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US Destroyers vs German U-Boats: The Atlantic 1941–45

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US DESTROYERS
GERMAN U-BOATS
The Atlantic 1941–45

MARK LARDAS
 US DESTROYERS
GERMAN U-BOATS
The Atlantic 1941–45

MARK LARDAS
CONTENTS
Introduction 4
Chronology 7
Design and Development 9
The Strategic Situation 20
Technical Specifications 27
The Combatants 44
Combat 54
Analysis 71
Aftermath 76
Further Reading 78
Index 80
 INTRODUCTION
Between September 1941 and May 1945, United States Navy destroyers fought
German Kriegsmarine (“War Navy”) Unterseeboote – the U-boats. The battle opened
on September 4, 1941, when USS Greer (DD-145), a Wickes-class flush-deck
destroyer converted to anti-submarine warfare (ASW) duty, exchanged fire with
U-652, a Type VIIC U-boat. The encounter took place in the western approaches to
Iceland and was initiated when an RAF Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson
maritime patrol bomber dropped depth charges on U-652. The U-boat’s skipper,
Oberleutnant zur See Georg-Werner Fraatz, unable to detect the Hudson, assumed
Greer had been the attacker; Greer had in fact been tracking U-652 on its sonar. In
retaliation, U-652 fired a torpedo at Greer, which then depth-charged the U-boat.
The final encounter occurred on May 6, 1945, the day after Germany surrendered.
U-881, a Type IXC/40 U-boat, was attempting to line up a shot at the Casablanca-
class escort carrier USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) when it was detected by USS Farquhar
(DE-139), an Edsall-class destroyer escort screening Mission Bay. Farquhar attacked at
04:41:00, sinking U-881.
In between, there were thousands of encounters between US Navy destroyers and
German U-boats, and between destroyer escorts and U-boats when the former began
to operate in the Atlantic in April 1943. For ASW, destroyers and destroyer escorts can
be considered interchangeable. Most encounters, like the combat between Greer and
U-652, ended harmlessly, with neither side suffering damage. Others, like U-881’s
encounter with Farquhar, had fatal consequences.
The U-boat was not inevitably the loser, however. The last US Navy warship sunk
in the Battle of the Atlantic was USS Frederick C. Davis (DE-136), an Edsall-class
destroyer escort that had survived three years of war, including a stint off the invasion
4 beaches at Anzio on the western coast of Italy where it acted as a decoy for radio-
controlled glide bombs. On April 24,
1945 Frederick C. Davis was tracking a
U-boat contact, U-546, a Schnorchel-
equipped Type IXC/40, which turned the
tables on the destroyer escort, hitting it
with a single acoustic torpedo. Hit at
08:40:00, Frederick C. Davis sank
15 minutes later. It was soon joined by
U-546, attacked by the remaining eight
destroyers in the hunter-killer group that
Frederick C. Davis had been
operating with.
Once or twice, an encounter proved
fatal to both combatants. The Clemson-
class flush-deck destroyer USS Borie
(DD-215) served in the Neutrality Patrol
in 1941. In 1943, along with several
other sister ships converted for ASW
duty, Borie was part of the destroyer
screen for the Bogue-class escort carrier
USS Card (CVE-11) hunting U-boats in
the mid-Atlantic. On November 1, 1943,
having detected the submerged U-405,
Borie launched a depth-charge attack that
forced the U-boat to the surface.
U-405, a Type VIIC U-boat, surfaced
so close to Borie that the old four-piper
could not depress its four 4in and one 3in
guns sufficiently to engage the U-boat.
U-405 opened up on Borie with its deck guns. Borie responded with what it could – Kriegsmarine U-bootsmänner
small-arms fire. Finally Borie rammed U-405, which sent the U-boat to the bottom. sweating out a depth-charge
Borie damaged its bow when it rammed, however, and the battle was fought in a attack. The U-boat had to remain
silent to evade detection and
storm. Too badly damaged to tow to port, Borie was scuttled the next day.
destruction; so did the crew.
These were typical of the encounters that occurred during the 45 months US Navy These men survived. Most depth-
destroyers and destroyer escorts battled U-boats in the North Atlantic and surrounding charge attacks were
waters. These battles, however, tended not to fit the common stereotype of battles unsuccessful, but a U-boat only
fought between Allied destroyers and German U-boats. Novels like Nicholas had to be unlucky once. (AC)
Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea (1951), C.S. Forester’s The Good Shepherd (1955), and
Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s Das Boot (1973) describe the battles fought on the North
Atlantic’s northern convoy routes. These involved convoys traveling between North
America and Britain, or more rarely, between Britain and Gibraltar.
The battles fought on the routes taken by the British-bound SC and HX or the
America-bound ON and ONS convoys were among the biggest and most important
fought during the Battle of the Atlantic, but they were not typical of the battles in
which the US Navy participated. This was not absolute: on October 31, 1941 the
Clemson-class destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) was torpedoed and sunk by the 5

A crewman from the Clemson-
class destroyer USS Borie
(DD-215) is hoisted aboard the
Bogue-class escort carrier USS
Card (CVE-11) via a breeches
buoy on November 3, 1943. Borie
sank in a storm due to damage
incurred ramming and sinking
U-405. (AC)
6 1942 it appeared the U-boats were invincible, by 1944 they were on the run.
Type VIIC U-boat U-552 while
escor ting HX 156 from
Newfoundland to Iceland. However,
this was during the period of the
Neutrality Patrol.
After the United States entered
World War II in December 1941, the
battlefield changed. The Battle of
the Atlantic was no longer confined to
the eastern North Atlantic, but
instead included the western Atlantic
Ocean, the North American seaboard,
the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean
Sea, and the waters off South America.
Moreover, the US Navy suddenly had
massive naval commitments in the
Pacific Ocean, against Japan.
US Navy destroyers were largely withdrawn from the northern convoy routes.
Eventually, the US presence in these convoys was limited to the US Coast Guard,
often manning vessels equivalent to destroyers, including destroyer escorts lent to the
US Coast Guard. The Royal Canadian Navy assumed responsibility for convoys on
the western half of those routes while Britain’s Royal Navy took charge of the eastern
half. US warships tended to operate under the command of British or Canadian
leaders. The Good Shepherd’s Commander Ernest Krause was a rare (and fictional)
exception.
Instead, the US Navy initially patrolled the waters along the North American coast,
the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico. After November 1942 they took responsibility
for the convoys taking the central North Atlantic routes, between Norfolk, Virginia
and Gibraltar, and on into the Mediterranean. The US Navy was fighting a different
type of war against U-boats than that being fought by the Royal Navy or Royal
Canadian Navy – geography dictated it.
The US Navy rarely fought “wolf packs,” which could only be engaged in areas
relatively close to French and Norwegian U-boat bases and in areas with large convoys,
namely the northern convoy routes. Wolf packs could have been deployed against
US–Gibraltar convoys in the approaches to Gibraltar, but these were heavily patrolled
by Allied maritime patrol aircraft and therefore best avoided by U-boats. That meant
most US destroyer and destroyer-escort encounters with U-boats were typically with
individual U-boats.
Another difference was US destroyers and destroyer escorts were more frequently
used offensively against U-boats than defensively protecting convoys. Although 1942
destroyer sweeps hunting U-boats were helter-skelter, by 1943 destroyers and destroyer
escorts were used in hunter-killer groups centered around escort carriers. The escort
carriers’ aircraft would hunt out U-boats, with the destroyers sent to sink the U-boats
that submerged before aircraft could sink them.
This book presents those battles, and highlights what made them unique. While in
CHRONOLOGY
1935 December 7 United States attacked by Japan at
June 18 Anglo-German Naval Agreement Pearl Harbor and other locations in
signed, permitting Germany to the Pacific.
build U-boats. December 11 Germany declares war on United
June 29 Kriegsmarine commissions Type IIA States.
SM U-1, its first U-boat.
1942
1941 January 12 Operation Paukenschlag, the first
September 4 Greer Incident. Greer and U-652 attack by U-boats on the American
exchange fire. coast, begins when Type IXB U-123
October 17 Kearny torpedoed by U-568. sinks the unescorted British cargo
October 31 Reuben James sunk by U-552. steamship Cyclops.
February 28 Jacob Jones sunk off the Delaware
Capes by Type VIIC U-578.
February  German U-boats begin using the
four-rotor Enigma cipher machine.
The Allies can no longer read U-boat
radio traffic.
April 14 U-85 sunk by Roper, the first U-boat
sunk by US Navy destroyers.
May 28 U-568 sunk off Torbruk by Royal
Navy warships.
August  US Navy depth charges modified to
allow 600ft depth settings.
November 16 Gleaves-class destroyers USS Woolsey
(DD-437), USS Swanson (DD-443),
and USS Quick (DD-490) sink
U-173 as it attempts attacking
Operation Torch shipping.

