Michael Lindsay Coulton Crawford
HMS ''Upholder'' (N99)
##### HMS *Upholder* (N99\)

After three months with *L23*, Lieut. Crawford was appointed [first lieutenant](/wiki/First_lieutenant "First lieutenant") in [HMS *Upholder*](/wiki/HMS_Upholder_%28P37%29 "HMS Upholder (P37)"), under the command of Lieut. Cmdr. Malcolm Wanklyn (later [VC](/wiki/Victoria_Cross "Victoria Cross")). Crawford joined the boat on 10 December 1940; she sailed for Gibraltar on 12 December and thence to Malta to join the [10th Submarine Flotilla](/wiki/10th_Submarine_Flotilla "10th Submarine Flotilla"). On the way, *Upholder* participated in [Operation Excess](/wiki/Operation_Excess "Operation Excess"), acting as a screen for ships sailing to Malta, including [HMS *Illustrious*](/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_%2887%29 "HMS Illustrious (87)"), the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier. Upon arrival in Malta, *Upholder* was berthed adjacent to *Illustrious*, which suffered repeated Luftwaffe attacks.

From her base in Malta, *Upholder* engaged in normal patrolling duties with the purpose of preventing supplies reaching Axis forces in North Africa, with a particular focus on shipping sailing down the west coast of Sicily down the Tunisian coast to Tripoli and down the eastern side of Sicily from Taranto. Her early patrols were not particularly successful. Crawford suggests that one reason may be that at that time there were restrictions on the number of torpedoes which should be launched during attacks, which meant that in some attacks only two were fired at a target rather than three. On one occasion, on 12 April 1941, *Upholder* was out of torpedoes, but still achieved a minor success by persuading an enemy convoy to turn round by firing star\-shell.

On 26 April 1941, *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. On the following day, *Upholder* attempted to get close to the similarly grounded wreck of the Italian destroyer *Lampo*, but ran aground herself before she could reach her. Several days later, on 1 May, *Upholder* attacked a merchant convoy, sinking the German merchant ship *Arcturus* and damaging and later sinking the German merchant ship *Leverkusen*.

Crawford later recalled that on one occasion *Upholder* was selected to land a party of commandos at [Taormina](/wiki/Taormina "Taormina") in an attempt to assassinate Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall [Albert Kesselring](/wiki/Albert_Kesselring "Albert Kesselring"), who intelligence indicated was staying at the Miramar Hotel. Wanklyn volunteered *Upholder* for the job, partly because he had spent his honeymoon in Taormina and was familiar with the bay. *Upholder* was fitted out for the task with a fender in order to avoid damaging her bow on the rocks. The operation was postponed and later cancelled due to Kesselring reportedly having left Taormina. Various sources, including Crawford, suggest that this episode occurred in April 1941\.

In May, off the east coast of Sicily, *Upholder* took part in perhaps her most famous engagement. She was patrolling at dusk. Crawford was on watch and saw a dark shape and called Wanklyn to the periscope, who took over and carried out a daring attack for which he was later awarded the [Victoria Cross](/wiki/Victoria_Cross "Victoria Cross"). *Upholder* had already taken part in two attacks and so had only two torpedoes remaining. Also, her ASDIC was out of action. *Upholder* fired her two torpedoes and sank the Italian schooner *Conte Rosso*.

In July, *Upholder* encountered two Italian cruisers, *[Giuseppe Garibaldi](/wiki/Italian_cruiser_Giuseppe_Garibaldi_%281936%29 "Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1936)")* and *[Raimondo Montecuccoli](/wiki/Italian_cruiser_Raimondo_Montecuccoli "Italian cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli")*, steaming at about 22 knots and escorted by destroyers. Wanklyn originally intended to attack *Montecuccoli*, but shortly before firing, the ASDIC operator gave the cruisers an even higher speed, of around 28 knots, which meant that *Upholder* did not have a good enough position to attack her and so Wanklyn switched the attack to *Garibaldi*. *Upholder* fired two torpedoes, one of which was claimed as a hit but did not sink *Garibaldi*, though it did put her in port and out of action for some time.

Crawford was awarded the [Distinguished Service Cross](/wiki/Distinguished_Service_Cross_%28United_Kingdom%29 "Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)") (DSC) on 2 September 1941 for "skill and enterprise in successful submarine patrols" from January to May 1941, an award confirmed shortly after *Upholder's* return from her 16th war patrol.

On 16 September, the crew of *Upholder* was recalled from shore leave in the middle of the afternoon and, with [HMS *Ursula*](/wiki/HMS_Ursula_%28N59%29 "HMS Ursula (N59)"), [HMS *Unbeaten*](/wiki/HMS_Unbeaten "HMS Unbeaten") and [HMS *Upright*](/wiki/HMS_Upright "HMS Upright"), sailed within a few hours to pursue intelligence reports of a troop convoy from Taranto passing to the east of Malta en route to Tripoli. Three of the submarines were put across the convoy's line of passage, with *Upholder* in the middle and *Unbeaten* and *Upright* on either side. *Ursula* was positioned fifty miles to the west in order to carry out a daylight attack in the early morning. *Upholder* attacked and sank the Italian merchant ships *Neptunia* and *Oceania*. A third ship in the convoy, *Vulcania*, escaped despite an attack by *Ursula* on 18 September with four torpedoes, one of which may have hit.


What happened on 12 April 1941?