Once Navy Always Navy

Recalling "The Altmark Incident"

Seventy years ago on 16th February 1940 a Royal Naval action took place subsequently known as "The Altmark Incident." in Jossingfjord Norway, when seamen from H.M.S. Cossack, a Tribal Class destroyer, boarded a German support vessel named Altmark' and released nearly 230 British Merchant Seamen being held prisoner on this ship. The saying, "The Navy's Here", arose from the situation when hatches were opened and a query "Are there any British seamen down there", received a positive response resulting in the call "Well come on up, the Navy's here."

How did this all come about? In late 1939 British Merchant shipping were being harried and sunk in the South Atlantic by the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. Crews of these ships were taken on board the battleship before their ships were sunk, with many then being transferred to Altmark, which was Graf Spee's support ship. The Graf Spee escaped from a British cruiser force by entering Montevideo, a port in neutral Uruguay. She was required to leave after 4 days, the majority of her crew and the remaining prisoners were landed and the ship sailed out and was scuttled.
Left alone, Altmark, making its way back to Germany, was being searched for by RN ships, but had moved into Norwegian waters (Norway being neutral at that time). Eventually located by an aircraft of Coastal Command and shadowed by RN ships she went into Jossingfjord in Southern Norway. Breeching neutral waters could have produced an international problem (an"incident") but finally Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, after some discussion, ordered Captain Vian in HMS Cossack to carry out the boarding action with the successful outcome the Allied Merchant Seaman where landed at Leith in Scotland to a heroes welcome.
In 2007 one of the remaining survivors of the rescued seamen, Noel Bevan who was from New Zealand, attended the reunion as our honoured guest and he had his own interesting story to tell of his time aboard her.  He was serving as an 18 year old Ordinary Seaman on the ‘SS Ashlea’ when on October 7th 1939 she was sunk by Graf Spee, he was later transferred to Altmark.

HMS Cossack subsequently took part in the 2nd Battle of Narvik in April 1940, in which she was badly damaged along with other RN ships in the force and had to seek refuge in the Lofoton Islands to make herself seaworthy to get back to the UK, this was achieved with the added help of local Norwegians.
Her next major action was the following year, in which she, along with the rest of the squadron, were involved in shadowing, harassing and subsequent sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.

Sadly in October 1941, whilst on convoy duty off Gibraltar, Cossack herself was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 159 of her ship's company-including her Captain at the time, who was Commander Bethron.

At the latter part of WW2 a large number of destroyers were built, all beginning with ‘C’ and the name was reborn. The next HMS Cossack Pendent No D57 spent the majority of her life in the Far East where she was for most of her time Leader of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla/Squadron.   She saw action in the Korean War and was present at atomic testing off Christmas Island, finally coming back to the UK and broken up in 1960.

Though the name ’Cossack’ lives on, as the RN Board & Search Unit building, which is based in HMS Raleigh Plymouth.

The H.M.S Cossack Association was formed some 18 years ago and has membership of about 240 consisting of ships company members of both ships, including those who were on LO3 during the ‘Altmark Incident’, together with relatives of those who served on both ships, plus other people directly associated.

In April 2010 the association is planning a special reunion at the Royal Beach Hotel Southsea to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the ‘Altmark Incident’ as part of their annual reunion.
On the Sunday April 11th a service will be conducted in St Ann’s Church Naval Base Portsmouth followed by a march past, visiting standards are welcome, time to be advised.
Please contact ken.satterthwaite@talktalk.net or tele 01923 269714, if interested.

The Association would be delighted to welcome new members and to receive any information or comments which may be useful to include in the commemoration plans.
 
Contacts: - Hon Secretary. 01252 613052. Membership Secretary 01420 83521.  Or get on to our website at www.hmscossack.org

This Article was compiled from records by Ken Satterthwaite Chairman HMS Cossack Association-January 2010.