The real Enigma machine capture from U110

• Main Author: Their Finest Hour Project Team
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: British history; European history (excl. British; classical Greek and Roman); International history; Their Finest Hour; World War Two; America; American; Animal; Animals; Armed Forces; Atlantic; Britain; British; Canada; Canadian; Child; Childhood; Children; Clothes; Clothing; Education; Employment; Europe; European; Fire Arm; Firearm; Food; German; Germany; Gun; King; Medal; Military; Monarch; Naval; Navy; North America; North American; POW; POWs; Prison Camp; Prisoner; Prisoners; Prisoners of War; RN; Rifle; Royal; Royal Navy; Royalty; Brighton; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.25446/oxford.25935127.v2; https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/The_real_Enigma_machine_capture_from_U110/25935127

William Marchant was born in 1920 in Brighton. He left school at 14 years old and became a printer's apprentice/ His family had a background of going to sea as fishermen and William, or Bill as he was known, volunteered as a naval reservist in 1938, the following year he joined up as a regular. He didn't speak about his part in the war for many years, until 1991, when there was correspondence about a film being made and his family finally heard some of his story. He was a Signalman on HMS Bulldog, a warship escorting conveys across the North Atlantic. On 9th May 1941 his ship became involved in Operation Primrose. They were in Convoy ON318, a westbound convoy of 38 ships, they sailed from Liverpool on 2nd May bound for North America, they were escorted by 3rd Escort Group, a force of 8 warships led by HMS Bulldog, commanded by Commander Joe Baker-Cresswell. On the 7th, 8th and 9th May the convoy was attacked by several U-boats, one of which was U110, commanded by Kapitanleutnent Fritz-Julius Lemp. On the 9th May U110 attacked, sinking two ships. HMS Aubretia spotted its periscope and located U110 with ASDIC, an early form of Sonar named after the Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee. HMS Aubretia dropped a pattern of depth charges, U110 dived and survived the initial attack, but HMS Aubretia was joined by HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway and their combined attack forced Kapitanleutnent Lemp to surface. Commander Baker-Cresswell gave the order for HMS Bulldog to ram U110. Kapitanleutnent Lemp saw what was happening and gave the order to abandon ship. Spotting this Commander Baker-Cresswell decided to try to capture U110 instead. Kapitanleutnent Lemp, realising what was happening tried to swim back to U110 to destroy equipment and papers etc., sadly for him he died in the attempt. HMS Bulldog pulled alongside U110 and Sub-Lieutenant David Balme led a boarding party, including Signalman Bill Marchant and Telegraphist Alan Long, who made their way onto U110 and made a search. They found everything just as ...