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.

Timeline Contributions

Hugh Martyr has also contributed 881 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 15 Jul 1940: The 1,237-ton Irish passenger transport SS City of Limerick was bombed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay at 0800 hours despite her neutral markings following the German demand that Ireland cease food deliveries to Britain. Two crew lost their lives. The survivors took to their lifeboats and were picked up by a Belgian trawler at 1200 hours.

» 11 Apr 1941: The damaged 8,324-ton Norwegian motor tanker Pericles, in service with the British Admiralty Royal Fleet Auxiliary, departed Suda Bay, Crete, Greece in tow at 1130 hours for Port Said, Egypt as a member of a convoy.

» 7 Aug 1942: German submarine U-109 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt) struck 6,030-ton Norwegian steam tanker Arthur W. Sewall with two torpedoes 1,400 miles west of Freetown, British West Africa. They hit the tanker below the bridge on the starboard side and at #7 tank. The vessel immediately developed a list to port as the master Wilhelm Pallesen ordered the crew to take to the lifeboats. As 19 members of the crew took to three boats another torpedo was fired but missed, the remaining crew saw the trail of this torpedo as it sped by only yards from the stationery tanker. The remaining crew then left the ship before another torpedo struck home. The tanker however, remained afloat forcing the submarine to surface and shell her with her deck gun. It was thirty minutes before the Arthur W. Sewall sank, taking 55 direct hits before doing so, at the same time the German crew fired 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns and light machine guns at her now empty bridge. She finally sank at midnight after two and a half hours. The submarine could not find any of the lifeboats in the darkness despite searching with searchlights and left the scene.

» 29 Jul 1940: German submarine U-99 spotted the 7,336-ton British steam merchant ship Clan Menzies west of Ireland. Clan Menzies was originally built by Greenock Dockyard Company for Clan Line Steamers Limited of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. She was on a Sydney-Melbourne-Panama-Liverpool route. She was sailing alone following a zigzag course when a torpedo from U-99 hit on the starboard side near the engine room where the engineers on duty were killed. The explosion damaged the starboard lifeboats beyond use and made the radio equipment inoperable so that no distress message could be sent. The crew of 88 abandoned ship at about 0215 hours in the remaining lifeboats, 52 survivors in one boat and 36 in the other. The Master was required to give information to the Germans, and they were ordered not to show lights. The Master, Captain Hughes, navigated his boat into the port of Enniscrone whilst a passing Irish vessel, the Kyleclare, picked up the lifeboat with 52 survivors off Mayo Coast on the 30 Jul 1940. All told, 6 were killed.

» 30 Mar 1943: German submarine U-596 attacked the convoy ET-16 when west of Algiers and reported five hits on two ships. The Norwegian motor tanker and the British Liberty ship Fort a la Corne were sunk by this attack. The Hallananger was on route from Algiers for Gibraltar and New York in ballast and carrying 1000 tons of fuel oil. The 40 crew members and four gunners abandoned ship in the lifeboats and reached land the next day and were subsequently sent to Algiers. The Fort a la Corne was in ballast and the crew were picked up by escort vessels.

» 7 Mar 1944: The 7,378-ton German cargo ship Vigo, now employed by the German Navy as the Sperrbrecher X, a mine barrage breaker, sailing in front of convoys to trigger off potential mines. She struck a mine for this purpose and sank 24 miles off Norderney on the German coast.

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