大象传媒

The Firedrake took an unusual part in the Fleet action in bombarding the Italian port, (code name Operation Result). We were to stand off the island of Sardinia and send wireless signals as decoy, whilst the Force H ships attacked the port. It seems we were successful in this as the attack was quite successful also. The reason I remember the episode so well is as I describe. In the night as we patrolled on our mission we received an Asdic contact ostensibly a submarine. I was quartermaster on the wheel and directly in touch with the bridge. The wheelhouse was directly underneath the open bridge, and communication was by voice pipe. I was privy to the events that followed--. Action stations were sounded and the Captain prepared to set up a depth charge attack. The next information from the Asdic operator was that the contact was heading for the ship. The Captain then gave me directions to attempt to ram this object, believed to be a submarine. The signal was broadcast on the ship,鈥� Stand By To Ram鈥�. We felt a collision of sorts but as we then sailed on normally it was realized that what we had actually hit was a whale. The Captain let out some expletive and that was the end of the panic. That was the only notable incident we had whilst the Fleet executed a successful blow to the Italian morale, as the damage was more to their pride than anything.

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