Godfrey Herbert | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Baralong Herbert |
| Born | (1884-02-28)28 February 1884 Coventry, England |
| Died | 8 August 1961(1961-08-08) (aged 77) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1898–1919; 1939–1943 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Conflicts | First World War Second World War |
| Awards | Distinguished Service Order andbar |
CaptainGodfrey Herbert,DSO andbar, (28 February 1884 – 8 August 1961) was an officer of theRoyal Navy who was sometimes referred to as 'Baralong Herbert', in reference to accusations ofwar crimes subsequent to theBaralong incidents, duringWorld War I. In a naval career stretching from 1898 to 1919, and with a return to duty between 1939 and 1943 in World War II, Herbert had several close encounters with death.[1]
Godfrey Herbert was born on 28 February 1884 inCoventry. His father was a local solicitor, John Herbert, and his mother was Lucy Mary Herbert (née Draper). He attendedStubbington House School in the village ofStubbington, Hampshire.[1] This was an early example of apreparatory school established primarily with the purpose of educating boys for service in the Royal Navy and it was probably the most successful of such institutions, becoming known as "the cradle of the navy".[2][3] Following a period atLittlejohn's School, a navalcrammer inGreenwich, Herbert became a navalcadet onHMSBritannia in 1898,[4] and in June 1900 was enlisted as amidshipman in the Navy.[1]
Following promotion tosub-lieutenant in 1903 and specialised training insubmarine technology ondepot shipHMS Thames in 1905, Herbert became second-in-command ofHMS A4, an early British submarine. His superior wasEric Nasmith, slightly older than Herbert and who had been educated at another well-known naval preparatory school,Eastman's Royal Naval Academy; Nasmith was to be awarded theVictoria Cross for his actions in theGallipoli Campaign.[1][5] The two men and their crew survived when theA4 sank in 90 feet (27 m) of water a few months later.The Times commented that:
Nothing but the admirable steadiness of the men and the splendid presence of mind of Lieutenant Nasmith and Sub-Lieutenant Herbert could have saved the country from another appalling submarine disaster.[4]
Herbert was called to give evidence in October 1905 at thecourt martial of Nasmith, who was reprimanded for the events of that day.[6]
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Promoted to the rank oflieutenant in December 1905, Herbert then spent some time gaining experience on non-submarine ships prior to taking command of the submarineHMS C36. In February 1911,[1]C36 was transferred toHong Kong under his command for operational service with theChina Squadron. This was a record-breaking and hazardous voyage for the period, given the unreliability of early submarines. On his return in 1913, he commandedHMS C30 for a time.[4]
Herbert was commandingHMS D5 at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and his time in charge of that submarine, prior to moving toQ-ships in January 1915, was not without incident. He had already risked his life onC36 when he reattached ahawser connecting the vessel to the ship that was towing it during a storm in theRed Sea, and onD5 he experienced an incident where two torpedoes launched at the Germanlight cruiserSMS Rostock missed their target because they were 40 pounds (18 kg) heavier than the versions used in training. That incident occurred on 21 August and, on 3 November,D5 hit afloating mine while voyaging to combat theraid on Yarmouth. The ship sank within a minute and few of the crew survived, of whom Herbert was one.[1][4] Paul Halpern, a naval historian and biographer of Herbert, says that this was a British mine that had come loose butThe Times reported in 1929 that it was one that had been laid by Germanbattle cruisers as they retreated from a raid onGreat Yarmouth.[7]
Q-ships were heavilyarmed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed tolure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. Herbert's transfer to that arm of the Navy arose from there being no submarines available of which he could take command following the sinking of theD5.[4]
His first Q-ship was a convertedsteam packet –RMS Antwerp, owned by theGreat Eastern Railway – whose peacetime operations had been primarily on the route betweenHarwich andHook of Holland.[8] With this he had no notable success and in April 1915 he was transferred to commandHMS Baralong, the vessel that was to give him the unwanted nickname of 'Baralong Herbert'.[1] In command, he was known by the merchant navy pseudonym 'Captain William McBride'.[citation needed]
