Dragon Rapide (movie review)

 Dragon Rapide

Is a 1986 Spanish movie directed by Jaime camino.

Basically it is a docu-drama about the events leading up to the July 1936 coup d`etat focusing of General Franco.

Franco is in the Canary Islands, but with the imminent military coup he needs to get to Spanish North Africa to take command of troops there who`s officers are almost entirely behind the coup. In order to achieve this a Spaniard supporter of the proposed coup living in London hires a plane (a DH89 Dragon Rapide) in England with the plan to secretly fly it out  to the waiting General so he can then be transported to Africa for the start of the uprising! The film focuses on just the last two weeks leading up to Franco`s flight. 

The film flits back and fore between Brigadier Emilio Mola trying to organise the uprising from his HQ, we see his attempts to gain agreement from the various anti-Republican factions - Carlists, Monarchists and his own people in the armed forces. 

In London Juan de la Cierva (inventor of the autogyro - see my earlier piece on the Dedalo) is asked to obtain a suitable aircraft to ferry an important passenger from the Canaries to North Africa. 

In Madrid a young newspaper man overhears men talking about the upcoming revolt, tells his editor, but without proof the editor refuses to publish anything! The Government is more worried about strikes and the Anarchists than they are about the possibility of a military coup, "the Army are loyal to Spain" says the editor! 

In Morocco  Lt. Colonel Juan Yague observes  military manoeuvres, a fanatical mmeber of the rightwing Flange party, Yague later meets with officers committed to the revolt. 

In the Canary Islands Franco, his wife and daughter swelter in the July heat, the disorganised nature of the plotters is getting on his nerves! Plans are made, then changed, even codes are being changed and messages sent to him cannot be deciphered, he is NOT a happy General!

Juan Diego as Franco

While all this is going on de la Cierva has hired the plane and flown it via France and Portugal to Casablanca in French Morocco under the guise of a hunting trip for a rich Englishman.

Back in Madrid key supporter of the revolt Jose Calvo Sotelo leader of the far right CEDA party is assassinated! This actually gives the rebellion a boost as they now have a martyr to rally the various factions under one banner! 

Finally with just days to spare the plane touches down in Las Palmas, messages are sent and the Army of Africa revolts followed quickly by the garrisons on the various Canary Islands under Franco`s command. 

Franco wearing civilian clothes carrying a fake diplomatic passport flys to Casablanca and the next day onto Tetouan.

At this point the film ends at the very begining of the Civil War.   

On the whole an interesting historic docu-drama, well acted and nicely filmed. Whilst not a war movie there were plenty of soldiers and sailors with some excellent period uniforms, for those of us who like that sort of thing.   

The DVD goes for silly money on Ebay (£9.99 + postage) I was lucky enough to pick up a copy here in Spain for a Euro (bargain)

The actual DH 89 Dragon Rapide used by Franco on that flight now in the Madrid Air Museum

Jaime I

 Jaime I

Pride of the Republican Navy

Jaime I was the last of three Espana Class Dreadnought Battleships build by Spain between 1909 and 1923. The ships were part of an informal mutual defence treaty between France, Britain and Spain, the building of the ships was supported by Britain and the construction of Jaime I was much delayed due to Britains involvement in WW1 which caused supply difficulties, and even though she was virtually complete and ready for sea by May 1915, her main guns could not be delivered until 1919. The Espana class of Dreadnought were the only ones ever built by Spain and they were smallest Dreadnoughts built by any nation.

The class's limited displacement necessitated by the constraints imposed by the weak Spanish economy and existing naval infrastructure, requiring compromises on armour and speed to incorporate a main battery of eight 12-inch (305 mm) guns.

