December newsletter

ROTARY CLUB OF HARWICH & DOVERCOURT

DECEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER

On Monday, November 23^rd, we had a very interesting talk by Mike King about ‘Ethiopiahope’, a charity he and his wife Angela started after their initial visit to that country in 2003. They had gone to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia for a holiday and after seeing the plight of the many poor in the area, felt that they had to do something to help, starting by focusing on a Woman in Development programme to provide for the many single mothers and malnourished children. The first step was to set up a Porridge Club which feeds the women and children five days a week and to provide some basic education. The next step was a Day Care Centre, the building being funded by a German charity with the day to day running being financed by Ethiopiahope and this provided for children, up to the age of 6, with care, education and a meal, allowing their mothers to be able to go to work and earn some much needed money. Now the centre has over 200 attendees with 6 teachers, 2 cooks, 2 cleaners and a secretary and now supports 19 children in main stream school and 7 in higher education. By visiting every year Angela and Mike keep a close eye on developments and also have Sister Terfatu, a Catholic nun, on the spot to supervise operations. The charity has also been able to build 150 simple houses allowing 150 families a safe and dry environment to raise their families and the aim of the charity is to make the people self sufficient and has set up many people in small businesses. Angela and Mike do most of the fund raising and every penny raised goes out to Ethiopia for the benefit of the locals – all A & J’s expenses are paid by themselves and it must be the only charity, or one of the very few, where all monies raised are used to help the local people. They also take out clothing on their yearly visits adding a lot to their excess baggage ! On top of all the ongoing help that they are giving so far, they are starting another project to provide electricity to the nearby village of Wollega – this will involve raising £30,000 to complete the project. If you would like to find out more about the charity, please go to their website www.ethiopiahope.com. A vote of thanks was given by Ron Reeves and we all showed our appreciation in the usual way. Our President Andy presented Mike with a cheque for £200 and several of us purchased calendars etc which I believe raised another £60 approx.

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On November 30^th obout 40 or so Rotarians and their Wives/partners attended the latest James Bond film at the Electric Palace and enjoyed a Thai meal provided by our old friend Andy Mear. A most enjoyable evening I understand and thanks must go to Colin Hance and his team for organising the evening,

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On Wednesday 2^nd December the annual Senior Citizen’s Christmas Party took place at the Dovercourt Haven Caravan Park with kind permission of the management and Mr Hammerton. I unfortunately could not be there but I understand that the evening went off with the usual success helped along by the children from All Saints School, the Dovercourt Ukulele Band, a female vocalist and of course Myra and Terry to close the proceedings. I understand that a little dancing took place. Thanks go to David Rutson and his team for organising the evening and to all the Rotarians and their wives/partners who turned up on the night to help with the refreshments etc.

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On Monday 14^th we held our Ladies Christmas Dinner at the Cliff Hotel organised by Colin Hance and his committee (used to be called the Club Service Committee but they seem to keep on changing things). After a well prepared turkey dinner we were entertained by Chloe and Ollie, young dancers who are making a name for themselves in competitions all over the country and they really showed how energetic and professional they have become at such a young age, We have to thank Charles for introducing us to these charming and talented youngsters. This was followed by a session with the Dovercourt Ukulele Band lead by our own Steve Oxley , playing some good old songs and carols. Then, with Marion Reeves on the keyboard, our own Richard Wearmouth led the Twelve days of Christmas , finishing off with some popular carols. Thanks must go to Colin Hance and his team for organising the evening, for Chloe and Ollie for their dancing, for Steve and his band and to Marion and Richards for closing the evening.

Another very nice touch was that one lady from each of the seven tables went home with a very nice bouquet of flower which had adorned the tables during the evening.

Another important part of the evening was our President Andy presenting Norman Cory with his well deserved Paul Harris Medal – over the years from 1993 Norman has been a hard working Rotarian especially organising the tombola at many Sea Festivals. So Norman joins the other PHF in the Club namely Tony Burrows, Denis Foster,  Norman Hills, Doug Hutchins, Rodney Parmenter, Ron Reeves, Ian Wood and yours truly.

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Reception of Visitors

Monday ,December 21^{st                -}                       NO       MEETING

Monday , December 28^th          -                       NO       MEETING

Monday , January 4^th                 David Wells                  Chris Whittam             Trevor Williams

Monday, January11th               Ian Wood                     Malcolm Ablett            Nigel Barnard

Monday, January 18^th               Greg Bloss                    Charles Bull                  Tony Burrows

Monday. January 25^th               Cathy Calver                 Richard Coolen             Colin Crawford

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Dates for your Diary

Monday , December 21^st                       -                       NO MEETING

Monday, December 28^th                       -                       NO MEETING

Monday, January 4^th                             -                       CLUB COUNCIL

Monday, January 11^th                            -                       BUSINESS MEETING

Monday January 18^th                            -                       Speaker Julia Treharne  TBC

Monday, January 25^th                           -                       BURNS NIGHT with CHRIS STRACHAN

