| Built By: | Vickers (Barrow) |
| Build Group: | U1 |
| Fate: | Depth charged by Italian TB Pegaso off Tripoli on 14 April 1942 |
Ex P37
1941: 10th Flotilla. Malta.
Choosing a crest and motto for a ship or submarine is a complex and very formal process that involves the deliberations of the Royal College of Arms, the Ship Naming Committee and final ratification by the Ministry of Defence.
The design chosen for HMS Upholder in 1941 showed a caryatid, a draped female figure used as a adoptedd ecorative feature for columns or supports in classical Greek architecture, or as Lt Cdr Wanklyn, Upholder's Captain, described it, 'an armless Greek bint standing in a dustbin'.
The crest under which Upholder eventually sailed was Wanklyn's own design and highly unofficial.
Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn
On the evening of 24th May, 1941, whilst on patrol off the coast of Sicily, Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn, in command of His Majesty's Submarine Upholder, sighted a southbound enemy troop convoy, strongly escorted by Destroyers. The failing light was such that observation by periscope could not be relied on but a surface attack would have been easily seen. Upholder's listening gear was out of action. In spite of these severe handicaps Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn decided to press home his attack at short range.
Upholder Sank 129,529 Tons Of Axis Ships
The name of Her Majesty's Submarine Upholder is inseparably linked to the name of her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander W. D. Wanklyn VC DSO and 2 Bars RN. Upholder, under Wanklyn's command, was perhaps the most successful British submarine of the Second World War Lt. Cdr. Wanklyn was Upholder's captain throughout the whole of her short life, from her completion at Barrow in 1940 until she was lost on April 14, 1942.
Roll of Honour |
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| Allen, Peter Russell Hay |
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| Lieutenant | ||||||
| Anderson, William Eric DSM* |
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| Petty Officer Telegraphist | ||||||
| Blake, Leopold DSM |
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| Leading Telegraphist | ||||||
| Board, Norman Douglas DSM |
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| Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class | ||||||
| Brown, Thomas Cyril MID |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Burgoyne, Charles Llewelyn DSM |
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| Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class | ||||||
| Davidson, Robert Wallace DSM |
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| Leading Seaman | ||||||
| Foster, George John MID |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Ex.J43636 | ||||||
| Frame, Frederick James DSM* |
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| Chief Engine Room Artificer | ||||||
| Gregory, Edmond MID |
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| Ordinary Telegraphist | ||||||
| Gregory, Frederick William DSM* |
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| Stoker Petty Officer | ||||||
| Heath, Alfred Thomas MID |
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| Leading Stoker | ||||||
| Hughes, Gwilym MID |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Lane, Seiriol Francis MID |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Martin, Frederick James MID |
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| Petty Officer | ||||||
| Miller, David Andrew DSM* |
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| Petty Officer | ||||||
| Ex.J106129 | ||||||
| Munday, Edward |
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| Stoker 2nd Class | ||||||
| Newlands, Patrick McCann MID |
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| Telegraphist | ||||||
| Norman, John Harsant (RNVR) MID |
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| Sub Lieutenant | ||||||
| Parker, Charles Alfred (Royal Marine) |
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| Lance Corporal | ||||||
| 2 Commando | ||||||
| Partleton, John Edward DSM |
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| Leading Seaman | ||||||
| Perkins, Frederick William MID |
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| Leading Stoker | ||||||
| Rowe, John MID |
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| Leading Stoker | ||||||
| Ruck-Keene, Francis DSC |
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| Lieutenant | ||||||
| Saunders, Lambert MID* |
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| Leading Seaman | ||||||
| Self, Ernest Edward MID |
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| Stoker 1st Class | ||||||
| Simmonds, Rex DSM* |
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| Leading Signalman | ||||||
| Smith, George Edward Richardson |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Smith, James |
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| Able Seaman | ||||||
| Swainston, John George DSM* |
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| Petty Officer | ||||||
