1916 - 1942
There is a passage in a book called “S.O.E. Assignment” by Donald Hamilton Hill which tells of the origins of this particular action in Operation "Torch".
“Gubbins (Major General Colin McVean Gubbins, Director of S.O.E. from August 1943) told me of a top secret plan for the invasion of Western North Africa -’Torch’. He said that I would be wanted to carry out a special task in connection with this new landing. I must choose a reliable French speaking team of three volunteer officers who were thoroughly trained in explosive sabotage and anti-sabotage and defusing work.
I chose three of our best men at Arisaig - Captain Michael Bolitho of the Scots Guards; Captain Williams of the South Wales Borderers and another. I asked them to come to London to see me and asked them if they wished to volunteer for an unknown operation. They did so happily. I sent them back to Arisaig with the brief on explosive training and told them to get terribly fit. They knew nothing of ‘Torch’. Then, disappointment once again; only one man was wanted for this task and Gubbins said that it must not be me. I offered it to Michael Bolitho and he jumped at it. He was duly promoted and I sent him off to Norfolk House in St.James’s where General Eisenhower had his ‘Torch’ Headquarters. Michael came back to see me next day. Though he would naturally divulge nothing of his task, he said, “It’s a pretty tough one”.
This operation, as I learnt later, was the prevention of destructive sabotage by the French to be carried out by the Allies preceding the actual troop landings in Algeria.
The ship carrying the “special operatives” was H.M.S. Walney, a Royal Navy tug. Her task was to crash through the boom at the entrance to Oran Harbour, at Mers el Kabir and get the special task force - mostly Americans but including Michael Bolitho - ashore on the docks at the earliest possible moment under cover of the opening night bombardment. Walney was caught by searchlights, suffered a murderous crossfire from the French shore batteries and the French ships in the harbour, and sustained many direct hits. There were only a few survivors, all wounded. The gallant Michael lost his life and was greatly mourned by many of us.
Captain Peters, R.N., who commanded the Walney, was severely wounded and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part. On his way back to England a few days later, his transport crashed on landing in Devon and he was killed. It was a tragic action against those who should have been our allies but the Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff could not afford to take risks in the vital landings in North-West Africa in view of the anti-Allied pro-Petainist French in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, of which there were many”.
As a postscript to this I happened to make contact with a Richard Bolitho in Toronto and he e-mailed me;
“Yes. Capt. Michael Lempiere Bolitho was my first cousin. He was in the Coldstream Guards - perhaps attached to the Scots Guards. He was the elder son of Major (Richard) “John” Bruce Bolitho and Roselle Lempriere of Jersey, C.I. His father was the originator of the whip antenna on tanks in WW1 (his fishing rod) and held several patents for radio improvements. He also originated, and recruited staff by unorthodox means, for some of the initial work at Bletchley Park - (a decoding centre set up just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and which eventually managed to decode messages originating from the German ‘Enigma’ transmitting machines).
There was speculation that his loss was caused by premature fire by a U.S. vessel raising the alarm but Michael’s only sister, who is still living in Devonshire, denies this.
I believe there was a book written about H.M.S. Walney but I have not read it.
The Old Inn - a public house in Gulval Churchtown - was given to the Coldstream Guards Association in Michael’s memory and renamed “The Coldstreamer”
“A 53 years-old captain in the Royal Navy, who led a “suicide charge” by two small cutters at Oran in November 1942 has been awarded a posthumous V.C.
He was Acting-Captain Frederick Thornton Peters, D.S.O., D.S.C., and the award, says the official citation, is given “for valour in taking H.M.S.Walney in an enterprise of desperate hazard into the harbour of Oran on November 8th 1942.
Captain Peters led his force through the boom towards the jetty in the face of point-blank fire from shore batteries, a destroyer and a cruiser. Blinded in one eye, he alone of the 17 officers and men on the bridge survived. The “Walney” reached the jetty disabled and ablaze and went down with her colours flying.
“Walney” and “Hartland”, ex U.S. Coast guard cutters, were lost in a gallant attempt to prevent the scuttling of block ships in the harbour of Oran during the landings on the North African coast.
