Sunday news

By
Sunday, May 16, 2004

*Restaurateur drowned at the beach near Hilton Oceanfront Resort on Saturday afternoon
-Hilton Head Island Packet Online, 5-16-04

in his Type IXC U-125, he picked off the merchant ship Lorient of 4,735 tons from the 3rd. column, a tooth brutally removed from the mouth of the convoy. ONS 5 was soon to be in need of more than the assistance of a remedial dentist as its mouth was to be continually savaged. Lorient just disappeared, no survivors, no
debris, just simply no trace of her Captain Walter Manly and his 43 crew members.

Now the commander of U-168, reported to BdU he was breaking out of the patrol line because of a fuel shortage, he was quickly ordered to stay on line until he had exhausted his fuel supplies down to the last 5 tons, only then might he withdraw to the east where a waiting milche cow would refuel him. U-168, as ordered stayed to fight.

U-707 was the next to take up the offensive, at 2153 ( 9.53 PM )  she dived ahead of the convoy, her Commanding officer noting two destroyers ahead of ONS 5, with one as close as 1,000 yards, suddenly this boat was attacked with 8 depth charges falling all around it. The boat was taken deep, and made out the convoy thundering overhead, it had been attacked by Tay, once the convoy had passed, U-707 surfaced and let fly with a fan shot of torpedoes from tubes 1,11, and IV, from the close range of 1,500 yards.

The target, the 4,635 ton freighter North Britain, a straggler, a few miles astern of the main group, having fallen behind due to boiler problems. In 69 seconds she had gone, sunk. Northern Spray under the command of Lieutenant F.A.J. Downer,RNR. picked up only 11 survivors. ( by sheer coincidence, only this morning,
Sunday the 17th. of May 2004, I received an E-Mail from the Captain of Northern Spray's son, Richard
Downer, telling me about his Father being part of the escort for Convoy ONS 5. Richard had come across my Ahoy web site, and read my unfinished work on the Battle for Convoy ONS 5. The sheer wonder of the Internet and its associated E-Mail continue to both amaze and delight me. )

1. Tatsuya Nakatani & Peter Kowald - untitled track #1, 13 Definitions of Truth (Quakebasket)
2. Kevin Eubanks - Being, Spiritalk 2 (Blue Note)
3. Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - Mra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath (Akarma)
4. Hideo Ichikawa Trio - 234: Out of the Boundless Verdant Land, Tomorrow (Three Blind Mice)
5. Peter Brotzmann - A Heavy Creeping Shade, Nothing to Say (FMP)
6. Mark Izu - Come On Let's Go, Circle of Fire, (Asian Improv Records)
7. Karl Berger & James Blood Ulmer - South, Conversations (In + Out Records)
8. Douglas Ewart Quintet - Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park, Vision Fest-Vision Live (Thirsty Ear)
9. John Carter & Bobby Bradford - Woman, Tandem 1 (Emanem)
10. Brother Ah - Nature's Children, Move Ever Onward (Ikef)
11. Steve Cohn - The Robot in Diamonds (1st movement), The Beggar and the Robot in Diamonds (ITM-Pacific)
12. Paal Nilssen-Love & Ken Vandermak - Jean, Dual Pleasure (Smalltown Supersound)