| Topping, Fred |
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| Leading Stoker | ||||||
| Turner, William Robert DSM* |
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| Petty Officer | ||||||
| Wanklyn, Malcolm David VC DSO** |
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| Lieutenant Commander | ||||||
| Commanding Officer | ||||||
| 30-10-1939 | Laid Down |
| 08-08-1940 | Launched |
| 31-10-1940 | Completed |
| 28-01-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and damages the German transport Duisburg south of the Kerkennah Shallows. |
| 30-01-1941 | HMS Upholder attacks the Italian merchant Motia and the Italian tanker Delfin west of Tripoli, Libya. All torpedoes missed and Upholder was depth charged by the Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran. |
| 12-04-1941 | HMS Upholder was out of torpedoes, but still achieved a minor success by persuading an enemy convoy to turn round by firing a star-shell. |
| 25-04-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the Italian Antonietta Lauro, near Kerkennah Buoy #3, Tunisia. |
| 26-04-1941 | HMS Upholder attacked the wreck of the German merchant ship Arta, which had run aground on the sand-banks off Kerkennah in Tunisia. A party was sent aboard and documents were retrieved from the captain's safe, which was blown open using explosives. The party then destroyed the wreck with demolition charges. |
| 27-04-1941 | HMS Upholder attempted to get close to the grounded wreck of the Italian destroyer Lampo, but ran aground herself before she could reach her. |
| 01-05-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the German merchants Arcturus and Leverkusen off Kerkennah, Tunisia. |
| 20-05-1941 | HMS Upholder fires four torpedoes at the Italian tanker Utilitas off Capo dell'Armi but miss the target. |
| 23-05-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes a damages the French merchant Capitaine Damiani east of Tunisia. |
| 24-05-1941 | Whilst on patrol off the coast of Sicily, Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn, in command of HMS Upholder, sighted a southbound enemy troop convoy, strongly escorted by Destroyers. The failing light was such that observation by periscope could not be relied on but a surface attack would have been easily seen. Upholder's listening gear was out of action. In spite of these severe handicaps, Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn decided to press home his attack at short range and sank the Italian liner Conte Rosso Subsequently, the King was graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross for great valour and resolution in command of HMS Upholder to Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn, DSO. |
| 03-07-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes in sinks the Italian merchant Laura C off Saline Ioniche, Calabria |
| 24-07-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and damages the Italian merchant Dandolo 2.5 nautical miles north-west of Barone, eastern Sicily. |
| 28-07-1941 | While on patrol near Marettimo island, off the western tip of Sicily HMS Upholder fired 4 torpedoes at an Italian task force, damaging the light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi. |
| 20-08-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the Italian merchant Enotria 5 nautical miles off Cape San Vito, Italy. |
| 22-08-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the German transport Lussin about 2 nautical miles north-west of Cape San Vito, Sicily, Italy. |
| 24-08-1941 | HMS Upholder fires two torpedoes at the Italian light cruiser Luigi di Savoia Duca Delgi Abruzzi off the north-west tip of Sicily but miss the target. |
| 31-08-1941 | HMS Upholder fires torpedoes from long range against the Italian troop transports Oceania and Neptunia off the Tunisian coast. All torpedoes missed. |
| 18-09-1941 | HMS Upholder sinks the Italian troop ships Neptunia and Oceania; 384 people are drowned |
| 08-11-1941 | HMS Upholder attacks an Italian submarine with torpedoes some 60 nautical miles south-east of Capo Passero, Sicily, Italy but the target was not hit. |
| 09-11-1941 | HMS Upholder torpedoed and sank the Italian destroyer Libeccio east of Siracusa, Sicily. |
| 04-01-1942 | HMS Upholder torpedoed and damaged the Italian steamer Sirio 4 nautical miles north-west of Cefal, Sicily. |
| 05-01-1942 | Italian submarine R.Smg. Ammiraglio Saint Bon is sunk by a torpedo from submarine HMS Upholder north of Milazzo, Sicily. The Italian submarine is enroute to Libya carrying 155 tons of gasoline and ammunition. The torpedo hits on the starboard side causing the gasoline to explode. There are only three survivors |
| 27-02-1942 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the Italian merchant Tembien about 25 nautical miles north of Tripoli, Libya. |
| 18-03-1942 | HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the Italian submarine Trichecoeast off Brindisi in the southern Adriatic. |
| 19-03-1942 | HMS Upholder sinks the Italian auxiliary minesweeper B.14/Maria with gunfire, about 20 nautical miles south of Brindisi, Italy. |
