HMS/M X-5

One of the first 'X Craft', on trials around Scotland

Thrasher departs Loch Cairnbawn towing X-5 on her way to Kå Fjord

Very little is known of the movements of X5, under the command of Lt. H. Henty-Greer, RNVR, the third of the X-craft detailed to attack the Tirpitz. It is known that she must have penetrated into Kå Fjord, for shortly after 0830 on 22nd Sept a third X-craft was sighted from the Tirpitz about 500 yards outside the nets. She was engaged and hit by the Tirpitz, who claimed to have sunk her. Destroyers also dropped depth charges in the position where X5 disappeared and it is almost certain that she was destroyed before she could get in to make her attack. Even after a number of hydrographic surveys in the intervening years, the wreck of X5 has never been discovered. However, in 2004, a saddle-charge was found intact, about 90m from where Tirpitz would have been, inside where the anti-torpedo-net was, on its starboard beam. Whose was it? It had one of two origins: it was either X5's and had been dropped in the wrong place or in an emergency, or it was from another boat and the history books have been wrong all this time. The German reports stated that one X-Craft, at about 500m range, was engaged and hit with a 4" gun, and, assuming it had been the X5, if the remaining side charge had been armed there would indeed have been little trace of a wreck. Had Henty-Greer and his crew survived, they would probably have been awarded the Victoria Cross and the other awards given to the crews of X6 and X7, but there is no evidence of X5's actions.