It's not a welcome memory. Two of our men were killed and I nearly died ..but we did capture the vital codes; SEIZING THE ENIGMA: SOLE SURVIVOR TELLS OF U-BOAT RAID.
THE breaking of the Nazis' top-secret Enigma code turned the course of World War II.Now a new Hollywood movie, U-571, tells the story of how vital Enigma codebooks were captured from a German U-boat.
But the film has angered many war veterans for crediting the US Navy with the daring retrieval.
In fact it was a small band of British sailors who made the historic capture.
The code books seized from German submarine U-559 enabled scientists at the Government's Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, Beds, to understand crucial enemy communications for the first time since the Nazis modified the code nine months earlier.
Most of the brave British sailors who boarded the U-559 perished in the course of the mission.
Today, the only survivor is Ken Lacroix. Such was his mission's secrecy, Ken, now 78, could not even discuss the events with King George VI when he was honoured for valour seven month later.
"Although we captured vital code books, two of our men drowned and I very nearly lost my life too," says Ken.
"Just thinking about my close escape in the U-boat's conning tower still makes me shake like a leaf.
"All this discussion in the newspapers about the film U-571 has brought it all back for me."
As a 21-year-old ship's junior, Ken was ordered to climb down into the sinking U-boat's conning tower, risking his life for the future of western democracy.
Ken, who had been conscripted in 1939 when war was declared, had served aboard HMS Petard for a few months. The destroyer's orders were to patrol the Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt.
Early in the morning of October 30, 1942, the ship received an urgent message to intercept a U-boat which had been spotted lurking in a shipping convoy channel.
AFTER a 10-hour hunt by five British destroyers, the U-boat was eventually forced to the surface to avoid the Navy's depth-charges.
"When it surfaced I was standing on the Petard's deck with Lt Tony Fasson," says Ken Lacroix.
"As the destroyer steamed alongside the German submarine, Fasson shouted out to me, 'Come on, Lacroix, it's your sub,' referring to the fact that I had been manning the Petard's sonar set when the U-559 was first located.
"Fasson jumped down onto the U-boat's deck. I followed suit along with another sailor. Fasson and Able Seaman Grazier climbed down into the conning tower first and then continued on down into the U-559's control room.
"I followed them, but stopped inside the conning tower. I was instructed to pass up the code books and documents which were being retrieved from the interior."
Lacroix worked picking up the documents handed to him, then climbing up the conning tower ladder to pass them to fellow crewmen on deck.
It was becoming a race against time to beat a torrent of sea water that had begun to flood the U-boat and drag her down.
Evidence given by other members of the Petard's boarding party during a post-mortem after the capture reveal more of what was happening inside the crippled U-boat.
Tommy Brown, a 16-year-old canteen assistant who also jumped aboard the U-boat, told the enquiry: "The lights were out. The first lieutenant had a torch. The water wasn't very high but rising gradually all the time.
"First Lieutenant was down there with a machine gun which he was using to smash open cabinets in the commanding officer's cabin. He then tried some keys which were hanging behind the door and opened a drawer, taking out some confidential books which he gave me.
THERE was a hole just forward of the conning tower through which the water was pouring. It poured down one's back.
"I went down below to the bottom of the ladder and the water was getting deeper.
"I told First Lieutenant that they were all shouting on deck. He gave me some more books from the cabin, I took these up on deck. This was my third trip."
From the top of the conning tower Brown shouted to Gordon Connell, an officer from the Petard who had approached with reinforcements in a whaler, that he was going down again.
Connell ordered him not to as the U-boat was clearly sinking lower and lower in the water. Brown was told to tell Fasson to come up immediately, but before he could do so the U-boat began to sink even more rapidly, and Brown was forced to dive into the sea.
Ken Lacroix was the last man to make it out of the conning tower. He recalls: "I had just been handed a wooden box by the men inside the U-boat.
"They told me not to tip it up. But half way up the ladder I felt a stream of liquid which seemed to be coming out of the box trickling down my face. I winced, fearing that it might be acid. But then I realised it was only sea water.
"I carried on climbing and passed the box to the men still waiting at the top. After going down the ladder again, I heard Fasson ordering me to get out. However this time as I climbed up I was met by a torrent of water. As it forced me down I had to cling on to the ladder rungs to avoid being swept down into the U-boat again.
"It was then that I panicked. Perhaps that was what saved my life. I was somehow able to summon up the strength to push myself through what seemed an impenetrable wall of water up to the top of the conning tower which by this time was almost level with the sea.
"I dropped into the water, and somehow, though weighed down by the clothes I was still wearing, swam back to the Petard. When I got back on board, I immediately reported to the ship's commander. 'I'm sorry,' I told him. 'The other men were still inside the sub when it went down.'"
DESPITE the tragic loss of life, the vital code books were salvaged and rushed by intelligence officers to Bletchley Park.
The Enigma code had first been broken in 1941, but there had been a code breaking blackout since February 1, 1942, after the Germans altered their cipher machines.
With the new information seized by Lacroix and the other boarding party crew, codes were once again successfully deciphered and secret German naval movements were again revealed.
Seven months later, Ken was invited to meet King George V1, to be decorated for what I had done.
"The King said, 'I know all about it, but we're still not allowed to discuss this, are we?'" says Ken. "'No, it's still a secret,' I replied. 'Well, congratulations,' he said, and we shook hands."
Ken, a retired caretaker, now lives with his wife in a Sussex seaside town.
Few of his neighbours and only his closest friends know they are living next to a hero who helped save us all from tyranny.
Enigma: The Battle For The Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore (pounds 20, Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Jun 12, 2000 |
| Words: | 1176 |
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