Man Of Action: Admiral Cunningham

Northern Advocate, 10 December 1940, Page 3

Man Of Action: Admiral Cunningham

Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham, K.C.8., D. 5.0., Commander-in-Chief of the British naval forces in the Mediterranean, has had a longer and wider experience in that sea than any other officer on the active list of the Royal Navy. As a destroyer captain (writes S.D.W. in the “Dominion”) he saw seven years of service in one ship in the Mediterranean, a period that covered all but the last ten months of the war of 1914-18. He was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral in September, 1932, and has spent the whole of his seagoing service as a flag-officer in the principal commands in the Mediterranean. These have covered a period of seven years, except six months as Deputy-Chief of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty. Sir Andrew, who has been 42 years in the Royal Navy, is one of the many experienced destroyer officers of the last war who have risen to high commands in this war. His present post is one of great and peculiar responsibility.

A son of the late Professor D. J. Cunningham, of Edinburgh and Dublin, Admiral Cunningham was born in 1883. He entered the Royal Navy in 1898 as a cadet in H.M.S. Britannia. Promoted lieutenant in Match, 1904, he obtained his first command in January, 1911, at the age of 23 years, when he was appointed, to H.M.S. Scorpion, in the Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet. Seven Years in One Ship.

This proved to be a remarkable appointment in several ways. It was the beginning of Cunningham’s long service in the Mediterranean. He held command of the Scorpion for seven years, from January, 1911, to January. 1918, a period that is believed to be a record for length of service in one ship in the Royal Navy. The whole of his term of command of the Scorpion was spent in the Mediterranean, including three years and five months of the war of 1914-18. He commanded the Scorpion as a lieutenant, lieuten-ant-commander, and commander, being promoted to the last-mentioned rank in June, 1915. Cunningham served in command of the Scorpion throughout the Dardanelles campaign of 1915-16 and received the D.S.O. for his work. During the naval bombardment of the Turkish forts in March, 1915, the Scorpion was one of the destroyers which covered the operations of the minesweepers under heavy fire in the entrance to the strait. On March 5, she steamed close in to the mouth of the Mendere River and silenced a Turkish battery. On April 17, when the submarine El 5 went aground at Kephez Point, the Scorpion tried to locate her at night. In spite of searchlights and heavy fire, Cunningham took his little destroyer to within half a mile of Kephez, but failed to locate the submarine.

On the dgy of the great landing on April 25, 1915, the Scorpion and eight other destroyers carried out minesweeping inside the straits and for four day? continued this work in protection of the big ships supporting the right flank of the army at Cape Helles. The Scorpion was well known to New Zealanders at Anzac. One night in May the searchlight of the destroyer uncovered two battalions of Turks working along the cliffs in an endeavour to turn the Anzac flank. She opened fire to such effect that The enemy fled, leaving 300 dead and wounded. Before the enemy attacked that night they had shot out both searchlights of the Scorpion and had inflicted casualties among her crew. The lights wgye repaired just in time for the Scorpion to answer the call for gunfire. From the end of May, 1915, till the final evacuation in January, 1916, the Scorpion and the Wolverine covered the left flank of the army in the Cape Helles area of Gallipoli. From Aegean Sea to Baltic

In March, 1916, a British naval force was stationed in the Aegean Sea to protect the main transport route from Alexandria to Salonika. Two destroyers—Scorpion and Wolverine—three trawlers and 11 drifters, patrolled the islands by day and the transport route by night, these operations being directed by Commander Cunningham, who gained knowledge and experience that must be of great value today in the operations against the Italians.

Finally, after seven years of continuous service in the Scorpion in the Mediterranean, Commander Cunningham returned to England in January, 1918. Two months later he was appointed to command the destroyer Termagant and her division of a flotilla working in the Dover Patrol. He served in the Termagant till after the armistice, and for his work was awarded a bar to his D.S.O! medal. A short period of service in command of the destroyer Seafire and her division during the naval operations against the Bolshevist forces in the Baltic gained him a second bar to his D.S.O. Captain to Rear-Admiral Promoted captain in December, 1919, he served for some time as head of a naval sub-committee on the InterAllied Commission of Control in Germany. His next seagoing appointment was to H.M.S. Wallace (flotilla leader) as captain (D) of the First Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet. In October, 1924, he was appointed captain-in-charge of the Port Edgar destroyer base in the Firth of Forth. In May, 1926, he was appointed in command of H.M.S. Calcutta as flag captain and chief of staff to Vice-ad-miral Sir Walter Cowan, commander-in-chief of the American and West Indies station. Two years later Captain Cunningham attended the Imperial Defence College course, on completion of which he commanded the battleship Rodney for 12 months. His next duty was as commodore commanding the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham, where he remained till Janury, 1933. Promotion to the rank of rear-admiral came to him in September, 1932. Long Service in Mediterranean In December, 1933, he was appointed rear-admiral (D) commanding the destroyer flotillas, Mediterranean fleet. In that command he flew his . flag in H.M.S. Coventry, his flag captain be-1 ing Captain H. E. Horan. DSC. (who ! was till recently serving on the New! Zealand Station). He was promoted to vice-admiral on Jufy 22, 1936, and a year later became vice-admiral commanding the Battle Cruiser Squadron and second-in-command, Mediterran - ean Station when Vice-admiral Geoffrey Blake tvas invalided hoirie. On November 14, 1938, Vice-admiral Cunningham was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the; Admiralty and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff in succession to Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, who became commander-in-chief, Mediterranean Fleet. Following the death of Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse in June of last year, Sir Dudley Pound

was appointed First Sea Lord, and Sir Andrew Cunningham succeeded him as commander -in - chief. Mediterranean Fleet, with the rank of acting admiral. His flag is at present being flown in H.M.S. Warspite.