206908 George Hooton Royal Navy HMS Savage I was serving on HMS Savage and saw the Lapwing seconds after she was torpedoed and broke in half. We had been at action stations since dawn and in a snow storm on and off. The liberty ships were in two columns with us and other escorts patrolling the outsides whilst the merchant ships were to steam through one at a time. I was, I remember, the first merchant ship being hit by a torpedo as she was almost into the entrance and she beached almost blocking the Kola inlet itself. We all started to locate the u-boat with no escort able to make a contact. We worked all the day and managed to pick up some survivors, I believe 6 in number, one of whom sadly died as he was being brought aboard Savage.We buried him later having stopped our propellor and had a Naval service and a short Naval prayer. We could not enter the inlet as another merchant ship was torpedoed and had partly blocked the entrance.We had to steam further north to get into the harbour, by then it was dark. I am getting older by many years, but can still see the bodies all floating about.
|