David Wanklyn - Military Career

Military Career

Wanklyn joined the Royal Navy in 1925, trained at Dartmouth Naval College, and was assigned as a midshipman in 1930 to the battleship HMS Marlborough, part of the Third Battle Squadron; and the following year to the battlecruiser HMS Renown. After attending promotion courses in 1932 he joined the navy's submarine arm. From August 1933 he served in the submarine HMS Oberon which was part of the Mediterranean Fleet, but in October 1934 transferred to HMS L56 based with the rest of the 6th Submarine Flotilla at Portsmouth. In 1936 he was promoted to First Lieutenant (i.e. second in command) of the boat. In January 1937 he moved to HMS Shark. He became second in command of HMS Otway, part of the 5th Submarine Flotilla in August 1939 but was shortly afterwards promoted to be commander of HMS H32. He was given command of HMS Upholder, which was then under construction, in August 1940.

As a 29 year-old Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he was awarded the VC for his "utmost courage" on 24 May 1941 south of Sicily. Commanding HM Submarine Upholder on her seventh patrol, an Italian troopship (the 18,000 ton former liner Conte Rosso), which was with a strongly protected convoy, was torpedoed while the submarine's listening equipment was broken and periscope use was not reliable. The troopship sank, Upholder escaped after evading 37 depth charges.