RN Subs

HMS Sickle: 1943 – 1944

A casual stroller along the seafront at Southsea on the morning of Sunday, 4th April 1943, would not have been much interested in the three submarines that rounded Sallyport, through the narrow exit from Portsmouth Harbour into Spithead from HMS Dolphin, the submarine base in Fort Blockhouse on the other side of the harbour. The destination boards on Portsmouth Harbour station had been painted over (so we are informed) that low flying aircraft could not read them, However the lookouts on the conning tower could still read the hoardings that proclaimed Brickwood's Beer is Best.

It had been U-boats that had been making the news, sinking Allied ships in the Atlantic, but one of three submarines in the Solent would come some way to redressing the balance. The three submarines were Taku, Ursula and Sickle. It is the passage of the latter that we will follow.

Sickle was under the command of Lieutenant J R Drummond, the son of Vice Admiral the Hon E R Drummond, CB MVO, who at that time was serving in the Commander-in-Chief's office at Rosyth.

Drummond had received the best apprenticeship any submarine officer could ask for. He had served in the Mediterranean under David Wanklyn, the most successful British submarine captain of all time. Their boat, the Upholder, sank over 95,000 tons of Axis shipping, a record for which Wanklyn received Britain's highest award, the Victoria Cross.

Sickle was one of the S class boats of the second group, built by Cammel Laird at Birkenhead and launched unnamed on 27th August 1942. It was numbered P224 but later received the name Sickle after Winston S Churchill recommended submarines be known by names rather than numbers.

The displacement of the boat fully loaded was nearly a thousand tons; it carried thirteen 21-inch torpedoes for the seven tubes, six forward and one aft. The armament consisted of one 3-inch general purpose gun, and one 20mm AA gun and three 0.303-inch machine guns. The crew totalled 48.

The boats were on their way to Portland harbour just west along the coast and as they approached the naval base in the early evening a light flashed out a challenge from the signal tower, the correct answer was returned, identity confirmed, and the boom gates opened to allow the submarine to enter harbour and tie up alongside. Sickle sailed from Portland two days later escorted by HMS Kingston Turquoise (an ASW Trawler). They hit the aftermath of a south-westerly gale as they rounded Portland Bill and made their way across Lyme Bay with the reddish cliffs of Devon to starboard, on past Start Point and the Eddystone lighthouse.

The trawler escort continued with the submarine until the next day when they parted company with a cheery wave seven miles of Bishop Rock. Lieutenant Drummond took a last look at the greenery of Old England before he went down below as Sickle continued her outward passage alone. She was on her way to the Mediterranean, an area the Captain knew only too well, but firstly to Gibraltar.

With all the U-boat activity in the Bay of Biscay Sickle was routed to steer a large detour out into the Atlantic within a twenty-mile band. The next day Sickle sighted some steam trawlers, probably Spanish, fishing. Lieutenant Drummond used the passage as a useful additional working up period for the crew and the boat, and it was at this time discovered that the Oerlikon magazine would not stand up to being flooded. A crash dive took place when an unidentified aircraft was sighted, it was almost certainly British, but it was not worth taking chances.

As Sickle turned eastwards towards the Iberian coast, the smell off the land was scented breezes coming down from the hills and soon Cape St Vincent light was raised on the port bow. On into the Strait of Gibraltar where the Atlantic connects with the Mediterranean. This narrow configuration which flows between the Rock on the North and the Rock of Ceuta, backed by the strange mass of Mons Abyla, on the South is one of the busiest waterways of the world. Sickle sailed in on the current, following a route taken by ocean going liners in happier times. On past the lighthouse at Tarifa and into Algeciras Bay, Sickle flashed her identification to the signal tower above Europa point, received an acknowledgement from the Naval Station and turned in towards the harbour entrance from which a launch was seen approaching bringing a naval pilot to guide her in through the boom defence, past other assembled warships, to the far end of the harbour, near the dry docks and secure alongside the harbour wall of the naval base.

HMS Maidstone, the depot ship of the 5th Submarine Flotilla, had recently moved from Gibraltar across to Algiers now that the Axis has cleared from that part of North Africa following the successful Operation Torch the previous November. HMS Rooke the shore station at Gibraltar, is named after Admiral Sir George Rooke who commanded the Anglo-Dutch naval force which captured the Rock for Britain in 1704, and it was here that the submarine was based for the time being.