They had the task of ramming the boom. Both ships broke through - a feat which was described as one of the great episodes of naval history - and although on fire penetrated to the inner harbour. Troops were landed from them at the west end of the Bassin Gueybin before the ships were sunk.
After his ship had rammed the boom, sunk a destroyer, attacked a cruiser and herself been sunk, Captain Peters was taken prisoner.
He was thrown into prison in Oran by the French authorities but when the city capitulated he was released by the populace and carried through the streets shoulder-high and showered with flowers.
For his bravery in the action in Oran Captain Peters, who has since died in an air crash while on a special mission, was also awarded the American D.S.C.”
World War II Notes
November 8, 1942(Operation Torch)
by David H. Lippman
At the same time, HMS Walney and HMS Hartland race in towards Oran Harbor and its floating boom, which stretches for 200 yards across the harbor’s mouth to guard against enemy attack. Incredibly, the city is still fully lit. As the old US Coast Guard cutters sweep in, air raid sirens warble across the harbor. The French pull the main plugs, and Oran disappears into blackout.
On HMS Walney’s bridge, Capt. Frederic Peters, a retired Royal Navy officer who volunteered to lead this mission, orders engines to flank speed to hit the boom with full force. The two cutters increase speed – and Peters can see they will miss the harbor gate by more than a quarter mile.
He orders the two cutters to do a 360-degree turn at full speed and charge the boom again head-on. The cutters make huge phosphorescent wakes, revealing their location to French coastal guns. Atop Ravin Blanc, French gunners spot the two ships, and illuminate Walney with a searchlight. The French cut loose with 105mm guns against the thinly-clad cutters, loaded with American infantrymen. Shells splash all around Walney.
Peters, however, is determined. He’s also baffled by a 15-minute-old message from Fredendall: "Landings going well. Don’t start a fight unless you have to." The line sounds good for a Randolph Scott movie, but is meaningless in this situation. Peters decides to try again. The two cutters make another circle, amid shells and machine-gun fire, and smash through a second barrier of a string of barges, and towards the Mole Centre, the objective.
The cutters reach point-blank range, and all French guns hammer Walney. A searchlight spots Hartland, and the French switch their guns to her. Walney staggers on…400 yards…300 yards…200 yards…and Peters sees the French submarines Ceres and Pallas on his port side, moored to the docks, their guns manned. The British didn’t know the submarines were there. The French open fire. Their guns shred the cutter’s lower decks. Down below, Sgt. Ralph Gower, 37, from Sacramento, huddles in the darkness with his buddies, amid the roar of gunfire and the screams of wounded and dying men.
Up above, Peters sees a French destroyer (probably Tramontane) to starboard, and he orders a turn to starboard to ram the tincan. The destroyer opens fire at a distance of 200 feet, blasting the bridge, and hurling Peters into the water.
One of the destroyer’s shots explodes near Gower, knocking him on his back and creating an incredible silence. Gower realizes he’s been deafened by the blast. He struggles to a steel ladder and hauls himself onto the weather deck. He sees streams of tracer and bursts of exploding shells, but can’t hear a thing. He staggers down the deck over what he thinks are rumpled barracks bags. They’re actually dead and wounded American soldiers and British sailors.
Col. George F. Marshall, commanding this force, orders his men to return fire on the French destroyers and submarines with rifles and machine-guns, but the bullets ricochet off the armor plate. The ship’s lone 5-inch gun also hurls shells at the French.
Gower collapses on deck, unconscious. He revives moments later, feeling a heavy weight on him. They’re dead bodies. Someone has dragged the unconscious Gower to one side, thinking he was dead, and stacked bodies atop him. Gower pulls himself up from under the pile.
Blazing, Walney struggles along to the Mole Centre. Then a 105mm shell explodes in her boiler room, killing all inside and knocking out power. Ammunition explodes. Another shell hits the 5-inch gun, shredding it and its crew. Walney drifts towards the mole and the two French destroyers moored there…300 feet…200 feet…100 feet. At point-blank range, the French blast the cutter. It collides with a destroyer, and Walney’s survivors abandon ship. Most drown – a few survive to be picked up by French troops.
