On 29 September 1940, while under the temporary command of Norman Teacher, its navigating officer and a future COPPist, HMAS Stuart was returning to Alexandria in Egypt. Stuart had sailed from Alexandria with the Allied fleet a couple of days previously, but then developed a fault that forced it to leave the fleet and start heading back to Alexandria.
That night, while still travelling back, Stuart detected a submerged submarine and started a depth-charge attack. It was the Italian submarine Gondar.
This rare but brief footage was filmed from aboard Stuart during the early hours of the following morning. It shows a Sunderland flying boat, which had come to assist Stuart, dropping depth charges.
Gondar is then forced to the surface and comes under gun fire as it manoeuvres. Shortly afterwards - not caught by the footage - Gondar’s crew scuttles their boat. The majority were rescued by Allied vessels.
The Allies were intrigued by three long tube-like cylinders on Gondar’s casing, and by the fact that among Gondar’s survivors was a surprising number of specialist divers.
It was later realised that these cylinders contained ‘maiale’ human torpedoes. Gondar had been on its way to Alexandria to launch a human-torpedo attack on the Allied fleet when the Italians realised that the fleet had sailed. It was after Gondar had been diverted to attack shipping at Tobruk that it was discovered by the returning Stuart.
Norman Teacher was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his part in sinking Gondar. After going on to serve as navigating officer in the aircraft carrier HMS Argus, Teacher joined COPP when it was established in late 1942. He lost his life during reconnaissance of Sicily in March 1943.
You can discover more about Norman Teacher by copying and pasting this link into your browser: www.coppsurvey.uk/norman-teacher
Негізгі бет The sinking of Italian submarine Gondar
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