At All Costs

[greendragon]

The Pedestal operation has been so many times repeated in various written works that I have expected nothing more would be surfaced.
As I have put before a lot of authors rewrite other books and have not attempted to get to sources like archives.
Author Sam Moses's book At All Costs , Random House NY , 2006 is very well based on numerous sources including 46 personal interviews with the participants of the operation and used parts of RN Letters of Proceedings from the warships and merchants which took part in the operation. Actually what seems to be controversial is always backed up by a quote taken from an official letter of proceedings written by a LNO or a Master.
Moses reveals a lot of interesting facts which are taken from the official reports and quoted by him in respective parts of the book.
Here are some.
The Commodore on SS Port Chalmers attempted to return to Gibraltar (he explained why in his report). The Commodore gathered two more ships to join him but they refused and were stubbornly heading east to Malta.
Finally the ship was seen going west , was chased by a destroyer (HMS Penn) and ordered to change course to Malta "at all costs".
Ohio was abandoned three times (most of her crew boarded MLs and were already on Malta), and each time was manned by a motley crew of survivors - mostly gunners, but also a master from other ship temporally took the command - from the ships already sunk.
That was HMS Penn commanded by LTCDR Swain which played critical role in saving the tanker, accompanied by couple of other vessels.
And last but not least - the book shows the hell the crews and ships went through during the combat.
Memorable statement was said by one of the seamen when the attacks of the Axis a/c stopped near Malta " we have enough and they probably also had enough".
Worth reading.

gd

[emason]

A couple of Ohio photos.

Penn-Ohio-Bramham 2.jpg

OhioGrandHarbour-2.jpg

[greendragon]

The book is partially written about memories of two Americans, a merchantmen an a kid merchant marine corps midshipman who maned the well visible 40mm single barrel Bofors well seen on the famous picture on final leg of the tanker trip.
Initially the Bofors was in hands of a sergeant, UK land forces who was killed when a fan blower collapsed on him after the ship stern was hit by a bomb.
I was visiting the military museum on Malta and there is one important artefact of the famous Ohio tanker - the wooden board with her name engraved taken from the bridge before the ship was scuttled after the war.
I have picture of the board in my smartphone but I am not sure I can manage to attach it due to all this electronic mess I would need to overcome.

gd

[greendragon]

In memories of participants' of a dinner hosted by LTCDR Swine one more event shattered again their nerves when the ancient paddle tug Robust hit the starboard side of Penn causing plates buckled inward and some mess in the wardroom.
The gash was 25 feet long; "...the sorry tug boat run back to Malta with its jammed rudder like a tail between its legs...".

gd

[greendragon]

Baby Ohio entering the port of Malta as photographed by myself in 2017.

gd