POLLITT W. T.

Able Seaman P/SSX 30750 William Thomas POLLITT.

Royal Navy H.M.S. Manistee (F104).

24 Feb 1941 aged 19

Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 49, Column 1.

William Thomas Pollitt and Emily Chadwick were married at St.Aidan’s in Bradford, Manchester, with William being the eldest of eight children.

H.M.S. Manistee (Lieutenant Commander Eric Haydn Smith) an ocean boarding vessel formed part of convoy OB 288 sailing from Liverpool on 19 Feb 1941. 

The convoy was dispersed at 21:00 hours on the 23rd at a point northwest of Ireland and south of Iceland due to U-boat activity. At 22:42 the German Type IXV, U-107, (Kapitänleutnant Günther Hessler), and the Italian Marconi-class Michele Bianchi (Commander Giovannini) fired torpedoes with at least one hitting the engine room. At 07:58 on the 24th U-107 again fired on Manistee, sinking her at point south of Iceland. U.S.S. Herndon, H.M.S. Heather and Free French Léopard were dispatched to search for survivors but none of the 141 crew were found.

H.M.S.Manistee (Photo from Uboat.net)

TURNER H. B.

Leading Seaman D/JX 30326 Harold Buchan TURNER

Royal Navy H.M.S.Kite (U877)

21 Aug 1944 aged 21

Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 85, Column 3.

Son of Thomas and Bessie Turner, of Stockport, Cheshire.

On 20 Aug 1944 H.M.S. Kite (Lieutenant Commander A.N.G. Campbell) was escorting the aircraft carriers H.M.S. Vindex and H.M.S. Striker, which in turn were escorting convoy JW-59 to Northern Russia when the convoy was sighted in the Barents Sea by German aircraft. Soon a pack of U-boats attacked the convoy with one U-boat being sunk by Fairey Swordfish aircraft from one of the carriers. Two more were sunk by other destroyers.

At 06:30 on 21 August, H.M.S. Kite slowed to 6 knots to untangle her "foxers" (anti acoustic torpedo noise makers, towed astern). The decision to do so, rather than severing the foxers' cables and abandoning them, was made by her temporary commander, a submariner. At that speed H.M.S. Kite was a sitting duck, and she was hit by two torpedoes from Type VIIC U-344 (Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Pietsch) and sank.

Of H.M.S. Kite's crew of 10 officers and 207 ratings, 60 survived the attack, but from the freezing Arctic water only 14 sailors were picked up alive by H.M.S. Keppel. Five of the rescued died on board, leaving only nine to make it to shore.

H.M.S.Kite (photo from uboat.net)

KITCHEN H. H.

Sick Berth Attendant P/MX 94619 Harold Holden KITCHEN.

Royal Navy H.M.S. Penelope (97).

18 Feb 1944 aged 40.

Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 87, Column 1.

Samuel Holden Kitchen and Annie Birkett had four children with Harold being the third. In 1940 Harold married Annie Whittaker at the Thompson Street Baptist Church in Stockport.

On 18 Feb 1944, H.M.S.Penelope (Capt. George Devereux Belben, DSO, DSC, AM) was leaving the Anzio area to return to Naples when she was torpedoed by the German submarine Type VIIC U-410 (Oberleutnant Horst-Arno Fenski). The torpedo struck her in the after engine room and was followed, 16 minutes later, by a second one which hit in the after boiler room, causing her immediate sinking. 

The commander, 24 officers, 368 ratings and 24 Marines were lost. The 208 survivors were picked up by H.M.S.L.S.T.-165 and H.M.S.L.S.T.-430.

H.M.S. Penelope (photo from Imperial War Museum)

FAULKNER J. N.

Ordinary Signalman P/JX 330130 John Noel FAULKNER

Royal Navy H.M.S.President II on H.M.S.Pelican .

15 Feb 1943 aged 21

Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 76, Column 3.

James William Faulkner was married in 1917 at St.Luke’s in Goostrey to Bertha Thompson they had at least four children with John being the eldest son.

