OBITUARY : Commander Alec Dennis

21 Jul 2008

OBITUARY : Commander Alec Dennis
--------------------------------

Officer who captured the first code books and documents for a German 
Enigma machine off Norway in 1940

Commander Alec Dennis, who has died aged 91, captured the first documents 
and code books for a German Enigma machine when a lookout on the destroyer 
Griffin off Norway in April 1940 spotted a trawler with a large painted 
Dutch flag.

As Griffin drew close it became clear that a boat at the stern was only a 
canvas mock-up, and when Dennis leaped aboard he was confronted by a dazed 
figure who at once said: "German ship". The mock-up covered a gun, and two 
torpedo tubes were barely covered by fishing nets.

When the rest of Dennis's party scrambled aboard, the German crew were 
brought on deck to face loaded .45s. Making no effort to resist, they 
instead threw overboard confidential books, ciphers, charts and a machine.

The books did not sink at once, and Gunner Florrie Foord dived from 
Griffin's quarterdeck to recover them.

Dennis put a man on the bridge of the trawler Polares but he stumbled and 
let off his revolver, which had the good effect of cowing the Germans on 
the well deck who could not see what had happened.

Dennis was inspecting the ship to ensure that she was not being scuttled, 
when a German crewman warned him in English that the hatch leading to the 
magazine was booby-trapped.

After making this safe and sending most of the Germans aboard Griffin, he 
shaped course for home..../snip/


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2437896/Commander-Alec-Dennis.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00778/alec-dennis-192_778997e.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4392178.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00374/dennis_185x360_374080a.jpg