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Battle of the River Plate

It was early December 1939 that this battle was fought in the South Atlantic. The German Pocket Battleship ‘Admiral Graf Spee’ was at sea when war was declared and had been sinking Allied merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic since the end of September but without loss of life. Captain Hans Langsdorff always took the crews onboard before sinking the merchant ships and some of the captured crews were transferred to the supply ship ‘Altmark’ to return to Germany. (The ‘Altmark’ was boarded on 16^th February 1940 by the crew of HMS Cossack when she took shelter in a fjord in the then neutral Norway when making her way to Germany). The Royal Navy had nine forces trying to find the ‘Graf Spee’ and it was Force G comprising HMS ‘Exeter, HMS ‘Ajax’ and HMNZS ‘Achilles’ under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood on HMS ‘Ajax’ that would eventually corner the German battleship. Harwood thought that Langsdorff would make for the area off the River Plate with its many merchant vessels leaving and arriving the area. Force G were being supplied by four RFA tankers and so had plenty of fuel and the plan was that if the enemy were encountered during the day the force would split with the Exeter on her own and the Ajax and Achilles on the other side of the enemy. If encountered at night the force would stick together. The British were outgunned by ‘Graf Spee’s’ 11in guns to their 8in guns but they did have the superior speed to keep out of trouble , if necessary. At 0610 smoke was sighted and the three cruisers were sighted by ’Graf Spee’ who mistakenly thought that they were destroyers escorting a convoy. Deciding to attack Langsdorff realised too late that he was facing three cruisers and the range was closing quickly so that the British ships could make their guns bear on the target. ‘Exeter’ was almost immediately hit several times and soon had only one gun operational and had developed a 7 degree list. However she maintained full speed firing with her remaining guns until that was hit and  ‘Exeter’ was forced to brake off the engagement. But one of ‘Exeter’s’ shells had penetrated the deck of the enemy in the funnel area and destroyed the raw fuel processing  system leaving her with only 16 hours steaming. Meanwhile ‘Ajax’ and ‘Achilles’ had been hit but had managed to hit the ‘Graf Spee’, and decided to lay smoke screens and shadow the enemy and attack with torpedoes after dark. But before dark a British merchant ship, the SS’Shakespeare’, was sighted close to the ‘Graf Spee’ and Langsdorff radioed ‘Ajax’ to pick up the survivors after she sunk the vessel. But the ‘Shakespeare did not stop when ordered to do so, so Langsdorff decided to steam away towards the entrance to the River Plate. ‘Graf Spee’ entered Uruguay waters and anchored off Montevideo, a neutral country and a country which was very pro British when she could have gone to a port in Argentina which was also neutral but pro-German. We shall never know why but it might have been the difficulty of navigating through the many sandbanks that put Langsdorff off this alternative. Once in Montevideo the 13^th Hague Convention  apparently came into play and Article 12, which states ‘ that a belligerent warship could not remain in port for more than 24 hours , although Article 14 allowed a longer time if the vessel is damaged. The British representative, one Eugen Millington-Drake, tried to have the ‘Graf Spee’ leave port immediately but after consulting with London, it was decided to keep the ‘Graf Spee’ in port so that the Royal Navy’s large battle fleet could steam down and arrive off the River Plate by 19^th December. Article 16 of the Hague Convention states that an enemy warship cannot leave port of a neutral country until 24 hours after the departure of a merchant ship flying the flag of its adversary, so it was decided to have an allied merchant ship  sail out of Montevideo every 24 hours. In the meantime the badly damaged ‘Exeter’ sailed to the Falkland Islands for temporary repairs before returning to the UK for a 13 month refit! The Allied prisoners from the ‘Graf Spee’ were landed in Montevideo and the German wounded were treated in the hospital – as there was quite a large number of Germans who had settled in Uruguay, the patients were visited by the local Germans and one German seaman apparently finished up marrying the daughter of his visitors and remained in Uruguay. Langsdorff  did not have many options – his superiors in Germany were against internment because of the outside chance that Uruguay might enter the war on the Allies side. He had no chance of making it back to Germany because of the presence of the Royal Navy and his lack of ammunition and fuel, and so after dark on 17^th December the ‘Graf Spee’ weighed anchor and proceeded out to sea after landing the majority of the crew to a German freighter. Once clear of the land ‘Graf Spee’ was scuttled in reasonably shallow water and the crew taken to Buenos Aires to be interned. Hitler was said to be infuriated which is probably an understatement. On December 19^th, Langsdorff committed suicide and was buried with full military honours.

I think that we have all seen the film ‘The Battle of the River Plate’ (1956) at least once but it is interesting to know that two of the original ships were used – HMS’ ‘Achilles’ (although she had been sold in 1948 to the Indian Government and became HMIS ‘Delhi’) and HMS ‘Cumberland’ (she had steamed from the Falklands to bolster the blockading force). HMS ‘ Exeter’ was replaced by HMS ‘Jamaica’, HMS ‘Ajax’ by HMS ‘Sheffield’ and the ‘Graf Spee’ by the US heavy cruiser USS ‘Salem’ .

It has been reported that a salvage attempt was begun in 2004 because the wreck is now a hazard to navigation – the 27ton gunnery control tower was the first thing to be salvaged  and in 2006 the gilt-bronze eagle stern ornament was salvaged. The salvage operation is controversial and survivors consider that it should be treated as a war grave. The latest news I could find was that the German Government intervened in the salvage attempt in 2010 claiming that they still own the wreck. If anyone knows more I would be very interested to know.

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Jan and I wish all members, wives/partners and extended family a Very Peaceful Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year. We will not be sending Christmas cards but use the money to fund our charities – The Sreepur Village, Great Ormond Street, St Helena Hospice, Mercy Ships, the Essex Air Ambulance, Canine Partners and MacMillan Cancer research.