It was the evening of the 13th when Sickle arrived and the watch ashore were surprised to find out there was no blackout on the Rock, it would have been pointless with the coast of Spain alongside it all lit up. Another surprise awaited the crew as they made their way up Main Street and found the shops were piled high with luxuries that many of them had not seen since before the war.

All naval officers were afforded honorary membership of the yacht club, and the ratings were well catered for with the RN Depot cinema and visiting concert parties coming out from England, which at this time included Leslie Henson and Dorothy Dickson, and of course the local taverns. Most of the civilians has been evacuated at the beginning of hostilities and the Rock was virtually nothing more than a fortress housing the vital harbour.

While in Gibraltar the Oerlikon gun was repaired, the main batteries were topped up, the food supplies replenished and fuel tanks refuelled, for shortly Sickle was to join the rest of the flotilla at Algiers.

Monday 10th May was the day Captain (S/M) decided Sickle was to commence her first patrol. Now at Algiers, alongside fellow submarine Trooper on Maidstone, the hands fell in early in the afternoon to take in fresh water and provisions before being piped to dinner at midday; in the second watch they went to the harbour stations, Sickle slipped and proceeded on main engines, cleared the harbour and continued on main engines though the swept channel, dived to periscope depth to check the trim, surfaced and made for the patrol area off the south coast of France, between Marseilles and San Remo, which she entered three days later.

The next afternoon Sickle went deep after sighting an E-boat rounding Cap d'Antibes at high speed towards her; after sweeping in a large circle at slow speed the E-boat disappeared. During the night two searchlights on land were seen making all round sweeps at hourly intervals.

Early on the 15th the captain was called to the bridge when the lights of a fully lit ship were sighted. He closed to investigate and was able to tell the officer-of-the-watch that it was the safe conduct ship Calanda on passage from Genoa to Gibraltar. Later in the morning, off Monaco, several small motor launches could be seen offshore and a large motor yacht, smaller yachts and launches were observed in the harbour. Whilst still in the same position an assortment of ships and small craft were seen rounding Cap Ferrat, headed by what appeared to be a 1,500-ton tanker, low in the water with a short funnel right aft. Whatever it was, Sickle thought it worth sinking and fired four torpedoes at a range of 1,850 yards spread 1½ ship's lengths. The second torpedo was fired 2½ seconds too early and probably missed ahead. One of the salvo however, hit the target, the resulting breaking-up noises being heard for three minutes.

As the tanker was escorted by an anti-submarine trawler it was thought prudent to dive to 100 feet. While diving, a second explosion was heard six minutes after the last torpedo had been fired, this could only have been a torpedo hitting the shore. As the submarine was three miles off Monaco harbour, 170 degrees north from the breakwater, and while not aspiring to the title of "The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo", Lieutenant Drummond did claim to have shaken it up a bit, as this particular torpedo must have exploded within 400 yards of the Casino.

Sickle proceeded to experience varying changes at "Fortune's Wheel". The anti-submarine trawler, which had been in company with the assorted convoy, proceeded to gain contact and, after passing over the submarine a couple of times, came in again a third time and let go an unpleasantly close pattern of eight depth charges. Sickle then went to 350 feet but could go no further because of a noisy pump. After the depth attack, in which the asdic set was temporarily out of action, there was however a somewhat lighter side, as shortly after three dazed and frightened mice appeared from the bowels of the boat. After satisfying themselves that all was not lost, they returned whence they came.

Two hours later Sickle came to periscope depth on the glassy sea and found there were no ships in sight. The submarine then proceeded along the coast towards Toulon, and the morning of 19th May found her well inside Toulon Bay with a U-boat in sight, coming out to exercise. The latter proved to be an exasperating customer, playing every conceivable trick peculiar to submarine independent exercises, and in the process succeeded in making Lieutenant Drummond almost dizzy before it finally decided to return to harbour three hours later, little dreaming how close to destruction she had been.

Worse was to follow, when a second U-boat hove in sight and then altered course soon after which necessitated Sickle having to go deep. Lieutenant Drummond must indeed have considered that the wheel of Fate was against him, especially when two ex-French destroyers passed close by but kept just out of range.

The next day Sickle patrolled close off Cap Capet until darkness when an outward-bound U-boat was sighted, up moon. Lieutenant Drummond took prompt action and achieved an ideal firing position with the enemy silhouetted against a full moon. Six torpedoes were fired at a range of 5,000 yards, point of aim half a length ahead, spread over two lengths by the time interval. In view of the lightness of the night, Sickle then dived to avoid being sighted before the torpedoes hit. A torpedo explosion was heard four minutes after firing. On her re-surfacing Sickle was put down by an aircraft and so Lieutenant Drummond was unable to collect any evidence of a sinking. In fact, there was none to be found, for uncomfortably, the U-boat was missed and went on to continue its patrol. Sickle retired to seaward to charge up her batteries for the next few days' patrol.