1943
March 5 A hunter-killer group, with the escort
carrier Bogue and five flush-deck
destroyers, departs Norfolk,
becoming the first US Navy task
group to hunt U-boats.
March 13 Type VIIC U-575 becomes the first
U-boat to be sunk by US Navy
Two U-bootsmänner in the control room of a U-boat. They are operating the
depth controls that determined the depth at which the U-boat should be. (AC) destroyers in the Mediterranean.
7
 April First destroyer escort enters service in
the Battle of the Atlantic.
August 1  Zaunkönig (Wren) acoustic homing
torpedo enters service. It is called
GNAT (German Naval Acoustic
Torpedo) by the Allies.
November 1  U-405 rammed and sunk by Borie.
The destroyer is scuttled the next day.
December 24 Wickes-class destroyer USS Leary
(DD-158), hit by a Zaunkönig
torpedo fired by Type VIIC U-275,
becomes the last US Navy destroyer
sunk by U-boats.
1944
February 16 Destroyer escorts accompany an
escort carrier hunter-killer task force
for the first time.
March 17 Gleaves-class destroyer USS Corry
(DD-463) and Cannon-class
destroyer escort USS Bronstein (DE-
109) sink Type IXC/40 U-801, the
first time a destroyer escort
participates in sinking a U-boat.
May 5 Buckley-class destroyer escort USS
Fechteler (DE-157), torpedoed and
sunk by Type VIIC/41 U-967 while
escorting a convoy in the
Mediterranean, becomes the first
US Navy destroyer escort sunk by
U-boats.
May 6 In a wild battle involving a boarding
action by German U-bootsmänner,
Buckley rams and sinks
Type IXC U-66.
May 19 Gleaves-class destroyers USS Niblack
(DD-424) and USS Ludlow
(DD-438) sink Type VIIC U-960,
the last U-boat sunk by US Navy
destroyers in World War II.
May 29  U-549 sinks Block Island, and is
subsequently sunk by Eugene
E. Elmore.
June 4 Four destroyer escorts from TG 22.3
force U-505 to the surface and
capture it.
8 China Sea. This is a torpedoman aboard a destroyer escort. (AC)
July 5 Type XB U-233 is forced to the
surface by Cannon-class destroyer
escorts USS Baker (DE-190) and
USS Thomas (DE-102) and sunk by
gunfire, becoming the only Type XB
U-boat sunk by US Navy escort
warships.
1945
April 24  Frederick C. Davis sunk by U-546,
which is subsequently sunk by six
destroyer escorts.
April 30 Karl Dönitz succeeds Adolf Hitler as
head of the Third Reich.
May 4 Dönitz orders the Kriegsmarine to
cease all offensive action.
May 5 Dönitz orders the Kriegsmarine to
cease all hostilities.
May 6  Farquhar sinks U-881 – the last
U-boat sunk by the US Navy.
May 8 Germany surrenders. War in Europe
(and Battle of the Atlantic) ends.
May 23 Third Reich dissolved by the Allies.
Dönitz is arrested.
May 29 Blackout in Atlantic Ocean ends.
Ship navigation lights again used.
August 17 Type VIIC U-997, the last U-boat
still at sea, arrives in Argentina and
surrenders.
Although torpedoes were rarely used by destroyers and destroyer
escorts against U-boats, they were fired on occasion against surfaced
U-boats. No U-boat was sunk by torpedoes fired by a US Navy surface
warship, although one, U-537, was torpedoed and sunk by the Gato-class
submarine USS Flounder (SS-251) on November 10, 1944 in the South
DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT
A U-boat plows through open
water in the North Sea. This view
is from the bridge, looking
forward. (AC)
THE DESTROYER AND THE
DESTROYER ESCORT
The destroyer emerged between 1892 and 1894 to counter the
threat torpedo boats presented to large warships. This torpedo-
boat destroyer was built to drive off torpedo boats. An oceangoing
warship, it could keep up with the battle fleet and was fast
enough to engage and sink torpedo boats before they endangered
the battle line. The torpedo-boat destroyer, large enough to carry
torpedoes and a better sea boat than the smaller torpedo boat,
soon replaced the latter type. The name “torpedo-boat destroyer”
was shortened to “TBD” or simply “destroyer.”
The first generation of destroyers had coal-fired, reciprocating
steam engines. Their maximum speeds ranged from 25 to 31kn;
they displaced between 350 and 600 tons, and they carried two
torpedo tubes, one or two guns between 65mm and 88mm in
caliber, and two to four light guns between 20mm and 50mm.
Second-generation destroyers arrived between 1904 and
1912, incorporating steam turbines and oil fuel. Turbine engines
provided greater power per unit weight than the triple-expansion 9
 reciprocating steam engines and the oil fuel had higher specific energy than coal,
which eliminated the need for stokers to fuel the boiler. Additionally, burning oil
created no ash to remove from the firebox.
The third generation of destroyers emerged between 1913 and 1916, adding geared
propulsion. Turbine efficiency increases with greater turbine speed, while a propeller
is most efficient at a relatively slow speed. At high shaft speeds, marine propellers force
dissolved air in water out of solution. Gas bubbles form and collapse, creating
turbulence. The propeller pushed against air, not water.
Destroyer size and speed increased with each generation. The first generation barely
made 24kn. Slow second-generation destroyers could make 28kn, with faster classes
reaching 36kn. The size of second-generation destroyers increased to 500–750 tons.
Torpedo batteries had four to eight torpedo tubes, and the ships carried up to four
main guns, of up to four inches in bore.
The third generation was larger still: 750–1,100 tons. They were as fast as the
smaller ships, better sea boats, and carried more torpedo tubes. The final class of US
“1000-tonner” destroyers, the Sampson class of 1915, carried 12 21in torpedo tubes
in triple mountings, and could reach 29.5kn.
In 1915, the United States wanted a super-destroyer, superior to those of other
nations, with high speed, excellent seakeeping, and good range. The super-destroyer
was to fill the scout cruiser role when necessary. Range was critical because the US
Navy operated their destroyers in oceans. The rest of the world’s navies intended their
destroyers to operate in seas.
The result was a flush-decked, four-smokestack (pipe) design displacing 1,125 tons,
310ft long on the waterline, with a 30kn top speed. It could travel 2,500nm at 20kn. As
designed, it carried 12 21in torpedo tubes in four broadside mounts and a quadruple
4in/50-gun main battery. It could accompany the battle line across half an ocean, scout
out the enemy, and then fight. A total of 273 were built between 1917 and 1922.
Submarine and aircraft emerged as threats during World War I. Submarines, especially
German U-boats, were an ever-present and deadly peril. Fleet actions, by contrast, were
relatively rare. Something had to deal with U-boats. Due to their speed and agility – and
their relative disposability, compared to battleships or cruisers – that task fell to destroyers.

