Oban counts its losses in 1942

1942 dawned on a world wrought with conflict but with one major and most significant difference, the United States had entered the war after the attack at Pearl Harbor.

 

President Roosevelt immediately promised war aid to Britain, and on the Eastern Front, the German advance into Russia had come to a halt in the frozen winter.

 

In the far East, the Japanese advanced down the spine of Malaya, driving the British troops before them, amongst them the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and taking large numbers of prisoners. The British would eventually capitulate in the Battle for Singapore, an ignominious defeat.

 

In North Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps began an inexorable advance across Libya towards Egypt, being halted only at El Alamein in August of 1942. Earlier, in the spring, The Royal Air Force commenced bombing of German cities using new four-engined bombers, the Lancaster and Halifax. At the Wannsee Conference outside Berlin, the Nazis decided the “Final Solution for the Jewish Question” and began a programme of genocide against the Jews.

 

In the Mediterranean, Malta was besieged by both Italian and German forces and shipping convoys ran the gauntlet of German aircraft and U-Boats. In the case of the latter weapon, losses inflicted by the Kriegsmarine on the North Atlantic convoys continued to inflict losses of thousands of tons of shipping - as well as their crews.

 

Oban was very much on the front line as a convoy marshalling point on the North West Approaches. Fear of further Luftwaffe attacks on the town environs, particularly random bombing by enemy aircraft tracking north from Clydebank, prompted several defensive measures.

 

Whilst several servicemen from Oban were killed in Malaya and North Africa, the greatest losses were among aircraft of Coastal Command squadrons based at the town. On August 25, 1942, the Duke of Kent, brother of the King, was killed in an Oban-based 228 Squadron aircraft which flew into a mountain in Caithness in still-unexplained circumstances. All aboard, with the exception of the tail gunner, were killed.

 

The town became accustomed to the frequent military funerals of Naval and RAF personnel from the Episcopalian Cathedral to Pennyfuir Cemetery.