World War II Database

ww2dbaseEver since his school days in the United Kingdom, Hugh Martyr had been interested in history, particularly naval history. His interest in history later expanded to cover the American Civil War and the German V-weapons campaign against London. He is also an re-enactor and organizer of major re-enactment events, including the 200th anniversary of Waterloo event where over 8,000 were on the field. He joined the WW2DB team in 2018.

Photographs/Maps Contributions

Timeline Contributions

Hugh Martyr has also contributed 815 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 16 Jul 1944: Submarine HMS Sirdar (Lieutenant J. A. Spender, RN) sighted an enemy submarine with six torpedoes in the northern end of the Strait of Malacca between Malaya and the island of Sumatra. Sirdar broke surface upon firing and was lightly damaged (radar and wireless transmitter) by machine gun fire from the enemy. The enemy submarine was attacked again a few hours later by the submarine HMS Templar (Lieutenant T. G. Ridgeway, RN); eight torpedoes were fired in this attack, but they all missed. At 0903 hours five explosions were heard, most likely the torpedoes exploding at the end of their run. The patrol report states that it was a Japanese submarine of the RO-60 class, these however did not operate in this area; furthermore, no Japanese submarines of other types were in the area at that given time. The enemy submarine they encountered was actually the German submarine U-1062, which had departed Penang, Malaya on the previous day for Europe.
» 7 Oct 1944: More German Heinkel bombers carrying V-1 flying bombs were shot down. One V-1 flying bomb escaped the fighters and anti-aircraft guns and flew into a balloon cable over the village of Fawkham near Gravesend, Kent, England, United Kingdom and demolished several houses. There were 17 fatalities and 54 injured, 20 of them seriously when another fell at the Park Road/Barrington Road. Read More
» 26 Mar 1941: The 5,533-ton cable laying ship Faraday was to join a convoy of 25 ships out of Falmouth, England, United Kingdom for Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom; due to bad weather only five of the vessels, including the Faraday, set out. Due to fog banks the ships lost sight of each other. At 1945 hours after the cloud lifted, the Faraday came under attack from a single Heinkel 111 aircraft which dropped two bombs and strafed the ship in a low level attack. Eight of the crew were killed, and 25 were injured. One of the bombs exploded in the oil bunker causing a serious fire. The German plane was hit by the return fire and crashed into the sea, never having regained height. The crippled ship ran aground off St. Ann's Head on the Pembrokeshire coast, South Wales.
» 7 Mar 1942: At 1759 hours the unescorted 9,755-ton South African whale factory ship Uniwaleco was hit by one of two torpedoes from German submarine U-161 (Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Achilles) in the Caribbean Sea 45 miles west of St. Vincent Passage. The ship apparently went out of control because she ran in circles and settled but did not sink. At 1814 hours, the submarine fired a coup de grâce which hit aft and caused her to sink within three minutes after breaking in two. 18 crew members were lost. The master and 32 crew members landed on St. Vincent.
» 16 Aug 1944: A V-1 flying bomb exploded in High Street of Walthamstow in east London, England, United Kingdom killing 17 and injuring 62. Nine more people were killed further south in Brockley. Deptford in south-east London received its 7th bomb which damaged houses that were already being repaired and killed 7. Officers and men of the squadrons based at RAF Dettling, north-east of Maidstone, Kent, southern England were not amused when a bomb was shot down and exploded not far from their control tower and sending three airmen to hospital. Read More

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