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 772 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 1 Mar 1941: German submarines U-95, U-147, and U-552 operated against Allied convoy HX-109 170 miles northwest of Outer Hebrides, Scotland, United Kingdom. After sundown, the 12,062-ton British steam tanker Cadillac, built in 1917, was on route from Aruba for Avonmouth, England, United Kingdom carrying a cargo of 17,000 tons of aviation spirit when she was torpedoed by U-552. The highly flammable cargo immediately caught fire, causing a massive explosion and when the #8 tank blew up on the port side after about four minutes it illuminated all ships in the vicinity. With the ship settling by the bow and blazing furiously on the port side a lot of the crew perished being unable to leave the ship, 35 crew were lost from a total crew of 42. Meanwhile, U-95 sank the ship Pacific; 34 were killed, 1 survived.
» 18 Feb 1940: German destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp, Karl Galster, and Wolfgang Zenker embarked on Operation Nordmark, aiming to intercept British convoy traffic in the North Sea. During the night, Wolfgang Zenker was forced to return to base when she began taking on water.
» 12 Mar 1942: HMS Turbulent (Commander John Wallace Linton) sank the Greek caique Agia Paraskevi with gunfire north of the Zea Channel, southeast of Athens, Greece. Two of the crew were wounded.
» 18 Jul 1945: The 3,593-ton Japanese railway passenger ferry Soya Maru departed Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan for Odomari (now Korsakov, Russia) carrying over 600 passengers including women and children, escorted by anti-submarine vessel CD-112. As the two ships crossed the mouth of the Magotsue River, the American submarine USS Barb (SS 220) sighted them and fired two and then three torpedoes at the convoy. Of the two torpedoes in the first salvo, one exploded on the nearby shoreline, and the other was seen by lookouts on the Soya Maru heading straight for CD-112. When the torpedo struck CD-112, it set off the depth charges aboard the ship, blowing her apart in a huge explosion. The commanding officer Shunichiro Ishiwatari and 199 of her crew were killed. The ferry went on ahead unharmed. Read More
» 12 Mar 1940: HMS Sealion (Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Bryant, RN) was detected, hunted and depth charged by a German armed trawler in the North Sea about 25 nautical miles to the north-west of Heligoland.

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