Baralong had been built as a steamcargo liner and was converted for wartime use in March 1915, although the Q-ship campaign did not officially begin until after the events in which she is remembered and it was those events that encouraged the official recognition.[9] She wasfalsely flying the flag of the then-neutral United States when she answered an SOS call from amerchant ship,SS Nicosian, which was being pursued by a German submarine around 80 nautical miles (150 km) west of theScillies. TheNicosian was carrying a cargo of 354mules from the United States for military use.[10] The subsequent events are mired in controversy and differences of opinion regarding fact.[1]
Thecommandant of the GermanSM U-27, Bernd Wegener, would have been within his rights under thePrize Regulations to commence shelling once the vessel was crew-less. Naval historian Dwight Messimer believes that the crew had in fact abandoned ship and that this was what was happening when Herbert arrived. According to Messimer,U-27 stopped firing onNicosian whenBaralong signalled that she was going to rescue the crew. Instead,Baralong took advantage of being screened from the submarine by the merchant ship in order to raise the Royal Navy'sWhite Ensign in replacement for thefalse flag, and then to launch a devastating attack onU-27 as she came into view once more. The German vessel sank within a minute and the only survivors were the 12 men who were manningdeck guns and in theconning tower.[11]
Other writers differ from Messimer on a significant detail. Gibson and Prendergast claim that SOS messages were still being sent from theNicosian when Herbert arrived, implying that at least some crew were still on board whileU-27 commenced shelling. Halpern equivocates on the issue: they may or may not all have abandoned ship by that time. Both of these sources also say that a second German submarine was present.[1][12]
The survivingU-27 crew swam towards theNicosian for safety. Being aware of the cargo and that theNicosian also had some rifles and ammunition on board, Herbert feared that any boarding German sailors might seek to destroy the cargo by setting fire to thefodder or might even attempt toscuttle the ship. He thus sent a party ofRoyal Marines aboard with orders to shoot the German sailors onboard. Feelings had been running high in the aftermath of thesinking of the RMSLusitania in May 1915 and the sinking of aWhite Star Liner,SS Arabic, earlier in the day of 19 August. The four[12] German sailors were found below deck and the order was carried out. With the other eight German crew having been shot and killed while still in the sea, there were no survivors fromU-27.[1][11] TheNicosian was then re-boarded by her crew and made the journey intoAvonmouth despite being holed.[12]
The affair was hushed up in Britain at the time, but the story became news when some American members ofNicosian's crew (mostly employed asmuleteers) returned to the United States and some of her crew spoke with news reporters. Having been subjected to various accusations ofwar crimes, the Germans saw an opportunity to lay such a charge against their enemies, demanding that Herbert should be tried for murder and pointing to both the deaths and the misuse of theAmerican flag. The story was played out in the newspapers and in diplomatic back-and-forth but without any specific outcome.[1][13] An impasse was reached when German demands for an impartial inquiry[10] met with a British counter-response: they were happy to see the matter investigated in such a way but only if three recent incidents of German aggression were considered at the same time. Those incidents were the sinking of theArabic; the wounding and killing in their lifeboats of some crew from theRuel, who had abandoned theircollier after a U-boat shelled it; and the killing by Germandestroyers of some crew ofHMS E15 while it was stranded inDanishterritorial waters.[9][a] In the wider context, Halpern believes that the incident "... became one of the most celebrated of the war and a German justification for the adoption of unrestricted submarine warfare."[1]
TheAdmiralty decorated Herbert with the DSO and appear to have tried to prevent any recriminations in the event that he was captured by continuing to name the commander of theBaralong as being 'Captain William McBride'.[1] Herbert's identity remained hidden from many until the publication ofE. Keble Chatterton's biography of the man –Amazing Adventure – in 1935. With that,The Times noted that Herbert had "packed into his sea-life sufficient material for half-a-dozen thrillers".[15][b]
