| Entry Text: | DURHAM, Phil. The Führer Led, But We Overtook Him. [xi], 213p., illus. Durham: Pentland, 1996. ISBN: 1858213657.
Durham entered Dartmouth in 1934 and by 1939 was a midshipman on Barham. He was quickly transferred to be second-in-command of the trawler Beryl, part of the A/S defences at Alexandria, but after a few weeks transferred again to Norfolk returning to join the Home Fleet. A winter on the Northern Patrol was followed by transfer to the destroyer Echo and the Norwegian Campaign. In late summer he joined Renown, which became a mainstay of Force H. At the end of 1940 he returned to Portsmouth for technical training and in mid-1941 then stood by Laforey. She was soon based at Gibraltar as part of 19DF. She took part in the Madagascar campaign then the Pedestal convoy. On her return to the UK to refit he volunteered for submarines. His first patrol was in Graph - the captured U 570 - but in July 1943 he joined Stoic as First Lieutenant. After working up she went to the Eastern Mediterranean and then Trincomalee. Patrol work followed then transfer to Fremantle. In February 1945 she returned to the UK and Durham joined a party preparing for the surrender of U-boats. In May he even sailed U 776 up the Thames to Westminster. As the war ended he took his "Perisher", the submarine commanders' course. |
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