HMS Broadwater & HMS Highlander

[tim lewin]

I note that both of these ships are catalogued; my late father served for a few weeks in Highlander 1940, on the night of october 17/8 1940 Higlander and Broadwater were escorting a homebound convoy when it was attacked by U-boats. Broadwater was sunk, Highlander was first on the scene but quite a few of her company were lost. Among these was Lt. Parker, an American volunteer who had signed up for the RN long before Pearl Harbour brought the USA into the global conflict. In 2001 i worked with a small group of dedicated researchers to comemorate all 22 of these exceptional Americans who left their homes to help us. Their names are listed in the original stone-tiled floor of the Painted Hall at Greenwich, the soul of Maritime Britain. The comemoration was attended by Winston Churchill (G/son), Mrs Beth Bush, sister of one of the volunteers and wife of President Bush Snr's brother as well as relatives of most of the families. There is much more to this story if anyone is interested.

[culverin]

Hello Tim and this post from the distant past.
I would be interested to know more of this information you have, however if i may mention, the year was 1941, not 1940, and as you state your father was on Highlander from Oct 1941 to that December, when he joined Ashanti for the best part of 3 years.
I presume we are concerned principally with convoy SC 48, to which on the dates you mention (1941) both Broadwater and Highlander were attached.
This was certainly an action packed trip for those seamen, military and merchant, who became embroiled in the numerous actions along the route and in which a lot of criticism would duly surface.

[tim lewin]

You are of course right about the year; i was primarily involved with the stroy of the loss of the Broadwater because she carried with her Lt. Parker, the first of the 2 KIA out of the 22 American volunteers to join the RN. The incident is well covered in Eric Berryman's book published at the end of last year "Passport Not Required" which tells the stories of all of the volunteers. I became involved through our late friend Chalky White in preparing the way for the memorial in the Painted Hall at Greenwich which is covered elsewhere on the forum. It was also the night the USS Kearney was torpedoed, although being more robustly constructed she did not sink but was able to limp to Greenland before making it home again altho she suffered 11 killed. The U-boat skpper reported he thought she might be a Tribal class destroyer, not expecting a USN ship to be so far into the convoy route. If you send me a pm i can prob find more detail for you, which specific aspect is of particular interest?
All best
tim