CHAPTER II

THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGNS

1st January - 31st July, 1942

 


FOOTNOTES

1. See Vol. I, pp. 538-540.
2. See I. S. O. Playfair. The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol. III, (in preparation) for a full account of these campaigns.
3. See Vol. I, p. 9, footnote 1.
4. The last ship called Gurkha, one of the pre-war Tribal-class, was sunk off Norway on 9th April 1940 (see Vol. I, p. 171). This Gurkha was one of the Laforey-class and was originally to have been named Larne. After the loss of the first Gurkha she was renamed, as a naval compliment to the great fighting qualities of the Gurkha regiments.
5. See Table 3 (p. 76).
6. See p. 8.
7. See No Stars to Guide by A. Seligman (Hodder and Stoughton, 1947) for an account of the way these Russian ships escaped.
8. See p. 8.
9. See pp. 150-161.
10. New submarines of the various War Programmes had only been given numbers by the Admiralty. The Prime Minister took exception to this practice, urged the Admiralty to find names for them all, and himself offered suggestions (see his minutes to First Sea Lord and First Lord of 19th and 27th December 1942 respectively, reproduced in The Second World War, Vol. IV, pp. 815 and 818). The naming of the numbered submarines took place at various dates, but a few, of which P-38 was one, were lost before they received their names. In these volumes, where a submarine received a name, she is always referred to by it, even though she may not have been named at the date of her first appearance in the narrative.
11. See Vol. I, pp. 473-5 regarding the arrival of German U-boats in the Mediterranean.
12. See Appendix J.
13. See Map 7 (opp. p. 49).
14. Division 1: Jervis, Kipling, Kelvin, Kingston.
Division 2: Dido, Penelope, Legion.
Division 3: Zulu, Hasty.
Division 4: Cleopatra (flagship), Euryalus.
Division 5: Sikh, Lively, Hero, Havock.
Division 6: Carlisle, Avon Vale (smoke layers).
15. See Map 8 (opp. p. 53).
16. See Map 8 (opp. p. 53), Phase 2.
17. See Map 8 (opp. p. 53), Phase 3.
18. See Map 8 (opp. p. 53), Phase 4.
19. See Vol. I, pp. 151-153 and 414.
20. See Vol. I, p. 535, regarding the First Battle of Sirte.
21. 'Much . . depends upon this fleet; 'tis an inferior against a superior fleet; therefore the greatest skill and address is requisite to counteract the designs of the enemy, to watch and seize the favourable opportunity for action . . . to hover near the enemy, keep him at bay, and prevent his attempting to execute anything but at risk and hazard to command their attention and oblige them to think of nothing but being on their guard against your attack'. Kempenfeldt to Middleton, July 1779. (The Barham Papers, Navy Records Society, Vol. I, p. 292.)
22. See Vol. I, pp. 440-449.
23. See Vol. I, pp. 173-175, 299 and 430, and pp. 51-54 of this volume.
24. See pp. 95-101.
25. See p. 116.
26. See pp. 27-28.
27. See Churchill, Vol. IV, pp. 268-269.
28. See Morison, Vol. I, pp. 194-196.
29. The closest parallel to the award of the George Cross to Malta is that of the Distinguished Service Cross to the city of Dunkirk in the 1914-18 War.
30. See pp. 130-132.
31. See Chapters V and VII.
32. Churchill, Vol. IV, p. 275.
33. Churchill, Vol. IV, p. 273.
34. See Vol. I, pp. 48 and 77.
35. See Vol. 1, pp. 300-301
36. See Vol. I, pp. 118-121.
37. See Vol. 1, pp. 421-2, 521-3 and 530-1.
38. See pp. 185-192.
39. See Map 9 (opp. p. 65).
40. It has proved impossible to check contemporary claims against actual enemy aircraft losses in this operation.
41. See, for example, Vol. I, pp. 521-3 and 530-1.
42. See Map 9.
43. Commander Scurfield's letter was first printed in Blackwood's Magazine for September 1945 under the heading 'The End of a Tribal'.
44. See Vol. I, pp. 158 and 195-196.
45. See pp. 185-192.
46. See p. 60.
47. See Vol. I, p. 539
48. See pp. 51-54.
49. For simplicity both Italian and German motor torpedo-boats are here referred to by the German classification of E-boats.
50. There is some doubt regarding what enemy fired the torpedo which caused the loss of the Hasty. No U-boat claimed doing so, nor does scrutiny of the war diaries of those which were near the scene lend any support to the assumption that she was the victim of a submarine. The probability is that she was torpedoed by the German torpedo-boat S-55 of the 3rd S. Boat Flotilla, then operating from Derna. It was certainly one of this flotilla which hit the Newcastle, and it is known that S-55 fired torpedoes at our destroyers a little later. She, however, did not claim any hits.
51. See p. 55
52. See Vol. I, Table 21. The figures for transports and merchant ships in that table included the eight brought out from Malta during Operation EXCESS.
53. See Vol. I, p. 228.
54. See Vol. I, pp. 519-520. For a full account of the circumstances surrounding the fall of Tobruk see I.S.O. Playfair, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol. II. (H.M.S.O. 1956).
55. See Vol. I, pp. 431-433.
56. See Map 31 (opp. p. 313).
57. See Vol. I, p. 538, regarding the damage sustained by the Queen Elizabeth and Valiant from Italian human torpedoes in December 1941.
58. See Vol. I, p. 242.
59. A graphic account of the passage of this submarine back to Malta, through the enemy minefields, is contained in Unbroken by Alastair Mars (Frederick Muller, 1953), pp. 96-7.
60. Daniel v, verses 25-28.


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