The Caldwell, Wickes, and

Clemson classes of flush-deck
destroyers were the first mass-
produced destroyers built for the
US Navy. They served into World
War II, becoming early-war
leaders in the fight against the
10 U-boats. (USNHHC)
 The Farragut-class destroyer was
the first new US Navy destroyer
design in over a dozen years. It
introduced the 5in/38 dual-
purpose gun, which formed the
main battery of US Navy
destroyers through the Korean
War. This is USS Aylwin
(DD-355). (AC)

US destroyers that served in World War I, including the flush-deck classes, were
hastily retrofitted with anti-submarine weapons. The most common was the depth-
charge rack permitting depth charges to be rolled off the stern of a destroyer. Some
destroyers were also fitted with Y-guns, Y-shaped depth-charge launchers, which
projected depth charges off either side of the destroyer.
ASW became a permanent part of the destroyer mission. For flush-deckers, still
primarily intended to accompany the battle line, this form of warfare was improvised.
They lacked space for more than a pair of depth-charge racks mounted on the stern
or stowage for adequate quantities of depth charges.
The sheer number of flush-deckers froze US destroyer development for a decade. The
next generation of US destroyers finally appeared in the mid-1930s, their design constrained
by the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, a naval limitations agreement between
Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States limiting the number and size of
destroyers allowed navies. Both submarines and aircraft had grown in capability since
World War I. New destroyer designs factored that in. Yet in 1931, when design work on
the next generation of US destroyers began, the destroyer’s main role was as an auxiliary to
the battle line. Anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities were secondary.
The first destroyer class built after the flush-deckers were the Farraguts. Although
equipped with sonar, as built they lacked depth-charge racks or throwers. They had
two quadruple centerline 21in torpedo tubes and a main battery of four 5in/38 dual-
purpose guns. The guns were a concession to the aircraft threat, but they were also
capable against surface ships. Top speed of the Farragut-class destroyers was 36kn, but
due to naval treaty limitations they displaced only 1,500 tons.
Although they were 20 percent larger than the flush-deckers, the Farraguts were
also 20 percent smaller than desired by the Navy Board. They became the template
for 1,500-ton and 1,650-ton pre-war destroyer designs. Along with the flush-deckers,
these destroyers fought the Battle of the Atlantic. Larger and more capable wartime-
construction destroyers, designed and built after naval treaty limitations expired, went
overwhelmingly to the Pacific.
As the 1930s drew to a close, the US Navy became more focused on the threats
posed by both aircraft and submarines. The limited number of battleships and cruisers
operated by enemy nations’ fleets put an emphasis on reducing the numbers of these
ships through submarine ambush or aerial attack by torpedo bombers. Aircraft
capability was increasing at rates that had to be frightening to naval officers. The US
Navy began emphasizing the ASW and anti-aircraft roles destroyers would play,
realizing the opportunities for surface torpedo attacks would be scarce. 11
 USS EUGENE E. ELMORE (DE-686)
A Rudderow-class destroyer escort, Eugene E. Elmore was one of 447 destroyer escorts commissioned in the United States
Navy. These vessels were designed for the Royal Navy specifically to fight U-boats. They were magnificent at that job, but
not much else. In the Atlantic they were in their element. The Rudderow class differed from the earlier Buckley class (and
other earlier destroyer-escort classes) mainly in armament. They carried two 5in/38 guns instead of the three 3in/50 guns
of the earlier ships. As with earlier classes their engines ran generators to power the electric motors which drove the
vessels. Eugene E. Elmore had a short career. Commissioned in December 1943, it escorted convoys in the Atlantic until
November 1944. Thereafter it served in the Pacific until November 1945. It was decommissioned in May 1946, remaining in
reserve until broken up in 1969.

12
 USS Eugene E. Elmore
Displacement 1,450 tons
Dimensions Length 306ft (overall); beam 36ft 10in; draft 9ft 8in
Machinery General Electric steam turbo-electric drive engine developing 50,000shp
Speed 24kn
Range 5,500nm at 15kn
Fuel Oil
Crew 15 officers, 168 enlisted
Three 21in torpedo tubes (1×3) and three 21in torpedoes; two 5in/38
guns (2x1); four 40mm Bofors guns (2x2); ten 20mm/70 AA guns
Armament
(10x1); one Hedgehog projector; eight K-gun depth-charge throwers; two
depth-charge racks

Destroyer anti-aircraft capabilities were good. New-construction main batteries for

all destroyers after 1936 were 5in/38 dual-purpose guns, perhaps the finest heavy anti-
aircraft gun of World War II; but it was also a highly effective weapon against surface
vessels, including submarines. Light and medium batteries were wanting, however,
especially on older construction.
ASW capability was more problematic. Some destroyers lacked even depth-charge
racks. Depth charges likely to sink a submarine required destroyers to drop a larger
pattern, which included launching them sideways by projectors, such as the Y-gun
used in World War I. Y-guns could not be placed on new-construction destroyers,
however, so the US Navy created the K-gun, which fired depth charges in one
direction. With a smaller footprint, K-guns could be mounted along the sides of
the destroyer.
Although both light anti-aircraft guns and ASW weapons could be added, part or
all of the torpedo battery or even a main gun turret had to be removed to provide space
and weight for new weapons; this was viewed as acceptable. Starting in 1939 the US
Navy began modifying older destroyers and altering new construction to improve
destroyers’ anti-aircraft and ASW capabilities. The additional light and medium anti-
aircraft guns also improved destroyers’ ASW effectiveness, especially against
surfaced U-boats.
Surviving flush-deck destroyers went through the most extensive conversions, with
27 converted to ASW destroyers. Two sets of torpedo tubes and all 4in guns were
removed, replaced with six 3in/50 dual-purpose guns and six K-guns. The addition of
six 20mm single guns further improved anti-aircraft protection.
Similar, if less extreme, conversions were made on newer pre-war destroyers. Depth-
charge racks were added to destroyers lacking them. Often one or two sets of torpedo
tubes were landed, replaced with K-guns and 20mm and 40mm anti-aircraft guns.
This conversion process accelerated after the US entered World War II.
Radar, shipboard High-Frequency Direction Finding (HF/DF or “Huff-Duff ”),
and combat-information centers (CICs) were introduced during World War II. These
all had to be retrofitted into pre-war construction, during the war. Also added to some
destroyers was the Hedgehog projector. Developed during the war, it fired 24 contact-
fused anti-submarine projectiles ahead of the firing vessel. 13

The Gleaves class was the last
generation of destroyers
designed before the expiration of
naval limitations treaties. Many
served in the Atlantic, fighting
U-boats, including USS Niblack
(DD-424), shown here during
acceptance trials. (USNHHC)
14
During the war, the US Navy developed
a specialized anti-submarine destroyer, the
destroyer escort. An austere destroyer, it
was 290–306ft long (depending on class),
1,360 or 1,730 tons displacement, and
had a top speed of either 21 or 24kn. Half
were diesel-powered, as steam turbines
were in short supply. Most used electric
motors to drive the propellers, thus
eliminating the need for gearing.
Destroyer escorts were built with one
center-mount triple torpedo tube, but this was often removed to increase the number
of anti-aircraft guns. Their main battery was either two 5in/38 guns in turrets or three
3in/50 open-mount guns. In addition to depth-charge racks, they had eight depth-
charge projectors, and a Hedgehog projector. They were also equipped with two to six
40mm and six to 12 20mm anti-aircraft guns. Construction started on the first
destroyer escort in September 1941 and they began arriving for US Navy service in
February 1943. They were deadly against Type VII or Type IX U-boats, but were too
slow to be effective against Type XXI U-boats.
In 1941–42, most of the destroyers assigned to the Atlantic were the old flush-
deckers or the then-new Benson-class and Gleaves-class destroyers. As the war went
on, these remained in service in the Atlantic, joined by the first of the destroyer escorts
in 1943. By the start of 1945 most flush-deck destroyers had been withdrawn from
ASW duty, replaced by destroyer escorts or Benson- and Gleaves-class destroyers freed
from duty in the Pacific by the arrival of later, larger wartime-construction destroyers.
Although a few of the war-construction Fletcher- and Allen B. Sumner-class destroyers
ended up in the Atlantic, these vessels had little contact with U-boats.
USS Kearny
Displacement 1,630 tons
Dimensions Length 348ft 3in (waterline); beam 36ft 1in; draft 11ft 10in
Four Babcock & Wilcox boilers; two Westinghouse geared steam turbines
Machinery
on two shafts developing 50,000shp
Speed 37.4kn
Range 6,500nm at 12kn
Fuel Oil
Crew 16 officers, 260 enlisted
Ten 21in torpedo tubes (2×5) and ten 21in torpedoes; five 5in/38 guns
Armament
(5x1); six .50in machine guns (6x1); two depth-charge racks
USS KEARNY (DD-432)
USS Kearny was a Gleaves-class destroyer (also called the Benson-Livermore class). Launched March 9, 1940 and
commissioned September 13, 1940, it became part of the Neutrality Patrol almost immediately after completing its
shakedown cruise. Kearny was typical of Atlantic destroyers during World War II. Initially assigned because they were the
newest destroyers available, they remained in the Atlantic to allow more-capable new construction to go to the Pacific. This
plate depicts Kearny as it appeared in October 1941, when it was part of the Neutrality Patrol. At the time it lacked the
20mm guns or the radar and HF/DF gear it acquired later in the war. There were wide variations in Gleaves-class anti-aircraft
and ASW armament due to wartime modification.

