Draft:HMS Salamander (J86)

HMS Salamander

HMS Salamander was a Halcyon-class minesweeper that was built by J. Samuel White of Cowes. She was launched on 24 March 1936 and commissioned at Devonport on 18 July 1936. She took part in the Second World War including the clearance of mines on the approach to Sword beach during D-Day, 6 June 1944.

Service in World War II

HMS Salamander was involved in Review of the Reserve Fleet at Spithead on 9 August 1939 before being assigned to the 6^th MineSweeper Flotilla (MSF) on 21 August. In April 1940 she was transferred to the 4^th MSF and in May took part in minesweeping operations off the Dutch coast. From 26 May to 1 June, Salamander was involved in the evacuation at Dunkirk in which she carried out three trips transferring over 1100 troops from France back to England. In the last of these trips, she suffered damage during a German air attack, but managed to return to England with more than 450 troops.

In late 1941, Salamander rejoined the 6^th MSF and, together with her sister ships, HMS Halcyon and HMS Britomart, was involved in anti-submarine protection for convoys and mine searching around Iceland and the White Sea. In October, she was “arcticized” in Aberdeen, and then returned to the North Atlantic where she was involved in escorting Russian convoys throughout 1942. Perhaps the most notable of these convoys was PQ17 – described by Churchill as “…one of the most melancholy naval episodes in the whole of the war.” . This convoy left Iceland in late June, but was almost immediately picked up by the German navy and continuously attacked. Due to an expected attack by the battleship Tirpitz, the First Sea Lord ordered the escorting ships away from the convoy and the merchantmen to scatter. As the escort moved to intercept the attacking German battleships the merchant ships were left undefended, and were attacked by the Luftwaffe and U-boats. During this action HMS Salamander picked up the survivors of two merchant ships that had been sunk. In addition, some ships found refuge in the Matochkin Strait, and Salamander was involved in escorting these vessels to their final destination. Ultimately, only 11 of the 34 merchant ships that had left Iceland reached Arkhangelsk. The episode led to a serious deterioration in Allied-Soviet relations, with the Soviets disbelieving that so many ships could be lost in just one convoy.

In December 1942 and early 1943 HMS Salamander underwent repairs, and a refit, and was assigned to the 1^st MSF. As part of this flotilla she would serve temporarily in the Mediterranean, and again in the Arctic, before beginning preparations for Operation Neptune in February 1944. On the morning of 6 June Salamander would be involved in sweeping the channel (designated no. 9) ahead of the landings at Sword beach. Following the landings the 1^st MSF continued to clear mines along the French coastline creating so-called “transport” and “bombardment” areas (four to six miles long and 2 miles wide) for the anchorage of supply ships that would support the invasion after the troop landings and battleships that were used to bombard the coast in preparation of further landings. It would be in making one of these mine-free bombardment areas off the coast of Le Havre that HMS Salamander would come close to being sunk . On the 22 August the 1^st MSF was ordered to clear a field of magnetic mines just to the north of Le Havre, off Fécamp and Cap D’Antifer in preparation for Operation Astonia. Unfortunately, due to a problem of communication, the RAF was not informed of the operations of the 1^st MSF, and on 27 August the flotilla was attacked by two squadrons of Typhoons. In the ensuing friendly-fire incident two minesweepers (HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar) were sunk, and Salamander was crippled by a rocket attack and left with virtually no stern. The lead ship in the flotilla, HMS Jason, was able to take the stricken Salamander in tow and move her to safe water. One hundred and seventeen sailors died and there were a further 153 casualties as a result of the attack on the 1^st MSF.

Later investigations revealed that the leader of RAF 266 Squadron (one of the two attacking squadrons – the other being 263 Squadron) had asked four times for confirmation that the ships he was intending to attack were not Allied vessels. Unfortunately, the Flag Officer, British Assault Area (FOBAA; Lieutenant Commander Robert D. Franks) had not been informed of the change in the minesweeping flotilla’s orders that had been approved by Captain Minesweeping (Capt. Lord Teynham). The officer responsible for passing signals from Captain Minesweeping to FOBAA was Commander (Cmdr.) Denis N. Venables. Cmdr. Venables had apparently asked a junior officer to draft the change-of-order signal, but then had failed to notice that FOBAA had not been included in the address. On the 7^th December 1944, all three officers mentioned above were Court Martialled in Rouen on a charge of “Neglect of Duty”.

Medal awards to the men of the 1^st MSF were initially ruled out due to the perceived embarrassment to the Royal Navy (RN). However, eventually the RN bowed to pressure from some high-ranking officers and agreed to bestow honours on some men of the flotilla. Ultimately, Cmdr. Trevor Crick, flotilla leader on HMS Jason, would be made an Officer of the Military Order of the British Empire (OBE). In addition, a further six officers and four ratings were put forward for awards, and one officer and five ratings recommended for “Mention in Despatches”. Of these recommendations, four officers were made Members of the Military Order of the British Empire (MBE), another officer and two ratings were Mentioned in Despatches, but strangely missing from these awards was Lieutenant Commander (Lt. Cmdr.) Harold King, senior officer of HMS Salamander. However on the 26 December 1944 it was announced in The Gazette that Lt. Cmdr. King had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for “...gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy”.

Somewhat surprisingly, less than two months after his Court Martial, The Gazette would report that the “severely reprimanded” Cmdr. Denis Venables had been awarded a Bar to his DSC for "...courage and skill in minesweeping operations in the approaches to Le Havre”.

This incident would also spell the end of HMS Salamander’s service, initially being place in Reserve, but finally being scrapped in May 1947.