Stonehenge's Commanding Officer, Lt. David S. McN. Verschoyle-Campbell, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and
Distinguished Service Cross in 1942 at the age of 21 when serving on the Torbay under Commander A.C.C. Miers who
himself was awarded the Victoria Cross (See Torbay) as well as the DSO. Verschoyle-Campbell
was the youngest Royal Navy Officer to gain command of a submarine when he was appointed command of the Stonehenge in
1943. Verschoyle-Campbell took another officer from the Torbay with him to the Stonehenge, Sub Lt Ronald Francis
Drake (of famous ancestry), as 'Third Hand'. He was only 20 when he died and was the son of Colonel Francis Collingwood Drake
(10th Hussars) whose brother was decorated and for whom there is a Drake window in the church of All Saints near the Tower,
Old Portsmouth.
I have two lists of personnel lost on the Stonehenge, both incomplete, but put together equal 50 men, not 48 as is
the official figure.
My first list is a partial copy of an Admiralty document and the second a list from the Memorial book at the Chapel of the
Royal Navy Submarine Museum. These names are still to be cross referenced with the Commonwealth War Grave Commission. See bottom
of this page for list of personnel officially lost.
HMS Stonehenge took part in a successful special operation to land agents between 6-8 February 1944 and it is therefore
possible that she may have had extra servicemen on board when she left Trincomalee on patrol, which may account for the
difference in numbers. She was on a secret operation, despite the official line that on her second sally she was acting
as relief for 4 other submarines patrolling the Malacca Straits - Surf, Sea Rover, Storm and Tantivy,
but my evidence is circumstantial and isn't enough to prove it.
On 5 February 1944, both patrol reports and US Navy Records state that the Stonehenge sank a net layer, the
Koryo Maru, north of Sumatra with gun fire after missing with her torpedoes, then on 12 February 1944 in the
Penang approaches, position 5deg 43' N, 99deg 51'E, she surfaced and came under fire from the net tender Choko Maru
(or, depending on translation, Nagae-Maru). She missed the Choko Maru with 4
torpedoes but her stern torpedo
hit the Choko-Maru, which subsequently sank.
While withdrawing, Stonehenge was hunted by a Japanese Sub-Chaser and sustained minor damage, but was lucky to survive.
Although officially she was to patrol the Sabang area and act as relief to the submarines patrolling the narrows of the Malacca
Straits, it is odd that neither a copy of her patrol orders nor any record of any radio messages sent to her can now be found,
despite that fact that on 15 March 1944 the other submarines she was relieving were radioed with instructions to return to
Trincomalee as the American Flotillas were taking over the area for the time being.
Strangely, no radio message was sent to the Stonehenge to relieve her also, meaning that her patrol orders contained her
exact instructions and from the circumstantial evidence I have, she may not have been where she was supposed to be. From
the records at the War History Division of Defence Bureau in Ebisu, Japan, a War Diary of the 10th Special Base Force
confirms that (and this is a translation) on 16 March a submarine was sighted on the surface at 4-14N,100-21E and two ships
made their way to that point together with a float-plane. The float-plane detected an enemy submarine 66 miles south of
Muka(Muca) point, and dropped 2 depth charges.
Subsequently, a mine sweeper (no.7) saw smoke from a smoke bomb marker from the float plane at 4-35N,100-15E and made
an attack, together with several other boats: Toshi-Maru, Choun-Maru No. 6, Shonan Maru No. 7, and
Aux-CH Nos. 50 and 59, heard the sound of "pinging" at a position 23deg and 28.5 sea miles off Jaraku(?) island. All ships
depth charged the spot and reported bubbles and oil coming to the surface, and oil extending for as far as 5 miles.
This fleet arrived back in Penang on 18 March.
Now, as most of the Japanese records have been reproduced, they haven't been matched up with names of Allied ships
etc, so there is no proof that this attack involved the Stonehenge but, taking into account two things, one that
the Stonehenge was the first of the Royal Navy Submarines to be lost and secondly that I can find no evidence of
any US or Dutch losses in the area at around the same time, it all points to this being the report of the loss of the
Stonehenge.