15
 THE GERMAN U-BOAT
The modern submarine – powered by an internal combustion engine while surfaced
and an electric motor while submerged – emerged during the last decades of the
nineteenth century. John P. Holland, an Irish immigrant to the United States, built his
first submarine in 1878 and continued developing his designs over the next two
decades. In 1900 the US Navy purchased Holland’s most advanced design, Holland
IV, becoming the first navy in the world to commission a submarine.
A 54ft-long, football-shaped spheroid with a 10ft diameter, Holland IV displaced
74 tons submerged and 64 tons on the surface and had a maximum diving depth of
75ft. It could travel at 6kn on the surface and only slightly slower (5.5kn) submerged.
The crew worked and lived in its cylindrical pressure hull, which had external ballast
tanks attached that could be filled with water to submerge or emptied (using
compressed air) to surface.
Surfaced, Holland IV used a 45hp gasoline motor that powered batteries. These ran
a 75hp electric motor, propelling the submarine when submerged. It had a single 18in
torpedo tube and carried three torpedoes. While primitive, Holland IV was the
ancestor for all future submarines for the next 50 years. All incorporated the basic
features of Holland IV.
Britain, France, Russia, Japan – and Germany – soon acquired submersible
warships. Krupp in Germany built its first U-boat in 1903, but the private venture
failed to attract the interest of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) and it was sold
to Russia. The Kaiserliche Marine purchased its first U-boat, SM U-1, in 1906. It was
powered by a two-stroke kerosene (or paraffin) engine, had a top speed of 10.8kn, and
a range of 1,500nm, but it still had only one torpedo tube and three torpedoes.
Just four years later, U-19 entered service with the Kaiserliche Marine. It displaced
640 tons surfaced and 824 tons submerged. Measuring 210.5ft long, with a 20ft beam
and a 24ft height, it had a test depth of 50m (164ft) and a 9,700nm surfaced range,
and could reach 15.4kn surfaced and 9.5kn submerged. It had four 50cm (19.7in)
torpedo tubes (two forward and two aft) and carried six torpedoes, and had three deck
guns: one 88mm, one 105mm gun, and one 37mm. Instead of engines fed by volatile
gasoline or kerosene, it had two MAN eight-cylinder diesel engines producing
1,700hp. The two engines powered two AEG electric motors generating 1,184shp.

SM U-1 (shown) was the first

submarine purchased by the
Kaiserliche Marine. Although it
had paraffin-fueled engines
instead of diesels, it was the
model for all subsequent German
16 U-boats. (USNHHC)
 U-19 was the template for all subsequent U-boats designed and built through 1943. IvS spent the inter-war years
By the end of World War I, Imperial Germany had two U-boat types, the designing U-boats in the
UB-III class and the U-93 class, that were analogous to the later Type VII and Type IX Netherlands for other European
countries. The company’s designs
U-boats, which formed the backbone of the Kriegsmarine’s World War II U-boat forces.
were later used by the
The UB-III U-boats were considered coastal boats, yet were two-thirds’ scale Kriegsmarine. The Vetehinen,
analogs to the Kriegsmarine Type VII U-boats. With an overall length of 55.3m (181ft built for Finland, served as the
5in) and a maximum breadth of 5.8m (19ft, the pressure hull was 40.1m [131ft 6in] prototype for the Type VII U-boat.
long and 3.9m [12ft 9in] in diameter), the UB-IIIs displaced 516 tons surfaced and (AC)
651 tons submerged. They had a crew of 35 men and carried five torpedo tubes (four
forward, one aft), ten torpedoes, and an 88mm deck gun with 160 rounds for it. They
could reach a maximum speed of 13.6kn surfaced and 8kn submerged, had a range of
9,040nm surfaced at 6kn, and a test depth of 75m (246ft). These were very capable
U-boats, 88 of which were built during World War I.
The U-93-class U-boat design could have served as a downscaled Kriegsmarine
Type IX U-boat. Oceangoing submarines intended for Atlantic patrols, they displaced
838 tons surfaced and 1,000 tons submerged, and were 71.55m (234ft 9in) long with
a 6.3m (20ft 8in) beam. (The pressure hull was 56m [183ft 9in] with a 4.15m [13ft
8in] diameter.) They had a crew of 39, and carried six torpedo tubes (four bow, two
stern), 16 torpedoes, and a 105mm deck gun with 140 rounds for it. With a maximum
speed of 16.8kn surfaced and 8.6kn submerged, they had a range of 9,000nm at 8kn
surfaced. Twenty-four U-93-class U-boats were commissioned in World War I.
Germany ended the war with the reputation of building the world’s best submarines
and operating them more effectively than any other nation. They were so good the
Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, barred Germany from building, having,
or operating U-boats.
In 1922 the Reichsmarine (Realm Navy, the Kaiserliche Marine’s successor) evaded
these limitations by establishing Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbow (IvS) den Haag,
a submarine design office, in the Netherlands, a country neutral during World War I.
IvS, supposedly a commercial company, was funded by the Reichsmarine and soon
designed and sold submarines for export. The company’s first sales were to Turkey, of
two submarines that were built in 1927 using the UB-III design as the basis.
IvS soon went beyond updating World War I designs. Between 1927 and 1933 the
company created three submarine designs later used by Germany in World War II.
The first was a boat built by Spain in 1929–30, Submarino E-1, which was sold to 17

The Type IX U-boat was designed
as a long-range cruising U-boat,
intended to operate
independently, rather than in wolf
packs. Although the US Navy
fought Type VII U-boats, its main
quarry was the Type IX.
(USNHHC)
18
Turkey in 1935, where it served under the name Gür until 1947. It was an oceangoing
vessel, intended for long-range independent patrols. The design re-emerged in
Germany in 1936 as the Kriegsmarine’s Type IA U-boat. Only two were built, U-25
and U-26. An upgraded version became the Type IX U-boat.
The next two IvS designs were built by Finland, newly independent after World
War I. One, commissioned in Finland as Vesikko, was the prototype for the Type II
coastal U-boat. The other became the Finnish Vetehinen-class submarines, the
prototype for the Kriegsmarine’s Type VII U-boats. Therefore, when Germany
discarded the Treaty of Versailles limitations in 1936, it already had the three basic
U-boat designs it would use during World War II. The three designs would remain in
production through 1944.
The Type II U-boats were the smallest of the three designs, displacing 254 tons
surfaced and 303 tons submerged. By August 1939 they were being retired to training
and played no part in the Battle of the Atlantic fought by the US Navy. The various
Type VII and IX U-boats built were the main opponents US Navy destroyers and
destroyer escorts fought. Over 690 Type VIIs and nearly 200 Type IXs were
commissioned during World War II and were vastly superior to their World War I
counterparts.
The Type VII and IX U-boats had test depths of 230m (750ft). They could reach
speeds of 17–18kn on the surface, and 7.6kn submerged. Their diesel engines and
electric motors were highly reliable. Both types carried 55.3cm (21in) torpedoes,
with warheads three times the weight and four times the power of the 45.5cm
(17.7in) torpedoes carried by World War I U-boats. The Type IX U-boats had
phenomenal range – the Type IXD could almost circumnavigate the globe without
refueling.
Both the Type VII and Type IX designs had limitations. They needed to remain
surfaced at least eight hours a day to recharge the batteries that drove the electric
motors used when submerged. They were designed to primarily operate surfaced, but
Kriegsmarine doctrine called for nighttime attacks on Allied convoys while surfaced
to enable U-boats to use their superior surface speed and avoid sonar detection. This
worked well in the war’s opening years, but by 1943 most Allied ASW vessels had radar.
Type VII and IX U-boats relied on silence to avoid detection, but by using active
sonar or radar to detect enemy ships, Allied warships were able to detect and track
U-boats. That limited U-boats to
relying on visual observation over a
5–15-mile radius on the surface. This
in turn forced U-boats to rely on
constant radio communication to
coordinate attacks on convoys. By mid-
1943, however, many ASW warships
had HF/DF equipment, allowing them
to detect and locate broadcasting
U-boats. Only after the Kurier burst-
transmission system was installed on
U-boats did that risk of
detection diminish.
 Germany also produced a Type X minelaying U-boat and a Type XIV supply
U-boat. Large by German standards – around 1,700 tons surfaced and up to 2,300
tons submerged – they were used for mid-ocean supply of Type VII and IX U-boats.
The Type X had only two stern tubes for minelaying and defensive use. The Type XIV
had no torpedo tubes. These vessels avoided surface warships, with which an encounter
always ended badly. Of the eight Type X and ten Type XIV U-boats built, 13 were
sunk by aircraft and three by destroyers or destroyer escorts.
Types VII and XI U-boats were modified and improved during the course of World
War II, but their late 1920s–early 1930s design limited the scope of this work. The
Kriegsmarine knew that it needed a new design to overcome the disadvantages created
by the Allies’ use of radar and ASW aircraft, but they did not start ordering
replacements for these pre-war U-boats designs until 1943. These were the Electroboot
– Type XXI and Type XXIII U-boats. They were designed to operate submerged,
reaching speeds up to 17kn. They could recharge their batteries submerged, using a
Schnorchel to provide air to their diesel engines. They arrived too late for service,
however: of the 118 Type XXI and 61 Type XXIII U-boats commissioned by the
Kriegsmarine, only eight conducted patrols before the war ended, all in 1945 and in
sectors of Royal Navy responsibility.