Jaime I as she appeared in 1932, note the AA guns on the fore and rear turrets

Layout of the Espana Class gun turrets

Displacement: Normal 15,700 tons, full load 16,450 tons

Length: 140m

Beam: 24m

Draft: 7.8m

Propulsion: 12 x Yarrow coal-fired boilers, 4 x Parsons steam turbines with 4 shafts

Speed: 19.5 knots

Range: 5,000 nautical miles @ 10 knots

Crew compliment: 854

Armament: 8 x 12 inch, 20 x 4 inch, 4 x 3-pounders, 2 machine guns

Armour: belt – 203mm, deck – 38mm, turrets 203mm, conning tower 254mm

Jaime I finally completed her sea trails and entered service with the Spanish Navy on December 20^th 1921. Along with her sister ships she took part in the Rif War in Morocco, shelling enemy positions in support of ground troops. She was hit by Riffi shore batteries in 1924, but took part in and supported the amphibious landings at Alhucemas Bay on 8^th September 1925 which eventually led to the end of the conflict. Some minor modifications were carried out in 1926, both Jaime I and her sister Alfonso XII gained a pair of Vickers 76.2mm (3 inch) AA guns, one each on top of turret numbers 1 and 2. In the 1930s, the foremast was reduced slightly on the two surviving ships

In 1931 with the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, Jaime I and her surviving sister Alfonso XIII (now renamed Espana) were reduced to reserve duty to save on costs. But in 1933 Jaime returned to the fleet as flagship with major plans to modernise her, but these were interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War!

At the outbreak of the Nationalist revolt, wireless operators in the navy headquarters Madrid intercepted radio messages from General Francisco Franco to rebels in Morocco. Madrid immediately sent the follow telegram to all major vessels, this one to Jaime I (my English translation).

“Comrades Jaime I: all the true Spanish people are currently aware of the attitude of our fleet. The time has come to show that traitors have no place on our ships. I have never doubted your heroism and your loyalty. Follow the example of the Cruiser Libertad by doing your duty. Long live freedom, long live the revolution. Traitors die”

The crew mutinied against their rebellious officers and two officers and an ensign killed along with three “loyal” crewmen, plus there were at least a dozen more injured on both sides. But due to their shift action, they ensured the ship would remain under Republican control. Sadly due to loss and or imprisonment of most of the officer corps the vessel would be crippled by poor discipline for some time. (the same thing applied to most of the Republican fleet).

Photographs of sailors after the take-over

Once under Republican control Jaime I sailed to Tangier to take on coal and supplies and take any wounded and injured to the Spanish hospital there. Just off the coast she was attacked by a rebel Spanish aircraft, who it is claimed made loyal (raised fist) salutes to deceive the crew into thinking he was loyal to the Republic before dropping several incendiary bombs which caused some injuries among the crew.

During the first months of the war, some modifications were made and her armament enhanced with two Vickers 47 mm (1.9 in) 50-caliber anti-aircraft guns and a twin 25 mm (0.98 in) Hotchkiss mounting.

She shelled a number of rebel strongholds, among them Ceuta, Melilla and Algeciras.

On August 7^th accompanied by the Cruiser Libertad, Jaime I entered the bay of Algeciras and bombarded the city and harbour. She hit Rebel gunboat Eduardo Dato, which was burned down to the waterline (although she was later repaired and returned to service). She also heavily damaged two transport vessels in the harbour which had been requisitioned by the Rebels. The Customs House and warehouses along the port were destroyed, the railway station, military headquarters, artillery barracks and the power plant all took hits! Fires and explosions engulfed the town. The naval bombardment was supported and enhanced by Republican aircraft that carried out bombing raids. Unfortunately did not take advantage of this successful raid and the Rebels continued using the port once the ships left.

Jaime I also tried (with little success) to act as an anti-aircraft barrier to those planes flying rebel troops from Morocco to the mainland.

On 13 August 1936 she was damaged by a rebel air attack by two German JU-52 aircraft from the Condor Legion at Malaga; a single, small bomb struck the ship in the bow and caused minimal damage, though did result in one crewman killed, two more missing presumed dead and five wounded! Rebel controlled Seville Radio claimed this air attack to have been a total success and actually sunk her!

