RN Subs

H 12

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1918 - 14th Flotilla. Blyth

Held up by the US Government until the USA joined WW1 in 1917.

On 6th June 1918 Submarine H12 was on a surface passage between the Codling Light Vessel and Kingstown (Ireland) when he encountered a ship (initially identified as a Merchant Vessel) on his port beam at a range of about 2 miles. Also, there were three trawlers on his Starboard bow at a range of about three miles.

The vessel on his port beam (later identified as HMS Hyderabad) opened fire and continued firing despite the firing of recognition signals by H12. Fraser decided to dive out of the way to safety but was then depth charged for his pains. He then surfaced intending to identify himself to the trawlers, but these also opened fire. Further recognition signals were fired without effect and a large White Ensign was displayed.

The Coxswain was bringing more recognition grenades to the Bridge when a shell hit the conning tower. Shrapnel from this shell hit the Coxswain in the head causing injuries from which he later died. One Able Seaman also received minor injuries and the Commanding Officer was slightly wounded in the neck.

Eventually all firing stopped, and identities were established. The shell, which killed the Coxswain, was fired by the Trawler Bracondene which stopped firing when at a range of about 700 yards.

Officers

Lieutenant John Fraser Commanding Officer
Lieutenant John Wyndham Cookson First Lieutenant
Temp Lieutenant Samuel George Page 3rd Hand

Ratings

PO Coxswain Thomas Henry Evans who was killed, was twenty-six years old.

AB Reginald T W Neate Reginald Neate, who was injured in the incident, had previously served in Submarine E23.

Events

H1 Specification

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Featured Book

The combined forces invasion of the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on 23 April 1918 remains one of Britain’s most glorious military undertakings; not quite as epic a failure as the charge of the Light Brigade, or as well publicised as the Dam Busters raid, but with many of the same basic ingredients.

A force drawn from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines set out on ships and submarines to try to block the key strategic port, in a bold attempt to stem the catastrophic losses being inflicted on British shipping by German submarines. It meant attacking a heavily fortified German naval base. The tide, calm weather and the right wind direction for a smoke screen were crucial to the plan.

Judged purely on results, it can only be considered a partial strategic success. Casualties were high and the base only partially blocked. Nonetheless, it came to represent the embodiment of the bulldog spirit, the peculiarly British fighting élan, the belief that anything was possible with enough dash and daring.

The essential story of the Zeebrugge mission has been told before, but never through the direct, first-hand accounts of its survivors, including that of Lieutenant Richard Sandford, VC, the acknowledged hero of the day, and the author’s great uncle. The fire and bloodshed of the occasion is the book’s centrepiece, but there is also room for the family and private lives of the men who volunteered in their hundreds for what they knew effectively to be a suicide mission.

Zeebrugge gives a very real sense of the existence of the ordinary British men and women of 100 years ago, made extraordinary by their role in what Winston Churchill called the 'most intrepid and heroic single armed adventure of the Great War.'

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