Transcription
"Dear Mr. Cone,
This is the hardest letter I have ever had to write -there is so much to say and so few words to say it in. Pete is gone. I am afraid there can be no doubt about it now. Up until today, I have kept a small corner way in the back of my mind reserved for the hope that some way, some how, he might be picked up..... But after learning some of the details today, I am afraid that I must neccessarily [sic] give up even the remote possibilityn [sic] and accept the inevitable. I am sure that you understand how I feel about this without my putting it into print, so I shall attempt to give you the details that I have managed to piece together, for whatever small consolation they might be to you and the rest of the family.
It all happened between Iceland and England around the latitude that you already know. Around 0900Pm at the change of the watch, contact was made with a surfaced sub. Pete's ship was sent over to investigate. It was the old "sucking out" play that you can see in the football games anytime.....decoy into a baited trap and after the quarry is in, nail him. This one was baited. While they were running down the radar contact on the surfaced sub, a second sub (presumably submerged) let them have a tin fish amidships. She was disabled beyond salvage, so abandon ship was ordered. While in the midst of an orderly Abandon Ship action, the ship started to break in two. All rafts and float nets were put over, but about that time she gave way and the stern half sunk immediately. The bow half bloated until the next morning. From all I can gather, most of the officers were on the stern half. Assistance was immediately dispatched, but while enroute to the location of the survivors, the rescue ship encountered several subs in a pack. According to escort doctrine and for her protection, she neccessarily [sic] had to dispense with these before she could stop to pick up survivors. This took about five or six hours. By then it was too late for most of the men in the water. The only survivors were the most exceptionally hardy of the lot who were physically able to stand with the exposure for that long and the luckier ones who happened to be on some object which kept them up out of the water. This unfortunate phase of the action accounts for the large number lost.
If this whole procedure sounds coldblooded to you, try to remember that the whole engagement was part of a well-planned enemy tactical maneuver, one in which we have previously lost many ships, and one which has made it neccessary [sic] for us to adopt coldblooded measures to combat. The idea is for a pack to bait the trap and pick off the investigating ships one by one as they come over to make a run or to pick up survivors . After two or three escorts have been disposed of in this manner, it is an easy matter to move in on the convy. A ship that comes over and stops dead in the water to pick up survivors is a dead pigeon. You can readily see now why it has been neccessary [sic] to adopt this seemingly heartless type of procedure... in the long run it saves lives and ships. Pete did the same thing when he was on the Bibb....he would have had to do the same thing had he been on the second ship ... I am sure that he never wanted nor expected them to do otherwise in this occasion when he was on the receiving end...he was too strong character to want it and too good an officer to expect it.
Due to his capacity on the ship it is my personal belief that Pete wentdown [sic] with the stern half. As Exec he would be one of the last to leave and was probably supervising the launching of the rafts when she broke. This is just a surmise however, and there are no facts at present which substantiate this.
I know that both you and Mrs. Cone have any number of specific questions on your mind in connection with all this, but other than the few facts I have included here, any answers I might give would be pure guesses and very little better than your own. For more specific details we will all have to wait until such time as the official story is released or until I am able to talk to somebody who was on the rescue ship.
All of the foregoing was obtained from a survivor through a reliable source, and although later may prove to be inaccurate in some small instances, I believe them to be generally correct or I would not have forwarded them to you and run the risk of causing you, as well as myself, to be let down at a later date.
Some of the foregoing is of a confidential nature and I would like to ask that you insure that it be kept within the family until suchtime [sic] as the facts I have given you are made public. As for Pete's status of missing in action, I believe that he will be kept on that list for a certain period of time as a matter of policy, until they presume him to be lost, at which time you will be notified officially.
I hope that this will find you completely recovered from your operation and back in the saddle full time. Please remember me to Mrs. Cone and the girls. My congratulations and very best wishes for a happy marriage to Jo. Trust that you won't have too much trouble replacing her in the scullery.
I shall keep trying to get additional details and I do Iwill [sic], of course, contact you immediately.
Sincerely,
Jim"Language
English