| 14-04-1942 | On the 12th April HMS Upholder was ordered to form a patrol line with HMS Urge and HMS Thrasher to intercept a convoy. It is not known if this signal was received and the submarine failed to return to harbour on her due date. A number of theories exist as to the fate of Upholder, the most likely is that she fell victim to a depth charge attack by the Italian anti-submarine vessel Pagaso on 14th April east of Tripoli although no debris was seen and the position of the attack would have put Upholder some 100 miles out of position, however, this can be explained by the submarine changing position to find richer pickings. A second theory is that the submarine struck a mine near Tripoli on the night of 11th April, supported by the fact that a submarine was sighted approaching a minefield. |
| Length overall | 190 ft 7 inch |
| Beam | 15 ft 9 inch |
| Depth | 15 ft 9 inch |
| Displacement | 630 tons (surface) |
| 730 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | 200 ft |
| Speed | 11.5 knots (surface) |
| 9 knots (submerged) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Endurance | Surface: 4050 miles at 10 knots (design) |
| Submerged: 23 miles at 8 knots or 170 miles at 2.5 knots (design) | |
| Armament | (i) 4 x 21 inch bow tubes (8 torpedoes carried) |
| (ii) 1 x 3 inch gun | |
| 3 x 0.303 inch machine-guns | |
| Complement | (peacetime) 4 Officers, 23 Others, |
| (at war) 4 Officers, 27 Others | |
| Note | (i) The first seven U Class submarines had two additional external bow tubes installed and carried 10 torpedoes |
| (ii) Undine and Unity, which were not fitted with the 3 inch gun, had 27-man complements. |
Further Reading |
|
| Warship Profile 16 |
DSC RN Capt. M. L. Crawford These Warship Profiles were published in the early 1970s and are quite rare now. Each takes a Warship and gives a full history, masses of photos, colour profiles and a well written text, often by serving or ex-Naval Officers. Modellers will find this volume very useful indeed! |
The skipper cleared lower deck. 'Right men, this is the position we are in. We have got to get two X Craft plus the Depot Ship through the Canal, negotiating obstacles and hidden dangers to achieve our objective of flying the White Ensign in the centre of Janner Land.'
The Real X-Men tells the story of the sacrifice and heroism of the individual men, many of them little more than teenagers, who volunteered for this dangerous duty and who crewed both the Chariots and the X-craft without knowing the full extent of the risks entailed, nor indeed the very small chances they had of coming back alive.
13 pages added or updated in the last Array month
Please help to maintain this site by reporting any Errors, Broken Links, Information or Site Issues on this page using this button
If you find this site useful, please consider supporting my work with a small Donation.
Please Note: Donations made using this option go directly to the site owner and not to the Submariners Association.
Thankyou for your support.
| Length overall | 190 ft 7 inch |
| Beam | 15 ft 9 inch |
| Depth | 15 ft 9 inch |
| Displacement | 630 tons (surface) |
| 730 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | 200 ft |
| Speed | 11.5 knots (surface) |
| 9 knots (submerged) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Endurance | Surface: 4050 miles at 10 knots (design) |
| Submerged: 23 miles at 8 knots or 170 miles at 2.5 knots (design) | |
| Armament | (i) 4 x 21 inch bow tubes (8 torpedoes carried) |
| (ii) 1 x 3 inch gun | |
| 3 x 0.303 inch machine-guns | |
| Complement | (peacetime) 4 Officers, 23 Others, |
| (at war) 4 Officers, 27 Others | |
| Note | (i) The first seven U Class submarines had two additional external bow tubes installed and carried 10 torpedoes |
| (ii) Undine and Unity, which were not fitted with the 3 inch gun, had 27-man complements. |
Further Reading |
|
| Warship Profile 16 |
|
DSC RN Capt. M. L. Crawford These Warship Profiles were published in the early 1970s and are quite rare now. Each takes a Warship and gives a full history, masses of photos, colour profiles and a well written text, often by serving or ex-Naval Officers. Modellers will find this volume very useful indeed! |
The skipper cleared lower deck. 'Right men, this is the position we are in. We have got to get two X Craft plus the Depot Ship through the Canal, negotiating obstacles and hidden dangers to achieve our objective of flying the White Ensign in the centre of Janner Land.'
The Real X-Men tells the story of the sacrifice and heroism of the individual men, many of them little more than teenagers, who volunteered for this dangerous duty and who crewed both the Chariots and the X-craft without knowing the full extent of the risks entailed, nor indeed the very small chances they had of coming back alive.
13 pages added or updated in the last Array month
Please help to maintain this site by reporting any Errors, Broken Links, Information or Site Issues on this page using this button
If you find this site useful, please consider supporting my work with a small Donation.
Please Note: Donations made using this option go directly to the site owner and not to the Submariners Association.
Thankyou for your support.
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