All welcome to attend wreath-laying ceremony at X11 Submarine Flotilla memorial in Assynt
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A wreath-laying ceremony recalling one of the bravest actions of WW2 will be held at the X11 Submarine Flotilla memorial in the car park at the north end of the Kylesku Bridge at noon on Saturday, September 23, writes Jonathan Brett Young.
The memorial cairn, inscribed with 39 names and some basic facts, gives only a hint of the action. But this was the starting point for an operation that crippled the German Battleship Tirpitz and won for its participants two Victoria Crosses, three Distinguished Service Orders and a Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.
The German invasion of Norway had been completed by June 1940, and Germany was able to maintain strong naval forces in Norwegian ports. These included capital ships that were threatening allied convoys supplying arms and equipment to Russia via the Atlantic and Arctic. At this time during the war, there were no long-range RAF bombers available to attack targets in northern Norway so new thinking was required.
At first it was thought that two-man human torpedoes called chariots would be suitable. These were similar to those used by the Italians to penetrate Alexandria Harbour in December 1942 and which caused serious damage to the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant. Chariots were later deployed in the Mediterranean causing devastating damage to the Italian fleet.
The answer to the threat in northern Norway, however, came in the form of midget submarines. In May 1942 a contract was placed with Vickers Armstrong for six vessels called X-craft. These would attack capital ships in defended harbours by means of explosive charges laid on the sea bed under the targets.
The X-craft were compact vessels displacing just 35 tons, with a surface speed of 6 1/2 knots, a range of 1500 miles and operated by a crew of just four. The engines were 42 HP Gardner diesels similar to those used in London buses. They were lightly armed with two detachable saddle charges each containing two tons of Amatex. These were fired by a clock time fuse.
Volunteers were sought to crew the chariots and the X-craft and were left in no doubt their mission would be extremely hazardous. Once they were recruited, their initial training was carried out in Loch Striven just north of the Isle of Bute, but in the summer of 1943 a base was established at Loch Cairnbawn in Northwest Sutherland. Six craft, X-5 to X-10, were attached to HMS Bonaventure, a converted merchant ship with heavy lift equipment.
They were put through intense training, especially the diver whose role included exiting the submarine to cut a hole in any nets surrounding their target and then re-entering the vessel prior to the attack.
It was also determined that the best way to transport the X-craft to Norway was to tow them by conventional submarine. And so six were allocated with HMS Titania (under Commander W R Fell OBE, DSC RN, Rtd ) as a depot ship, which arrived on August 30. Twelve days later, the six X-craft, each towed by a submarine, left Loch Cairnbawn on the 1,200-mile journey to northern Norway.
On September 22 two X-craft, X-6 (under Lieutenant Cameron) and X-7 (Lieutenant Place) broke through the net surrounding Tirpitz and placed their charges. Lieutenant Cameron then scuttled his vessel and he and his crew were immediately captured and taken off by a German launch.
Things did not go smoothly for X-7 whose compass and diving gauges were out of action. Lieutenant Place found it impossible to control his submarine and decided to surface and give his crew the chance to escape. She rose near a gunnery target and he was able to step onto it before his submarine sank. One crew member subsequently managed to escape, but sadly, the other two were lost.
The X-5 (under Lieutenant Henty-Creer), entered Kaa Fjiord, but was driven off and presumably sank as she never surfaced. X-9 was lost on passage and X-8 and X-10 suffered various problems in the final approaches and were unable to attack.
Nevertheless the tiny attacking force had a major impact on the 45,000 ton- Tirpitz. Armed with 8x15 inch and 12 x 5.9 inch guns, she was very badly damaged and never sailed operationally again in the war. On November 12, 1944 she was bombed by Lancasters from 617 Squadron and 9 Squadron RAF, with tallboy bombs from 20,000 feet. A magazine was hit and Tirpitz slowly keeled over with a loss of over 900 lives.
Six midget submarines had left Loch Cairnbawn and although none survived, the loss of life was, fortunately, comparatively small. Of the 42 officers and men who embarked on the hazardous mission, 33 survived. Three were lost on passage and six by enemy action.
In the words of Rear Admiral C B Barry DSO (Rear Admiral Submarines): “It is clear that courage and enterprise of the very highest order in the close presence of the enemy was shown by these very gallant gentleman whose daring attack will surely go down in history as one of the most courageous acts all time.”
Plans are in hand to refurbish the Kylesku Bridge cairn and to provide an information board showing details of Operation Source and explaining the significance of Kylesku.
The September 23 ceremony, 80 years after the event, will last about 20 minutes and is open to the public, who will be very welcome to attend.