The cutter shakes with one more explosion, and then capsizes. HMS Hartland is 600 yards behind HMS Walney. When the latter sinks, the French switch their targets. Hartland misses the hole Walney tore in the floating boom, and runs up onto a sloping jetty, stuck. Lt. Cdr. G.P. Billot, commanding Hartland, orders full astern, but a searchlight picks out the cutter just as she pulls free.
Every gun in the harbor shells Hartland. Billot orders his ship to keep heading forward to the Mole du Ravin Blanc. French guns knock out Hartland’s 5-inch gun. Incredibly, the cutter reaches the mole. At the precise point where it is to unload its troops, Hartland comes under fire from the French destroyer Typhon, hitting Hartland’s boiler room. A wall of flame, Hartland drifts away from the mole. Crewmen below roast in flame, crewmen above are cut down by shells and bullets. Billot orders abandon ship. Sailors and soldiers put lifejackets on the wounded, shove them overboard, and follow them into the water.
Abandoned, Hartland drifts and burns for 15 minutes. Then an internal explosion rips her into pieces, which fly around the harbor. Hartland drifts down to the bottom. The French cease-fire and send out rescue launches to pick up oil-covered survivors.
Of the 17 officers and 376 men of Col. Marshall’s battalion, nine officers and 180 men are dead, and five officers and 153 wounded. The US Navy has lost five killed and seven wounded; the Royal Navy 113 killed and 86 wounded. Operation Reservist is a deadly failure, a waste of gallantry and men.
The HMS Walney (USCG Sebago)Ex- Coastguard Pennant Number Y04
Crew: 10 Commissioned, Unknown Enlisted
Displacement 1700 tons
Armament 5 inch guns; 8 - 0.5" machine guns (4x2)Depth charge throwers
Max speed 16 knots
These 1700 ton sloops built between 1927 and 1931 were among the largest convoy escorts. These 16 knot sloops were slightly slower than surfaced U-boats, but their 5" guns might persuade an evading U-boat to submerge. HMS Hartland and HMS Walney were lost in a commando operation at Oran during the 8 November 1942 invasion of North Africa. Surviving ships were returned to the United States Coast Guard in 1946.
HMS Walney which had been the United States Coast Guard Cutter USS Sebago CGC-51 which was transferred to the British Navy on 12 May 1941. The Sebago had taken on British crew members at Brooklyn Navy Yard 5 May 1941. The Walney was completely electric, powered by generators, and she had an enormous mast, quite out of proportion for her size.
Her first assignment was as a Wireless/Telegraph ship, first sailing to the Southern Atlantic off South America. She was put on station for about 8 weeks, and in that time never saw another ship. Her job was to collect and forward all naval messages to other ships and shore stations. During the weeks on station a horrendous storm broke out, so bad that everyone aboard thought she would keel over. Some say that the force of the wind had her mast touching the sea. No one aboard her was an atheist during that storm.
The initial North Africa operation called for the taking of the seaports of Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers so that heavy equipment and supplies could be landed and airfields captured to support the invasion. WALNEY and HARTLAND were attached to the Center Task Force. This force included a large armada of warships, transports, and landing craft.
The object was to take the port without damaging the important facilities by prior bombardment. To this end, troops were to be landed by surprise on adjacent beaches and encircle the city. WALNEY and HARTLAND would then crash the boom at the harbor's entrance, land troops at the heart of the waterfront, and prevent defenders from sabotaging port facilities and scuttling ships.
It was a bold plan and it ran into heavy opposition from staff members when first announced. It was pointed out that the assault ships would be without any support whatsoever until the invading ground troops had reached Oran proper; that the harbor was strongly defended by coastal batteries and shore units with automatic weapons; and the ships would be facing French naval units once they entered the narrow confines of the harbor. However, it was felt the element of surprise would bring success. The ships could break in and execute their mission before the defenders would have time to react.
At H-Hour, 0100 on November 8, 1942, invading forces from the Center Task Force were put ashore on the beaches adjacent to Oran. While this was taking place WALNEY and HARTLAND were manouvering off the harbor entrance awaiting the signal to begin their dash. The landings on the beach went off smoothly against light opposition. Task Force Commanders believed the entire operation had caught the French by surprise and hastened to give the order for WALNEY and HARTLAND to begin the frontal assault.
