A MIDSHIPMAN’S WAR
A young man in the Mediterranean Naval War 1941 - 1943

Video Companion to the Book

To order, contact:
Frank Wade
726 Parkside Road, West Vancouver, BC V7S 1P3 Canada
Tel (604) 922 6983 or email frank_wade@telus.net

Price including postage and handling:
$30.00 CAN, £10.00 UK, $15.00 US
Available as DVD or video tape—70min

Bonus Chapter Notes
Frank Wade was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada in October 1921. He was sent to England to train for the navy on HM Schoolship Conway afloat in Liverpool, England also in the Royal Naval College Dartmouth as a cadet from June to December 1940. He was later appointed to the staff of Admiral A.B. Cunningham as a cypher officer as a Midshipman on 20 May 41 in Alexandria Egypt. At this time, the remains of the British army had been evacuated by the Royal Navy from Greece and Crete had been attacked by the Germans and Italians. It was a twelve-day Battle of Crete with many of our ships being sunk or damaged by air attack. Two cruisers were sunk with over 1,000 lost, Another cruiser was heavily damaged with 250 killed. An aircraft carrier and a battleship damaged with other destroyers and small ships sunk (Chapter 1).

Our desert army at this time had driven the Italian army back to Benghazi and captured most of it. However, Rommel had arrived on the scene and drove us back to the Egyptian border without taking the fortress of Tobruk. Its siege lasted from April 41 to December —9 months. This was drain on our resources with 22 small ships being sunk. It was a bad time for us with very little positive happening around the world but Churchill used Tobruk as a rallying point (Chapter 2).

Wade was present in the flagship battleship H.M.S Queen Elizabeth when the battleship HMS Barham was sunk by a German submarine on 25 November 1941. 862 men were lost with 495 saved. The ship was hit by three torpedoes at point-blank range with its magazines exploding in five minutes. The U-boat captain lived in West Vancouver, Canada for many years (Chapter 3).

A strange attack occurred on the night of 15 December 1941 when three Italian underwater craft got into the Alexandria protected harbour and seriously damaged our last two battleships. The battleships were placed in the floating dock one after the other and sent to the U.S.A. for long refit (Chapter 4).

Three nights later on 18 December 1941 in a wild stormy night, the cruiser HMS Neptune was sunk in an enemy minefield near Tripoli, Libya with only one survivor. One destroyer was sunk trying to pick up survivors. The other two of our cruisers of the squadron and three destroyers returned to Malta (Chapter 5).

There were 30 convoys sent from Gibraltar and Alexandria to Malta from mid 1940 to mid 1943. 18 were from Gibraltar flying in Hurricane and Spitfire fighters well away from Malta. Fast minelayers and submarines also brought in freight. There were five merchant ship convoys from Gibraltar and 17 from Alexandria. Most of them were very hard fought with few merchant ships getting through. One fully loaded merchant ship was needed every month to prevent starvation so things were touch and go at times (Chapter 6).

In September 1942, an unsuccessful Tobruk raid was carried out. Again the weather was bad and the towed boats containing the Royal Marines never got ashore and the two destroyers which brought them in were sunk by shore gunfire after dawn as well as later a back up light cruiser was sunk by air attack. Our 14th destroyer flotilla did a diversionary night shore bombardment at Mersa Matruh well out of the way with no sinkings (Chapter 7).

The siege of Malta lasted from June 1940 to May 1943 for nearly three years. It was the most bombed place anywhere of any war. 3,000 maltese were killed and 25.000 of their houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged . Buz Buerling, the Canadian air ace, shot down 26 enemy aircraft around Malta. Canadian Motor Torpedo and Gun Boats commanded by Maitland, Burke, Ladner and Fuller fought many small ship actions in the Mediterranean winning many medals for bravery. The successful defence of Malta played a vital part in the winning of the Mediterranean naval war. The people of the island were awarded the George Cross and a special citation from the President of the United States of America.

Planning for the landings in Sicily started before the North African invasion was finished. We took Tunis in May 1943 and landed in Sicily the night 9/10 July 1943. Four infantry divisions plus an armoured brigade of the British 8th Army who were commanded by General Montgomery were transported from Egypt in passenger ships in convoy. They were landed on the southeast coast of Sicily. Wade was a cypher officer in a smaller coastal type headquarters ship. A Canadian infantry division was brought direct from England and four U.S.A. infantry divisions were brought from Algeria to the southwest coast under the command of General Patton. Allied troops took Messina on 17 August in just over a month (Chapter 8).

Seven men were interviewed in the documentary. Frank Wade RCN the author. Alec Dennis, DSC four Mentioned in Despatches (MIDs), RN covering the Greece and Crete battles, the siege of Tobruk, the sinking of battleship HMS Barham, the attack on Alexandria harbour by Italian underwater craft and the damaging of two battleships, Malta convoys from Alexandria. Ken Gibson RN, HMS Barham survivor and Malta. Norman Walton RN, sole survivor of HMS Neptune. Frank Leighton RAF, Malta convoy and the siege of Malta. Phillip Booth RCN, Sicily landings and the damaging of HMS Eskimo. Tom Ladner DSC* 5 MIDs RCNVR, Sicily landings and small ship naval actions in the Mediterranean and English Channel (Chapter 9).