LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

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ivorthediver
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Wish I could help more Tim .......
"What Ever Floats your Boat"
timlewin
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by timlewin »

in that last entry TTL reports the lucky escape Illustrious and for that matter, Valetta, had when an enemy bomb struck the ammunition ship Essex alongside Illustrious.
He does not report how much ammunition was still onboard the Essex but one of our readers has reminded me of the devastation wrought on Halifax in 1917 when an ammunition ship exploded in the harbour there with results that bring new meaning to the word devastation.
Here is the Canadia report, which could so easily have happened in Malta if that bomb had struck a full cargo hold instead of the engine room.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ ... -explosion
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jbryce1437
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by jbryce1437 »

I was reading about the Canadian explosion recently, devastation on a grand scale.
A similar fate could have happened with SS Richard Montgomery in the Thames Estuary, the cargo of which is still very unstable after all this time.

Jim
HMS Raleigh 1963 , HMS Collingwood 1963 & 67 , HMS Ark Royal 1964-7, HMS Undaunted 1968-71, HMS Victory (Fleet Maintenance Group) 1971-72, HMS Exmouth 1972-74
JEM, EM, OEM, LOEM, POOEL
Then 28 years in the Fire Brigade
Retired since 2002
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ivorthediver
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by ivorthediver »

I had not appreciated the threat of the vessel you mentioned Tim .....what happened to it ? was she repaired or removed ?

The Thames wreck I have known of for years but as everyone appears convinced that nothing will happen you tend to rely on their collective expertise

The Halifax issue seems to have been very mishandled in the light of quantity carried AND potential capabilities , did we learn anything from this disaster or was it promptly forgotten about outside of Canada ? ......
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timlewin
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by timlewin »

good question; here is a note from the Malta war diary about the departure of Illustrious, a magnet for enemy bombing, but no mention of the Essex I could find, I guess that at that terrible time with so many real and present disasters a disaster averted probably didn't deserve a mention?
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ivorthediver
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

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Thanks Tim , was just curious given the potential hazard :(
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timlewin
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

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After the first 14 months of the War at Sea Lewin's time in Valiant ends abruptly with a posting back to Portsmouth, and a new chapter in his career. Every day a new scrap of history....

Sunday February 2 1941
We reached the South West of Crete during the forenoon, and here Perth, with Ajax, joined us. We headed North West after we had cleared Crete. The object of our operation was achieved when we were shadowed and reported. We didn’t actually see the shadowing aircraft but we heard their reports.
We tested our fighter-direction arrangements later in the day when an aircraft was detected by the R. D/F. The whole organisation worked perfectly. Three Fulmars were directed to the aircraft, but when they sighted it, they found it was a Swordfish.

Monday February 3 1941
The object of our excursion filled, we turned to the East during the middle watch, and then to the South East after day break.
We sight floating mines very frequently now. They seem to float in patches. There is very little danger from floating mines, they are almost certain to be swept away by the bow wave.
Orion joined us during the forenoon, from the North, while Ajax and Perth rejoined from the South West, where they have been operating during the dark hours. Ajax left soon after with Vendetta and Vampire, the latter with mails from Warspite. They are going to Suda Bay.
A new deterrent for dive-bombers has been devised. J and Tribal class destroyers in the close screen fire an “Umbrella” barrage over the big ship they are detailed to protect. Thus the quantity of bursting shell that the attackers have to dive through is increased. This barrage has been practiced several times during the trip.
Our starboard inner shaft has been running hot for most of the time, and because of this it’s revolutions is being kept to a maximum varying between 180 and 240. The revolutions of the other shafts have to be correspondingly increased.

Tuesday February 4 1941
During the forenoon we exercised fire stations and steering breakdowns. Fulmars and Gladiators carried out excellent dive bombing attacks in the afternoon. As flagships seem to have an attraction for the fleet air arm pilots we were almost immune.
We entered harbour just at dusk and moored in our usual billet. Illustrious was out of dock and back at her buoy.
This was the last entry in the Journal and it was signed by the Captain.

POST-SCRIPT

With that last entry to his journal Terry Lewin and some twenty other Midshipmen who had completed their time were despatched from Valiant and sent home via the Cape to take their exams and become fully-fledged officers of the Royal Navy. He left with a first class certificate in seamanship awarded by Captain Morgan. On the voyage home by trooper the group enjoyed a week’s break in Cape Town during which time Terry Lewin and friends hired a Buick to travel the interior of South Africa up to the Drakensberg Mountains, an adventure that left them penniless on return!