Herbert returned to submarine warfare briefly, taking command ofHMSE22, and was then assigned toCarrigan Head, which was configured as a Q-ship. Subsequently, he requested a return to submarines and, in October 1916, was put in command ofHMS K13. This vessel, which was still under construction at the time, was of thesteam-powered K-class.[1] Although Herbert's prior commands had been with both petrol- and diesel-powered submarines,[4] he had sampled the problems of steam power in December 1914 when acting as British Liaison Officer on board the French submarine,Archimède. On that occasion, while patrolling offHeligoland, high seas proved too much for the submarine to proceed on the surface and her funnel was damaged when she manoeuvred in an attempt to return to port. The damage made it impossible to fully retract and seal off the funnel, and thus impossible to dive. Her crew had to endure considerable hardship in atrocious weather, baling out incoming water with abucket brigade on the voyage to safety. Herbert won the hearts of the crew by assisting with the baling and by his encouraging comments.[17]
The French had tended to persist with their steam-powered designs despite some glaring problems, and theBritish Admiralty went ahead with bothHMS Swordfish and the K Class of steam submarines even though aware of those problems. Neither design was a success.[17]K13 sank inGareloch,Argyll,Scotland, on 29 January 1917, having signalled that she was about to dive. There were 80 people on board, including some civilians. As she dived, seawater entered her engine room and flooded it along with theafttorpedo room. Two men were seen on the surface by a maid in a hotel a mile or so away, but her report was ignored and the alarm was raised when crew ofHMS E50 became concerned when the submarine did not surface again and they found traces of oil on the surface. Despite the lack of proper escape apparatus, Herbert and the captain ofHMS K14, Goodhart, who was also on board, attempted an escape to the surface by using the space between the inner and outer hatches of the conning tower as anairlock. Herbert reached the surface alive, but Goodhart's body was later found trapped in the superstructure.[c] Eventually, the bows were brought to just above the surface and the final survivor emerged 57 hours after the accident. Including Goodhart, 32 people died in the accident and 48 were rescued. 31 were expected to be still on the submarine, but only 29 were found, and it was concluded that the maid had indeed seen two people escaping from the engine room. One of their bodies was recovered from the Clyde two months later. A later enquiry determined thatK13 had dived with various ventilators and the engine room hatch still open, despite warning lights to that effect.
Herbert returned to duty on Q-ships, commanding aflotilla of fourtrawlers – theSea King,Sea Sweeper,Nelly Dodds andW. H. Hastie.[18] These were equipped with the recently introducedhydrophone technology and, while patrolling off the coast ofThe Lizard inCornwall, they were the first that were thus equipped to have success. That success, however, was not due to the hydrophones: on 12 June 1917,Sea King sighted a submarine, allegedlySM UC-66, on the surface and in moving towards it caused the submarine to dive. The flotilla then let loose theirdepth charges. It was only after the event that the hydrophones were used, with the purpose being to detect any sound that might indicate the enemy had survived. They heard nothing.[19] The identification of the submarine is questionable, as the Wiki entry forUC-66 states that it had already been sunk by HM seaplane No. 8656 off the Isles of Scilly on 27 May 1917.
Herbert was promoted to the rank ofcommander and belatedly, in 1919, he was awarded a bar to his DSO when the identity and destruction ofUC-66 had been confirmed.[1][4] Later still, in 1921, he gave evidence at aPrize Court investigating the award ofbounties for the sinking of enemy submarines. Each of the trawlers received £145.[18]
In November 1919, soon after the end of the war, Herbert retired from the Navy. He had completed his service by working on the staff of AdmiralSir Lewis Bayly atQueenstown in Ireland and with a brief period spent in theBaltic Sea onHMS Caledon, aC-class cruiser.[1]
Herbert became a sales manager for theDaimler car division of theBirmingham Small Arms Company,[4] of which he had become a director by 1931.[20]
With the outbreak of World War II, Herbert saw action once again. He commanded thearmed merchant cruiserCilicia, which was involved mostly in the escort of convoys off the coast ofWest Africa. He retired from duty once more in 1943 and settled inBeira, Mozambique, where he became managing director of Allen, Wack, and Shepherd Ltd, aforwarding agency that was part ofBritish Overseas Stores.[4][21]
Herbert had married Ethel Ellen Nelson,[d] the widow of a Royal Marines officer, on 3 May 1916 and with her he had two daughters. Having moved toUmtali,Southern Rhodesia, in 1948, he was chairman of three different companies. He died there, still in office at two of those companies, on 8 August 1961.[1][4]
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