Len Dix of Olney, Bucks., was a sick berth attendant on Griffin , and only 19 at the time. Mr Dix was at his action station in the Captain’s cabin to deal with minor injuries , and it became very crowded. (Foolishly I asked him if he would recognise any of the survivors - he replied that it was dark and they were all covered in fuel oil. I felt rather silly for asking!). He recalls that on arrival at Greenock there was no food left and they had to re-victual, there was no time to replenish the medical supplies until they arrived at Gibraltar. Opening the emergency boxes meant they had to report the event to the Admiralty which brought unwanted official attention.

Clifford Studd of Aberdeen, was a sub–lieutenant RNVR on the Griffin at the time of the rescue. He recalls that the last person Griffin picked up was a college friend of his.

Lt. Commander Harry Wardle RN (Retd.) was a Leading Seaman and Leading Torpedoman on Griffin. He recounts his wartime experience in a book ‘Forecastle to Quarterdeck’ . On p76 is an account of the rescue.

"We picked up many survivors, some from ship’s lifeboats which she had been able to lower, most were soldiers suffering from shock and exposure. Many had broken legs and other injuries apparently incurred when jumping from the ship into lifeboats. We returned to the Clyde, trying to make the injured men as comfortable as possible in the passageways or anywhere we could at least try to comfort them".

War Diary 706 General Construction Company, Royal Engineers 1.8.40 - 31.8.40

1.8.40

at RAF Station Hamswell.

4.8.40

to Lincoln LMS Station at 22.00 hrs. Left by special train for Avonmouth.

5.8.40

Arrived Avonmouth at 5.30 hrs. Embarked on troopship ss Mohamed Ali el-Kebir. Sailed at 19.00 hrs. Total strength 6 officers and 243 other ranks.

7.8.40

Considerable swell, several men seasick.

20.30 hrs

The ship was struck by a torpedo. Men went to boat stations. Several men injured by explosion which occurred under aft troop deck, and difficulty was experienced in getting them to the boats. Two lifeboats overturned in launching and one capsized in water owing to the heavy sea, some of the boats could not be launched owing to the davits being twisted by the explosion. Boats and rafts were picked up by HMS Griffin, the destroyer escort, until 04.00 hrs the following morning.

8.8.40

HMS Griffin searched for survivors until 08.00 hrs when the search was taken up by other ships. Destroyer then proceeded to Greenock. Food and comforts were supplied by the ship’s company and special mention should be made of the ship’s doctor who was untiring in his efforts to attend the wounded.

9.8.40

Greenock. HMS Griffin docked at Greenock at 04.00 hrs. Wounded were removed to Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride. Remainder of company were taken to Joiners Shop Camp where tea, food and bedding were provided.

Roll call was held and there were present 6 officers and 179 other ranks. It was ascertained that 36 other ranks had been admitted to hospital and that 28 were missing. Authority was obtained from Glasgow Area HQ for 7 days leave for all ranks and arrangements were made for departure the following morning.

10.8.40

Company went on leave.

19.8.40

Returned to Joiners Shop camp and awaited instructions.

23.8.40

Reported to Whyteleaf. Worked on aerodromes round Croydon, Biggin Hill and Detling.

5.8.40

Arrived at Quiside (sic) at 06.00 hrs where we are supplied with refreshment before boarding the ship. After tea all equipment is unloaded and shipped in record time. Major Whickham (CO of 15 Co.) takes over CO of Ship Deck. Sergeants, Police and Orderly Room staff are picked from 15 Co. Troopship Mohamed Ali el-Kebir leaves the quay at 10.00 hrs bound for Egypt.

6.8.40

Co. has boat drill and arrange their sleeping quarters. PT is taken on boat deck.