In September 1936 in an attempt to disrupt the blockade imposed by her sister ship Espana on the northern ports Gijon, Santander and Bilbao, Jaime I sortied forth along with a pair of cruisers and four destroyers. Neither side seemed too inclined to engage each other so eventually the Republicans withdrew in October that year, having achieved nothing!

Then on 21 May 1937, she was attacked again while in dry-dock at Cartagena for repairs after a recent grounding. Five Savoia-Marchetti SM79 bombers of the Italian Aviazione Legionaria carried out the attack, reports of the damage inflicted are mixed; according to Albert Nofi the ship sustained minor damage but Marco Mattioli wrote the damage was more serious.

But on 17 June, still while at Cartagena, she was wrecked by an accidental internal explosion and fire which killed over 300 men and injured many others! (Sabotage is/was strongly suspected, but has never been proved). She was re-floated, but determined to be beyond repair.

Photos of the ship followingthe explosion and fire

 

She was officially discarded on 3 July 1939 and eventually broken up in 1941.

In 1940 all the ships guns were recovered, the front and rear twin turrets were used in the Gibralter Strait coastal defence batteries D9 and D10 - El Vigia and Casquebel respectively near the town of Tarifa in th eprovince of Cadiz. Abandoned in 1985, the twin turrets and guns are still in place, but have not been well cared for and look worse for wear. All the ships other main guns and secondary armaments were placed in single mounts in several locations along the coast.   

Wargaming with Jaime I

Now i am not  a naval wargamer, but it appears to me there are a couple of potential what if scenarios which present themselves.

1. The Republican attack on Algeciras - what if some Rebel cruisers try to intervene? Or the republic tried to land troops to seize Algeciras?

2. The September 1936 sortee - saw a face off between Jaime I and the Espana plus various cruisers, destroyers and other smaller surface vessels. As it happened no sea battle took place, but it may make and interesting tabletop action. I would penalize the Republicans for the lack of trained officers.  

 

 

 

The U-boat Comes of Age

Live Bait Squadron Vs U-9

22 September 1914 by Richard Baber

A version of this article originally appeared within the The Journal of the SOTCW (Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers)

Period artwork celebrating U-9s achievement by Hans Bohrdt

When World War One started, on July 28, 1914, the world's two most powerful navies, the British Royal Navy and the German Imperial Navy, were built around dreadnought and super-dreadnought battleships. The competition to build dreadnoughts had in fact contributed to the start of the war. The Royal Navy also had 74 submarines and the Imperial Navy had 20 U-Boats available. Neither navy took the enemy's submarines seriously, or their own, for that matter. Submarines had not yet proved their worth. For the first six weeks of the war, German U-Boats were ineffective, causing little damage, while suffering two losses. The Admiralty was unconcerned by this potential threat, all this was about to change.

The Broad Fourteens–Off close to the "Hook of Holland" off the Dutch coast, the British 7th Cruiser Squadron patrolled the southern exit of the North Sea, “to keep the area…clear of enemy torpedo craft and minelayers.”  Consisting of five "Cressy Class" cruisers, all quite outdated by 1914, the patrol soon became known in the fleet as the “live-bait squadron.” Senior Naval Officers were opposed to this patrol on the grounds that these ships were very vulnerable to any attack from Germany's more modern surface ships, and advised the Admiralty accordingly. Nonetheless, my Lords of the Admiralty ignored this advice, and persisted with this operation, insisting that Destroyers could not be involved because of the frequent bad weather that prevailed in the area, and also, because modern light cruisers were just unavailable. On September 17, Churchill, Lord of the Admiralty, decided these elderly vessels were not up to the task, so the next day ordered one of the cruisers (the Bacchantes) taking with it the regular senior officer - Rear Admiral Campbel   to detach from the squadron, to be replaced by “two or three battle cruisers” as soon as possible, so that the force could “be capable of minor action without the need of bringing down the Grand Fleet.”

