Submarine Escapes

[erdnase]

Escape stories always fascinate me, in particular submarine escapes. It must be absolutely horrifying to be in a sinking submarine, facing the reality that you'll never surface again. Here's a good story on the BBC website about a WWII escape.

Seventy years ago, off the Greek island of Kefalonia, the British submarine HMS Perseus hit an Italian mine, sparking one of the greatest and most controversial survival stories of World War II.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15959067

Terrifying!

[anonymous-user]

This was air'd on Radio4 earlier today, now availible on iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017mx3x/Esca...

Author Louis de Bernieres returns to Cephalonia, the setting for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, to tell one of the greatest, most controversial submarine escape stories of World War II

[Sheets Tabuer]

Very sad he didn't make it to see his story being proven correct, one in the eye for everyone that said it was bull.

[Stedman]

The SBS do things like this

[dr_gn]

erdnase said:

Escape stories always fascinate me, in particular submarine escapes. It must be absolutely horrifying to be in a sinking submarine, facing the reality that you'll never surface again. Here's a good story on the BBC website about a WWII escape.

Seventy years ago, off the Greek island of Kefalonia, the British submarine HMS Perseus hit an Italian mine, sparking one of the greatest and most controversial survival stories of World War II.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15959067

Terrifying!

In 1939 when my Dad was about 8 or 9, his Dad took him for a tour around the battleship "HMS Royal Sovereign" (he thinks that's the right name, but he says the ship was subsequently sunk during the war, which Royal Sovereign wasn't I don't think). Anyway it was moored somewhere near Llandudno. Apparently they paid a small fee which went towards looking after the families of the crew of a submarine "HMS Thetis", killed after sinking during her first sea trials. If my Dad's memory is correct the Royal Sovereign was anchored directly over where the Thetis was. Quite an experience for a young lad to walk over a gangplank from a small ferry onto what seemed like a huge battleship. He remembers two things clearly: the huge ovens full of fresh bread in the galley, and walking around sunbathing sailors on deck.

To get back on topic, according to Wikipedia, the Thetis sank in 150 ft of water, and 4 crew escaped, yet it also says that the stern of the submarine was above water while the bows were stuck in mud on the sea floor (or eastury or whatever it was). Both can't be right, and my Dad reckons it definitely wasn't 150 feet of water...I have seen a photo of the stern sticking out of the water, but whether the bows were in mud is not clear. Anyone know the real story and can confirm the name of the Battleship?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thetis_%28N25%29

[anonymous-user]

The Thetis was 275ft long, so if the bow was touching the seabed, it was bow down by ~60degrees

[dr_gn]

Max_Torque said:

The Thetis was 275ft long, so if the bow was touching the seabed, it was bow down by ~60degrees

Right, thanks:



I mis-interpreted the info. Also, on further reading it appears that the escape hate was only 20 ft under water at that point. Shame there was some kind of fault with the escape hatch (or procedure used to escape). Seems that the entire crew could have been rescued by cutting a hole in the hull, but the Admiralty refused since it would mean that the submarine would be scrap. At least that's one theory...

[Simpo Two]

Thetis! That's what I was trying to remember but could only get to Thresher.

My mother once mentioned Thetis as she remembered the incident from her youth. It was a big news story.


A (fictional) film with a very young Richard Attenborough involved a sunken submarine. As the rescuers above try various recovery ideas you watch happily because you're sure they'll rescue them in the end. Except they don't, and they all die. It's quite a shock.

[dr_gn]

Simpo Two said:

Thetis! That's what I was trying to remember but could only get to Thresher.

My mother once mentioned Thetis as she remembered the incident from her youth. It was a big news story.


A (fictional) film with a very young Richard Attenborough involved a sunken submarine. As the rescuers above try various recovery ideas you watch happily because you're sure they'll rescue them in the end. Except they don't, and they all die. It's quite a shock.

Any info on the HMS Royal Sovereign being moored over the wreck? I asked my Dad again about it and he said it was definitely the Royal Sovereign, but admitted that he must have been confused about her sinking during WW2. From memory he said it was lost near Scapa Flow, which may mean it was her sister ship HMS Royal Oak that he remembers being sunk?

[Simpo Two]

dr_gn said:

Any info on the HMS Royal Sovereign being moored over the wreck? I asked my Dad again about it and he said it was definitely the Royal Sovereign, but admitted that he must have been confused about her sinking during WW2. From memory he said it was lost near Scapa Flow, which may mean it was her sister ship HMS Royal Oak that he remembers being sunk?

Sadly at 90 she has very little memory of anything now. Royal Oak was sunk at Scapa Flow in 1939; I don't know anything about Royal Sovereign.

Thetis: http://www.seayourhistory.org.uk/content/view/830/...

One submarine disaster which did involve a collision with a ship was the M1: www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/archaeology/marine_w...

[Red Firecracker]

There's a very good book on the Thetis 'episode';

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thetis-Down-Slow-Death-Sub...

Some of the events described are quite stunning, and not in a good way.