GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY ‘Full ahead port, sir.’
E.7 vibrated gently as the power surged into the motor and she shifted slightly. It was impossible to tell which way she was moving except by means of the compass. Suddenly the needle swung 90 degrees and the grating sound of the net came, this time, from aft. The submarine had swung broadside and was now lying with her full length against the net trapped at both bow and stern! At 8.30 am there was a violent explosion. The Turks had dropped their first depth charge.
A line of marker-buoys floated on the surface above the net and the enemy were patrolling in small boats. Each time the submarine tried to wriggle free the buoys dragged beneath the water and it was a simple matter to locate her position with clinical exactitude. A launch bustled out from the shore carrying a large black canister in the stern-sheets. Stopping at the point indicated by the patrols, the canister was dropped into the water. For fifteen seconds there was silence. Then, suddenly, there was a dull roar deep beneath the surface and the blast of the explosion threw a great white gusher of water into the air.
Inside E.7 everything was calm. The depth charge had caused no major damage and the First Officer, having checked the hull for leaks, reported everything still tight. Chancing that the explosion had done more damage to the nets than it had to the submarine Cochrane called for full power again. E.7 threshed wildly against the heavy steel net but she did not move. By now the port motor was overheating too and the captain had to call off the attempt.
Two hours later another depth-charge swirled towards the bottom, considerably closer than the first, and flakes of cork-packing sprinkled down like snow as the submarine took the full blast of the explosion. But the hull held firm and Cochrane gave the motor another quick burst of power to try and break free.
For the next three hours, at regular intervals, E.7 strained and threshed against the net but her exertions only seemed to entangle her more tightly. By now the batteries were running down and her captain decided to lie low for a while. The crew rested quietly but they noted with ominous pessimism that Cochrane was carefully destroying the boat’s confidential records and secret papers.
On shore the news that a submarine was trapped in the net spread like wildfire. Korvetten Kapitan Heino von Heimburg, commander of the German submarine UB-15, was resting in his cabin when he was given the news. Heimburg had once been trapped in a British net and he had evolved his own method of destroying an ensnared submarine. UB-15 was lying at anchor at Chanak, only a short distance from the net defence, and the German officer immediately decided to take a hand in the proceedings. So taking his cook, Herzig, with him they threw some equipment into a dinghy and rowed over to the Turkish patrol boats. The crew of a gunboat pointed out where they thought the submarine was lying and Herzig, a professional fisherman by trade, swung a plumbline over the side while Heimburg rowed gently along the line of buoys.
After half-an-hour the cook let out a yell as he located the trapped submarine and the two men carefully prepared amine. They lit the fuse and then lowered it down to the depths. Black diesel oil leaked up to the surface after the explosion and the U-boat captain now knew he had fatally wounded his prey.
The fierce detonation of the mine had shattered every light bulb in E.7 and the crew clattered through the debris in pitch darkness as Cochrane called for diving stations.
‘Close main vents. Blow all tanks.’
There was a hiss of compressed air which drowned the sullen gurgling of sea-water leaking into the hull and the submarine began to rise to the surface. The hatch was thrown open and the crew climbed out on deck with their arms raised while Cochrane and the other two officers quickly set the scuttling charges which they had placed ready for use a few hours earlier. Then, reluctantly, they clambered up through the hatch to join the crew lined up on deck. Cochrane, in fact, only just made it in time according to Heimburg’s eye- witness account: ‘The water was closing over the conning-tower and into the water and swam over to the boat. It was the captain, the last man to abandon ship.’ ’
An early glimpse of the captured submariners experiences of Turkish hospitality appears in Beneath the Waves, by A. S. Evans:
‘For the first few days following their capture, the submariners were treated quite well. Then came a move to Constantinople and with it a rude introduction to the more unsavoury aspects of Turkish prison life. For three weeks they were confined to the capital’s prison with five hundred criminals for company. Angora (now Ankara, the Turkish capital) was their next destination. Five months were spent at Angora before a move south to the small township of Afion Kara Hissar was ordered ... ’
Following his repatriation, Sims was awarded the D.S.M. and Medal of the Order of the British Empire (London Gazette 17 October 1919 refers), and he was demobilised in October 1919; sold with copied service record and other research.
1048
A Gallipoli Operations D.S.M. group of five awarded to Signalman Thomas McDonagh, Royal Navy
DISTINGUISHED SERVICEMEDAL, G.V.R. (239006 T. McDonagh, Sign. Gallipoli Ops. 1915-6); NAVALGENERAL SERVICE 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (239006 T. McDonagh, Sig. H.M.S. Dartmouth); 1914-15 STAR (239006 T. McDonagh, L. Sig. R.N.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS (239006 T. McDonagh, Sig. R.N.) heavily polished, edge bruising and contact marks, therefore fine (5)
£700-900
D.S.M. London Gazette 15 May 1916: ‘For services rendered by Petty Officers and Men of the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron between the time of the landing in the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915, and the evacuation in December 1915-January 1916.’
Thomas McDonagh was born in Galway on 4 December 1890, and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 29 January 1907. He qualified as Ordinary Signalman in December 1908, becoming Signalman in May 1910 and Leading Signalman in October 1914. Various misdemeanours throughout his service precluded his qualifying for a L.S. & G.C. medal and resulted in his being reduced to Signalman, in which rate he was finally discharged in September 1928. Sold with copied service papers.
www.dnw.co.uk
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