U-Boat Killer

Captain Donald MacIntyre DSO**, DSC, RN

Captain Donald Macintyre, DSO and two bars, DSC, was one of the Royal Navy's most outstanding figures in the Battle of the Atlantic. Commissioned in 1926, he served with destroyers in the Mediterranean Fleet, and with the Fleet Air Arm on the China Station before taking command of the sloop HMS Kingfisher. It was while Kingfisher was the experimental ship for the new Anti-Submarine School at Portland that Macintyre acquired his 'over-riding interest in submarine hunting' that was later to make him famous. In January 1940 he was given command of the brand-new destroyer HMS Hesperus. After several adventures in the Norwegian campaign she was transferred to the Western Approaches where Macintyre began his long stint escorting the vital Atlantic convoys. In March 1941 he transferred to HMS Walker as commander of 5th Escort Group, and during convoy HX-112 sunk the U-boats of the two leading German submarine commanders Kretschmer and Schepke. In September 1942 he rejoined Hesperus taking command of Escort Group B2. In March 1944 he formed a new 5th Escort Group based on HMS Bickerton and protected the invasion armada during Operation NEPTUNE, but in August Bickerton was torpedoed near Bear Island and had to be sunk by friendly fire.Macintyre spent the rest of the war ashore, and after retirement from the Navy in 1956 developed a second successful career as a naval historian. Fittingly, 'U-Boat Killer' was his first published work and remains one of the finest personal accounts of the Atlantic war.Macintyre's anti-submarine record is outstanding; he personally destroyed no fewer than five U-boats, while ships under his direct command sank a further two. He was without doubt one of the most brilliant anti-submarine specialists the Royal Navy has ever produced.

179 pages b/w photos hardback/ no jacket Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson London (1956) 222mm x 145mm

good condition