The Battle of the Atlantic and The American Invasion

But it seems he balked at the idea of a seaborne invasion; he admitted that, unlike his U-boat captains, he was "a coward on water"; he dithered while the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies over the English Channel and South East England from July 10 to October 31,1940. Hitler left the German navy to force Britain to surrender by cutting off her lifeline: the supply, by sea, of armaments to fight the war and food to feed the island nation while he turned on his one-time ally, the Soviet Union.

When Operation Barbarossa — the German invasion of the USSR — began on June 2, 1941, here in Trinidad American engineers and architects were already beginning work on the bases leased to the US in December 1940.

Although the US only entered the war officially when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, Dr Elisha Tikasingh recalls that: "After the British signed this lease agreement with the United States for the bases, I remember at that time nearly everybody — a lot of people in the Civil Service, teachers, left their jobs to go and work at the base."

"Doing what?" I asked

"Anything they could get," he replied, "because the salaries were so much higher than those paid here" — both in business and industry (such as it was, then) or the Colonial Administration.

"There was actually a shortage of people in the Civil Service and the teaching service. Then the Government stepped in, I don’t know quite what was done, I think there was some sort of agreement because everyone was leaving just to go to the base. Or rather, the naval base in Chaguaramas, and in Piarco — the Fleet Air Arm was there — and the US section was up at Fort Reed (Wallerfield). There were a lot of Army as well as Air Force."

There were, indeed a lot of American servicemen in Trinidad, as Gaylord Kelshall pointed out when he continued the story of the Battle of the Atlantic which, as far as he was concerned, was the most important battle of the 20th century because it was a battle to keep the sea routes open to supply Britain with food and war materials.

"Being the terminus of the North Atlantic route the German U-boat commanders realised they could win a lot easier here in the Caribbean against the inexperienced Americans than they could in the North Atlantic.

"The Germans had been fighting in the North Atlantic for two years so they just laughed at the American efforts. The British sent 24 anti-submarine trawlers, two escort groups and Number 53 squadron RAF here to train the Americans. Meanwhile German U-Boats really pummelled the shipping.

"In May 1942, 70 percent of the ships sunk world wide were sunk in the Caribbean; this dropped to 60 percent in June and in July began to tail off because the U-boats literally ran out of ammunition; they were using their torpedoes so fast that although they expected to spend three weeks on station, within a week they’d used up all their torpedoes and headed back to France and another U Boat would take their place.

"All," (US warships) "were required to come to the Gulf of Paria and spend a minimum of three weeks here to learn their trade. The aircraft carriers thundered up and down the Gulf doing damage control training, all that sort of thing; the battleships came here for training, right down to the PT Boats. Every new ship in the US was required to come to Trinidad" (for final exercises) "and that added another 20,000 sailors."

Out in the Gulf, Kelshall relates: "There were battleship firing ranges, bombing ranges, air-to-air gunnery, air to ground gunnery, a huge training area. Amazing things took place; the Americans had a battery of guns on Patos island which they handed over to the Venezuelan Military when the Venezuelans said ‘We’ll join you.’ And the USS Hancock, an aircraft carrier came in, and the dive bombers were practising all day on the stakes sticking out, and one day they said ‘what’s that island out there? Let’s bomb it’. And they did, not knowing it was a Venezuelan garrison — and that caused a diplomatic incident.

"Escort groups for convoys went on to 1943 when we renewed the offensive in the Caribbean but by that stage the Americans were here in overwhelming strength and had had time to learn their job. It was a very bloody clash because it coincided with the U-Boat fight-back order which was an order to all commanders to stay and fight.

"In one month there were 32 clashes with aircraft coming back with crew injured and dead, they were barely making it back, being badly damaged. The air attacks on German U-boats and warships were launched from Carlsen Field. There was so much air traffic in Wallerfield that they pushed all the antisubmarine aircraft out to Carlsen Field. And then there was Camden Field and other overflow fields. At the height in 1943 when the battle of U-boat 615 took place, it took aircraft from 5 squadrons; they caught him just off the North Coast, there was an all-day battle, one U-Boat against the aircraft."

Kelshall describes the battle against the U-boat hunting packs as aircraft dropped depth charges to sink or cripple the U-boats.

"They’d come screaming in over the U-boats flying low, below 50 feet because they’d have to place the charges within 25 feet of the U-boats. They were slow, the German gunners would sit waiting. And they’d get a lot of wounded men and dead men inside so when they came back here the ambulances were always waiting.

"A lot of them crashed — the fixed wing aircraft from Carlsen Field and others — crashed all over the island. I can’t go out any more but the younger fellas go looking for bits of aircraft that crashed in WWII and are still there in the bush.

"There was a lot of aerial activity because when this became the training base, the aircraft carriers were here, the big American carriers. All of them were required to come to the Gulf of Paria and spend a minimum of three weeks here to learn their trade. So as soon as they got just off Trinidad they’d fly off the aircraft and it got so crowded they converted Carlsen Field into a purely Naval Air Station so they could all go to Carlsen Field to practice their short landings.

"Every new ship in the US was required to come to Trinidad" (for final exercises), reiterated Kelshall, "and that added another 20,000 sailors to their numbers. We said at the time of the US Servicemen, they were "overpaid, over-sexed and over here — with all the problems that went with it."

Dr Tikasingh put it a different way: "Socially, it was very bad; a lot of young women took to prostitution. Or, as Sparrow out of Lord Invader put it Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clementina were "working for the Yankee dollar"... and not just in Point Cumana.

"During the war," recalled Dr Tikasingh, "Doctor Wilbur Downs (who founded the Trinidad Virus Lab) was the malariologist at Fort Reed. He was very proud of keeping malaria out of the army and the air force there. But there was one fellow who always came down with malaria and he couldn’t figure it out so he set a couple of his assistants to watch this fellow.

"They found out that this chap, when it got dark and all were supposed to be in camp, would leave very quietly, go to the perimeter where he’d dug a hole under the fence, he would crawl under the fence and go out to Valencia to meet with the young ladies — and Valencia was a malarious area at the time so he would always come down with malaria.

"They," continued Dr Tikasingh, "were everywhere although I never saw any in church apart from Church parade. But of course, I was living in San Fernando and most of the US troops were in Port-of-Spain and up at the base in Chaguaramas, in Piarco and Wallerfield. Camden Field and Carlsen Field . . ."

Next week. The Battle of the Atlantic continues and some effects of the American invasion.