Interestingly, my other Uncle was on a Destroyer in the war and when he was told of his brother's loss, his Commanding
Officer told him that the Stonehenge had gone down in the Malacca Straits not off Nicobar
Islands.
In February 2003 I received an interesting Email from Wing
Commander AMM Howes RAF(Ret):
I was most interested to come across your investigations into the loss of HMS Stonehenge. Lieut. Reginald Howes was
my brother and was the Navigation Officer on that submarine. My father tried to find out what had happened to Stonehenge
at the end of the war but, despite being a senior RAF officer, was unable to get more than a few words from the
Admiralty. I still have them.
a. Letter from office of the Admiral (Submarines),
HMS Dolphin, Gosport, dated 11 January 1946. An extract says:-
HMS Stonehenge sailed from Trincomalee, Ceylon on 25 February 1944 for a patrol in the Malacca
Straits area. She was due to return to her base on 20 March but did not do so and nothing further has
been heard of her; the enemy had no knowledge of her loss. The most likely explanation is that she struck
a mine. There were no survivors.
b. An enclosure to the above giving a summary of the war service:-
HM Submarine Stonehenge was built at Messrs. Cammell Lairds Ltd. Liverpool,
and was accepted for service on 11 June 1943, under the command of Lieutenant Verschoyle-Campbell, DSC. RN.
After one patrol in the North Sea in September 1943, this submarine left the
United Kingdom for service in the Far East and was stationed at Trincomalee
with the Fourth Submarine Flotilla, arriving at Colombo on 16 January 1944.
HM Submarine Stonehenge sailed from Trincomalee for her first war patrol in the East on 1 February 1944.
On 5 February, she sank a small Japanese transport by gunfire with about 80 Japanese troops on board, and
after various other operations off the north of Sumatra, during which time she was unsuccessfully attacked
by Japanese anti-submarine vessels, she torpedoed, and finally sank, a large Japanese auxiliary warship of some
7,000 tons off Penang on 12 February 1944.
HM Submarine Stonehenge returned to Trincomalee on 18 February and, after a week's rest, sailed again on
25 February for patrol in the same area. Nothing further was heard of this very fine submarine and her crew,
neither has it been possible to establish either the date or cause of her loss.
Another summary signed by a B. BOGART states:-
"(Stonehenge) did her first patrol early in 1944 from Trincomalee to Malacca Straits. This patrol was carried
out with good determination and resulted in the sinking of a Japanese auxiliary, the "Choko Maru" of 7,000 tons.
A successful gun action was carried out on a smaller vessel and rather more than the usual excitement was had
with Japanese A/S vessels.
"Stonehenge left Trincomalee on February 25 1944 for her second patrol with orders to patrol off Achin Head,
and permission to investigate the Nicobars. She was never heard of again and post-war interrogation of the Japanese
showed that they had no knowledge of a submarine being either attacked or sunk about that time or in that area.
There are two possible explanations:-
- A submarine accident - always a possibility in a profession where the dangers of the sea are nearly as
big a problem as the violence of the enemy.
- Mines - the only minefield was close off Port Blair, and Stonehenge would only have hit it if she
had actually tried to enter.
"I have considerable personal knowledge of that boat as I was responsible for her operational training.
It was quite one of the most efficient submarines that ever passed through my hands and I feel pretty certain that the
submarine accident possibility may be washed out. On the other hand, they were a particularly young and dashing team.
The Captain of the Flotilla had purposely sent them to a "safe" area so that they would not land themselves
in too much trouble before they had got more experience. We know that Stonehenge was out for blood and the entry of
Port Blair would be a project to their liking. In particular, the CO had been one of Cdr. Miers' brilliant crew
in Torbay when he got his VC for entering Corfu. I can well believe that Stonehenge would have liked to emulate Torbay.
I therefore favour the second explanation. I also feel certain that the officers and men of Stonehenge would have
been behind their CO to a man in such a project. The boat had a magnificent esprit de corps. Taking risks was the
daily fare of our young submariners. It was by doing so that they achieved their magnificent successes and had their
corresponding heavy losses so unconcernedly accepted, resulted in immense saving of life to land and surface forces.
Submarines were dubbed by Admiral Cunningham as the "Spearhead of the Fleet". Stonehenge was one of those
who had an unlucky throw of the dice on a very gallant enterprise".
