Broome was judged to be too old in 1939 to command a submarine in wartime. Instead, he was given command of the destroyer
HMS Veteran recommissioned from reserve. Characteristically, Broome applied for membership of the
Company of Veteran Motorists, who made the ship a life member. HMS
Veteran served in the
Norwegian campaign in 1940. While there, her bridge was adorned with a huge stuffed hippopotamus head, acquired by Broome from Formby Golf Club during a spree ashore. Broome also acquired a German torpedo, which had missed its target and run onto the shore of a fjord. Suitably covered in German graffiti, it was eventually handed to the authorities in Rosyth. After the end of the Norwegian campaign,
Veteran was assigned to counter a threatened German invasion, and was damaged by an
acoustic mine. With
Veteran laid up for extensive repairs, Broome was then assigned as
Staff Officer to Admiral
Sir Percy Noble, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Western Approaches Command. Broome's cartoons enlivened many drab briefing rooms and dreary routine reports. After several months in this duty, he temporarily served as
Captain (D) at the base at
Londonderry Port in Derry and then commanded the First
Escort Group, (EG1) in the destroyer . For most of 1941 and 1942, HMS
Keppel was engaged in arduous convoy duties in the Atlantic. One brief stay at
Lisahally was enlivened by the capture of a German spy who was attempting to escape to the
Irish Free State in a stolen motor boat.
PQ 17 Then in June 1942, EG1 was assigned to protect
Convoy PQ 17, sailing from
Hvalfjord in Iceland to
Murmansk in Russia. The Arctic convoys were reckoned to be very hazardous missions, as they faced not only U-Boats but also German aircraft and surface ships, including the powerful battleship
Tirpitz. A squadron of British and American
cruisers was assigned to protect the convoy, and the
Home Fleet, with its battleships and
aircraft carriers was at sea, but distant. On 4 July 1942, PQ 17 was attacked several times by torpedo-carrying German aircraft. Three merchant ships were lost, but four aircraft were shot down, and several others damaged. At this point, Admiral Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord, fearing that
Tirpitz was about to attack, sent three fateful signals: •
2111: Most Immediate. Cruiser Force withdraw to westward at high speed •
2123: Immediate. Owing to threat from surface ships convoy is to disperse and proceed to Russian ports •
2136: Most Immediate. My 2123. Convoy is to scatter The rising tone of panic in these messages convinced Broome and other recipients that
Tirpitz was approaching. Since the first of the messages was not directly addressed to Broome, he was not immediately aware that the cruisers were withdrawing. In fact, although they should have been out of sight of the convoy, because of navigational errors they were clearly visible as they worked up to full speed. Convinced that the cruisers were about to engage enemy ships, Broome collected the miscellany of destroyers in EG1 and attached them to the cruisers, while the convoy scattered. A day later, it became clear that the threat from German surface ships did not exist, and that the scattered ships of the convoy were being picked off individually by U-boats and aircraft. It was by then too late to reform the convoy; Broome's destroyers were low on fuel after their high-speed dash in company with the cruisers, and the oilers which had accompanied the convoy had themselves been sunk. Twenty-one of the convoy's thirty-five ships were sunk following the order to scatter. The Royal Navy felt themselves disgraced by the unhappy episode. Later that year, the
First Lord of the Admiralty,
A. V. Alexander paid a visit to HMS
Keppel. Broome asked the reason why PQ 17 was scattered but received no satisfactory answer.
Later naval career After a brief spell in the Mediterranean, during which EG1 played a peripheral part in
Operation Pedestal, HMS
Keppel was paid off late in 1942. Broome was surprised to be promoted to
captain, and also awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross in 1943. (Broome was aware that not only was anyone connected with PQ 17 liable to have that episode on their record, but also that his habit of drawing and circulating acerbic caricatures of senior officers had made him unpopular with some.) He commanded the
escort carrier HMS Begum in 1942–1944.
Begum served with the Eastern Fleet. Her aircraft sank a particularly troublesome U-Boat in the Indian Ocean late in 1944, for which Broome was
Mentioned in Dispatches. He was also awarded the
Burma Star for his service in Indian waters. He was commandant of a shore establishment at
Portsmouth,
HMS Vernon II in 1945 before being appointed captain of the aged battleship
HMS Ramillies in 1945–1946. ==Writer and cartoonist==