LOSS OF SUBMARINE

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1946, Page 7

LOSS OF SUBMARINE

OFFICER FACES COURT MARTIAL BEHAVIOUR IN CRISIS 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, faced a court-martial at Portsmouth. He pleaded not guilty to the following charges:—First, as first lieutenant failing to do his utmost to ensure that the captains order to abandon ship was carried out in an orderly and effective manner; second, failing to use his utmost exertions to assist the captain and encourage and rally the crew in the sea after sinking; third, leaving his control-room post at the order to abandon ship without ensuring that the 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 and presumed drowned and the remainder were picked up by an Italian destroyer and taken prisoner.) Lieut.-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 been in hospital before this patrol for stomach trouble, and was due to return to hospital after the patrol. Lieutenant M. D. Pope said that there was no control of the crew in their escape through the conningtower hatch after the order to abandon ship. He returned to the submarine to make sure that all ratings knew the order, and found that the crew of the motor room had shut themselves behind water-tight doors. He got the doors opened and also cleared 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 that he saw Marsh going up the controlroom ladder. *He called to him, asking if he should stay at the wheel, and received no reply. “I ordered the blowing of the tanks,’! said witness.