World War II Database

ww2dbaseEver since his school days in the United Kingdom, Hugh Martyr had been interested in history, particularly naval history. His interest in history later expanded to cover the American Civil War and the German V-weapons campaign against London. He is also an re-enactor and organizer of major re-enactment events, including the 200th anniversary of Waterloo event where over 8,000 were on the field. He joined the WW2DB team in 2018.

Timeline Contributions

Hugh Martyr has also contributed 881 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 27 Apr 1941: The British Submarine HMS Upholder (N 99) under Lieutenant Commander M. D. Wanklyn, RN surfaced at 1950 hours and tried to close the wreck of the Italian destroyer Lampo which had been torpedoed and sunk in shallow waters by British destroyers during the action against the Tarigo convoy on 16 Apr 1941. At 2040 hours, the submarine ran aground in 15 feet of water some 4,000 yards short of her target and the attempt was abandoned.

» 20 Jul 1944: Flight Officer Micheal Williams and the Navigator Flight Officer Arthur Waples failed to return to their base at Castle Camps. The last report from their Mosquito XVII aircraft was over the sea near Dover, England, United Kingdom.

» 23 Jun 1941: The 717-ton coastal freighter Hull Trader was on passage from London to Hull when she struck a German laid mine and sank one mile from 57 C Buoy, at Cromer on the east coast of England, United Kingdom; eleven of the fourteen crew were killed.

» 21 Jun 1940: At 2007 hours, German submarine U-47 under command of Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien fired a torpedo at a tanker in the middle of Allied convoy HX-49 in a position 50 miles south-southwest of Cape Clear in the southwestern tip of Ireland. The tanker was the 13,056-ton British San Fernando which was carrying 13,500 tons of crude oil and 4,200 tons of fuel oil, and she was hit and came to a stop. Prien then fired two more torpedoes but did not observe the result as he had to submerge rapidly to avoid being seen by a nearby steamer. The damaged San Fernando was taken under tow by two tugs.

» 7 Mar 1943: The 5,323-ton British merchant steamer Sabor, built in 1920, was en route from Port Said, Mombasa, Tamatave, and Durban for Table Bay and Rio De Janeiro carrying a cargo of 1,100 tons of salt ballast and 63 mail bags when she was torpedoed by German submarine U-506 (Kapitänleutnant Erich Würdemann) off of Mossel Bay, South Africa and sunk. Six crew lost from a total crew 58. The master, 41 crew members and nine gunners were picked up by the SAAF crash launch R-8 and landed at Mossel Bay.

» 4 Sep 1944: 23 sorties of Heinkel bombers, carrying V-1 flying bombs, operated by German Air Force III/KG3 from Venlo, Netherlands took off against London, Portsmouth, and Gloucester in Britain. 3 came down in East Anglia and one reached Eyeworth in Bedfordshire. Veteran German pilot Horst Juventus had been posted to III/KG3 and recalled "They [V-1 flying bombs] were obviously a very indiscriminate weapon and really served no good purpose. But we had our orders. I flew from Gilze-Rijen over the North Sea for a distance before igniting the V-1s and launching them. These things were a positive menace as they did not fly true and we were in great danger with the contraption beneath us. I am sure some crews released them as soon as we were out of sight of land."

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