ASSAULT ON A queen

Sea Classics, May 2008 by Harding, Stephen

With the world's largest troopship in the crosshairs of his periscope, the captain of U-104 was confident he would be acclaimed a hero for sinking one of England's proudest matriarchs

Just after noon on 5 November 1942, the German Navy's Kapitanleutnant Horst Kessler hauled himself slowly up a narrow steel ladder leading to the tiny bridge of U-704, the submarine he'd commanded for just over a year. His climb wasn't an easy one - plowing through high seas some 650-mi west of Ireland, the surfaced U-boat was being buffeted by fierce winds. Snow flurries and wind-driven sea spray cut visibility to less than 2-mi, and the lookouts belted to the vessel's conning tower couldn't use their binoculars because of the constantly overcoming swells.

It was thus something of a shock to those on the bridge when, shortly after 1 pm, the weather suddenly cleared enough to reveal a giant ship crossing the submarine's path some 6- or 7-mi distant, racing westward. The vessel was huge, with two large funnels, two masts and a stepped-aft superstructure. A quick search through his ship-recognition book convinced Kessler the giant steamer could only be the British passenger liner-turned-troopship Queen Elizabeth, and he decided to make the most of his chance encounter. He had four torpedoes left in his forward tubes and one in the aft barrel, and he was determined to make them count.

As he raced to set up what he knew would be a fleeting shot at a once-in-a-career target, Kessler had no way of knowing that he was about to make one of the most controversial submarine attacks of World War II.

FROM LINER TO TROOPER

The journey that brought Queen Elizabeth within range of Horst Kessler's torpedoes began in December 1936, when the liner's keel was laid at John Brown & Company's shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. The ship was to be the second of two new superliners that Britain's famed Cunard Line hoped would dominate the lucrative North Atlantic passenger trade. The first of the ships, the 80,744-ton Queen Mary, had made her maiden voyage in May 1936, and her luxury, elegance and speed had quickly made her both profitable and hugely popular.

Though intended to complement Queen Mary in size and capability, Queen Elizabeth was not a duplicate of her older sister, for at 1031-ft overall and 83,673-gross tons, the younger vessel was both longer and heavier than her predecessor. And though she kept Queen Mary's quadruple screws, cruiser stern and stepped-aft superstructure, the more-modern Queen Elizabeth had twelve boilers rather than 24, a sharply raked stem incorporating a third anchor, a streamlined silhouette and two funnels in place of Queen Mary's three. The new steamer was designed to accommodate 823 first-class, 662 cabin-class and 798 tourist-class passengers, and was to be operated by a crew of about 1100.

The second of Cunard's "Queens" was launched on 27 September 1938, by the monarch for whom she was named. Nearly 500,000 onlookers cheered their approval as Queen Elizabeth, flanked by the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, smashed a bottle of champagne against the liner's stem to both christen her and send her down the ways.

Though few of those present at the launching ceremony could have predicted it, events then unfolding in Germany would have an immense effect on both their nation and the ship they had gathered to see. Even as Queen Elizabeth slid into the River Clyde, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was preparing to meet with Adolph Hitler in a lastditch effort to avoid war over Germany's claims on the Czech Sudetenland. And though the situation eased somewhat following Chamberlain's 30 September return to Britain bearing an Anglo-German "friendship pledge" he claimed ensured "peace in our time," perceptive observers realized that conflict had only been postponed, not prevented.

The temporary reprieve from war that Chamberlain purchased with Czechoslovakia's sovereignty allowed Queen Elizabeth's fitting out to continue. Though her passenger accommodations were unfinished and her electrical and plumbing systems incomplete, installation of her powerplant was thus well advanced by the time Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. All work on the ship ceased following Britain's declaration of war two-days later, but on 2 November, the Ministry of Shipping issued the licenses necessary for John Brown to complete work on the engines. On 29 December, the firm was able to test the liner's entire propulsion system, and within a week, Cunard's on-site engineer pronounced the ship capable of putting to sea.

Queen Elizabeth's departure from Clydebank was delayed, however, by the British government's indecision about the Cunard Queens' value to the war effort. The debate whether to use the ships as Naval auxiliaries, trade them to the Americans for urgently needed weapons or scrap them for vital raw materials - immobilized Queen Mary in neutral New York and kept Queen Elizabeth tied to her Clydebank pier well into the new year. Fortunately, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill realized how vulnerable the newer vessel was in Scotland, and on 6 February 1940, he ordered Cunard to move the liner to safety outside Britain even though her ultimate fate remained undecided.