The Battle for Malta Page #5

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appalling conditions at sea.

Operating on Malta was an intensely

claustrophobic experience.

You're on a tiny island

with no chance of escape,

being bombed to hell day in, day out.

But imagine being on a submarine,

which is even more cramped.

Whatever they were feeling on the island,

it was a hundred times

worse for the submariners.

Well, they are very cramped,

and the ship's company

live amongst the torpedoes

up in the front end.

We all got a bit stinky, so you

didn't notice it, you know!

The people, when you come ashore,

say you can't mistake the smell

diesel and everything else.

Malta is just a rock

sticking out of the sea.

It was a ghastly place for us.

The food was dreadful!

Everybody had Malta dog, or diarrhoea,

which used to produce

the most ghastly smell.

The fleas abounded,

mosquitoes bit us to death.

It was a very unpleasant place to be.

Unpleasant, but with the Axis

gaining in North Africa,

Malta had never been more important.

We knew very well

that we had to stop these

convoys getting over to Rommel

to help our army...

.. which is, er... the whole

purpose of being there, really.

General Erwin Rommel commanded

the Axis army in North Africa.

By mid-1941, he needed 70,000

tonnes of supplies each month,

nearly all shipped across

the Mediterranean.

Malta's submariners had

yet to make much impact,

but that was about to change.

In May, HMS Upholder,

led by Lieutenant Commander David Wanklyn,

was heading back to Malta

when Crawford spied an Axis

convoy on the horizon.

I was actually on watch

when we sighted her.

Our listening gear was out of action,

we had two torpedoes left,

it was just getting dark.

And I spotted a couple of shapes,

so I called Wanklyn into the control room,

and the attack started.

He just says, "Take her down,"

and so then up to the First Lieutenant

and the crew to carry the order out.

It stayed quiet,

except for the navigating officer

saying the speed for the enemy.

Orders to the planes went

from the First Lieutenant.

Speed, telegraphman.

They finally got off the two torpedoes.

We managed to hit with the two torpedoes,

and down she went.

And we went down as well,

to try and get clear.

Well, we knew we'd hit something,

we did hear a grating noise,

and it sounded almost like a

wire scraping down the side

of the submarine, and someone just

said, "Oh, that's all right. "

"That's the Conte Rosso

breaking up as she goes down. "

We had quite a heavy

depth-charging after that.

But you never know how

long it's going to take.

Meantime, you're all sort of

trying to zigzag and creep away.

It is frightening, yes.

It does shake, and some lights go out,

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