The Asdic team on Vimiera in 1941 John Daglish (1915 -74) is third from left in the back row
The photograph of the Asdic team on HMS Vimiera
in 1941 was sent to me by Ian Daglish the son of John Daglish, who
enlisted in the Navy in 1932. The badge on his left arm indicating his
rate is either the anchor (a Killick) of a Leading Seaman or the badge
of of a Petty Officer. He would have been a senior member of the Asdic
team. Although the term Asdic operator is widely used they were
officially known as "Submarine Detectors", the term used in service
records. John Daglish was in the photograph of the ship's company of HMS Vimiera
but was in hospital with a broken arm when she detonated the mine in
the Thames estuary on 9 January 1941 and sank with the loss of 93
members of the ship's company.
I am indebted to John Wise and Clive Kidd of the Collingwood Heritage Collection, formerly
the Communications and Radar Museum at HMS Collingwood,
the Royal Navy's former electrical engineering training establishment at
Fareham, for their advice on the use of Asdic by a typical V & W
Class destroyer such as HMS Vimiera:
"We do not know whether there was one or two Asdic sets on Vimiera but a
team of at least two per watch
would be needed as the strain of constantly listening through earphones
to the pings echoed back made it necessary to change operators during
the watch. A
three watch system was followed at cruising stations and two watches at
action stations so this team of eight including two senior operators to
supervise teams of three at action stations was probably fairly
standard."
The chapter on Seamen and Signalmen in Hostilities Only - Training the Wartime Royal Navy by
Brian Lavery (Conway, 2011) is informative. There were just 1,250
Submarine Detector ratings in the fleet at the outbreak of war,
including recalled reservists and pensioners. On 7 September 1939 the
Admiralty ordered that "Every endeavour is to be made to fill vacancies
that may occur by men trained at sea. They could be confirmed in their
rate after two months service and then sent ashore for courses at
training schools. After further time at sea they would be eligible for
promotion to Higher Submarine Detector and Submarine Detector
Instructor." By July 1943 there were 5,767 Submarine Detectors.
It was noted that:
"The
outstanding defect of inexperienced operators is their inability to
report to their CO or their A/S Control Officer during attacks. They
were so intent on keeping the echo and making the correct movements
that they cannot, like the skilled man, maintain a continual flow of
advice such as the navigator must have".
Midshipman Stephen Barney, the Anti-Submarine Control Officer (ASCO) on HMS Venomous in the Mediterranean from February to October 1943 (on right), described some of the problems:
“At the time we were part of Force H in the Western end of the Med. Whilst waiting for the next operation, Venomous
was frequently on the overnight Anti-Submarine patrol in the Straits of
Gibraltar trying to detect German submarines entering or leaving the
Med. Different temperature layers, deep current flowing in, and less
deep current flowing out, made it almost impossible to detect anything.
In fact we never even made a firm A/S contact on anything resembling a
submarine. Spanish fishing vessels galore with their diesel engines
were picked up at incredibly long distances in the comparatively still
waters using a listening watch for hydrophone effect – hopefully from a
submarine – and there were some quite remarkable long range
identifications.”
Venomous
had one Asdic set, Type 124, with two operators on duty per watch, one listening
and the other standing by to relieve him. If an operator spent too long
on duty they could become "ping happy", an ill defined condition but
widely understood. Barney
was known by his team of seven Asdic operators as the ASCO. The senior
Submarine Detector was Leading Seaman Harold Stafford (D/SSX.14930) who
was awarded the DSM for his use of Asdic to track the U-Boat which sank
HMS Hecla on the night of 11 - 12 November 1942. George Wilson (left) was one of the team. The
hydrophone dome was in the bows of the ship and was only lowered when
the Asdic set was in use. It had to be raised in
shallow water or when running at high speed to avoid being damaged.
If
you have stories or photographs of HMS Vimiera you would like to
contribute to the web site please contact Frank Donald
If
you want to find out more about the wartime service of a member of your
family who served on HMS Vimiera you should first obtain a copy of their service record To
find out how follow this link:
http://www.holywellhousepublishing.co.uk/servicerecords.html
Return
to the Home Page for HMS Vimiera Return
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Page of the V & W Destroyer Association Return to the Index Page for the 69 V
& W Class Destroyers
Midshipman Stephen Barney, the Anti-Submarine Control Officer (ASCO) on HMS Venomous in the Mediterranean from February to October 1943 (on right), described some of the problems: