1941 marked the third year of the Second World War, and Britain was fighting
for her survival. In
North Africa, British forces were under severe pressure from combined
German and Italian troops, and were engaged in what would turn out
to be a two-year-long contest that was ultimately decided by the relative
ability of Britain and Germany to keep their troops supplied with food,
water, arms and equipment.
By mid-1941 the desert war had reached a stalemate and both sides were
racing to re-supply their forces.
 Thistlegorm
had come off the slips of Joseph Thompson and Sons of Sunderland in June
of 1940 and been taken up by the Albyn Line. All their boats were
named ‘Thistle’ plus a colour in Gaelic. Thistlegorm
is Blue Thistle. Her construction had been part funded by the British
government so she was immediately pressed into war service. She
had an old First World War 4.7 inch gun bolted to her after deck and
a second, lighter, anti-aircraft weapon added even further back to complete
her outfitting as a Defensively Equipped Merchant vessel. Regular
Royal Navy personnel joined the ship in addition to her Merchant Navy
crew to work the guns.
She completed three trips, to the US, to South America and to the West
Indies, and was then taken to Glasgow in the spring of 1941 to be loaded
with supplies for North Africa.
Into her holds went crates of rifles and rifle ammunition, mortar bombs,
small naval shells, battleship shells, motorcycles loaded onto the backs
of trucks, an armoured car, aircraft wings, other aircraft parts, Bren
carriers, thigh length rubber boots and very much more. Two complete
locomotives with engines, coal and water tenders were welded to her decks.
On June 2nd 1941 she made her way out of the Clyde and headed south to
join a convoy of similarly loaded ships to travel around the tip of Africa
and up into the Red Sea, latterly with the extra protection of the elderly
First War cruiser HMS Carlisle.
In the third week of September 1941 she dropped her starboard anchor
into Safe Anchorage F, Sha’ab Ali, to await permission to proceed
north through the Suez Canal. Passage through the Suez Canal was under
the control of the Naval authorities, and was subject to the importance
of the cargo and often delayed by regular Canal closures due to enemy
activity, generally the dropping of mines from aircraft and the minesweeping
and clearance of stricken vessels this entailed.
For all her prominence today, Thistlegorm was just another freighter
in 1941, and so she had to wait.
 On
the night of 5th October 1941 two Heinkel He111 aircraft from Kampfgeschwader
26, the Lion Squadron, took off from their base on Crete and flew south
over the Suez Canal, possibly looking for the Queen Mary, reported to
be heading north through the Canal with 10,000 Australian reinforcements
bound for the desert. If they were looking for the Queen mary they
didn’t find her, but they did see a scattered group of merchant
ships at anchor in Sha’ab Ali.
Picking a target at random the Heinkels attacked from very low level,
so low that witnesses reported them below mast top height. The
gunners aboard HMS Carlisle were unable to open fire for fear of damaging
other ships in the anchorage. Both aircraft dropped their bombs
on the same vessel.
Thistlegorm was unlucky enough to be their target, and carrying as much
explosive as she was the end was inevitable. One of the bombs landed
in the munitions in number three hold and blew her apart.
She sank quickly, taking with her nine sailors, four Merchant Navy crewmen
and five of the Royal Navy gunners. Like all Merchant Navy men who had
their ship sunk the survivors from Thistlegorm were expected to make
their own way home by picking up a job on a passing vessel and working
their passage. It wasn’t unknown for a seaman to survive
one shipwreck only to have the ship on which he was headed home also
sunk. Without the merchant seamen Britain could not have survived,
and proportionately more Merchant Navy men died in the Second World War
than from any of the armed services.
Today she lies with her keel in 32m of water. Forward of her bridge
she is upright and intact, with her cargo well preserved and easily accessible. Aft
of her bridge is a great broken area where her munitions blew her to
pieces. Her stern is intact, though listing sharply to port.
Diving normally takes place from the dive deck of the boat. Navigating
the wreck is straightforward, and the multiple levels of her open holds
permit a good profile to extend your bottom time. Her depth makes
her ideal for a nitrox dive, and there’s so much to see you need
every minute you can get. The best way to see her properly is to
see a piece at a time over multiple dives. Start with a general
overview of the forward section, then a dive to the holds, and finish
with a tour of the stern. |
