HMS Croker versus U-boat U-333

[Dave Homewood]

I just happened on this old news article which was quite interesting:

New Zealand Herald, 30 November 1942

RAMMED U-BOAT

CORVETTE'S EXPLOIT

NEW ZEALAND COMMANDER

(Special Correspondent) (Recd. 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 28

The relentless nature of the Royal Navy's non-stop war against U-boats was illustrated again "somewhere in the Atlantic" in the dark hours of an autumn morning, when a corvette spotted the wake of a U-boat. The corvette immediately went into action under an order to steer to ram.

After 20 minutes' furious action at close quarters, the crew of the corvette believed they had added another U-boat to Mr. A. V. Alexander's list. The corvette bore down on the U-boat at full speed, and turned in and rammed with pom-poms blazing and her 4in. guns in action. The crew were swearing because they were too close to get the guns to bear.

New Zealand Officers
The wardroom of this corvette is half made up of New Zealanders. Her young skipper, Lieutenant John Holm, R.N.Z.N.V.R., is known around the New Zealand coast as the chief officer of the timber vessel Port Tauranga. He comes from Wellington. Other New Zealanders are Sub-Lieutenants J. H. Cooper, formerly a farmer in Hastings, and G. T. S. Baylis, a former Government scientist from Auckland.

The corvette, in a lively 20 minutes, twice rammed the U-boat, once from either side, and hit it with a number of 4in. shells, machine-gun and pom-pom bullets. She also dropped a number of depth charges. Lieutenant Holm, who was recently on short leave in London, said: "I reckon we sank it."

Tried to Escape
This U-boat was being attacked before it was aware of danger. It tried to submerge, and to escape on the surface by zig-zagging, but the corvette hung on like a terrier. Machine-gun fire cleared the conning tower a few seconds before the corvette first rammed the U-boat. No German was able to live in the conning tower after that, and the gunfire of the corvette constantly blasted pieces from it.

Gunfire also smashed the standard of the periscope. The U-boat finally listed heavily, disappearing in swirls of water thrown up by the depth charges. The corvette had used every gun. Aircraft subsequently spotted patches of oil and air bubbles but the corvette, chasing evidence of success, could only find fish killed by the depth charges.

"Spliced the Main-brace"
Lieutenant Holm said "Anyhow, we spliced the main-brace." He voiced what was apparently the characteristic view of the crew of the corvette when he was asked if there were no risk of the corvette being so damaged as a result of the ramming that she might not be able to make port: "I reckon the exchange was worth it, even if we had sunk a few minutes after the submarine — but," he added, "corvettes" are grand, sturdy little ships. I was surprised that ours was only slightly dented after our two crashes against the hull of the U-boat."

This encounter was the highlight of the corvette's past ten months under the command of Lieutenant Holm. She several times picked up survivors from torpedoed Allied vessels. The crew, for whom Lieutenant Holm was full of praise, were more than satisfied with their first all-in fight against a U-boat. One of them said: "It is them or us". This summed up their attitude.

[Dave Homewood]

Page 481 of the Official History of the RNZN states this:

"Typical of such service was that of Lieutenant-Commander Holm (1), of Wellington, who, as first lieutenant of HMS Lavender and later commanding officer of the Crocus and the Burdock, spent two and a half years on convoy escort duties, mainly to and from Freetown, Sierra Leone. One task in the Crocus was escorting the tow from the West Indies of a large floating dock which broke its back in heavy weather and had to be sunk by depth-charges.
On 6 October 1942 the Crocus fought a spirited action near Freetown with U-333, which she rammed twice and damaged by gunfire and depth-charges. The U-boat was classified as ‘probably sunk’ but actually escaped with the loss of twelve men killed. Lieutenant-Commander Holm was awarded the DSC and Sub-Lieutenant Baylis(2), of Auckland, was mentioned in despatches. Later in the month the Crocus rescued the survivors of the Nagpore, one of twelve ships lost in a convoy of forty-one ships during a four-day attack by a pack of U-boats. She also took part in the rescue of 1500 survivors of the Empress of Canada, which was torpedoed and sunk in the South Atlantic on 13 March 1943. Other New Zealanders who served with Holm in the Crocus and Burdock were Lieutenants C. S. Evans of New Plymouth and J. Harrison of Hastings."

1 Lieutenant-Commander J. F. Holm, DSC, RNZNR; born Wellington, 29 Dec 1912; master mariner and company director.

2 Lieutenant G. T. S. Baylis, RNZNVR, m.i.d.; born Palmerston North, 24 Nov 1913.

[Ian Warren]

I must scan and post a recent article from the United States regard to this item, maybe not specific but it would be a good in-site from a US Navy read and maybe further answers or more to the story.