Post by KG on Sept 29, 2018 4:38:31 GMT
Secret ships of the Intelligence Services. Not many people may realize that the Merchant Navy was very active during both the 1st & 2nd World Wars. Indeed, many SOE and French Resistance Agents were secretly transported to and from France and around the Atlantic, Mediterranean and elsewhere aboard Q-Ships (armed Disguised Merchant Ships). It is for this reason that I will be representing the Merchant Navy, together with Richard Neave (RBL & Special Forces) at the special Commemoration of F-Section SOE & the French Resistance at Le Mont Valérien near Paris on Saturday afternoon. Representing Britain will be several associations, including Libre Resistance SOE Section F, Special Forces Club, Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, Royal British Legion and the British Embassy. For France, there will be the Fondation France Libre and ONAC (National Office of former Combattants & War Victims). From 1940 - 1944, Mont Valérien was used as a prison and place of exécutions by the Nazi occupiers of France. Over 1000 Resistance agents were executed there.
The 2nd most secret ship of the War was HMS Fidelity. Built in 1920 in France, Le Rhin was an armed merchantman working for the French Colonial Intelligence Service, She was taken over by the British in June 1940 and ran a lot of secret operations into France and elsewhere. Sadly she was torpedoed by a U-435 when in a convoy in the Atlantic on the 30/31st December 1942.
She went to the bottom of the ocean with almost all her complement of 280 crew, fifty-one Royal Marine Commandos and the WRNS officer plus four civilians. About fifty survivors rescued earlier from the SS Empire Shackelton were also on board. There were only ten men who survived the sinking of the Fidelity. The ship was based at Barry, South Wales.
Caroline Clopet
The mystery ship HMS Fidelity
“Her Name Was Fidelity” (HMS)
Built in 1920, Le Rhin was an armed merchantman working for the French Colonial Intelligence Service, She was taken over by the British in June 1940. It was only after her hand over to the Royal Navy that she was armed and used as a Q-Ship'. (Disguised Merchant Ship).
The 2,455-ton, HMS Fidelity (Formerly the French merchant ship Le Rhin) was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into a Special Service Vessel (a heavily armed merchant ship), as an SSV and also renamed Fidelity she is believed to have operated some secret missions, Fidelity was armed with 4-inch guns, torpedoes, and depth charges, carrying also two seaplanes, a motor torpedo boat and two small landing craft– believed by some of the crew to be totally unseaworthy, she was able to carry out operations of an extremely hazardous nature such as the landing of secret agents on enemy territory.
Due to the secrecy surrounding such a ship, the 334-man crew had to be made up of volunteers, with the non-British members of the crew sailing under assumed names and with the French and other foreign members of the crew members taking specially anglicized names. Its captain, Claude Peri, had once been a French spy, had assumed the name Jacques Langlais, and (to the amazement of the crew) brought aboard with him a mistress, WRNS Officer Madeleine Barclay.
After special secret operations in the Mediterranean, the former French merchant, now Fidelity was assigned to the Far East Fleet and sailed from Portsmouth to Colombo via the Cape, part of the way with convoy ONS-154. In an area of the Atlantic known as the Black Pit, an area beyond the protection of aircraft, the convoy, escorted by five Canadian corvettes, was attacked by U-boat wolf packs and over the next five days fourteen of the forty-five ships were sunk with 510 lives lost.
The Fidelity, lagging behind with engine failure, was torpedoed by the U-435 (Kpt. S. Strelow) on the night of December 30/31, 1942. She went to the bottom with almost all her complement of 280 crew, fifty-one Royal Marine Commandos and the WRNS officer plus four civilians. About fifty survivors rescued earlier from the SS Empire Shackelton were also on board. Two LCVs (Landing Craft Vehicles) Nos. 752 and 754, being carried by the Fidelity were also sunk. There were only ten men who survived the sinking of the Fidelity. HMS Fidelity was hit by a torpedo fired by U-435. She was sunk with all her 327 crew and other previous survivors.
Known as the second most secret ship of the war. The ship was based at Barry, South Wales.
Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of War, Espionage and Passion. LINK
The 2nd most secret ship of the War was HMS Fidelity. Built in 1920 in France, Le Rhin was an armed merchantman working for the French Colonial Intelligence Service, She was taken over by the British in June 1940 and ran a lot of secret operations into France and elsewhere. Sadly she was torpedoed by a U-435 when in a convoy in the Atlantic on the 30/31st December 1942.
She went to the bottom of the ocean with almost all her complement of 280 crew, fifty-one Royal Marine Commandos and the WRNS officer plus four civilians. About fifty survivors rescued earlier from the SS Empire Shackelton were also on board. There were only ten men who survived the sinking of the Fidelity. The ship was based at Barry, South Wales.
Caroline Clopet
The mystery ship HMS Fidelity
“Her Name Was Fidelity” (HMS)
Built in 1920, Le Rhin was an armed merchantman working for the French Colonial Intelligence Service, She was taken over by the British in June 1940. It was only after her hand over to the Royal Navy that she was armed and used as a Q-Ship'. (Disguised Merchant Ship).
The 2,455-ton, HMS Fidelity (Formerly the French merchant ship Le Rhin) was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into a Special Service Vessel (a heavily armed merchant ship), as an SSV and also renamed Fidelity she is believed to have operated some secret missions, Fidelity was armed with 4-inch guns, torpedoes, and depth charges, carrying also two seaplanes, a motor torpedo boat and two small landing craft– believed by some of the crew to be totally unseaworthy, she was able to carry out operations of an extremely hazardous nature such as the landing of secret agents on enemy territory.
Due to the secrecy surrounding such a ship, the 334-man crew had to be made up of volunteers, with the non-British members of the crew sailing under assumed names and with the French and other foreign members of the crew members taking specially anglicized names. Its captain, Claude Peri, had once been a French spy, had assumed the name Jacques Langlais, and (to the amazement of the crew) brought aboard with him a mistress, WRNS Officer Madeleine Barclay.
After special secret operations in the Mediterranean, the former French merchant, now Fidelity was assigned to the Far East Fleet and sailed from Portsmouth to Colombo via the Cape, part of the way with convoy ONS-154. In an area of the Atlantic known as the Black Pit, an area beyond the protection of aircraft, the convoy, escorted by five Canadian corvettes, was attacked by U-boat wolf packs and over the next five days fourteen of the forty-five ships were sunk with 510 lives lost.
The Fidelity, lagging behind with engine failure, was torpedoed by the U-435 (Kpt. S. Strelow) on the night of December 30/31, 1942. She went to the bottom with almost all her complement of 280 crew, fifty-one Royal Marine Commandos and the WRNS officer plus four civilians. About fifty survivors rescued earlier from the SS Empire Shackelton were also on board. Two LCVs (Landing Craft Vehicles) Nos. 752 and 754, being carried by the Fidelity were also sunk. There were only ten men who survived the sinking of the Fidelity. HMS Fidelity was hit by a torpedo fired by U-435. She was sunk with all her 327 crew and other previous survivors.
Known as the second most secret ship of the war. The ship was based at Barry, South Wales.
Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of War, Espionage and Passion. LINK