Operation Pedestal

By mid 1942 the strategically important island of Malta was being starved by the German and Italian blockade. Without the island fortress the Allies could not strike at convoys from Italy that were supplying the Axis armies in North Africa. Further more, it was realised that an Allied North Africa campaign could not begin until the Axis armies had been weakened by lack of supplies.

Earlier convoys to re-supply Malta had proved disastrous and Operation Pedestal was conceived as a last ditch attempt to relieve the blockade. A huge escorting force from the Home Fleet and Force H from Gibraltar was assembled to escort fourteen merchant ships from the UK to Malta. Many capital ships were damaged in the desperate air and submarine attacks. Only six merchantmen got through but Malta was never under pressure again and

so the Allied invasion of north Africa (Operation Torch) was made possible in November 1942. This convoy has been the subject of many books and the film 'The Malta Story'. I let these recount the factual story of this murderous convoy. I will confine myself to my and my shipmates personal experiences.

Lightning joined Force Z comprising aircraft carrier Indomitable , cruiser Phoebe, and our sisters - Laforey and Lookout.

On Monday 3 August 1942 we met up with the main Force X from the UK just off Gibraltar and refuelled alongside Indomitable the next day.

On 5 August 1942 the convoy passed through the straits en-route to Malta.

On the 8th we went into Gibraltar at midnight to refuel and to drop the remaining crew of the Tankexpress. We also take on more ammunution and storess and slip the oiler at 0445 on 9th.
On the 11th we were with Lookout, screening the aircraft carrier Furious, when the nearby carrier Eagle was hit by four torpedoes from U-73. In only eight minutes she slid beneath the waves as we watched in disbelief - 2 officers and 158 ratings were lost. AB Ron 'Marmite' Rawlings recalls

"...the aircraft carrier Eagle was torpedoed at about 2pm. (I was about to get my head down on the four inch gun deck at the time for a snooze in the sun)".

Here are some rare action photographs of the last moments of HMS Eagle, taken from Lightning. These were given to me by Stewart Sharples - son of AB Paul Sharples.





Eagle listing just after being torpedoed



Fire quickly takes hold



Eagle capsizing



Final moments

On August 12 the air raids seemed to be continuous throughout day. We had several near misses and a torpedo run down our side. Lightning and Somali went to the aid of the Indomitable when she was hit by three bombs on the flight deck, but not seriously damaged.



Indomitable? under air attack

At 1835 that day, and north of Cape Bon, Force Z including ourselves broke off escort duty from the convoy and returned to Gibraltar. Shortly after that we suffered a series of terrible air attacks, to my recollection far worse than ever before. Nigeria and Cairo were both hit by torpedoes from the Italian submarine Axum.

A signal received on the 13th covering the previous day's action read as follows:

"Nigeria and Cairo hit last night at dusk (Cairo was eventually sunk by our own forces). Nigeria proceding west with 3 Hunt class destroyers. At least 5 MT vessels have been sunk. Kenya hit but proceding with convoy, Manchester and 10 destroyers. Six officers and 60 ratings from Indomitable pressumed killed, 55 wounded".

Although the number of dead was later corrected to 40, David Drew recalls that it took well over an hour at sunset that evening of 13th for Indomitable to commit her dead to the deap.

Many of the merchant ships received hits but managed to get the vital supplies through to Malta, some with their decks awash. The war supplies got through and the island was saved - the cost in lives and ships was dear.

My own recollections of this convoy are that, although the fighting was intense and we were at action stations for days on end, the feelings that I were left with afterwards were not as bad as with my first Malta convoy - Operation Halberd. This is probably because the first major convoy was such a shock to me and I was now becoming more accustomed to all the horrors of continuous action for days on end.

Here are some photographs of some the actions, again supplies by Stewart Sharples:










near miss!!

We arrived at Gibraltar at 1915 on 15 August 1942. News of the convoy losses and dramas continued to reach us for several days. We could see Nigeria under repair. She had been torpedoed amidships, rumour had it that there were still 58 ratings trapped in the oil below decks (about 40 bodies were recovered over the next week).

On the 16th, at 0300, we slipped our mooring and proceeded to sea with aircraft carrier Furious, a cruiser and about eleven destroyers in order to fly off more Spitfires to Malta. This was called operation Baritone.

On the 17th 32 Spitfires were flown off. Two of them crashed on take off, only one pilot was rescued. We arrived back in Gibraltar the following day and had a short rest for four days, leaving again on the 21st at 0900 for an ASDIC sweep of the Straits - which was uneventful.



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