HMS Urge’s crest at Bridgend
This information presented by The Maritime Museum, Nadur, was kindly sent to me from the Isle of Malta by good friend and Morgan owner Reno Psaila.
Malta was where my submariner father was based for part of the WW2 and while there served on various submarines including HMS Urge on 16th September 1941. Unlike the rest of her crew he was fortunate to have been transferred to another submarine when she was lost.
I do not know my fathers war history detail but he was sunk twice during the same point of conflict and survived both.
HMS Urge was one of the small U class of Royal Navy submarines which were intended for short range patrols and anti-submarine training purposes. She was built at Barrow by Vickers Armstrong and handed over to Lieutenant EP Tomkinson RN as commanding officer on 12 December, 1940.
Edward Tomkinson and his wife Myrtle, pictured after she had launched HMS P31, later named HMS Uproar (Image: F.Dickinson)
The summary timeline of HMS Urge is extracted from Urge's patrol reports and logbooks.
HMS Urge (Image: Admiralty)
11 Dec 1940
HMS Urge (Lt. E.P. Tomkinson, RN) departed her builder’s yards at Barrow for Holy Loch. (1)
After arriving in Malta in May, 1941 Urge joined in the attack on enemy convoys from Italy to reinforce Axis forces in North Africa. The experience of being depth charged by strong escorts in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean in the first patrol led Tomkinson to offer up a prayer of thanks for the first of many lucky escapes, in this case Urge diving beyond the design limit to 278 feet to evade enemy forces.
“The depth charges were raining around us…some of my crew were pretty shaken up and I’ve sent them for a rest.”
he wrote to his wife. One crew member was flung across a whole compartment by the force of the underwater explosions, which they would experience many times over the coming months. Almost all of the crew coped well with this extraordinary pressure.
HMS Urge’s most significant achievement was arguably the torpedoing of the 45,000 ton Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto near the Straits of Messina on 14 December, 1941. This was the largest enemy capital ship torpedoed at sea by a Royal Navy submarine in World War Two, and the need to repair the damage deprived the enemy of a modern battleship comparable to the Bismarck for a critical 6 months during which Malta was under threat of invasion.
After evading the enemy counter attack, Urge returned to Malta to find she had to remain dived off the island due to several waves of air raids which were in progress – Admiral Miers was later to say that Urge, Upholder and their comrades “operated under conditions of danger and difficulty the like of which I doubt will ever be paralleled.”
14 Dec 1941
About 10 nautical miles west-south-west of Capo dell'Armi Vittorio Veneto was hit on the port side creating a hole 9 m x 14 m under the rear 15” turret, 40 men were killed and 16 were slightly wounded. She still managed to make 21 knots and reach Taranto.
(All times are zone -2
0840 hours - Came to periscope depth after hearing HE. Sighted two battleships, thought to be of the Cavour-class, screened by four destroyers proceeding Southward through the Straits of Messina at 17 knots. Started attack.
0858 hours - Fired four torpedoes at the rear battleship from 3000 yards.
0901 hours - Heard two (possibly three) explosions at the correct running range. A counter attack in which 40 depth charges were dropped followed during the next half hour. (9)
23 Mar 1942
HMS Urge (Lt.Cdr. E.P. Tomkinson, DSO and Bar, RN) departed Malta for her 19th war patrol (17th in the Mediterranean). She was ordered to patrol in the Southern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
As well as attacks on enemy convoys HMS Urge was one of the submarines from which some of the first special forces raids on enemy coasts were carried out by what was then known as the Special Boat Squadron.
Commandos operating from Urge blew up enemy trains on two occasions, disrupting communications. Captain “Tug” Wilson was probably the most famous of the commandos operating from Malta submarines, working brilliantly with HMS Urge and many other U class submarines.
Urge also undertook missions to land and recover special agents on enemy coasts. Tragically, on one occasion an agent became compromised and Sub-Lieutenant Brian Lloyd, a naval officer operating a Folbot (a folding canoe) from Urge, was killed in a firefight close to the shore. Tomkinson and his crew had to take action to evade enemy anti-submarine traps on that and several other occasions when undertaking special missions.
29 Mar 1942
During the night of 29 / 30 March 1942 HMS Urge (Lt.Cdr. E.P. Tomkinson, DSO and Bar, RN) landed a raiding party to wreck a train. This was successful.
An enemy ship was sighted shortly afterwards and attack with three torpedoes that all missed. A gun action followed in which three hits were obtained. As the enemy gunfire drew nearer the action had to be broken off.
According to Italian sources this was the Italian merchant Pugliola (2974 GRT, built 1917) on passage from Messina to Naples; she was slightly damaged by a single shell and two rounds of MG fire. She returned fire with two rounds (not three as claimed by Tomkinson) and forced the submarine to submerge.
Two patrol boats Angelini and Eolo were sent to hunt the submarine but they were not equipped with hydrophones and they soon abandoned the chase.
29 March 1942
2335 hours - Arrived to within half a mile of the shore just north of Pisciotta, Italy. The Folbot party of two (Lt. T.G.A. Walker of Hertforshire regiment and Sgt. H.M.V. Penn) cast off and arrived on the shore 15 minutes later.