THE “MILCH COWS”

U-boats, especially the Type VII, were designed to fight in carrier aircraft and destroyers fielded by these groups. All
the North Sea and Atlantic waters around Britain. The but two were lost by the war’s end, seven of which were
capture of French and Norwegian ports allowed them to sunk attempting to run the Bay of Biscay. US Navy hunter-
operate in the mid-Atlantic, astride convoy routes killer groups bagged another eight Milch Cows, including
connecting Britain to North America. However, they lacked three sunk by destroyers or destroyer escorts.
the endurance to fight at the far side of the Atlantic or off
South America. They could reach these battlefields, but
remain only a few days before returning home.
The Kriegsmarine began stationing supply boats in the
mid-Atlantic, to provide combat U-boats with fuel, food, and
torpedoes. At first, captured foreign submarines were used.
Prior to World War II, Germany started building four large
Type XB minelaying U-boats. These 2,100-ton vessels were
deployed as “Milch Cow” supply U-boats, starting in 1941.
The scheme worked so well, four more Type XBs were built
and ten Type XIV purpose-built supply U-boats were
commissioned. They operated in the central Atlantic, far
from land-based aircraft.
The Milch Cows became prime targets for US Navy hunter- Type XB U-boat U-233 as it is being attacked by the Cannon-class
killer groups, and they proved highly vulnerable to both the destroyer escorts USS Baker (DE-190) and USS Thomas
(DE-102). (USNHHC) 19
 OPPOSITE
Locations of key clashes between
U-boats and US destroyers,
1941–45
The Avro Anson was RAF Coastal
Command’s main ASW aircraft in
World War II’s opening year. It
was, however, incapable of
sinking a U-boat, a failure that
allowed Germany to mount a
highly successful campaign
against merchant vessels with
U-boats. (AC)
20
THE STRATEGIC
SITUATION
There should never have been a Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. At most, it
should have been a minor effort, ended before the United States entered the war,
focused on hunting down Kriegsmarine warships and auxiliary cruisers. That it
exploded into the Western Allies’ biggest campaign of the early-war years was
unexpected to both sides. The U-boat peril became the only issue that ever really
frightened Winston Churchill during World War II.
The final year of World War I saw Imperial Germany’s U-boat campaign against
merchant shipping crushed under a combination of depth charges, convoys, and
aircraft. By the 1930s, ASDIC (or sonar: sound navigation and ranging) had been
added to the mix to allow underwater tracking of
submarines. Sonar was common on destroyers and
other anti-submarine warships by the time Germany
invaded Poland in September 1939.
Convoys proved decisively effective in defeating
individual U-boats. Simply forming convoys reduced
the opportunities for a U-boat to find a target by
95–98 percent by concentrating shipping into a
small patch of ocean. A lone U-boat could not use its
deck guns against a convoy of armed merchantmen.
It had to expend scarce torpedoes.
While aircraft had difficulty detecting submerged
U-boats, they could cover vast ocean areas quickly,
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 Catherine’s heart gave a sudden leap. Of course! That was it!
Why had she not thought of that before? She was ill. That accounted
for her bad playing, the nurse, the doctor, everything.... When she
recovered she would be able to play again all right! Of course! What
a fool she had been! This was only illness ... illness. She began to
cry for joy at this new hope that had sprung up in her heart....

§4
Somebody (it looked like her father) was saying: “—if you want
friends, let them be girl friends.... Surely you can find plenty of your
own sex without——”
“—I can’t think what you want playing about with boys.... Girls
should stick to girls....”
And he pulled off his boots and flung them loudly under the
sofa.... Hr-rooch—flop ... Hr-rooch—flop ... and then his collar—
plock, plock....
“A girl of your age,” he went on, “ought not to bother her head
with fellers ... this sort of free-and-easy-carrying-on won’t do,
Catherine....”
And—“I can’t see what you need ever to be out later than nine for
... you’ve got all the daytime. I can’t think what you want the night as
well for ... it’s not as if you weren’t allowed to do what you like on
Saturday afternoons....”
And her mother, shrill and cacophonous:
“When I was young——”
Chorus of father and mother: “When I was young——”