So Without the Bacchantes, the other four cruisers: HMS Euryalus, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy with Rear Admiral Christian in command aboard HMS Euryalus set out as usual on the 19th without reinforcements and without even their regular destroyer escort due to bad weather.  The main worries of Churchill and most of the Navy brass were German mines or solitary surface ships, not submarines, though the poor weather should serve to deter enemy submarines as much as it did their own destroyers.  To add to their issues, due to the ships age, the crews were mostly reservists supplemented by a large number of cadets.

On the 20th, the flagship Euryalus had to drop out due to lack of coal (you have to wonder why Euryalus put to sea so short of coal?) and weather damage to her wireless, Rear Admiral Christian had to remain with his ship rather than transfer to another ship as the weather was too bad to transfer. He delegated command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir although he did not make it clear that Drummond had the authority to order the destroyers to sea if the weather improved, which it did towards the end of September 21^st.

The action

Early on the 22nd, the squadron was proceeding NNE at a  leisurely 10 knots without zigzaging (Although the patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots and zigzag the old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed and the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war).

U-9 was patrolling about 20 miles off the Dutch coast looking for enemy targets. It was a sunny, calm morning, perfect for a hunting submarine. Along the Western Front, the massed armies, unable to break through each others' lines were attempting to outflank each other in the race for the sea. Soon their trenches would stretch unbroken from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel. 

In the weeks prior to the war, U-9 managed to reload her torpedo tubes while submerged, becoming the first submarine to ever perform this difficult task. This would become critical during her engagement with the cruisers.

The U-9 spotted the cruisers moving in a rough triangle and her commander decided to attack, he submerged and moved his vessel towards the centre ship, popping up to re-check their position by periscope every so often.  Although they weren't zigzagging, the cruisers had lookouts posted searching for periscopes and at least one gun on each side was manned.

At 6.20, U-9 fired its first torpedo at the centre ship - HMS Aboukir. The torpedo struck her right under one of her magazines and the explosion broke her back, she capsized and sank within 20 minutes!  

The other two cruisers, not knowing what had happened and believing Aboukir had struck a mine moved back to pick up survivors. Weddigen manoeuvred his vessel into a new firing position and launched two torpedoes at HMS Hogue, both of which hit and she quickly flooded losing her engines and settling in the water. Firing the two torpedoes did effect the trim of U-9 and she bobbed to the surface! Sailors on the Hogue spotted her and fired several shots before U-9s crew managed to re-submerge, none of the shots caused any damage to the U-boat. Whilst submerged U-9 proceeded to reload her tubes.

Aboard the HMS Cressy, Captain Johnson now knew he was facing a submarine, had also stopped to lower boats but got underway on sighting a periscope. There is some discussion as what happened next, but it is generally agreed that the Cressy manoeuvred slowly to avoid sailors in the water before proceeding to attack the U-boat. This (whilst humane) action proved foolish and fatal! The Cressy did at least try and put up a fight, she fired a number of shots towards the periscope (no hits) and was (according to reports) trying to ram the U-boat; when U-9 fired two torpedoes at the now bow-on Cressy, one missed, but the other struck home stopping her dead in the water. Weddigen calmly turned his boat around and fired his last torpedo from the stern tube and finished her off.

In less than an hour U-9 had sunk three British cruisers, in all, 1459 men were lost on the three ships. The Dutch Merchant ships Flora and Titan, plus British Trawlers JGC, and Corainder combed the devastated area looking for survivors to pick up, a total of 837 men were saved. Flora arrived in Holland with 286 rescued British sailors, who were returned to England. Strictly speaking, Holland being neutral should have interned them for the duration of the war, but the Dutch authorities saw fit to flout that convention. 

Luckiest Man in the Royal Navy?