Personnel Lost
David Stuart McNeile Verschoyle-Campbell - Lieutenant RN, DSO DSC and Bar.
Patrick Frank John Radwell - Lieutenant RN, DSC
Ronald Francis Drake - Sub Lieutenant RN, DSM MinD
Reginald Edward Noble Howes - Sub Lieutenant RNR
Patrick Gerald Maturin Clayton - Lieutenant RNVR
Arthur B Uren - Warrant Engineer
Kenneth J Kirwin - CPO (Acting)
John C Kissane - PO Cook
Joseph Hartland - PO
Richard Henry Neale - Petty Officer
Walter J Pace - PO Telegraphist (Named as Price on Memorial List)
Kenneth I Sargeant - Leading Telegraphist (Acting)
Peter G Colton - Leading Signalman
Alan Cucknell - Telegraphist
William Wood - Telegraphist
Clarence Farlow - Leading Seaman (Named as Farrow on Memorial List)
Robert Crowther - Leading Seaman (Acting)
Frederick G Coe - AB
Robert W Andrews - AB
Paul G S Christopher - AB
Jim Clarke - AB
Leslie J Clark - AB
William H Rolfe - AB
Ralph Smith - AB
Leslie Frederick Trayhern - AB DSM MinD
David L Edwards - AB
Harry Edwards - AB
John E Rees - AB
Henry F Ennis - AB
Samuel Hodgkinson - AB
Francis A Howard - AB
James B Patterson - AB
George William Tombs - AB
John M Robertson - ERA 3
Thomas Corbett - ERA 4
David Russell - ERA 4 (Acting)
Cyril J Molloy - ERA 4 (Acting)
Bernard Holland - ERA 4
Gerard Martin - SPO
Ernest Herbert Spender - Leading Stoker (Acting)
William A Lowe - Leading Stoker (Missing from Memorial List)
Leonard Hirst - Leading Stoker (Acting)
Christopher Bleakley - Leading Stoker (Acting)
Gerald Atkinson - Stoker 1st Class
Joseph Tivey - Stoker 1st Class
Walter W Hardy - Stoker 1st Class (Missing from Memorial List in RNSM Chapel)
Thomas J Powell - Stoker 1st Class
Albert C Abbott - Stoker 1st Class
Frederick A Hooper - Stoker
Ronnie H King - EA (Acting)
July 2009.... I've received information from Bill Lawrie, in Australia, whose father had been the Electrical Artificer on Stonehenge on its way out to the East but had been hospitalised in Alexandria and was relieved, presumably by the last named on the list, Ronnie H King.Here is the full information received....
Dad didn’t talk much about it until a few years back.
Dad had been in the Navy since 41. Most of 42-43 he was based in the Shetlands, fixing the electrics and torpedoes in MTBs and other craft. Bored out of his mind he volunteered for subs as the only way out. He was a CPO on leave for his 21st birthday in November 43 when called to the boat at short notice - the regular Electrical Artificer had gone sick. It was Dad’s first boat. He was responsible for all the electrical systems, and he had only three days to get to grips before it sailed for Gibraltar. He said this was somewhat stressful. The boat had an inconclusive scrap on the surface with some E boats early into the journey.
I note the comment (above) from the Officer involved in the running up that the boat was an excellent example and malfunction was unlikely as a factor in the loss. I recall Dad saying the boat had quite a number of problems and spent quite a bit of time on the surface doing repairs. I remember him saying years ago he thought that might have been the case when the Japanese caught up. He said they were also part of a convoy in the Mediterranean and subject to air attack at one point
(KMF26). They arrived in Egypt at the beginning of 44, and re-painted and repaired for the East. While there he got sick and ended up in hospital for several weeks. He was replaced in the crew and the boat sailed for Ceylon. He rejoined the flotilla after Stonehenge had left on the patrol from which it did not return. He was then on HMS Adamant until August 45. Then HMS Maidstone. He thinks there may have been a couple of others who were not on the boat when it left for the east, one of whom was put ashore for fighting.
The portable compass "Faithful Freddie" being tested on Stonehenge. (RNR Lt.Cdr. and RN Sub-Lt.) |