§5
It must be a dream.
 If she ever had children of her own, would she say to them:
“When I was young——”
She pondered....
 CHAPTER XIX
AFTERWARDS
§1
UNFORTUNATELY her illness, whilst not serious in itself, left her
with neuritis in her right arm. Until she should be rid of this, any
restarting of concert work was out of the question. To play even a
hymn tune with her right hand fatigued her, and all scale and
arpeggio work was physically impossible. When she was quite
recovered from all save the neuritis, she spent most of her time
either reading or practising the left-hand parts of various concert
pieces. This latter exercise, whilst not very entertaining to her in the
musical sense, consoled her with the thought that her time was not
being entirely wasted, and that when her right hand should come into
use again her playing would be all the better for this intensive
development of her left. Every day she visited a masseuse in the
West-end and received an electric treatment for her arm which Dr.
McPherson recommended.
Money began to be somewhat of a difficulty with her. Thinking
always that her future was rosy with prospects and that her salary
would be sure to keep constantly increasing, she had never troubled
to save much, and had, indeed, been living slightly above her
income ever since she came to “Elm Cottage.” She paid twenty-five
shillings a week rent, seven and sixpence a week to Florrie, besides
a weekly half-crown to a visiting gardener and a charwoman. She
had heaps of incidental expenses—periodic tuning of the piano—her
season ticket to town—heavy bills for music, dresses and furniture
(which she was constantly buying)—her quarterly payment to the
press-cutting agency—books, magazines, expensive laundrying, a
fastidious taste in food and restaurants, all added to make her
expenditure a few shillings—sometimes a few pounds—per month in
excess of her income. During her illness, her income had been nil
and her expenses enormous. The nurse wanted two guineas a
week, Dr. McPherson’s bills were notoriously high, and in the case of
a person like Catherine he would probably charge more than usual.
Five shillings a visit was his fee, and for a fortnight he had come
twice a day, and for the last three weeks once. The West-end
masseuse was even more exorbitant: her fees were half a guinea for
each electric treatment lasting about half an hour. Household
expenses were becoming terrific. The nurse seemed to think that
Catherine was a person of infinite financial resources: she ordered
from the grocer, the butcher, the poulterer and the fruiterer whatever
she had a fancy to, in or out of season, regardless of expense. She
and Catherine took their meals together, and Catherine’s appetite
was never more than half that of the nurse. So the weeks passed
and the bills of the tradesmen went piling up and Catherine’s cheque
account at the bank came tumbling down.
One morning the bill from Parker’s, provision merchant, High
Street, Bockley, arrived by post. Catherine had expected a heavy
sum to pay, but the account presented to her was absolutely
staggering. It was for nineteen pounds five and fourpence. As
Catherine looked at it she went quite white with panic. She dared not
examine carefully every item—she was afraid to see her own
extravagance written down. But as her eye swept curiously down the
bill it caught sight of such things as: Port wane, half dozen, forty-two
shillings; pair of cooked chickens, eight and six; two pounds of black
grapes (out of season), fifteen shillings.... The bill took away all
Catherine’s appetite for breakfast. From the writing-bureau she took
out her bank pass-book: it showed that she had fifty-three pounds
four and nine on her cheque account, and nothing on her deposit
side. The situation became ominous. Out of that fifty-three pounds
would have to be paid the grocer’s bill of nineteen pounds odd, the
bills not yet forthcoming of the fruiterer, fishmonger, poulterer,
butcher, confectioner, and dairyman (cream had been a heavy item
in her diet). Plus this, small bills from the bookseller, newsagent,
tobacconist and laundryman. Plus this, whatever Dr. McPherson had
in store for her. Plus this, Madame Varegny, masseuse—her bill of
costs. In March, too, would come the bill from the press-cutting
agency, the piano-tuner, and the renewal of her season ticket.... All
out of fifty-three pounds! Was it possible? ... And, of course, rent and
wages to Florrie.... Things were evidently fast approaching a
financial crisis.
One thing was absolutely clear: she must economize drastically
and immediately. And one of the first steps in that direction was to
get rid of the nurse and the doctor. Except for the neuritis in her arm
she was really quite well now, and both nurse and doctor were
completely unnecessary. But it required a tremendous effort to tell
them their services were no longer required. Her illness seemed to
have sapped her will power. The truth was (though she would never
have admitted it) she was afraid of both the doctor and the nurse.
Only her greater fear of the avalanche of the bills that was
threatening her gave her a sort of nervous determination.
When Dr. McPherson came in his car at ten o’clock that morning
her heart was beating wildly. She wondered even then if her courage
would be equal to the task.
“Good morning,” he announced genially, walking briskly into the
breakfast-room, “and how are we this morning? Getting along
famously, eh?”
“About the same,” she replied dully.
“Like the massage?”
“Fairly. I can’t feel it doing me any good, though.”
“Oh, you haven’t been having it long enough yet. We’ll soon set
you up again, you wait.... After all, you’re young. You’ve the best part
of life before you. An old lady of seventy I visited yesterday said if
she were only——”
“Doctor!” Her voice was trying to be firm.
“Yes?”
“I want you to stop visiting me.” (The thing was done!)
“But—my dear young lady—why ever——?”
 “Because I am getting very short of money, and I shall have to
economize. I really can’t afford to keep having you visiting me every
day.”
“Well—of course—h’m—if you wish—I suppose. But you aren’t
well yet. I shall, at any rate, with your permission call occasionally
not as a doctor, but as a visitor. I am very deeply interested in your
recovery.”
“It is very kind of you.... And one other thing: I want you to tell the
nurse to go also. I really don’t need her any longer. Perhaps, since
you brought her here, you wouldn’t mind——”
“Certainly, if you desire it. I’ll tell her when she comes to the
surgery for the medicine this afternoon.”
“Thank you ever so much.”
“You’ll continue with massage treatment?”
“Yes—for the present, at any rate.”
“Good ... you’ll begin to feel the effects of it in a day or two.... The
weather is enough to keep anybody with neuritis. Simply rain, rain,
rain from morning till night. Shocking for colds and influenza. I have
over thirty cases of influenza. Twenty of them are round about High
Wood. It must be the Forest, I think, everything so damp and
sodden....”

§2
The nurse went the following morning. Before going by one of the
early trains from Upton Rising she cooked herself a sumptuous
breakfast of ham and eggs, fish and coffee. She was going to her
home in Newcastle, and she took with her for refreshments on the
journey several hardboiled eggs, a bottle of invalid’s wine, and two
packages of chicken sandwiches. Coming up to Catherine’s
bedroom just before departure she shook hands very stiffly and
wished her a swift recovery. But her attitude was contemptuous.
 After she had gone, Catherine called Florrie up to her and
delivered a sort of informal speech.
“You know, Florrie, that lately, while I’ve been ill, expenses have
been very high. And of course I haven’t had any money coming in at
all. Well, I haven’t got enough money to keep us spending at the rate
I have been, so I’ve had to cut down expenses drastically. The nurse
has gone for good and the doctor isn’t going to call so often.... You
must be careful not to waste anything. Don’t order from the grocer’s
anything that isn’t necessary. You’d better let me see the order
before you give it.... No fruits out of season ... we needn’t have meat
every day, you know ... and tell the gardener he needn’t come again
until further notice. There’s not much gardening to be done this time
of the year....”

§3
A few days later came more bills.
Brigson’s, dairyman, High Road, Bockley, £4 0s. 3d.
Mattocks’, poulterer, The Causeway, Upton Rising, £8 9s. 0d.
Ratcliffe and Jones, confectioners. High Street, Bockley, £3 12s.
5d.
Thomas and Son, fruiterers, The Ridgeway, Upton Rising, £7 4s.
3d.
Hackworth, newsagents, High Wood, £2 0s. 8d.
Dr. McPherson, St. Luke’s Grove, Bockley, for services ... £15
12s.0d.
Total, £40 18s. 6d.!
Plus Parker’s bill, £60 3s. 10d.!
And she had £53 4s. 9d. to pay it with!
And there were yet a few more bills to come in!
 And expenditure was still continuing, and no sign of being able to
start earning again!
Madame Varegny was costing money at the rate of three guineas
a week. There was not even fifty-three pounds four and nine in the
bank, for Catherine had drawn out ten pounds for pocket money and
half of that had gone on small expenses. She was faced with a
problem. There was bound to be a big deficit on her balance-sheet....
When the first shock of the situation passed away she became quite
cool and calculating.
She wrote cheques in payment of Parker’s, Mattocks’, Ratcliffe
and Jones’, Thomas and Sons’, and Brigson’s bills. For they were
shops at which she was forced to continue dealing, and which would
have refused her credit if she had not settled promptly.
McPherson, she decided, could wait awhile....
On the bill of Hackworth, newsagents, she noticed items for
books which she had never ordered. She enquired at the shop one
day and was shown the detailed list. It included some, score paper-
backed volumes by Charles Garvice.
“But I never ordered these!” Catherine protested.
Mr. Hackworth shrugged his shoulders.
“You’ve ’ad ’em, anyway, miss. The nurse uster come in of a
morning and say: Mr. Hackworth, I want the Moosical Times for this
month——”
“Yes, I know about that: I did order that——”
“Well, an’ then the nurse’d say afterwards: I want them books on
this list, an’ she giv’ me a bit o’ piper with ’em written down on.... Put
’em all down on the sime acahnt? I uster arst, an’ she uster sy: Yes,
you’d better....”
Catherine was more angry over this than over anything else.
At home in the kitchen she discovered Florrie reading one of
these paper-backed novels.
“Where did this come from?” she enquired sternly.
 “Out of the bottom cupboard,” replied Florrie, conscious of
innocence; “there’s piles of ’em there. The nurse left ’em.”
Sure enough the bottom cupboard was littered with them. Their
titles ran the entire gamut both of chromatic biliousness and female
nomenclature. Catherine stirred them with her foot as if they had
been carrion.
“Look here, Florrie,” she said authoritatively. “Get. rid of all this
trash.... There’s a stall in Duke Street on a Friday night where they
buy this sort of thing second-hand. Take them down there next
Friday and sell them.”
Florrie nodded submissively.
“Yes, mum, I will ... only ... I’ve read ’em neely all, only there’s jest
a few I ain’t read yet; p’raps if I sowld the others I might keep ’em by
till I’d finished reading of ’em ... wouldn’t take me long, mum!”
Catherine half smiled.
“I can’t think why you like reading them at all.”
Florrie looked critically at the volume in her hand.
“Well, mum, they ain’t bad.”
“And do you really enjoy them?”
“Not all of ’em, mum ... but some of ’em: well, mum, they ain’t at
all bad....”

