SS Dover Hill

SS Dover Hill was a United Kingdom shelter deck cargo steamship. She was launched as Maenwen but before she was completed Clan Line bought her and renamed her Clan Macvicar. She spent most of her career under this name, but is noted for her Second World War service under her later name Dover Hill.

In 1936 Counties Ship Management Ltd bought Clan Macvicar and renamed her Dover Hill. In the Second World War Dover Hill served with distinction on Arctic convoy duty. In the Normandy landings she was scuttled as a Corn Cob block ship for a Gooseberry Harbour.

Building

The Northumberland Shipbuilding Company in Howdon on the River Tyne built Dover Hill[1] to the First World War Shipping Controller's standard design[2] F1.[3]

Convoy JW 53

On 22 December 1942 Dover Hill left Loch Ewe in Convoy JW 51B. Five days later bad weather damaged her and forced her to turn back.[7]

By late January 1943 Dover Hill's DEMS armament included Bofors 40 mm guns and Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. In that month she loaded a cargo of fighter aircraft, guns and munitions, plus a deck cargo of Matilda II tanks, lorries in cases and drums of lubricating oil protected by sandbags.[8] On 23 January she sailed from her anchorage off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde and on 25 January she anchored in Loch Ewe.[8] On 15 February she sailed for the USSR as one of 28 merchant ships in Arctic convoy JW 53.[8] The flagship was the cruiser HMS Belfast (C35) and the convoy's other escorts included the cruisers HMS Cumberland (57) and HMS Sheffield (C24), escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) and 15 destroyers.

JW 53 has been referred to as "The Forgotten Convoy".[9] As it sailed northward it encountered heavy winds.[8] Six merchant ships were damaged and diverted to Iceland[8] along with the cruiser Sheffield and the armed trawler HMT Lord Middleton (FY219). A Royal Navy flotilla led by the cruiser HMS Scylla (98) relieved the original escorts off Iceland. However, during the storm the aircraft carrier Dasher was damaged and returned to the Firth of Clyde, leaving JW 53 without air cover.

In the storm Dover Hill's drums of oil were lost overboard, the lorries were damaged and then they too were lost overboard.[8] Her crew managed to save the Matilda II tanks.[8] The poor weather scattered the ships but the weather moderated[8] and by 20 February its Royal Navy escorts reformed the remaining 22 merchant ships into the convoy.

By now the convoy was sailing through pancake ice, which along with the naval escort ensured there were no U-boat attacks.[8] However, on 24 February a Luftwaffe patrol aircraft shadowed the convoy and the next day Junkers Ju 88 aircraft bombed the convoy.[8] Dover Hill was damaged and one of her gunners was wounded.[8] The convoy reached the Kola Inlet on the northern coast of Russia on 27 February.[8] 15 cargo ships from the convoy docked in Murmansk while seven others continued south to Archangel.[8] Despite air attacks and adverse weather, JW 53 had lost no merchant ships en route.

Air raids in Russia

Dover Hill unloaded at Murmansk.[8] The Luftwaffe bombed the port, sinking the cargo ship Ocean Freedom at her moorings.[8] After discharging her cargo Dover Hill moved to an anchorage in the Kola inlet.[8] Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters armed with bomb racks repeatedly made low-level attacks on the ships at anchor, during which Dover Hill was damaged and some of her gunners wounded.[8] However, she shot down one Bf 109 and damaged another, which was then shot down by a ship astern of her at the anchorage.[8]

On 4 April Dover Hill was at Misukovo Anchorage north of Murmansk when two Ju 88 bombers attacked her.[8] Five 500 kg bombs exploded in the sea around the ship. A sixth hit her and went through her main and tween decks but failed to explode.[8] The minesweeper HMS Jason (J99) anchored astern of Dover Hill, ready to rescue any survivors if the bomb exploded.[8] The bomb buried itself in coal in the ship's bunkers and a team of 19 volunteers dug out the coal to find it.[8] The Luftwaffe made further air raids, and bombs exploding in the sea around the ship repeatedly caused coal to fall back into the hole that the volunteers were digging.[8]

The bomb was 22 ft deep in the coal and it took the volunteers two days and nights to reach it.[8] A Soviet bomb disposal specialist then defused it by unscrewing the primer and detonator. After a few turns it stuck, so the bomb disposal man tapped it with a punch and a small hammer to move it. Dover Hill's radio officer, David Craig, recalls "every time he hit it I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing against my duffle coat hood". The volunteers then disposed of the bomb over the side of the ship.[8]

On 17 May Dover Hill and three other ships left the Kola Inlet and went via the White Sea to Economia on the Northern Dvina River.[8] On 18 July Dover Hill moved again to Molotovsk.[8] On 26 November she and eight other ships sailed for London, where they arrived on 14 December.[8]

In October 1943, two months before Dover Hill reached London, the London Gazette had published the names of all 19 volunteers who dug out the bomb. 14 were awarded the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct.[10] Her chief officer, third officer and second engineer were made MBEs. Her master, WG Perrin, and chief engineer, RB Baillie, were made OBEs.[11] Perrin also awarded Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea.[12]

class	Shipping Controller standard design F1
type	Cargo ship
tonnage	,
length	400.1 ft
beam	53.0 ft
draught	32.8 ft
decks	1
power	569 NHP 3,400 IHP
propulsion	triple expansion steam engine
speed	12 kn
sensors	wireless direction finding
armament	by 1943: Bofors 40 mm gun *Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Building

Peacetime career

Spanish Civil War

The Americas, Africa and Iceland

Convoy JW 53

Air raids in Russia

Block ship

Replacement ship

Bibliography

References