IN MEMORY

MrJpig

On behalf of 2nd Clarinet who is not near a computer just now....

11th August 1942.

On the 11th August 1942, the following members of the Royal Marines Band Service gave their lives while serving onboard HMS EAGLE.

Musicians; D. Fitton, L.S. Humphries, C.A. Fensham, J.S. Partridge, D.T. Witchell, W.C. Hartley, J.W. Smith, J.A. Cost and W. Millne.

I have posted below, a brief ships history and the circumstances of that day.

HMS Eagle was the fourteenth ship to bear that name. She was laid down at the Armstrong yards at Newcastle-on Tyne on 20 February 1913. She was to be the battleship Almirante Cochrane for the Chilean Navy. Her construction was halted with the outbreak of Word War I. In 1917 she was acquired for the Royal Navy, at a cost of £1.3 million, to be converted into the carrier HMS Eagle.

Her initial redesign was as a base for sea-plane operations. After trials with other ships the design was changed to a proper fleet carrier with a full flight deck and 'island'. She was launched on 8 June 1918 but the delays meant that the Eagle was unfinished at the end of hostilities. Construction was halted and not resumed until 1920 and she was only commissioned on 26 February 1924.

In 1928 while she lay at Gibraltar, she was the site of two high-profile Courts-martial, when Captain Kenneth Dewar and Commander H.M. Daniel were tried for subverting discipline in what became known as the "Royal Oak Mutiny". The pair were tried separately in Hangar Deck "A".

Her first offensive action of the war was as part of the hunt for the Admiral Graf Spee. She began 1940 in the Indian Ocean, but after repairs to explosion damage in March she joined the major units Malaya, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign and Warspite in the eastern Mediterranean at Alexandria, in May.

Swordfish bombers from Eagle attacked the harbour at Tobruk on 5 July and sank an Italian destroyer and two merchantmen, a similar attack two weeks later (20 July) sank another two destroyers. On 9 July she was part of an ineffectual clash with the Italian fleet at Calabria, sometimes called the Battle of Punta Stilo.

On 22 August her aircraft attacked and sank an Italian submarine and a depot ship in the Gulf of Bomba. In September she joined the carrier HMS Illustrious, as part of Operation Hats, and supported an attack on Maritza, Rhodes.

In mid-October she was part of the cover for a Malta convoy (MB-6). Her aircraft flew from Illustrious during the attack on Taranto (Operation Judgement, on 11 November), the damaged Eagle remained in Alexandria. On the 26th her aircraft attacked Tripoli.

In March 1941 she was assigned to Freetown. Her aircraft, flying from Port Sudan, attacked Italian ships at Massawa, en route. She arrived at Freetown in early May, remaining there until October 1941.
She returned to Britain for a refit and rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet early in 1942. In February 1942 she carried aircraft for Malta, an operation repeated in May and twice in June.

Her final action was in August 1942 as cover for the Malta-bound convoy of Operation Pedestal.

On the early morning of 11 August she was hit by four torpedoes from U-73 commanded by Helmut Rosenbaum and sank 70 nm south of Cape Salinas.

The majority of the crew survived (927, only were 160 lost) and were picked from the sea by her escorts.

To those named above and the ships crew who also died…..R.I.P.

_________________

lesbryan

Never to be forgotten !!

chiefspotter

Thank you 2nd Clarinet for this. My Grandfather died in this tragic event.
He is commemorated on The Commonweath War Graves Commision website and on The Royal Naval Memorial at Chatham

MrJpig

Again supplied by 2nd Clarinet..This is an interesting extract of the 'Courts-martial' mentioned in the HMS Eagle post.

I think it is amusing that an RM Band helped caused this.

................................

Taken from an american Time report on Monday Apr. 09. 1928 titled 'Admirals Oaths'.

The glittering pageant of an Admiralty Court-martial unfolded, last week, upon His Majesty's aircraft carrier Eagle as she rode at anchor, huge, grim and ominous, in the harbour of Gibraltar.

From the shore came eight pinnacles, carrying eight captains, all in full dress uniform, who were piped aboard the Eagle with traditional honour. They were the Court. They sat down to give judgment, without removing their imposing cocked hats. With portentous gravity they took into custody the sword of the accused. . . .

And what was all this about? What high crime or mighty treason loomed?

A man from Mars would have laughed to learn that the whole impressive bother sprang from a few oaths and reprimands uttered by peppery Rear Admiral Bernard St. George Collard (TIME, March 26).

The accused was Commander Henry Martin Daniel. As a subordinate of Rear Admiral Collard aboard the flagship Royal Oak, he is charged with making known to brother officer’s complaints against the conduct of Rear Admiral Collard which were embodied in a letter written by Captain K. G. B. Dewar of the Royal Oak to superior naval officials. The act of making known the contents of this secret letter laid open Commander Daniel to the grave, technical charge of "subverting discipline by bringing a superior officer into contempt."

The chief sensation of the trial, last week, was the reading of the fatal letter. Captain Dewar had written:
"On January 12 Admiral Collard threatened me in the presence of several guests, that if I did not make Commander Daniel do his duty in introducing people to each other at a dance he would make him do it. I thought his complaint unjustified and his manner of address improper.
"Later in the evening Admiral Collard sent for Commander Daniel and ordered him to clear the Marine Band off the quarter deck. Rear Admiral Collard abused the bandmaster in front of the whole band.
"The Admiral said he never heard such a bloody noise in his life, and the bandmaster must be sent to him, as he would not have a 'b—' like that on his ship. These remarks were heard by several guests.
"Despite the unreasonableness of Admiral Collard's request, the band was dismissed and a jazz band summoned. The attack on the bandmaster caused great dissatisfaction among the lower deck and intense indignation among the officers organizing the dance."

When Rear Admiral Collard was called upon to give his version of the incidents described he gruffed: ". . . Commander Daniel should have made proper introductions at the dance . . . disgraceful to have so many ladies sitting out the dances without partners. . . .
"The band was playing abominably. ... I spoke to the bandmaster in the sight of other persons but not in their hearing. . . ."

Citizens of the U. S. learned with interest that the defence of Commander Daniel would be carried out by onetime Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts Day Kimball. Last week he, not yet accustomed to the heavy wig worn by British barristers, sweated excessively in the balmy air of Gibraltar.

mrbassbone

And the result of said Courts Martial???

Dan A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_(08)

The answer can be found here........quite a bit about the Royal Oak but read the section titled between the wars....interesting thread....
Dan

townsergeant

I've read the book 'The Royal Oak Affair'

''An incident which had dire consequences for three naval officers occurred in 1928 at Malta, when Rear-Admiral Collard swore at Bandmaster Percy Barnacle during a dance on board the battleship Royal Oak. What started as a seemingly trivial incident escalated in a court martial for Royal Oak's captain and commander.....''

I thoroughly recommend it, especially as it's part of RMB history.

lesbryan

A very sad incident indeed.Especially when you see what caused it all in the first place !!

mrbassbone

townsergeant

Jim R mason

In his later years, Bandmaster Percy Barnacle lived in Deal and was welknown to the Band service at that time

Hornblower

What I'd like to know, but probably never will, is this...

WAS the band playing abominably?

townsergeant