§4
Fourteen of the paper-backed novels on the following Friday
night fetched one and six at the stall in Duke Street. Florrie’s tram
fare both ways, fourpence. Net receipts, one and twopence....
An unexpected bill came in, £1 10s. 0d. for coal.
When Catherine went to the bank to draw five pounds (by means
of a cheque made payable to herself) the clerk said: “By the way,
miss, your cheque account is getting low.... Excuse me mentioning it,
but we prefer you not to let it get too low.... Say fifty pounds ... of
course, for a while ... but as soon as you can conveniently ... you’ll
excuse me mentioning it....”
Catherine replied: “Of course, I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll put
some more in shortly. Thanks for letting me know.”
But it sent her into a fever of anxiety.
How was she to get any money to put in?
One afternoon she was strolling about the garden when,
approaching the kitchen window, she heard voices. It was Florrie
talking to Minnie Walker, the barmaid at the High Wood Hotel.
Catherine did not like Minnie Walker coming to see Florrie so often,
particularly when they drank beer in the kitchen together. She
listened to see whether Minnie had come to deliver any particular
message or merely to have a drink and a chat and to waste Florrie’s
time. If the latter, Catherine meant to interfere and tell Minnie to go.
The conversation she overheard was as follows:
minnie. I s’pouse the food ain’t so good now the nurse ’as gone.
She wasn’t arf a beauty, eh?
florrie. She knew ’ow ter set a tible, anyway. Chicken every
night, I uster git. She had the breast, an’ uster leave me the legs. But
the old girl don’t do that now. Can’t afford to. Fact is, the nurse run
up some pretty big bills for ’er. She can’t py ’em all, I don’t think.
minnie. Then she is owing a good deal, eh?
florrie. I dessay. Corsts ’er ten and six a time fer this messidge
treatment wot she ’as evry dy. I know that ’cos the nurse said so.
minnie. Yer wanter look out she pys you prompt. ’Case she goes
bankrupt.
florrie. You bet I tike care o’ myself. Wait till she don’t giv me
my money of a Friday and I’ll tell her strite.
Catherine turned away burning with rage.
 That night when Florrie came up to lay the tea, Catherine said:
“By the way, Florrie, I give you a week’s notice from to-night.”
“Why, mum?”
“Because I don’t wish to have anybody in the house who
discusses my private business with outsiders.”
“But, mum, I never——”
“Don’t argue. I overheard your conversation. I don’t want any
explanations.”
“Well, mum, they do say that listeners never ’ear no good of
themselves, so If you will go key-’olin’ round——”
“Please leave the room. I don’t wish to talk to you.”
“Very well, mum. It it suits you, it suits me, ’m sure. It won’t be no
’ard job for me ter git another plice——”
“I have told you to go.”
“I’m goin’. By the way, there’s two letters wot come at dinner-
time.”
“Bring them up, then.”
“Yes, mum.”
A moment later she returned carrying on a tray two unsealed
envelopes with half-penny stamps. From the half-malignant, half-
triumphant look in her eyes, Catherine was almost sure she had
examined their contents.
After Florrie had gone, Catherine opened them.
More bills!
Peach and Lathergrew, butchers, High Road, Bockley, £6 16s.
2d.
Batty, fish merchant, The Causeway, Upton Rising, £5 5s. 10d.
The crisis was coming nearer!
 §5
The persistent piling up of disaster upon disaster inflicted on her
a kind of spiritual numbness, which made her for the most part
insensible to panic. The first bill (the one from the grocer’s) had had
a much more disturbing effect on her than any subsequent one or
even than the cumulative effect of all of them when she thought
about her worries en masse.
There came a time when by constant pondering the idea of being
hopelessly in debt struck her as a very inadequate reason for
unhappiness. But at odd moments, as blow after blow fell, and as
she slipped insensibly into a new stratum of society, there would
come moments of supreme depression, when there seemed nothing
in the world to continue to live for, and when the whole of her past
life and future prospects seemed nothing but heaped-up agony. Her
dreams mocked her with the romance of her subconsciousness. She
would dream that she was the greatest pianist in the world, that the
mightiest men and women of a hundred realms had gathered in one
huge building to taste the magic of her fingers, that they cheered and
applauded whilst she played things of appalling technical difficulty
until she had perforce to stop because her instrument could no
longer be heard above the frenzy of their shouting; that in the end
she finished her repertoire of difficult concert pieces, and in response
to repeated demands for an encore started to play a simple minuet
of Beethoven, and that at the simple beauty of the opening chords
the great assembly hushed its voice and remained tense and in
perfect silence whilst she played. And, moreover, that her quick eye
had noticed in a far and humble corner of the building Ray Verreker,
straining to catch the music of the woman whose fingers he had
guided to fame. He was in rags and tatters, and it was plain that
fortune had played despicably with him. But, amidst the thunderous
applause that shook the building when her fingers had come to rest,
her eye caught his and she beckoned to him to approach. He came,
and she held out both her magic hands to raise him to the platform.
“This is my master,” she cried, in a voice that lifted the furthest
echoes, “this is my teacher, the one whose creature I am, breath of
my body, fire of my spirit! The honour you heap upon me I share with
him!”
Beautifully unreal were those dreams of hers. Always was she
the heroine and Verreker the hero. Always were their present
positions reversed, she, famous and wealthy and adored, and he,
alone, uncared for, helpless and in poverty, unknown and loving her
passionately. Always her action was the opposite of what his was in
reality: she was his kind angel, stooping to his fallen fortunes, and
lifting them and him by her own bounty....
Beautiful, unreal dreams! During the day she had no time for
these wandering fictions: work and worry kept her mind constantly in
the realm of stern reality; but at night-time, when her determination
held no longer sway, she sketched her future according to her
heart’s desire and filled it in with touches of passionate romance. To
wake from these scenes of her own imagining into the drab reality of
her morning’s work was fraught with horror unutterable....
Worst, perhaps, of all, her arm did not improve. It seemed as if
the three guineas’ worth per week of electric massage treatment
were having simply no effect at all, save to bring nearer the day of
financial cataclysm. And even if her neuritis were now to leave her,
the long period during which she had had no practice would have left
unfortunate results. Even granted complete and immediate recovery,
it would be fully a month, spent in laborious and intensive practising,
before she dare play again in public. Then, too, it would be
necessary for her to play brilliantly to retrieve the reputation
tarnished by her performance at the New Year’s concert. Moreover,
she had no organizer now, and she did not know quite what the work
entailed by that position was. And she felt nervous of playing again,
lest she might further damage her reputation.
But as long as she could not use her right arm these difficulties
were still hidden in the future.
Bills began to pour in by every post. Possibly Minnie Walker had
used her unrivalled position for disseminating gossip to spread
rumours of Catherine’s financial difficulties. At any rate, from the
saloon-bar of the High Wood Hotel the tale blew Bockleywards with
marvellous rapidity, and caused every tradesman with whom
Catherine had an account to send in his bill for immediate payment.
There were bills from shops that Catherine had forgotten all about.
Photographers, picture-framers, dyers and cleaners, leather-goods
fanciers, all contributed their quota to the gathering avalanche of
ruin. When every conceivable bill had arrived and had been added to
the rest, the deficit on the whole was over a hundred and twenty
pounds. This included a bill of over thirty pounds from a West-end
dressmaker’s. Catherine had got past the point when this appalling
situation could have power to frighten her. She just gathered all the
unpaid bills into one small drawer of her bureau, rigidly economized
in all housekeeping expenses, and looked around the house for
things she did not want and could sell for a good figure.
There was the large cheval glass in her bedroom. It was curious
that she should think first of this. It was one of a large quantity of
toilet furniture that she had bought when she first came to “Elm
Cottage.” It was a beautiful thing, exquisitely bevelled and lacquered,
and framed in carved ebony, She had liked it because she could
stand in front of it in evening dress and criticise the whole poise and
pose of herself. She had been accustomed to let down her hair in
front of it at night and admire the red lustre reflected in the glass.
Hours she must have spent posing in front of it. And yet now, when
she contemplated selling, this was the first thing she thought of....
Curious! ... The fact was, she was getting old. Or so she felt and
thought. Her hair was becoming dull and opaque; there were hard
lines about her eyes and forehead. Never beautiful, she was now
losing even that strange magnetic attractiveness which before had
sufficed for beauty. So the cheval glass which reminded her of it
could go....
She called at Trussall’s, the second-hand dealers in the Bockley
High Road, and told them about it. They offered to send up a man to
inspect it and make an offer. Catherine, too, thought this would be
the best plan. When she arrived back at “Elm Cottage” she diligently
polished the ebony frame and rubbed the mirror till it seemed the
loveliest thing in the room. She even rearranged the other furniture
so that the cheval glass should occupy the position of honour.
 The man came—a gaunt little snap-voiced man in a trilby hat. Did
he fail to notice how the lawn was growing lank and weedy, the
flower-beds covered with long grass, the trellis work on the pergola
rotting and fallen?
He tapped the mirror in a business-like fashion with his nail and
examined cursorily the carving.
“H’m,” he said meditatively. “We’ll offer you five pounds for it.”
Catherine flushed with shame.
“Why,” she cried shrilly, “I paid forty guineas for it, and it was
priced at more than that!”
He coughed deprecatingly.
“I’m afraid we couldn’t go beyond five, ma’am.” If he had not been
slightly impressed by the vehemence of her protest he would have
added: “Take it or leave it!”
“Come downstairs,” she commanded, “I want you to value a few
things for me.”
The fact was that she was prepared to be ironically entertained
by the niggardly sums he offered. She brought him to the piano.
“Here,” she said, “a Steinway baby grand, splendid tone, good as
new, fine rosewood frame; what’ll you offer for that?”
He thumped the chord of A major.
“Sixty,” he replied.
“Sixty what?”
“Pounds ... might go to guineas.”
“Look here, do you know I paid a hundred and twenty guineas
less than twelve months ago for it?”
“All I know, ma’am, is it ain’t worth more than sixty to me.”
“But it’s practically new!”
“That don’t alter the fact that it’s really second-hand. There’s no
market for this sort of thing. Second-hand uprights, maybe, but not
these things. Besides, it ain’t a partic’lar good tone.”
“I tell you it’s a lovely tone. Wants tuning a bit, that’s all. D’you
think you know more about pianos than I do?”
“Can’t say, ma’am, whether I do or I don’t.”
“Do you ever go to London concerts?”
“No time for it, ma’am.”
“Have you ever heard of Catherine Weston?”
“The name ain’t familiar to me. What about ’er?”
Catherine paused as if to recover from a blow, and continued
more calmly: “She said this piano had a lovely tone. She played at
the Albert Hall.”
The man ground his heel into the carpet.
“Well, ma’am,” he replied, “if Miss Catherine Weston thinks this
piano is worth more than sixty pounds you’d better ask her to buy it
off of you. All I’m saying is this, it ain’t worth no more to me than
what I offered. Sixty pounds, I said: I dunno even if I’d go to sixty
guineas. Take it or leave it for sixty pounds. That’s my rule in this
business. Make an offer and never go back on it, an’ never go no
further on it. That’s what I calls fair business. If you think that you
can get more’n sixty anywhere else you can try. I ain’t arskin’ you to
let me ’ave it. Reely, I dunno that I want it. I might ’ave it takin’ up
ware’ouse room for months on end.... But of course if you was to
come back to me after trying other places I couldn’t offer you no
more’n fifty-five—guineas, maybe. Wouldn’t be fair to myself, in a
kind of manner.... Sixty—look ’ere. I’ll be generous and say guineas
—sixty guineas if you’ll sell it now—cash down, mind! If not——”
She laughed.
“I’ve really no intention of selling at all,” she broke in, half
hysterically, “I only wanted a valuation.”
“Oh! I see,” he replied, taken aback. “Then wot about the glarss
upstairs, eh? Five pounds is wot I said.”
 “Make it guineas,” she said firmly.
“Pounds, ma’am.”
“Five guineas,” she cried shrilly, “or I shan’t sell it.” The bargain
demon had seized hold of her.
“It ain’t worth more’n pounds to me.”
“Then I’ll keep it.... Good afternoon.”
She turned to the door. He shuffled and sat down on the piano-
stool.
“Well, ma’am, I’ll say guineas, then, as a favour to you. Only
you’re drivin’ a hard bargain with me.... Do you agree to guineas?”
“Yes ... I’ll take five guineas for it ... cash down.”
“The man’ll pay you when he comes to fetch it, ma’am.”
“I thought you said cash down.”
“Well, and ain’t that cash down enough for you? Wot do you
expect? ... I’ll send the man down in a couple of hours.”
“All right, then ... good afternoon.”
At the door he said:
“By the way, ma’am, I’ll keep that offer of sixty guineas for the
piano open for a few days ... so that if ...”
She replied hastily: “Oh, I’m not going to sell that.”
“Very well, ma’am ... only I’ll give sixty for it if you should want to
get rid of it.”
Then she came back to the piano and looked at it, and did not
know whether to laugh or to cry.

