Letter
The following is a copy of my letter to Jordan Vaus, author of, ‘U-Boat Ace’, The story of Wolfgang Luth:
Jordan Vause
C/O The Naval Institute
291 Wood Road
Annapolis MD 21402
7 December 2000
Dear Jordan,
I hope this letter will reach you through your Publisher. I want to say how interesting I found your books, ‘U-Boat Ace’ and ‘Wolf’. Your book on Wolfgang Luth was the first time I had ever seen a mention of the sinking of my father’s ship. My father was Able-Seaman George Wormald of the Royal Navy, serving aboard a merchant ship, the ‘Empire Lake’, which you describe as having been sunk by two torpedoes from U-Boat181 in the Indian Ocean. Sadly my mother died eleven years ago having never known what had happened to my father, she was informed by the Admiralty in late July 1943 that the ship had been sunk somewhere in the Indian Ocean and that my father was missing. It was not until December 1943, that he was reported to have been killed. She had been led to believe that there were no survivors, I do not know whether the Admiralty gave that information, I can find nothing among the memorabilia she left.
I was seven years of age when my father was killed. I have always searched for something that might tell me of his fate. It was never a serious search and I was unaware of the records available to me. However, I recently stumbled across a book titled ‘U-Boat Fact File’, by Peter Sharpe, which told me that the Empire Lake had been sunk by U 181 and the U-Boat Commander was Wolfgang Luth. I searched the Internet for information on Luth and discovered your book. It was of great interest to me as you might imagine, I have been unable to purchase a copy, I understand it is out of print, but borrowed one from the local library. I tried to read the book with an unbiased approach but found it very difficult. Luth seemed a man without compassion for those he fought, a caring family man, but so were many Nazis (e.g. Goebbels). In the end I was certainly not unhappy about Luth being shot, although somewhat disappointed to know that the crew of 181 had held a reunion, I think it better I should be unaware of any future meetings planned. Some of the crew who perished in the Empire Lake were just boys of 18 years and my mother was widowed at the age of 28 with four children. But that is war and that war is now history.
I thought you might be interested to know that there were in fact seven survivors of the sinking, five on one raft and two on another. Luth did surface and approach the raft, one of his officers enquired as to the name of the ship, where she was from and where bound. The description of Luth is accurate from your book, the report I have to hand, states, ‘A man stood by a machine gun on the conning tower and the Commander by a larger gun on the fore deck. He looked of rather small stature, and had a dark beard.’ The fact that he surfaced, offered no assistance and left them to die, in my view makes him almost amoral.
I have identified the survivors and attempted to trace them, I had a reply from the son of one of them to tell me that his father died eleven years ago, he would have been a comrade of my father as he was also Royal Navy. I understand he had been torpedoed once before and even after the Empire Lake, had gone back to sea again.
I have just finished reading ‘Wolf’, I think the book was excellently written, I know I enjoyed reading it because I read it slowly, I will no doubt read it again soon.
I was in San Fransisco and Monterey a couple of years ago (second visit), had a splendid time, and visited friends in Northern California. Thank you for the information you have given me, I shall treasure it. Many congratulations on your books. Perhaps you might be able to persuade the printer to print a few more on Luth!
Yours sincerely,