HMS Kite

This small sloop, completed at the Cammell Lairds yard on Birkenhead in 1943 was designed as a convoy escort and submarine chaser. Stationed first at Liverpool she came under control of the best U-Boat chaser of the war, Captain "Johnnie Walker," probably the man most responsible for bringing to an end the submarine menace. From Liverpool 'Kite' patrolled the Atlantic, escorted convoys, rescued survivors and attacked, alongside other escorts, any patrolling U-Boats, sometimes successfully enabling a kill. While there appears to be little made of the 'War in the Atlantic,' it was possibly the most important battle fought during the forties. Had Britain's lifeline failed then the UK would have gone the way Germany had during the previous war when she was starved into submission. German troops attacking during Ludendorffs last major offensive in March 1918 were astonished at the supply dumps in Allied territory. The, morale loss to their forces by this was one great weapon of the war at that time. Without ships like 'Kite' and her sisters escorting the incredibly brave merchant seamen the threat of starvation was a possibility for Britain. 'Kites' job was not easy but it was important.

After a short duration in the English Channel as part of the D-Day operation Kite went back to convoy escort, this time in the Arctic route to Soviet Russia. One of the hardest duties of the war. Those who served in the Atlantic have spoken of the conditions, the constant wet clothes which would never dry out, and the lack of comfort on board a ship in a stormy sea, or indeed in a pleasant one! The movement from her new base at Greenock towards Soviet Russia round the tip of Norway in frozen water, amongst enemy submarines and in constant danger of Luftwaffe attacks from bases in Norway made this route extremely hazardous and most unwelcome. How these men must have dreamt of a Mediterranean posting!

'Kite was detailed to escort the 'JW.59 group' convoy. On the way they were confronted by members of the German 'Trutz' submarine group and on 21 August 1944 the U-344 sunk Kite with 2 torpedoes. Men standing on other ships saw her suddenly engulfed by two huge balls of fire and when the smoke cleared she had gone, in around a minute and a half! HMS Keppel stood by to collect survivors but was forbidden to do so for about forty minutes until two more escort ships had arrived in support. While the weather at that time of the year was comparatively mild the water was still cold and the men were still being frozen through. Covered in oil and clinging to wreckage they were eventually hoisted aboard with great difficulty. Several were sucked under the ship at one point and several died on board the destroyer. Of the 226 men on board HMS Kite only nine survived! Five were buried at sea in the best traditions of the Royal Navy.

'Kite' had been a slow boat but the 'Stinger' device she was attached to possibly slowed her further. There are also those who consider her commander at the time to have left his ship open to attack by the procedure he adopted, but we will let the experts discuss that. Such a target as a slow moving escort vessel a U-Boat would indeed find attractive. And therefore 'Kite' became the U-344's only successful attack! However U-344's seventeen months of service ended at half past eight the next morning. Another slow moving machine, a Fairy Swordfish aeroplane from HMS Vindex the escort carrier, attacked her on the surface with depth charges and dispatched her and her crew to the bottom just north of Murmansk.

During 1942 the town of Braintree, which being on the route towards London and surrounded by aerodromes, suffered much from bombing,had 'adopted' HMS Kite as their own ship. Today there stands a small memorial in the Public Gardens to the two hundred and seventeen men who were lost that day. Nearby the memorial erected after the Great War bears the names of two hundred who were lost then and others names from the second world war. These are remembered each armistice day and it is right that this should be done. Whoever these men were, whatever they were like as men, had they not served and died the United Kingdom would not be the free nation it has become.

Since stumbling upon the memorial in the gardens I have become intrigued to know more about these men whom so few consider as they pass by. I found a great deal about them here on the pages Mike Kemble has on HMS Kite and these are well worth visiting. Information on U-344 can also be found here. Much of the info on this page has been 'acquired' from this man. But don't tell him will you!