One sailor, Wenman "Kit" Wykeham-Musgrave (1899–1989), was on board HMS Aboukir when he was thrown overboard. He was then picked up by HMS Hogue, but soon found himself back in the sea. He was then picked up by HMS Cressy, only to end up in the sea one more time. A Dutch trawler finally picked him up (obviously without knowing about his “luck”). He lived until he was 90. And in case you didn't do the math (1914 – 1899), Wykeham-Musgrave was only fifteen years old at the time. He later rejoined the Royal Navy in 1939 and rose to the rank of Commander.

Now out of torpedoes, U-9 headed off back towards Germany pursued by British destroyers, Weddigen claims he tried to lure the British towards waiting German surface vessels, but they never pushed their pursuit. The British press claimed a whole U-boat flotilla ambushed Cruiser Force "C", other wild accusations include the German submarine approaching the cruisers under the flag of Holland before attacking!

Weddigen and his U-9 returned to Germany to a heroes welcome, the ship and crew were awarded the Iron Cross (second class), whilst Weddigen was given both first and second class awards.

Period German propaganda postcard commemorating U-9s success.

U-9s crew

Conclusion

In the aftermath of the attack the patrol by armoured cruisers was abandoned, the stopping of major ships in dangerous waters banned and the order to steam at 13 knots and zigzag re-emphasised.

A Court of Inquiry sought someone to blame, and most of the Senior Officers involved were castigated, Captain Drummond for not zig zagging, and for not ordering out the Destroyers after the weather had moderated. Rear Admiral Christian for not issuing clear orders to Captain Drummond, Rear Admiral Campbell for not being available and missing the action in his ship, and for his poor showing at the Inquiry, he had come up with the lame excuse: "He did not know what the purpose of his command was"!

Most of the blame fell upon the Lords of the Admiralty for persisting in ordering this patrol, that was dangerous with the old cruisers sent out, was of limited value anyway, and against all the advice of the sea going Senior Officers.

Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddigen

Only three weeks later, on October 15, 1914, the U-9, under Weddigen, sank a fourth cruiser, HMS Hawker. After that action, Captain Weddigen received the military's highest award, the Pour le Merite (The Blue Max). He was later given command of U-29 and died, with the rest of his crew on March 18, 1915, when the battleship HMSDreadnought rammed U-29 and broke it in two in Pentland Firth.

 U-9 survived the war surrendering on the 26th November 1918, and was broken up at Morecombe in 1919.

                                                                                                                                  Specifcations

 Cressy Class armoured cruiser

HMS Cressy was the Royal Navy's first armoured cruiser, commissioned in 1899.  Unlike previous protected cruisers she had an armoured belt, made possible by the introduction of face hardened Krupp armour which allowed worth- while protection for an acceptable weight of armour.  They were also the first British warships to serve overseas that were not copper sheathed but instead painted with anti-fouling paints, this saving £40,000 and over 500 tons in displacement. Even though the design was only 15yrs old by 1914, these vessels were already obsolete by September 1915.

The ships displaced 12,000 tons, were 472 feet long, Speed: up to 25 km/h (13.5 knots) and had a main armament of two 230mm and twelve 150mm guns. 

U-9

Commissioned in 1910, 500 tons; surface speed: 25.9 kmh (14 knots), Submerged speed: 14.8kmh (8 knots); range: 80 miles, torpedoes: 6 (2 forward and two stern tubes); dive depth: 50m (estimated max 125m). Lt. Commander Weddigen, 4 officers and 25 crew.

Sources

Article in "Battles that Changed Warfare 1457 - 1991" by Martin J. Dougherty

U-Boat War by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim

Several articles and pages off the internet including excerpts from Commander Weddigen's own account of the action.  

Authors notes

Now I freely admit to knowing little about naval wargaming, I have only played the occasional plotted board type games using counters.

I first read about this incident when I was sent "Battles that Changed Warfare" for review; it is one of those war through history volumes which I would never buy as they usually cover the same old actions or if something new  the coverage is so thin as to make it virtually useless. To be fair the book was OK and nicely illustrated and it did include this one interesting action. 

It seems to me with a little planning this would make an excellent one-off game, maybe using an umpire to control the U-boat.