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Leatherhead War Memorials: Andrew Cyril Davies
Town Memorial WWII Panel
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Name: DAVIES, ANDREW CYRIL Age: 24
Steward, Merchant Navy, S.S. Empire Hawksbill (London)
Date of Death: 19/07/1942
Son of Andrew Cyril and Letitia Kathleen Davies; nephew of Mrs.
M. Mitchell, of Llanishen, Glamorgan.
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 41.
Cemetery: TOWER HILL MEMORIAL
Andrew Davies, if indeed he is the Davies AC on the Town War Memorial, has no known grave but is named on the Tower Hill Memorial which commemorates men and women of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died in both world wars and who have no known grave. It stands on the south side of the garden of Trinity Square, London, close to the Tower of London. Some 12,000 WWI casualties and 24,000 WWII casualties are named.
At present, Mr Davies' connection with Leatherhead has not been established.
Steam Ship Empire
Hawksbill ¹
5652 gross tons. length 410ft, beam 54.2ft.
Built by South Western SB Co, San Pedro, Calif. and completed in 1920.
History
1920 WEST NIVARIA, US Shipping Board, Los Angeles.
1928 GOLDEN COAST, Oceanic & Oriental Nav. Co, San Francisco.
1937 DELAWAREAN, American Hawaiian SS Co, New York.
1940 EMPIRE HAWKSBILL. Ministry of War Transport, managed by
Runciman Ltd, London.
19.7.42 Torpedoed and sunk by U.564 at 42.29N 25.26W
Voyage: BARRY & BELFAST LOUGH for TABLE BAY
²
Casualties: total crew of 46 all lost
Attacker U 564
Date 19.7.1942, time 0230
Fate: torpedoed
Square reported: CE3341
Oosition 42.29N/25.56W
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all dates and times are from the
German perspective and are given in Central European Time.
U564 09.07.1942 - 18.09.1942 ²
Seventh Sailing - active patrol
U-564, a Type VIIC, left Brest under the command of Reinhard
Suhren on 9th Jul 1942 for operations in the Caribbean and
arrived back at Brest on 18th Sep 1942 after just over ten weeks
on patrol.
Reinhard Suhren hit five ships on this patrol, four of these
ships were in convoy: two were from convoy OS-34 and two were
from convoy TAW(S).
On 19th Jul 1942 he sank the British 5,372 ton Lavington
Court, part of convoy OS-34.
On 19th Jul 1942 he sank the British 5,724 ton Empire
Hawksbill, from convoy OS-34.
On 19th Aug 1942 he sank the British 5,969 ton Empire Cloud,
sailing with convoy TAW(S).
On 19th Aug 1942 he sank the British 6,940 ton British Consul,
a member of convoy TAW(S).
On 30th Aug 1942 he sank the Norwegian 8,176 ton Vardaas.
This patrol was extensively photographed by a War Correspondent of the Kriegsmarine's Propaganda Service. Many of these photos, and the story of this patrol, are included in U-Boat War Patrol - The Hidden Photographic Diary of U564 by Lawrence Paterson. This book is estimated to be available around January 2004. A link to the author's page is here and the publisher's page is here.
U-564 sailed under Hans Fiedler from Bordeaux on 9th Jun 1943 for operations in the North Atlantic and was lost on 14th Jun 1943. It was on of a group of 5 U Boats which had been ordered to saty on the surface and fight back if attacked by aircraft.
They were passing through Coastal Command's area designated as Seaslug on the 13th June when they were located by a Sunderland of 228 Sqn RAF. U-564's gun crews indeed fought back, shooting down the Sunderland, Flt Lt Leonard Lee and his crew all killed. Their attack was not in vain as the boat was damaged and was forced to abort, being escorted by U-185.
Meanwhile 19 Group had been alerted to the location of the U-Boats and had sent more aircraft to hunt them. On the afternoon of the 14th a Whitley of Coastal Command's 10 OTU (Sgt A Benson) found U-185 and U-564, and circled while calling for assistance. Another Whitley failed to arrive, and Benson carried out an attack on his own. U-564 once more fought it out, damaging one of the Whitley's engines. Benson's attack was good, and U-564 was severely damaged. The Whitley aircraft were never good at flying on one engine, and Benson was forced to ditch when the damaged engine failed. The aircrew were rescued by a fishing boat, and landed in France where they became POWs.
Meanwhile U-185 tried to take U-564 in tow, but the badly damaged boat could not be saved. Fiedler and 17 of his crew were taken off by U-185, the other 28 having been killed during the earlier attack. The survivors were then taken by the Destroyers Z24 and Z25 that evening.
Sources
1. Mariners website
2. UBootwaffe website courtesy of Howard Cock
[Links]
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
entry
British Merchant Navy at War
1939-45: Empire Ships
the website editor would
like to add further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him , his name on Tower Hill Memorial
and of any recollections within his family.
last updated 3 Aug 2004