I can find no CMP record in casualty/pow/decorations for them: Sgt Coates W E 2930592 PG 65 & St. 17B Cpl Raisbeck R.D.G. 2930958 PG 52 & St. 344 L/Cpl Phillips H 6467370 PG 65 & St. 4F L/Cpl Mitchell G E 2931218 PG 5 & St. 344 L/Cpl Clark(e)J 2931548 PG 52 & St. 357 L/Cpl Page W 2931157 PG 65 & St. 4G L/Cpl Forshaw L 2930952 PG 52 & St. 357 Which doesn't necessarily exclude them, just means they (probably) weren't killed/decorated or became POW as military police. 6 Milititary Police men in a submarine? There's a joke in there somewhere.
The Data after Name Rank and numer indicates the P.O.W. Camps in Italy and Germany where they were interned at some time during their Captivity. This info comes from my Records. Brian
Found a little more today. Sgt Coates report on Liberation; Unit, 1st Special Service Detachment,(Commando) Malta. Place of Capture; Straite of Sirte 30/7/41. Interrogated Appolonia 2/3 August 1941. He was asked what were Military Personnel doing on the Submarine.
Hi all, Many many apologies that I dissappeared for a while. Work have kept me very busy and I have been working out in the Timor sea getting bashed by a few squalls and we didn't have the net out there. The bathy is a depth profile that shows troughs or mounds on the seafloor and is part of our survey system. I am not that knowledgeable about it, it's more our surveyors thing, I am a lowly environmental scientist. So I am afraid a picture of it would just show you two red mounds on a yellow background. It was our surveyor that said it looked like a possible wreck and then we brought up some metal in one of our piston cores near to the area. Been reading through everyones posts, very interesting. It was deep water we found the possible wreck of the sub in, if I remember correctly it was around 2 Km down. Actually, now I think about it, I believe the location we found the poss. wreck in was around 25 Km away from the sub's last known position. But as was mentioned in earlier posts, it was said she was scuttled in deeper waters and the co-ords given on the map have her more close to shore where the water would be shallower. So a bit of a mystery! We thought it may be the Cachalot as she was the only known wreck within proximity to our survey area. Cheers Izzy
Hi, I have just joined your group and have ben reading some fascinating posts. I am looking for information regarding my late father-in-law's Navy service. His name was John Bastable and I believe he was Chief ERA on H.M.S. Cachalot. When the sub was sunk, he was taken prisoner by the Italians. He returned to the U.K. in March 1943 when was part of an exchange of prisioners between the UK and Italy. I have some sketchy info on his time in the prison camp, but would like to hear from anybody who served with him or knew him, and would appreciate any info re his Naval Service/POW years. Thank you frances
E.R.A. Bastable J D P/MX57810 H.M.Sm. Cachalot From what you say he was one of the 588 R.N. & R.M. Personnel that were exchanged for Italian Naval Personnel. He was probably in the Camp at Benghazi as the Captain Hugo Newton was there according to Capt Felice Vismara. Not in my WO 392/21 Section seven list of Naval P.O.W. Italy.
Hello, I realize this is an old post, but it is a very interesting one and I wanted to add to it by letting you know my great uncle William Fellows served on this submarine--Acting Petty Officer William Fellows, DSM P/J-90577 (DSM "for good' services in recent successful submarine patrols and operations against the enemy...in sinking an Italian submarine" awarded Nov 1940) Bill died in 1962 in Birmingham UK. As was typical of his six brothers--all Royal Navy, he kept quiet about what happened during the war; therefore, there are few stories to tell. The family lore was his submarine was sunk. Coming to this excellent site has added clarity to what happened to Bill and HMS Cachalot. I am surprised to learn he was a POW. This gives me another area to do further research. Thank you. Kevin
BrummieUSA, Welcome aboard. Others may come along and help. Always apply for his Service Record, even if the turnaround is reported as a year plus now. See: Get a copy of military service records Upload the records here once you've obtained them and then the forum can get to work on them. Please do not pay for any site on the internet who promise you his service records they will not have them, and you would have wasted your money. Adding what you have already found can help, saves others from duplication. A Date of Birth and a Service Number help, though the experts here can surmount that gap. I have noted the 'Other Ranks' rarely feature in Google searches unless they have been awarded gallantry medals or written their memoirs. Searching Google will sometimes bring you back here. The site’s search engine is rather simple; two examples 53rd will bring back all mentions of 53rd; an Army unit can have after 53rd an additional official name, in one case 53rd (Bolton). You must be agile and keep going. War diaries can contain almost anything. At the very least, they give the daily movements and most important actions of every unit. They may also contain information on casualties, message logs, rolls of officers (but not O.R.'s), maps, orders, and much else. They are available at the PRO to everyone. Drew5233 and some others are willing to scan them for the benefit of those who cannot get to the National Archives at Kew. There are experts on Italian POW camps too, so one or more come along. It depends of course how much you want to know, just one battle or campaign for an example. I will ask a Moderator to create a new thread for you, it will increase your arrival's prominence and have a link to this thread. Please come back and tell us what you found. Scanning threads it is clear some discover the site years after your posts and add their information or request help. Good luck.
Davidbfpo, With regards to my post about my great uncle William Fellows (P/J-90577) and his service on HMS Cachalot: thank you for the good advice above. I will keep an eye open for a new thread, if that should occur, and I will certainly share what I have discovered so far (mainly online documents, since I live in the USA now). I'll keep everyone in the loop as I investigate further. Thank you! Kevin
Hi. Is this thread still active? I'm researching my fathers war record. He was William Wright a Chief ERA on HMS Cachalot which was scuttled in the Med in July 1941 and he was then POW till March 1943 when he was repatriated in ( I think ) in a swop of navy personnel. I'm trying to find what POW camp he was in. I think it may have been PG52 near Genoa. I also was wondering how you can find if he was part of that repatriation