§6
That evening the man came to fetch the cheval glass. He gave
her five sovereigns and two half-crowns. Though she knew that the
glass was worth double and treble what she was receiving for it, she
was immensely pleased by that five shillings which she had
extracted solely by her own bargaining.... The rent-man called that
night and nearly all the five guineas vanished in the month’s rent....
And by the late evening post came a demand note from Jackson’s,
the photographers, printed on legal-looking blue paper, and
informing her that if the bill of seven pounds ten and six were not
paid within three days, legal proceedings would be instituted.... And
it was Jackson’s in the old days where she had always met with such
unfailing courtesy and consideration, Jackson’s where her
photograph as an Eisteddfod prize-winner had been taken and
exhibited in the front window free of charge....
She called at Trussall’s the next morning.
“About that piano,” she began.
The man was immediately all attention.
“You wish to sell it, ma’am? ... Well, my offer’s still open.”
“Yes, but I want a smaller piano as part exchange. I can’t do
without a piano of some sort.... I want an upright, not such a good
one as the other, of course.”
“Come into the showrooms,” he said, beckoning her to follow.
They wandered up and down long lanes of upright pianos.
“This,” he said, striking the chord of A major (always the chord of
A major) on one of them—“Beautiful little instrument ... rich tone ...
upright grand ... good German make—Strohmenger, Dresden ...
worth forty pounds if it’s worth a penny, sell it to you for thirty-five
guineas....”
“Can’t afford that,” she said. “Show me something for about
twenty.”
“There’s this one,” he said, rather contemptuously. “Good English
make ... eighteen guineas ... cheapest we have in the shop. But, of
course, you wouldn’t want one like that.”
She struck a few chords.
 “I’ll take that ... and you can send it up and take the other away
as soon as you like.”
“Very good, ma’am.”
When she returned she had a sudden fit of sentimentality as she
looked at the Steinway grand. It was a beautiful instrument, black
and glossy and wonderfully sleek, like a well-groomed horse. Its
raised sound-board reflected her face like a mirror. She sat down on
the stool in front of it and tried to play. But her right hand was
woefully disorganized. She started a simple minuet of Beethoven,
one that she had played as an encore to a Cambridge audience, but
the pain in her right hand and arm was so great that she did not go
further than the first few bars. Then she tried trick playing with her
left hand alone, and when that became uninteresting there was
nothing for her to do but to cry. So she cried....
When the furniture van had arrived and a couple of men had
carried the beautiful piano into a dark cavity of straw and sackcloth,
leaving behind them in exchange a mocking little upstart in streaky
imitation fumed oak, not even the presence in her bureau drawer of
sixty pounds in notes and gold could compensate her adequately.
The new piano looked so cheap and tawdry amongst the
surrounding furniture, and the space where the old one had been
was drearily vacant and ever remindful of her loss.
The same day she wrote cheques to half a dozen tradesmen,
and as she went out to post them, put fifty pounds into her cheque
account at the bank. She felt that slowly, at any rate, she was
winning in her contest with fortune.

§7
Unfortunately the avalanche of bills had not yet quite spent itself,
and Madame Varegny suggested an interim payment of her account,
amounting to thirty-two treatments at half a guinea each: total
sixteen pounds sixteen.
 And then one night as Catherine was lying awake in bed, the
whole fabric of the future seemed revealed to her. After all, her first
steps were inevitable: she would have to leave “Elm Cottage,” take a
smaller house or go into lodgings, and sell what furniture she had no
room for. It would be better to do that now than to wait until the
expensive upkeep of “Elm Cottage” had squandered half her assets.
She was so accustomed now to her gradual descent in the social
scale that even this prospect, daring and drastic as it was, did not
perturb her much. The next day she went round the house, noting
the things that she could not possibly take with her if she went into a
smaller house or into lodgings. Lodgings she had in mind, because
her arm prevented her from doing any but a minimum of housework,
and if in lodgings she could pay for any services she required.
She did not go to Trussall’s this time to arrange for a valuation of
what she desired to sell. For some days before she had been
walking along the High Road past Trussall’s window, and had had
the experience of seeing her own ebony-framed cheval glass
occupying a position of honour in the midst of a miscellany of
bedroom bric-à-brac. On a card hung on to the carving at the top
was the inscription:
Antique model. Splendid Bargain, £19 19s. 6d.