, took a strange masochism. Worse still, the almost freezing Atlantic spray stung painfully his face and hands. His heavy duffle coat was sodden and sapping heat from his slim frame.

His job was to survey constantly the sea for any sign of U-boats. This was no idle task as a Catalina flying boat had sighted a German U-boat in this area. Nothing attracted these sharks quicker than a fat convoy heading east.  And so, the lumbering merchantmen surrounded by buzzing warships were mightily wary indeed.

Suddenly, Sweet through his binoculars sensed a slight change in the breaking waves on the moonlit ocean. It happened again and so he shouted;

“Red 45 �" Goblin, far”

The Office of the Watch, at once sounded the action alarm. He ordered the helm over to turn towards the possible intruder.

Not a moment too soon. For streaking towards them were the arrow-straight wakes of two torpedoes.

‘Full Head’ shouted the Captain as he stumbled onto the bridge pulling his coat on against the biting wind. The order ‘Full ahead’ is only for emergencies and indicated the skipper’s intention to ram the rapidly submerging enemy. Too late, since by the time they got to the spot, it would be well below the charging vessel’s keel.

 

“Make to Escort Commander, Yeoman, am in contact with submarine and prosecuting with depth charges”

“Aye Aye Sir” �" the Welsh lilt unmistakable in the young lad’s reply. He flashed his message towards the still unseen surface group. Next, the ASDIC  got a reply to its repetitive pings; the underwater fight started. For the next hour, warships dropped explosives on their luckless fellow mariners below and to unknown effect. The hunter had became the hunted and it wasn’t comfortable in the slightest.

Thank God for Catalinas thought AB Sweet not knowing the truth.

Few knew the truth for another 30 years. Because Britain’s breaking of the German Enigma code was one of the greatest secrets of the War. The U-boat version of the machine proved a more difficult nut to crack. It had an added rotor to increase the complexity of its puzzle.

No wonder this device was worth its weight in gold to the Allies.  

 

 

This is the story one such lethal Enigma….