June 2025
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." ~J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings
It was inevitable that I would be late in publishing this newsletter at least a few times. Well, here it is.
I’ve been on holiday with my partner and boys, spending much needed time on the coast. Falling asleep to the sound of ocean waves, wandering through the redwood forests, and staring out at the Pacific Ocean was just what the doctor ordered.
Writing Update
I’m proud to say I’m 20,000+ words into volume 2. I sat in a sun-warmed Adirondack chair and wrote a few pivotal chapters this past week. I nailed down a new character: her likes, looks, and her adorable accent. She’s named after a dear friend of mine, who I think will recognize herself in this character if she reads my book. Beyond her name, of course.
Press Update
I have nothing to report here. Which at first makes me feel bad, but then I think: I’m working. Really hard. Its not press time, it’s writing time.
So it’s fine.
I’m fine.
History Bite
I’ve been looking into the sinking of the Nazi submarine U-110. One of my characters is on the HMS Aubrieta, a flower class corvette that moved back and forth across the Atlantic as a convoy escort. He will play a small part in one of the most important events of the war for the Atlantic.
In early May 1941, Convoy ON138 was on its way from Liverpool to North America, escorted by eight warships, including the Aubretia. On the ninth, U-110 attacked, quickly sinking two ships. As the submarine was scurrying away, HMS Aubretia spotting the U-boat’s periscope. With the help of ASDIC, an early form of Sonar, Aubretia and her crew positioned themselves near enough to the diving submarine to drop depth charges.
The explosions below forced U-110 to resurface. Aubretia was joined HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway, and the three ships managed to cripple U-110, making escape impossible. Commander Baker-Cresswell of the HMS Bulldog, gave the order to ram U-110 and send her to the bottom of the ocean.
As the destroyer began preparations, the U-boat commander, Kapitanleutnant Lemp ordered his submariners to abandon ship: “last stop, everybody out!” he called. The 47 men scrambled into the lifeboats, rowing away from their doomed vessel. Lemp prepared to watch his submarine be torn to bits.
But Commander Baker-Cresswell was watching, too. As soon as the enemy abandoned the submarine, he reversed his decision: the British would board U-110 instead.
Kapitanleutnant Lemp panicked: he had not destroyed the secret materials aboard U-110. In a desperate attempt to rectify his mistake, Lemp tried to swim back to his sinking submarine and destroy what he could. He made it into the water, but was never seen again. The British sailors who boarded U-110 gathered codebooks, charts, ciphers, and a complete and undamaged Kriegsmarine Enigma machine.
Quite the prize, indeed.
U-110 was then sunk, disappearing from view, the secret of its capture along with it. HMS Bulldog gathered up the enemy submariners, rescuing 32 of them, and transported them to Scapa Flow as POWs.
Waiting on the dock at Scapa Flow, were a handful of cryptanalysts from Bletchley Park.
This story might be familiar to you. A fantastically inaccurate movie called U-571 attempted to tell the tale. While it’s exciting, the movie twists and distorts the actual events (the worst transgression is they replace the British naval vessels with an American one).
But the truth is stranger (and more exciting) than fiction.
The Nazi submariners were led to believe the ship sank before the boarding party arrived. They had no idea an Enigma machine had been picked up by the allies, let alone all of the code books and and other ciphers.
At the same time, not a single one of the Royal Navy sailors knew the true significance of what they had captured, or how many lives they saved. Within just a couple of months, thanks to the intelligence brought in from U-110, the Allied shipping losses dropped by 81%. Only one ship sunk for every five previously, in other words.
King George VI himself told Commander Baker-Cresswell that the capture of the U-110 cipher material was “the most important single event in the whole war at sea.”
It’s a tale of bravery, teamwork, and quick thinking. The Aubretia was the key to bringing U-110 to the surface, and her comrades, the Bulldog and the Broadway, jumped into bring the submarine to her knees. Commander Baker-Cresswell’s savvy move to board U-110 instead of ram her meant the Enigma machine was in the hands of the brilliant men and women at Bletchley Park, who used it to break the naval codes and shorten the war by several years.
The sinking of U-110 is just another example of how one battle, one ship, one commander, can change the tides of war.
Recommendations
There are some authors whose work I admire deeply. A few that I’ve begun working through their entire collected works, and I’m stupidly surprised at how wonderful every book is.
One of these authors is Taylor Jenkins Reid. She writes some contemporary novels, some historical, all with some beautiful bit of love. If I had to recommend one or two, I’d say start with One True Loves or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
One True Loves was gorgeous and heartbreaking. Be prepared to cry. If you want a good book for Pride Month, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a good start.
I hope you find time to sit on the coast, be it a warm sandy beach, or the treacherous rocks of the Pacific North West like I did.
Take a few books, of course.
Just keep reading,
Jennifer