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By *Shem Creek in the balance *Fourth annual Captain Woody's King Fish Tournament was held Saturday on Hilton Head Island *USS Nebraska (SSBN 739) will join USS Pennsylvania and USS Kentucky when it leaves NSB Kings Bay *New manatee rules only harm people, city says *Possible drowning at Vilano Beach *Whale beaches in New Smyrna, beachgoers join in rescue *EBSCO hopes to remove peat, improve beach *Riprap to protect East Pass condos *Gulf County man charged for his fishing techniques Hello Dimitry, Thank you for taking the time and trouble to send me your E-Mails and all the attachments, I am most interested. I have been aware of the famous battle of Tishuma, and can well appreciate that this battle is not well thought of in Russia. It was really quite amazing that your cruiser Aurora made the long voyage across to the Pacific, took part in that fight, survived to return home, but then to still be around today, moored in St Petersburg close to the Hermitage. This ship is indeed a legend. I have long thought of writing about Tushima, and will try to soon do so, all your information is a great help, and thank you once more. I will always be pleased to hear from you. Kindest regards from Australia. Dear Guido, Thank you for all your trouble to contact me and adding the links to Italian sites, all very useful. My friend in Atlanta Georgia, Terry Kearns combines all my writing by running Ahoy, he makes the site what it is, but all the content is my responsibility. I appreciate yourr comments, but 60 years ago when I was involved at sea in WW2, we did think that your Mussolini tended to posture on the world stage, and wanted to impress both Hitler and his Ministers. Now what you say about other leaders and the truth may well be accurate, but it was felt that the Duce was at times quite loose with the facts. With regards to Admiral Donitz and the few Italian Submarines that did operate in the Atlantic, I am merely reporting how the German U-Boat Commander reacted. He was a tough task master, demanding dedication and results from his own Submarines. I am thus leaving my Under Water Warfare as I have written it, I am sorry if it offends you some 60 years after the event. In other parts of my Ahoy site I have made comment on a poor result of my own Navy, and that of our then Ally, the United States, we did not always win our battles all of the time. I will see how I might make use of the information about your Navy you have been kind enough to send me, and again I say thanks to you, it is great to find a young man as you describe yourself interested in Naval Affairs of WW2. With kind regards, Hi, First of all, I want to congratulate you with your marvellous website. It already helped me a lot during my study of the German merchant raiders during the Second World War. I still have one question unanswered: did the breaking of the Enigma-codes facilitate the location of the raiders and their supplyships? Hope you can help me out. Thanks,
Thank you for your kind remarks about AHOY, it is a joint effort between my very great friend Terry Kearns in Atlanta Georgia, who turns all my writing into what appears on the web. We do get a lot of favourable comment about this site from around the world, and without all the help from Terry, all my ramblings would not see the light of day. Now about Enigma, it was used by all the German Navy, and when the British captured one when the Bulldog sank the German U-Boat U-110, it meant the Allies could read all of Admiral Donitz's signals to his U-Boat fleet at sea in the Battle of the Atlantic. I think that the basic use of this fact by the British Admiralty was to re route their convoys crossing the Atlantic from North America with all the supplies of food, oil, and the equipment needed to prosecute the war against German and Italy, so they might avoid the waiting U-Boat packs. No doubt many ships survived because of this use of the information gleaned about the U-Boat intentions. In 1941, after the sinking of the Bismark, who with Prinz Eugen had been ordered to disrupt British shipping, over three months five German tankers and two supply ships were sent to resupply them at prearranged points in the vast wastes of the Atlantic Ocean. Two German scout ships also sailed to keep a look out for and warn about enemy warships. These were all at sea when Bismark was sunk and her consort Prinz Eugen escaped. By the end of May 1941, Britain was reading Enignma messages, perhaps with a delay of but 2/3 days, she learned of the positions of the support ships, and attacked them. The Belchen was found and sunk, then a message to the Esso Hamburg which had refueled Prinz Eugen, was intercepted, and she too was found and sunk by the cruiser London. Other German ships in other locations were found and sunk including Gedania, and Gonzenheim, who were both destroyed on the 4th. of June in 1940. So by the 21st of June, all 5 tankers and the 2 supply ships were sent to the bottom, over 3 successive days. But these losses alerted the German command to the possibility of Enigma being read by the British, and they took measures to tighten up their security. Vincent, I don't know if you are aware of the excellent book by David Kahn,: Seizing the Enignma." Published by Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston in 1991. I am not really aware of the German Armed Merchant Raiders or their Supply ships being located through the medium of the cracking of the Enigma Codes, I can not find any references to that happening, in the main, their being caught and sunk was the result of a search being made after a victim had sent out a distress message on being fired upon by a particular Raider, and the Royal Navy had a number of their ships always on the lookout for specific German Raiders. Notwithstanding, some Raiders made it home to Germany as you will have read from my accounts of their activities. Thank you again for your interest, I have been away from home visiting Sydney, hence my delay to answering your mail. With kind regards, Mac. Gregory. On Tuesday about noon I had a phone call from Max Reed, one of my Naval College term mates to say that John Lorimer had died in Sydney the previous afternoon. John was our oldest member being born in January 1922, and I am next from a February birthday. It was Johnno who unearthed the Sunderland crew members from Australia's log in the Sydney Archives for us. He did have prostate cancer and his wife Joan had died some years ago. Apparently he had a fall, broke a hip, and when on the operating table they had just cut the top of his femur off when he had a heart attack. The surgeon simply sewed him up, and after a spell he went home, but needing a blood transfusion, he was back in hospital, but died there about 3PM on Monday the 20th. The funeral is at 11AM in Sydney tomorrow, and no doubt the 8 remaining members of the original 13 who joined the Royal Auistralian Naval College as Cadet Midshipmen in January of 1936 will all be there to bid him farewell. Johnno,as we all called him had two daughters and a son, had specialised as an Engineering officer, he was the most practical person I ever knew, and had amazingly creative hands. At the College, we had a midterm camp, when we went off for a few days under canvas, and each of us always wanted to have John Lorimer in our small group, because of his wonderful abilities to turn his hand to anything that would improve our environment. The Jervis Year of 1936 were an elite and talented group, and he will be much missed. On our 50th. Anniversary of joining the RAN, in 1986, we all met in Sydney with wives, and on one day, I spent it with Johnno sailing in his boat on Sydney Harbour, it was a magical day that will remain with me always. I fly out of Melbourne at 2.15 PM today, returning from Sydney at about 4.15 PM on Saturday. See you,
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