SUBMARINE OFFICER CHARGED

Evening Star, Issue 25770, 17 April 1946, Page 8

SUBMARINE OFFICER CHARGED

LOSS OF THE OSWALD ALLEGED DERELICTION OF DUTY LONDON, April 15. Lieutenant Graham Roy Marsh, second in command of the submarine Oswald, which was rammed and sunk by an Italian destroyer in the lonian Sea in 1940, was eourt-martialled at Portsmouth. He pleaded not guilty to the charges—first, as first lieutenant, failing to do his utmost to ensure that the captain's order to abandon ship was carried out in an orderly and effective manner; secondly, failing to use the utmost exertions to assist the captain to encourage and rally the crew in the sea after the sinking; thirdly, leaving his control room post at the order to abandon ship without ensuring that members of the crew inside the submarine had succeeded in leaving the interior. (Of the crew of five-officers and 50 ratings three were lost, presumed drowned, and the remainder were picked up by the Italian destroyer and taken prisoner.) Lieutenant-commander David Alexander Fraser, commanding officer of. the Oswald, in evidence, said that he saw-Marsh in the water. He appeared upset, and kept calling out. Witness told him to keep calm. Marsh had i)een in hospital before the patrol for stomach trouble; and was due to return to hospital after the patrol. Lieutenant M. D Pope said there was no control -of the crew in the escape ■ through the conning tower hatch after the order to abandon ship. He returned to the submarine to make sure that all ratings knew of the order and found that the crew otf the motor room had shut themselves behind the watertight doors. He got the doors ooen and also cleared the men from the stokers' mess deck. He did not think anyone else was going round clearing the ship. Harry Moore, a former leading seaman on the Oswald, said he saw Marsh going up the control room ladder. He called to him asking if he should stay at the wheel, but received no reply.

" T ordered the blowing of the tanks,'' witness said. The case was adionrned.