The next forenoon was spent on patrol again in Toulon Bay. The submarine had two bow torpedoes and one stern torpedo remaining. Just before 1500 the fourth U-boat sighted of the patrol was coming out of harbour. Kapitanleutnant Karl-Franz Heine, the 27-year-old Keil born commander was bringing his U-303 out for deep diving trials with some civilian workmen on board. The U-boat which was built at Lubeck had been launched exactly a year earlier and Heine had been its commander throughout, first with the 8th Training Flotilla until December 1942, then with the 7th Flotilla when on 23rd February the 5,000-ton American ship Expositer was damaged by its torpedoes, this was the only time that U303 was to fire its torpedoes in anger. In April the U-boat joined the 29th Flotilla based on Toulon, making the 16th U-boat to be operating in the Mediterranean during May. This Friday it was to carry out the aforementioned trials before commencing on its first Mediterranean patrol.

The U-boat commander altered course on leaving harbour, cutting the corner considerably and putting Sickle further off track than the British Captain wished to be. Sickle altered her course, but conditions were very bad for ranging with the land background and the visibility was only moderate. Lieutenant Drummond was unable to obtain any speed from the plot. Just a quarter of an hour after the first sighting Sickle fired two torpedoes and a little under a minute and a half later Lieutenant Drummond saw a torpedo hit U-303 about 30 feet abaft the conning tower, giving a range of 2,900 yards.

An enormous column of water and debris was through the air as the enemy settled down by the stern. Crew members were seen climbing over the bridge and mustering around the gun, when less than a minute later the U-boat slid back fast into the water with a 50 degree bow up angle and the crew jumping into the sea.

The bow of the U-boat disappeared as Sickle too went deep and retired to seaward; metallic crackling and breaking up noises were heard. Sickle surfaced in the early evening and observed a flying boat; it could have been looking for her, or for survivors of the U-boat. In fact, the U-boat commander and five of his crew as well as five of his civilians were rescued; Heine was the only officer. He was not to live too much longer, for his next command, U-403 was sunk by Allied aircraft off Dakar three months later. However, his experience was probably unique in U-boat annals in that his submarine was sunk by the enemy, he was rescued by his own side and then given command of another submarine.

Sickle with just one torpedo remaining, left the patrol area enroute for Algiers and three days later sighted yet another submarine. This time it was the French La Sultane, and when challenged she gave the correct reply.

In the early hours of the next morning Sickle identified herself to Port War Signal Station before entering Algiers harbour and secured alongside Maidstone. The next day the crew fell in for a well-deserved spot of leave at a rest camp ashore while Lieutenant Drummond was left chuckling over a signal her received from the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean "Well Done Rien Ne Va Plus" a gambling term meaning no more bets to be taken.

Later Sickle left Algiers on 22nd September for patrol in the Gulf of Genoa on the 28th. She missed a coaster with 3 torpedoes on the 30th and suffered a moderately close counter-attack. Three days later she fired two torpedoes at a submarine chaser, which was able to avoid them counter-attacking with fourteen depth charges. Sickle was stuck in the mud at 300 feet for a period but sustained no damage, arriving back in Algiers on 10th October. She left to join the 1st Flotilla at Beirut on 28th October.

Early in 1944 Sickle was laid up in Gibraltar dockyard for some time having her main motors repaired. In the Spring she operated out of a new base in Malta with the 10th Flotilla and the first patrol on 29th April was to Suda Bay and the Doro Channel. Unfortunately, the next patrol was to be her last.

On 4th June her gunners bombarded Mytilene, but the submarine was hit on the conning tower by fire from enemy vessels and in the melee lost a man overboard. Very fortunately for him (AB Brooks) this was to save his life, for he was picked up by the Germans. Sickle escaped by diving and later torpedoed a German ship on the Doro Channel with two hits. Another ship was later unsuccessfully attacked and the submarine was sighted by the Luftwaffe but was not attacked, Three days later Sickle sighted and reported a convoy and that was the last message ever received from the submarine. No enemy claims were made for the sinking, and it is assumed that she was mined in the Antikithera Channel on (or about) 18th-22nd June 1944.

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