Shadowed By German Air Observation Aircraft
On 9 May, the convoy passed through the Strait of Gibraltar without incident but, two days later, detected German "snoopers" trailing the convoy. In the next few hours, 10 successive shore-based fighter interception sorties — even sorties conducted by British radar-equipped Beaufighters — failed to drive off the enemy reconnaissance aircraft. The Germans persistently maintained contact with the Allied ships.
First alerted by shore-based radar "eyes", the escort screen went to general quarters at 1316 on 11 May, beginning the first of five successive "on again—off again" alerts. Walter S. Brown took station on the starboard bow of the convoy, some 6,000 yards (5,000 m) from the guide. In Campbell, the commander of the screen, Jesse Clyburn Sowell, enjoined his escorts to be especially vigilant and warned that a dusk attack was well within the realm of possibility. At 2025, radar noted the approach of enemy aircraft; and Sowell formed his charges into eight columns 1,000 yards (1,000 m) apart to allow for plenty of maneuvering room. As UGS-40 went to general quarters at 2043 that evening, Dobler (DE-48) and Ellis (DD-154) took stations on Walter S. Brown's flanks.
When the enemy was reported 70 miles (110 km) north of Cape Corbelin, UGS-40 steered due east, through a smooth sea barely rippled by the light easterly airs, past Cape Bengut. Eleven minutes after sunset beneath a moonless, overcast sky, Walter S. Brown received orders to commence laying smoke.
Read more about this topic: USS Walter S. Brown (DE-258)
Famous quotes containing the words shadowed, german, air and/or observation:
“We till shadowed days are done,
We must weep and sing
Duty’s conscious wrong,
The Devil in the clock,”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Many of our German friends before the war would come as our guest to hunt wild pig. I refused to invite Goering. I could not tolerate his killing a wild pig— seemed too much like brother against brother.”
—Joseph L. Mankiewicz, U.S. director, screenwriter. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Countess (Danielle Darrieux)
“There is an air of last things, a brooding sense of impending annihilation, about so much deconstructive activity, in so many of its guises; it is not merely postmodernist but preapocalyptic.”
—David Lehman (b. 1948)
“There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)