The signal came at 0245, 1 hour and 45 minutes after H-Hour. WALNEY and HARTLAND squared off and headed at top speed for the log boom stretching across the harbor mouth. Royal Navy personnel manned both vessels and each carried about 200 men of the 6th U.S. Armored Infantry Division. The landing force included specialists equipped with canoes designed to quickly bring them alongside ships in the harbor and prevent them from being scuttled. In addition to their White Ensigns, both ships flew large American flags.
WALNEY was in the lead. Riding her was Squadron Commander, Captain R.T. Peters, RN, who had come out of retirement to volunteer for the "Death of Glory" mission. As she began her swift approach it became apparent that the French defenders of Oran were not only aware of her presence, they were full of fight as well. Huge searchlights from shore caught WALNEY in their glaring beams and she immediately came under heavy automatic gunfire.
Undaunted by the heavy rain of shells and partially screened by smoke generated by escorting motor launches, Captain Peters drove WALNEY head on into the log boom and crashed through it. Once past this barrier WALNEY found the narrow entrance the harbor blocked by the French Sloop LA SURPRISE, attempting to sortie. The French ship after narrowly avoiding a collision with WALNEY poured heavy gunfire into her at point blank range, wrecking WALNEY's machinery spaces and putting her out of control. WALNEY's headway carried her on into the confines of the harbor where she came under a murderous crossfire from several French submarines and a French destroyer. With his ship helpless and nearly 76% casualties on board, Captain Peters gave the order to abandon ship. The French took prisoner those who managed to reach shore. Not long after she was abandoned, WALNEY capsized and sank.
HARTLAND fared no better as she followed close astern of WALNEY. She too was spotlighted in the bright glare of the searchlights and had to run through the same gauntlet of heavy gunfire. Driven off course by withering blasts of gunfire which caused casualties to her bridge personnel, including her CO, HARTLAND missed the narrow entrance on her first try and struck the southern jetty. She backed off and lined up for another try. This time she cleared the hole, but immediate came under fire at extremely close range from the French Destroyer TYPHON. After unsuccessfully trying to moor alongside a trawler, HARTLAND ... battered and reeling ... drifted aimlessly. Fires spread rapidly below decks driving personnel topside where they were mowed down by relentless machinegun fire coming from all directions. With more than 50% casualties on board and the ship a mass of flames from stem to stern, HARTLAND was abandoned. Her survivors, like WALNEY'S, were taken prisoner. Later she blew up.
During the period that the survivors of WALNEY and HARTLAND were prisoners, the French defenders of Oran methodically destroyed it's port facilities and blocked the harbor with scuttled ships, thus carrying out the very acts of sabotage that the daring mission was supposed to prevent.
Hindsight shows that the mission could have been successful only if the vital element of surprise had been maintained. This could have been achieved only by scheduling the frontal attack on Oran PRIOR to the landings on the beaches.
The garrison at Oran nearly encircled on land and cut off any support by sea, held out until the morning of November 10 when American armor and infantry stormed into the center of the city.
French naval units also came out ..... or tried to come out ..... to fight. The sloop LA SURPRISE which had inflicted such terrible damage to WALNEY made it out into the open and headed for the transports, but she was cut off and sunk by HMS BRILLIANT shortly after daybreak on November 8 while the wrecks of WALNEY and HARTLAND were still setting into the mud of the harbor bottom. Four French destroyers, trying to break out, ran into HMS AURORA and her destroyer screen. When the smoke of battle had cleared, three of the French destroyers had been sunk and the fourth one forced back into the harbor.
When Oran fell the survivors of WALNEY and HARTLAND were released. Ironically, the Squadron Commander, Captain Peters, who had managed to survive the holocaust and who was one of the released prisoners, was killed later when the plane carrying him back to England was shot down. For his gallantry and devotion to duty during the disastrous attack on Oran, Captain Peters was posthumously awarded the British Victoria Cross and the American Distinguished Service Cross.
Operation Torch was the end of the line for the old SEBAGO and PONCHARTRAIN, but it was the beginning for a long road that finally led to the Allied victory in Europe.