The journals of the Midshipmen remained with the ship although the marks from them to be contributed to the overall exam results were sent back to Portsmouth.
Back in England they were assigned to “K” Group at HMS Dryad at the great Naval base of Portsmouth, a City much devastated by bombing by then and still subject to nightly raids.
The courses passed quickly and thanks to the first-rate training and experiences gained during the commission onboard Valiant, TTL passed with a First Class Certificate and at last he and Roddy Macdonald were posted to destroyers, the “small ship” experience they had been denied during the Valiant commission thanks to their efficiency as part of the great ship’s AA defence team; from now on their lives would follow very different courses although the friendship endured they would not meet again until the War was over. Macdonald was sent to the destroyer Fortune, Lewin to the destroyer Highlander.

Terry Lewin’s time in Highlander was limited; the ship was posted to escort duties in the Atlantic working out of Liverpool. Shortly before Christmas 1941 he contracted diphtheria and was taken into Fazackerly Hospital. Highlander was reassigned to West Africa and there was no chance to rejoin. Short as this posting was it was not without drama, on the night of 17/8 October, 1941, while escorting an inbound Halifax convoy they were attacked by one of the first massed U-boat Wolfpacks. During that horrific night the USA suffered its first wartime casualty when the “unofficial” escorting destroyer USS Kearney was torpedoed. Highlander stood by her as she recovered from the explosion. Twelve men lost their lives but the ship survived to limp to Greenland and fight another day. That night of violence, surrounded by the explosions of sinking ships, pulling men from the water covered with fuel oil left a deep impression.
Recovering from the diphtheria Terry Lewin received his next posting, this time to the destroyer HMS Ashanti, one of the Tribals he had so much admired from Valiant, commanded by his next five-star role model, Commander Richard, more often Dickie, “Horse” Onslow, a destroyer legend. In Lewin’s own words, “Ashanti was the most important milestone in my life”, he was to remain with her until almost the end of the war, twelve Russian convoys, the epic “Pedestal” convoy to Malta, the North Africa landings, the classic night-time destroyer actions ahead of D-Day in the Channel with the multi-national 10th. Destroyer flotilla of British and Canadian Tribals with the Polish navy also in company. A DSC, three mentions in despatches, and the responsibility of being Ashanti’s First Lieutenant at the age of twenty-three.

Terry Lewin went on to serve in HMS Bellona; HMS Chequers where he was again joined by HRH Prince Philip; HMS Corunna in command, HMY Britannia as Commander; HMS Urchin and then HMS Tenby as Captain of the 17th. frigate
squadron and to crown it all, command of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. These seagoing posts were interspersed with progressively more senior roles in the Whitehall machine.
By 1982 after some forty-two years of Naval service he had fulfilled all that early promise, and the training of those great early Captains, and risen to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet; he also had taken up the role of CDS, the executive head of all of Great Britain’s Armed Forces, the first “Supreme Commander” since Earl Mountbatten created the position in the immediate post-war years.
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man” could not be a more apposite way to define the end of Terry Lewin’s career. The spring of 1982 brought with it the invasion of the Falkland Islands by the Argentine Military Junta and the appointment of Terry Lewin to Prime-minister Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet, he was the last military leader to have served throughout the entire Second World War, and the last to occupy a Cabinet post.
Made a Knight of the Garter and elevated to the Peerage in the next Honours List he became Admiral of the Fleet, Baron Lewin of Greenwich, a place that signified and encapsulated all that was so special in the heritage of the Service he loved.
“And the rest”, as they say, “is History”…..

The picture attached is very well known as the most often repeated picture of the Arctic convoys, this is an original print, the photographer was standing next to TTL, note how the bomb blast has been retouched in white to add drama, as if needed, for the press. Neither Eskimo nor Wheatland (Hunt) were damaged.
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jbryce1437
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by jbryce1437 »

Many thanks again Tim, a rivetting read from start to finish. He must be greatly missed by you all.

Jim
HMS Raleigh 1963 , HMS Collingwood 1963 & 67 , HMS Ark Royal 1964-7, HMS Undaunted 1968-71, HMS Victory (Fleet Maintenance Group) 1971-72, HMS Exmouth 1972-74
JEM, EM, OEM, LOEM, POOEL
Then 28 years in the Fire Brigade
Retired since 2002
timlewin
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by timlewin »

thanks Jim, he may be gone in one way, but the beat goes on....
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ivorthediver
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Re: LEWIN OF GREENWICH, THE BOOK SERIALISED FOR FORUM MEMBERS

Unread post by ivorthediver »

timlewin wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:23 pm thanks Jim, he may be gone in one way, but the beat goes on....
As it will remain so Tim..... as long as you remain around mirroring his image by your actions and personality .......As I have commented to you before dear Sir "An officer and a Gentleman" :)
"What Ever Floats your Boat"
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