Convoy

By Dennis Largess 

 

In the summer of 1974, NATO in the Mediterranean was having a bit of a morale crisis. On most exercises, there were a limited number of ships, and the Soviet navy, under Sergei Gorshkov, was being applauded as a great force. Sergei even was on the cover of Time magazine as a creator of a new blue water Soviet navy. 

 

The problem was that the USN regularly had no more than two carriers, twelve destroyers, one cruiser, and various support ships in the Sea. This didn't appear to be a particularly large force. When the NATO members provided ships for an exercise it was most often a pair of British DDs, two Italian helicopter cruisers, and maybe a tired, old FRAM DD of the Turkish or Greek navies. Hardly ever any Iberian or even French vessels. 

 

  The Sverdlov class cruiser, Admiral Ushakov

The Soviet Med flotilla only amounted to perhaps two cruisers, six or more destroyers, and support ships including Intel collectors called AGI. They were not often seen because they had no land base to operate
from, so they typically anchored in the shallow waters of Kythera island, Greece. However, they had a massive propaganda program saying how great the force was. When they did appear, it was either a single ship like a SAM Kotlin, or the entire Flotilla, so it appeared large and powerful to the news services. During the Yom Kippur war, an old Sverdlov light cruiser, the Admiral Ushakov, paid a port visit to Naples, and really impressed the Italian news services. The Soviet Captain said NATO was old and not viable in the Cold War, and the newspapers ate it up. 

 

Admiral Fox Turner was appointed to Sixth Fleet and quickly recognized he had to invigorate the navies in the Mediterranean. We heard rumors of how he was in contact with the British Admiralty, the Italian Commando Navigatori, the Spanish Marine command, and pretty much anyone else who was involved in the defense of the Med. 

 

We received orders to assemble west of Sicily, and actually very close to the famous Skerki underwater channel which played a big part in the Malta convoys of WWII, like Operation Pedestal. 

 

The Destroyer Squadron 12 staff was very tight lipped about what was going on, but the Ops officer, Bruce Rosser, said we were going to have a great time. 

 

Not quite sure what this meant, we girded our loins for godknowswhat. As we moved west of Sicily, we screened a carrier task force with five other American destroyers and met another American carrier task force. 

 

Greek Destroyer Leon, D54, née USS Eldridge

We were very surprised when ships from the Royal Navy, the Italian Navy, the Spanish Navy, the FRENCH Navy (Mon Dieu!), the Greek Navy, the Turkish Navy, and one Portuguese ship all checked into the Fleet Common radio net. 

 

Now, you cannot have a boatload of ships just steaming around each other, that is asking for collisions. So the commander assigned every ship to a single formation, no separate task groups. 

 

Turner totally surprised everyone with this. NATO had a pub with hundreds of formations. This included lines, staggered lines, columns, screens around high value vessels, and many more. Included in the pubs were different formations for merchant convoys. It was always a plan that the US would send combat forces across the ocean to Europe if there was a hot war. 

 

Fox designated a merchant convoy formation for forty ships. Eight rows with five columns. These were, I think about 800 yards between each ship in a row, and eight hundred yards in the columns. 

 

What utterly shocked us was he ordered a Vertrep (Vertical Replenishment, a helicopter replenishing for each ship of various supplies), and each warship was assigned a position in the convoy formation that usually was filled with a merchant! 

 

First, eight ships formed the first row. Eight hundred yards was much closer and tighter than we were used to, so it was very hairy. 

 

Then the second row formed up and advanced to 800 yards behind the first. Then this continued for the third, fourth, and fifth row. 

 

I can't really explain how shocking this was to us. We normally operated in a line ahead (called a Form 1) or in a screen three or five thousand yards in a circle around the carrier for anti-air defense. Everyone on the bridge was white knuckling this close formation. It occurred to me it must have been something similar to the Grand Fleet at Jutland, the dreadnoughts in, I think, six separate columns, at a cable's distance (607.5 feet). 

 

And all through this the carriers and supply vessels were trailing the "convoy" while helicopters were zipping all over delivering pallets of goods. It was like a hive of honey bees swarming over everyone. 

 

My ship's Captain was a rather nervous fellow and he looked like he might have a seizure when he realized we were only 800 yards apart from a British destroyer and a FRENCH ship. I could see the wheels turning in his mind, and he was contemplating a court martial from collisions. 

 

Now, usually the crew was pretty blase about sailing in company with other ships. They might come up to take a look, but that was all 

 

This time, practically the whole ship came out on deck to point and stare. This was a once in a lifetime event. Forty NATO ships together in one tight formation. 

 

And on every other ship, the same was happening. The crews were up gawking at this show of force. 

 

I don't know how Turner got everyone to send ships for the Exercise, it must have been a massive effort for this many ships from NATO navies, but to include the FRENCH Navy was unheard of. They never came out to play with us. 

 

And suddenly it was made clear that the NATO Med force was big and potent. It couldn't be denied when we were practically close enough to touch in a force of forty warships. 

 

Everyone was gobsmacked by this, and by the convoy formation. (My dad sailed in the Battle of the Atlantic*, and he said it sounded like the convoy formations of merchant ships from WWII.) 

 

Kotlin Class Destroyer

I think it must have also shocked the Soviet tattletale, a SAM Armed Kotlin. He kept about a mile outside of the formation and never tried to push in. Possibly, it was that carriers were behind the convoy formation and he wanted to keep an eye there. 

 

However, every party has a pooper. Manley was on the left most column, I think third from the front. While we were all working on staying on station and gawking at all the ships, we saw that one ship was approaching from the port quarter.  

 

 

CIC had been tracking this ship and it had a steady bearing with decreasing range - a collision course. We quickly determined that this was a Portuguese corvette that had never taken its position in the center of the formation. With the Big Eyes on the Signal bridge we could see there was some kind of a discussion on their bridge. 

 

She was not trying to get into her assigned position and this quickly got dangerous. When she got to about 1,200 yards the OOD, John J. Kennedy, got on Fleet Common, "Interrogative your intentions?" 

 

We got "Roger -wait - out" 

 

The Secure Red phone was on their bridge and we could see someone screaming into it, presumably at Sixth fleet staff. 

 

They did not change course or speed so they were still on a collision course. At 800 yards John again asked, "Interrogative your intentions? You are maneuvering in an unsafe manner." 

 

Apparently, their Captain was not pleased with what he was told on the Red phone and slammed it to the deck (It was a rather delicate piece of gear). 

 

"Feck this Sh+T". A moment later, the ship belched black smoke, turned hard to port and sped off for the Strait of Gibraltar. 

 

We looked at each other and John quipped, "Was it something I said?" 

 

 * My step father also was a merchant man in the Atlantic.  For more see Requiem of an Inadvertent Cold Warrior