30 March 1942
0032 hours - The Folbot party returned. They had successfully placed their charge under the railway line.
0055 hours - An electric train hit the charge. The engine blew up and came falling down the embankment. During the approach of the train a ship of about 3000 tons was sighted to the seaward. Enemy course was 320° and she was about 3 nautical miles from the land.
0056 hours - In position 40°04'N, 15°07'5"E fired three torpedoes from 3500 yards. All three torpedoes missed as the enemy most likely saw the tracks. The gun was now manned and a chase started.
0114 hours - Fire was opened at a range of 2000 to 2500 yards. 16 Rounds were fired for 3 hits.
0118 hours - The enemy meanwhile had also opened fire and was now straddling Urge so it was decided to break off the action and dive. (12)
1 Apr 1942
HMS Urge (Lt.Cdr. E.P. Tomkinson, DSO and Bar, RN) torpedoed and sank the Italian light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere (5200 tons, built 1931) 11 nautical miles south-east of Stromboli, Italy.
According to Italian sources the cruiser had been on passage from Messina to la Spezia, escorted by the destroyer Aviere and the torpedo boat Libra.
A third escort, the destroyer Fuciliere, had just turned back because of defects. Of her passengers and crew, 381 were lost. A large scale rescue operation was quickly organised, the hospital ship Capri, the auxiliary Lago Tana and the torpedo boats Pallade and Centauro joining Aviere and Libra and rescuing a total of 391 survivors.
(All times are zone -2)
0830 hours - Sighted a flying boat coming up from Messina along the route to Naples. Went to 85 feet.
0841 hours - Returned to periscope depth after hearing faint HE. Sighted the fore top of a warship.
0844 hours - Identified the warship as a 8" cruiser with an escort of two destroyers steering about 330° at 21 knots. Started attack.
0854 hours - In position 38°37'5"N, 15°22'E fired four torpedoes from 5000 yards. One hit was obtained.
0907 hours - The first depth charges were dropped out of a total of 38 but none was close. Breaking up noises were heard.
0940 hours - Returned to periscope depth. Saw the two destroyers and three flying boats. There was no sign of the cruiser. Urge went deep again and withdrew to the Westward. (12)
The wreck of the Bande Nere was itself discovered by the Italian Navy earlier in 2019. This was a major success, but took place against the backdrop of intensified enemy air raids on the base of the 10th Submarine Flotilla at Malta, an island which at this time became the most bombed place in history.
6 Apr 1942
HMS Urge (Lt.Cdr. E.P. Tomkinson, DSO and Bar, RN) ended her 19th war patrol (17th in the Mediterranean) at Malta. (12)
Eventually the submarine base became unviable and the remaining 5 submarines were evacuated to Alexandria.
27 Apr 1942
HMS Urge (Lt.Cdr. E.P. Tomkinson, DSO and Bar, RN) left Malta at dawn on 27 April 1942 for Alexandria. Passage was to be made via Malta's North-East Channel (course 071° from St. Elmo Light), thence to Alexandria. Her speed of advance was to be 90 miles per day.
HMS Urge was to arrive at Alexandria on 6 May 1942 but she failed to do so.
After surviving 20 intensive war patrols, HMS Urge was not heard of again after leaving Malta on 27 April, 1942. She was lost along with her crew of 32, and 12 passengers (11 naval personnel and the journalist Bernard Gray).
The Royal Navy’s Commander in Chief, Mediterranean signalled the Admiralty that “The loss of this outstanding submarine and commanding officer is much to be regretted.”
In a letter now copied to the archives of the Submarine Museum, Admiral Sir Max Horton as Flag Officer Submarines wrote to Tomkinson’s widow
“It is true to say that your husband’s courage, leadership and great skill were second to none in the Submarine Service either in this war or the last.”
Every member of the crew had become invaluable –
Captain Simpson wrote: “In Urge’s fine ship’s company one rating stands out with a record that must be for all time exceptional. Chief Petty Officer C.J.Jackman…had been in action during this war well over 40 times against all types of enemy ships.”.
The town of Bridgend adopted HMS Urge in 1941 and still has the submarine’s crest in its Council chamber, along with artwork honouring the crew. There is a memorial window for the crew of HMS Urge in the chapel at Fort Blockhouse.
In 2019 staff and students from the department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta, working in conjunction with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, discovered the wreck of HMS Urge lying a short distance from Malta.
Gun on HMS Urge wreck; most of the gun platform and fore casing has eroded away (Image: Project Spur/University of Malta)
The work of Professor Timmy Gambin of the University of Malta and Platon Alexiades, a naval researcher from Canada, was critical to the search project.
Relatives of the 44 who perished aboard the HMS Urge off Fort St Elmo in World War II have finally been able to attend a memorial service for their fallen forefathers after a monument commemorating the sinking was unveiled on Wednesday.
The ceremony was attended by President George Vella, British High Commissioner Catherine Ward and members of the Royal Navy, with the AFM performing a gun salute in their honour. The remains of the vessel a few miles outside of the Grand Harbour were only discovered in 2019.
A wreath was laid over the wreck of the URGE by Commodore Jim Perks CBE, Commodore Submarine Service.
This video via the HMS URGE Facebook Group
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