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Captain Johnnie Walker, RN
Between the wars Capt. Walker was a ASW specialist in the Royal Navy. By the time the war began he had been passed over and was scheduled for an early retirement. Even with the war going on he was still not given a command until 18 months after the war had started or in early 1941.
In March he was given command of the 36th Escort group which consisted of 2 sloops and 6 corvettes. There he was noted for development of sophisticated group tactics.
In December 1941, while escorting convoy HG-76, Walker's group sank 4 U-boats U-131 (Baumann), U-434 (Heyda), U-574 (Gengelbach) and U-567 (Endrass) for the loss of one escort carrier and 2 ships sunk. This is considered by many to be the first real convoy escort victory of the war.
The Second Support Group
In the spring of 1942 Walker took command of the Second Support Group, the first of the new striking forces to roam against the U-boats free of escorting duties. He commanded his own sloop, HMS Starling and had under his command Wild Goose, Cygnet, Wren, Woodpecker and Kite. This proved to be a formidable team.
The sloop HMS Starling
One of his tactics was to put 3 or more sloops in a line and then bombard the submerged U-boat in a similar way as artillery bombardment. This proved very effective if the U-boat was under the vessel in the middle, then his evasive action might take him under the depth charges dropped on his left or right.
1943
In June he sank 3 U-boats in the Bay of Biscay. The first one U-202 (Poser), on the 1st but the latter two both on the same day, the 24th; U-119 (von Kameke), and U-449 (Otto).
On 30 July, 1943 Walker's support group caught 3 large U-boats on the surface (an attempt to pass the Bay of Biscay in a group to repell aircraft). After a few seconds all U-boats had been hit and were unable to dive. Walker sank the U-462 (Vowe) and U-504 (Luis) but the third U-boat U-461 was sunk by an aircraft. In 10 minutes Germany had lost 2 of its vital Milkcows.
The sloop HMS Woodpecker
In August he learned that his son, Timothy, had been killed while serving on a British submarine in the Mediterranean. From that moment on he became even more of a hunter of U-boats.
His last kill of 1943 was the U-226 (Gänge) on 6 Nov.
1944
On 31 Jan, Walker and his group scored the first kill of that year against U-592 (Jaschke).
Within a span of 15 hours on Feb 9, 1944 his escort group sank 3 U-boats; U-238 (Hepp), U-734 (Blauert) and U-762 (Pietschmann). On Feb 11 his escort group sank the U-424 (Lüders) and 8 days later he sank the U-264 (Looks) for his 5th boat in a single month.
In March Walker was sent escorting the US cruiser Milwaukee as a gift to Russia. He sank 2 U-boats on that journey U-653 (Kandler) and U-961 (Fischer) and on the way back sank the U-473 (Sternberg) after a lengthy chase.
His last command was to help secure the D-Day landings at Normandy from the U-boat threat in France. During the first critical 2 weeks no U-boats got past him and many were destroyed both by escort vessels and the hundreds of aircraft in the area.
Captain Walker died on July 9, 1944 from overstrain, overwork and battle fatigue. During his years at sea the battle had taken too much toll from him as he rarely laid back and took a rest.