John was lost overboard whilst serving on H.M.S. Pelican on escort duty for convoy OS-043 on the Freetown route. 

H.M.S.Pelican (photo from pinterest)

CROWTHER C. E.

Engine Room Artificer 5th Class D/MX. 509466 Charles Edward CROWTHER

Royal Navy H.M.S.Lanka passenger on Khedive Ismail

12 Feb 1944 aged 22

Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 89, Column 1.

Son of Albert and Frances Crowther, of Stockport, Cheshire.

Husband of Mary Kathleen Crowther.

In the early afternoon of 12 Feb 1944 whilst south-west of the Maldives, a Japanese Type B1 submarine I-27 (Lt-Cdr Toshiaki Fukumura), attacked the convoy KR-8, which was enroute from Mombasa bound for Colombo. The Khedive Ismail was carrying 1,511 personnel including 178 crew, 996 officers and men of the East African Artillery's 301st Field Regiment, 271 Royal Navy personnel, and a detachment of 19 Wrens. Also on board were 53 nursing sisters accompanied by one matron, and 9 members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.

The I-27 fired a spread of four torpedoes with two hits sinking the Khedive Ismail. Commander Fukumura had a history of machine-gunning survivors of ships she had sunk, including the Liberty ship S.S. Sambridge and the Fort Mumford. There were many survivors in the sea and the I-27 hid beneath them and the flotsam. H.M.S. Paladin lowered boats over the side to begin rescuing survivors but H.M.S. Petard released depth charges in an attempt to sink the submarine. On H.M.S. Petard’s third run, her depth charges forced I-27 to the surface. H.M.S. Paladin rammed the submarine, causing herself considerable damage. A torpedo from H.M.S. Petard finally destroyed the I-27.

1,297 people, including 77 women, lost their lives in the two minutes it took for the Khedive Ismail to sink. Only 208 men and 6 women survived. The sinking was the third worst Allied shipping disaster of World War II and the single worst loss of female service personnel in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations. Many of those who perished did so from the depth charges released from H.M.S. Petard.

SS Khedive Ismail (photo from britisharmynurses.com)

WARD E. H.

Able Seaman P/SSX 33207 Eric Hugh WARD.

Royal Navy H.M.S. Worcester (D96).

12 Feb 1942

Shotley Royal Naval Cemetery, Coll grave 2. A. 7-11.

Son of Francis Albert Edward and Harriet Ward, of Edgeley, Stockport, Cheshire.

On 12 Feb 1942 German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were steaming to Germany via the English Channel, Strait of Dover, and North Sea in what was to become known as the "Channel Dash." Several destroyers were sent to intercept them with H.M.S. Worcester being one of them.

During an unsuccessful torpedo attack, H.M.S. Worcester (Lieutenant John Anthony Hodnot Hamer) was hit by 11-inch shells from the battlecruisers and 8-inch shells from Prinz Eugen, 26 were killed or mortally wounded with 45 injured. The German gunfire inflicted severe structural damage on Worcester, starting several fires and flooding to her No. 1 boiler room, causing her to go dead in the water. The  surviving crew put out her fires, and got back underway, proceeding to Parkeston Quay (Harwich) for repairs. Most of the dead are buried Shotley Naval Cemetery, Harwich.

Grave of Eric WARD (photo from findagrave added by Len)

BROWN C.

Engine Room Artificer 4th Class C/MX 65536 Cornelius BROWN

Royal Navy H.M.S. Clacton.

11 Feb 1943 aged 22

Le Petit Lac Cemetery, Algeria, Plot E. Row A. Grave 30.

Son of Cornelius and Hannah Brown, of Stockport, Cheshire.

Married Marian Birchanall, at St.Matthew. Edgeley, Stockport.

Died in an accident on 11 Feb 1943 whilst serving on H.M.S. Clacton.

H.M.S.Clacton (photo from Imperial War Museum)