Bernard Edwards > Quotes

“Greenland, the world’s largest island, is a cold and desolate place, all but a tiny coastal strip of which is covered by an ice cap 5,000 feet thick. In winter, with temperatures down to -9°F (-23°C), the sun does not rise until ten in the morning, and sets again at two in the after-noon. Few crops grow, and only a few sheep graze the scrubland in the extreme south. Storms with winds of up to 150 mph frequently sweep the frozen wastes, and it is often so cold that a man’s breath freezes on his beard.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats

“First colonized by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1583, St John’s has ever since been an important outpost of the Americas. Home port of the vast Grand Banks cod fishing fleet, it was here, on Signal Hill, that Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message in 1901, and from here Alcock and Brown took off to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats

“The Dorchester was assigned the role of troop transport, and suffered the indignity of having her luxurious, predominantly first-class accommodation gutted, and transformed into spartan quarters for up to 800 troops. She retained her 120-strong Merchant Marine crew, led by Captain Hans Jorgen Danielson, and was fitted with one 4-inch, one 3-inch and four 20-mm guns. This armament was manned by a squad of twenty-three US Navy Armed Guard seamen, under the command of Lieutenant William Arpaia.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats

“Döhler was in such a hurry to dive that U-606’s conning tower was not properly sealed, and as she went down water poured into the boat. She sank like a stone, until Döhler managed to hold her at 230 metres, very near to maximum depth. In desperation, for the boat’s crew thought their last moment had come, every cubic metre of compressed air remaining on board was pumped into the main ballast tanks. The reaction was predicable, U-606 shooting to the surface like a rocket. Campbell was closest when the U-boat broke the surface with a rush. Captain Lewis immediately opened fire with all guns able to bear and charged in at full speed to ram. The collision rolled the U-boat over on her side, but she came upright again, her crew spilling out of the conning tower onto the casing.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats

“U-223 turned southwards, and quickly worked up to 16 knots, her thundering diesels matching the heartbeat of all on board. The chase was on.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats

“The fight started in earnest an hour after darkness had fallen, when at 19.35 the first of the Knappen boats made its rendezvous with ON 166. Adolf Oelrich, in U-92, on his second war patrol and still with only one Allied ship to his credit, was eager to improve his score. He pounced on the 10,000-ton Empire Trader when he found her straggling behind the convoy. She was so obviously old and tired that Oelrich used only one torpedo on her. He had miscalculated, the thirty-five-year-old British ship was a product of an age when ships were built to outlast their owners, and she stayed afloat.”
― Bernard Edwards, The Twilight of the U-Boats