From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Website
In Memory of
Chief Engineer Officer BERNHARD STANLEY CODD
M.V. Shillong (London), Merchant Navy
who died age 30
on 05 April 1943
Son of William Ernest and Wilhelmine Bernhardine Codd; husband of Doris Edith Codd, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.
Remembered with honour
Bernhard was one of the easiest men to find as regards his part in the war and the action in which he died. His name could not be mistaken for anyone else′s on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and that is all I had to go on, just his name. The memorial Tablet gave no more information so he could have been in any of the forces, or a merchant seaman or simply a civilian but the name, luckily, found him immediately.
According to the CWGC he was born in 1913, the son of William Ernest and Wilhelmine Berhardine Codd but I′ve not been able to find out where he was born nor when or where he married his wife, Doris Edith. The couple may have lived in Bexhill as, the lady, apparently, requested Hooe Council to add her husband′s name to those on their proposed memorial tablet because his name had been missed off that of Bexhill; I suppose, that the Bexhill council, for some reason, had refused to add it.
What we know of Bernhard is that he was in the merchant navy and Chief Engineer Officer on board the "M V Shillong", which, with a crew of 73, was carrying 8000 tons of zinc concentrates and 3000 tons of grain from Port Lincoln and New York, in the United States, to Belfast, Lough, and Swansea, The ship left Port Lincoln and sailed up the coast for Nova Scotia to meet and join up with the convoy in which it would sail across the Atlantic.
The convoy, identified as HX-231, comprised, in total, 61 merchant ships and had a 6-ship, Coastal Command escort; it also had intermittent air cover, which, for a while, gave it some extra protection from U-boats.
On a very cold and foggy day, the convoy sailed away from Nova Scotia and headed out into the Atlantic.
An American sailor, Marion R. Mitchell, on board the "M.S. Sunoil", a merchant oil tanker, sailing in the same convoy said, many years later, "The sea grew awful rough, there was constant rolling and pitching about, just the nerves alone were enough to make one sick. To say it was miserable would be an understatement".
"On April 1st the convoy changed course, swinging to the Northeast, toward Iceland. At least we still had air cover, but that would only last another day and a half. After we cleared the Grand Banks and St. John′s, Newfoundland, it wasn′t long before the ship began to ice up. Cold, oh man, it was cold!."
"April 3rd, we were now outside the range of any air cover, in the black hole between Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland. We knew the enemy below was here somewhere but we hadn′t seen them yet. It felt really lonely here at the back edge of the convoy."
"Late on Sunday the 4th there developed a heavy fog and the visibility was very poor. The seas calmed and it was eerily quiet. That′s when it started. There was word that U–boats had been spotted and we could hear the destroyers, "HMS Alisma" and "HMS Vidette" going after them and attacking".
[Note. Shortly after this, "M. S. Sunoil", developed engine trouble and fell behind the convoy finally losing sight completely and, on Monday, 5th April, was torpedoed and sank but Marion R. Mitchell survived to tell the tale.]
"H.M.S. Shillong" managed to stay with the convoy, which, on Sunday, 4th April, was attacked by a wolf-pack of twenty U′boats. In the battle that followed, the "Shillong" was hit by a torpedo from Undash; 635, captained by Oberleutnant Heinz Eckelmann, and badly damaged. She managed to continue sailing but, at a quarter past twelve that night, she was hit by another torpedo, from U–635, and sank. Her position at that time was given as 57.10N, 35.30W.
On 5th April, 1943, U–635 came under attack from an aircraft of RAF 120 Squadron and was destroyed.
Eight days after "H.M.S. Shillong" sank, a Catalina flying boat spotted a life-raft and a message was sent to a Dutch ship, the "Zamalek", in the area asking it to go to the rescue of anyone on board. When it arrived there were only seven survivors, thirty-one crew having died of exposure while on the raft.
Two young apprentices, David Eric Clowe and Alan Bruce Moore were awarded the George Medal.
Finally, the name of Bernhard Stanley Codd, aged 30, was added to the memorial in the Tower Hill Memorial Cemetery, in London. Did he go down with the ship or was he one of those that died of exposure in the lifeboat? Perhaps, we′ll never know. We′ll, certainly, never really know what that night must have been like for him and all his fellow sailors.
I have no idea if Bernhard had any connection with Hooe or not but I hope that this, however, goes a little way to giving us something to remember him by — not much but a little more than just his name on a simple marble plaque.
