GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Buckingham Palace - United line-up, including Hatherly “United” under Roxburgh - D.S.M.
As cited above, Hatherly’s first D.S.M. reflected gallant service in the course of 17 war patrols in United, so he must have been recommended for his D.S.M. after eight patrols under Roxburgh’s command. Another four would follow prior to United’s return for a refit in the U.K. in September 1943.
It was a highly successful period of command, witnessing the destruction of an armed merchant cruiser (the Olbia), three merchantmen and three schooners, in addition to the probable destruction of the Italian destroyer Bombardiere and four further merchantmen. The Olbia took an hour to sink, so Roxburgh left the periscope up for United’s crew ‘to take a look at the results of their handiwork.’
Nor were such attacks free from retaliation, the above cited 36 hour period being a case in point; on another occasion, in June 1943, after attacking the Ringulv, an escorting destroyer delivered a determined and accurate response, the resultant depth charges smashing thirty lights in the submarine. The entire episode had been witnessed from above - and filmed - by a P.R.U. Spitfire flying at 25,000 feet.
Most memorable of all of United’s victories was, however, her ‘sub.-on-sub.’ encounter with the Italian Remo in the Gulf of Taranto on 17 July 1943, during her penultimate Mediterranean war patrol. Here ‘Jimmy the One’ John Wingate - and Roxburgh - take up the story in The Fighting Tenth:
‘On the afternoon of the 15th the long wait was over. The Officer of the Watch, having sighted a U-Boat, summoned Roxburgh to the control room. Roxburgh could hardly believe his luck as the U-Boat swanned in broad daylight across the surface towards him:
‘The range continued steadily to close and still the U-Boat foolishly remained on the same course. I could now count seven sunburnt figures on the conning tower. One, whom I assumed to be the commanding officer, since he was smartly dressed in white tropical uniform and cap, was sitting nonchalantly on the bridge rail with his back to me.’
The U-Boat was only 500 yards away. Roxburgh gave the order to fire. A full salvo of torpedoes sped towards the enemy.
‘The seconds ticked by. Surely we could not have missed such a sitting target from so short a range. It seemed an age, but it was in fact only some ten to fifteen seconds after firing when United was shaken by a tremendous explosion, shortly followed by another. Up went the periscope, in time for me to see the U-Boat throw her stern high, her screws thrashing the air, and then sink without trace.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. Such a rapid end to one's own kind, after such a cold-blooded attack and viewed from so close, gave me no sense of elation, rather one of momentary awe.
This was no time for philosophising, however heads could be seen bobbing in the water and men were waving at our periscope ... As I discussed with my Number One, John Wingate, the pros and cons of surfacing in broad daylight so close to a major enemy naval base, I could not fail to overhear the broad Scots tones of the helmsman, Able Seaman Jock Barry, mumbled sotto voce from his corner in the control room: ‘Pick’em up, you cruel bugger!’
Barry, nearly forty years of age, was an old man to most of us in our twenties. A huge, tough man, far from being the best-looking member of the crew, he was a great favourite on board. Before being called up he was a Glasgow policeman, well used to dealing with the razor gangs of the Gorbals. Such tender feelings were therefore somewhat unexpected.’
But Roxburgh got his own back; on surfacing he sent Barry out onto the casing to haul the survivors on board, a vulnerable place to be if the boat was suddenly forced to dive. Barry could find only four, and minutes later United had dived.
‘The survivors turned out to be Italian: the U-Boat's commanding officer, Tenente di Vascello Salvatore Vassallo from Imperia, his navigating officer, and two ratings. They were clearly startled by my appearance when finally I interrogated them, my head being bound with a blood-stained and dirty bandage, covering a nasty gash I had sustained two nights earlier from fainting on my own bridge, shortly after leaving Malta, when I was suffering from a touch of sandfly fever.’
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