At All Costs (37 page)

The first quote in Chapter 40 comes from John Follansbee; he was there in the wardroom of the
Penn,
along with Mason, Thomson, Larsen, Dales, and other officers. Ensign Suppiger’s story came from a BBC television show made in 1992, at the fiftieth reunion of Operation Pedestal on Malta.

Because it wasn’t made clear by Captain Mason that the
Ohio
was officially abandoned, it was important to show that her liaison officer, chief officer, and chief engineer all declared that they had been ordered to abandon ship.

It remains a small mystery why Admiral Burrough returned to Gibraltar instead of staying to protect the
Ohio,
which he knew was under fire. He might have had orders from the Admiralty; in Gibraltar, he took a saltwater shower on the decks of the
Ashanti—
the men were apparently more embarrassed by the naked admiral than he was—and rushed off to command another operation.

PART VIII

TWO MEN, ONE WARRIOR

By using the many memoirs, journals, and accounts like interviews and writing large parts of the story like a newspaper reporter covering a natural disaster, the context and time of the words “he said” were lost, because they would have been impossible to keep in place and didn’t matter in the big picture anyhow. Nowhere was this more true than in the final nine chapters.

The characters took control of the story to its conclusion, so few of the sources in Part VIII are new. The voices reappear. There are more Churchill, Lord Moran, Larsen, Dales, other veterans, and Letters of Proceeding.

I’d like to thank each individual mentioned here as a source. I was moved by the help I received from so many people who took an interest in this project. The research began and ended twenty-three months later at a borrowed table in a corner of the Oasis Internet café and smoothie bar in Los Barriles, Baja, on the Sea of Cortés. My friend Carol Pogash read two chapters at a time when I was buried by the bulk of the story and made two simple suggestions that helped the voice be heard through the din of the action. My friends John and Suzanne Mockett invited me into their home in Northampton to recover on Easter Sunday between legs of my drive around England. Moira Terry steered me around communication traps in London and turned over her cell phone to use on my drive. Jan Larsen fed me in Malta and was there for anything I needed. Cliff Dales and Donna Dales Lovett showed me Georgia hospitality. Peter Riva’s research skills sometimes surpassed my own—certainly his knowledge did—and copy editor Lynn Anderson caught scores of flaws in the manuscript. Finally, Bob Loomis’s vision of this story was clearer than my own. Without his wisdom, guidance, and patience,
At All Costs
would have been lost at sea.

BIBLIOGRAPHY •••

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———.
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& Malta.
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———.
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———.
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———.
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———.
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”
Sea Classics
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”
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NEWSPAPERS

Smart, Norman.
Daily Express
[London] (August 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 20, 1942).

Thorpe, Arthur.
The Daily Telegraph
[London] (August 14 and 17, 1942).

Daily Mail
[London] (August 17 and 18, 1942).

The Times
[London] (August 13, 14, and 15, 1942).

The New York Times
(various issues, 1940–42).

DOCUMENTARIES

“Running the Gauntlet.” Produced and directed by Crispin Sadler (2004).

“True Stories: Convoy.” Produced by Noreen Molloy for BBC4 television (c. 1995).

JOURNALS, DIARIES, TRANSCRIPTS, UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, COMMENTARY

George Amyes

Dennis Cooke

Francis Dales

Desmond Dickens

Anthony Kimmins

Frederick Larsen

John Follansbee, “Swans in the Maelstrom”

Douglas Hunter Gray

Captain Dudley Mason

Ray Morton

Frank Pike

Kaptein Helmut Rosenbaum

Allan Shaw

Theodore Roosevelt Thomson (Captain Tommy Thomson) James Wyld

INTERVIEWS

Don Allen (veteran, HMS
Ledbury
)

George Amyes (veteran, HMS
Eagle
)

Rusty Bailie (cousin of Francis Dales; family historian)

Frank Balcombe (veteran, HMS
Eagle
)

Alan Barnett (veteran, SS
Waimarama
)

Reg Coaker (veteran, HMS
Bramham
)

Dennis Cooke (veteran, RAF Malta)

Simon Cusens (organizer, Operation Pedestal reunions)

Clifford H. Dales (son of Francis Dales)

Kitty Dales (Mrs. Bertram Dales, sister-in-law of Francis Dales) Marjorie Dales (Mrs. Francis Dales)

Joe Darmanin (child veteran, siege of Malta)

Miriam Devine (child veteran, siege of Malta)

Tony DiMicoli (child veteran, siege of Malta)

Francis J. Dooley (former shipmate of Captain Fred Larsen)

John Follansbee (son of John “Jack” Follansbee)

Peter Forcanser (veteran, SS
Santa Elisa
)

Andrew Forrest (veteran, HMS
Penn
)

Les Goodenough (veteran, HMS
Eagle
)

Rollin Hansen (former shipmate of Francis Dales)

Mary Stone Hargrove (childhood friend of Francis Dales) Sandra Larsen Hosay (daughter of Fred Larsen)

Charles Johnson (childhood friend of Francis Dales)

Eleanor Johnson (childhood friend of Francis Dales)

James Johnson (veteran, SS
Santa Elisa
)

Bill Kooiman (author; veteran of the Grace Line)

Jan F. Larsen (son of Fred Larsen)

Minda Larsen (Mrs. Fred Larsen)

Scott Larsen (grandson of Fred Larsen)

Captain Warren Leback (former Grace Line shipmate of Captain Tommy Thomson)

Ron Linton (veteran, SS
Dorset
)

Donna Dales Lovett (daughter of Francis Dales)

Peg Thomson-Mann (daughter of Captain Thomson)

Captain Arthur Moore (author; veteran, U.S. Merchant Marine) Ray Morton (veteran, SS
Ohio
)

Harold Myers (veteran, SS
Almeria Lykes
)

Dr. John Nixon (veteran, HMS
Ledbury
)

George Nye (veteran, SS
Santa Elisa
)

Danny O’Mara (veteran, SS
Brisbane Star
)

Frank Pike (veteran, SS
Santa Elisa
)

Ray Polidano (Malta Aviation Museum Foundation)

Peter Rothwell (veteran Spitfire pilot, RAF Malta)

Allan Shaw (veteran, SS
Ohio
)

Freddie Treves (veteran, SS
Waimarama
) J. T. Turner, Jr. (former employer of Francis Dales)