7.8.40

High Seas. Total strength 6 officers and 289 NCOs and men. Troopship Mohamed Ali el-Kebir on which the Company are being transported for service overseas is torpedoed by enemy submarine at 20.45 hrs. Very little panic is observed among the Company, who make their way to the boat deck and find room in the boats. A number of the ship’s lifeboats are damaged and so men utilise rafts as a means of escape from the ship, which by this time is rapidly sinking by the stern. There is a heavy swell on at the time and a number of the men are either killed or injured by rafts or wreckage crashing against the ship’s side. The major part of the 15th Company manage to escape, they are picked up by HM Destroyer Griffin and taken to the port of Greenock where they arrive at 05.00 hrs on Aug. 9th. 1940. Upon arrival a roll call is taken and total casualties amount to over 30. Personnel are to be granted 7 days survivors leave from 10 August.

17.8.40

Reform Company. Posted to 5 Centre, Huyton.

From ‘The Second Great War’, by Sir John Hammerton. P1232 - 1233

The last boat was not lowered but floated off the deck of the sinking ship, leaving about 30 officers and men on board. Among them was a naval petty officer who shouted as he dived into the sea, ‘ Come on, mates. There’ll always be an England - lets swim to it.’ They did not have to swim far, as British warships came quickly to the rescue. The Mohamed Ali el-Kebir was the third transport to be sunk during the first twelve months of war, apart from the ships lost in the improvised evacuation of the BEF from France, when all sorts and sizes of ships never intended for transport duties were employed. This was a remarkable record in view of the hundreds of thousands of troops convoyed to the different theatres of war, including the Middle East.

HMS Griffin

Griffin was a ‘G’ class destroyer of 1335 tons, built by Vickers at Barrow and launched in 1935. She had a crew of 145. In the early part of the war she served in the Norwegian campaign, and captured a German trawler which proved to be a treasure trove of intelligence material which later proved valuable in the cracking of German Enigma codes. In 1943 she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Ottawa, and was broken up in 1946 in Nova Scotia. Commander Dennis records that her name plate (Griffin) is in the Maritime Museum in Victoria BC. Her Captain at the time of the sinking was Lt Commander (later Rear-Admiral) John Lee Barber. He died at the age of 90 in 1995, and his obituary records that he disregarded every rule of good health, smoking 40 cigarettes a day into old age and enjoying copious glasses of gin.

Submarine U - 38

The German Submarine U - 38 was a long range class IXA submarine, captained by Lt. Heinrich Liebe from October 1938 to July 1941. She was already at sea when war was declared in September 1939. Within a few days she had claimed her first victim the Manaar, an 8000 ton ship owned by T & J Brocklebank. Other ships sunk included the Inverliffey, Aenos, Uganda, Highland Patrol and Berhala, and she would also have sunk the Carsbreck but her cargo of timber kept her afloat. Liebe was a recognised U - boat ace, credited with sinking some 30 ships in his total of 162,333 tons of allied shipping destroyed. Highly decorated, he held the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves cluster. Liebe survived the war having taken up a shore appointment after his early success. He died in 1997.

Mr Ian Wilson (personal communication) has evidence that Liebe was involved in the sinking by shelling of a neutral Irish steam trawler the Leukos north of Tory Island early in the war. However, it is also recorded that after torpedoing the previously mentioned Inverliffey which blew up in a fireball Liebe, at considerable risk to U-38, saved the crew by towing the lifeboats from the blazing inferno.

The photograph of Lt. Liebe is included with the kind permission of the U-boat net which provides a great deal more information on Lt. Liebe and U-38.

Lt. Heinrich Liebe

The summer of 1940 saw attacks on a large number of ships off the North West coast of reland. Newspaper reports and cemetery records make reference to the Arandora Star, Transylvania, Svein Jarl (Trondheim), Dunvegan Castle, Vinedoor, Pindos (Lisbon), Leonides, Betty Pacific, Villa de Grand, Manchester Brigade, Accra, Macville, and Upway Grange, in addition to the Mohamed Ali el-Kebir. A new book by Ian Wilson on Shipwrecks of the Donegal Coast (published by Impact Printing [of Coleraine] Ltd.) was published in October 1998, and contains much information about these turbulent times.

The Derry People and Triconail News of 24 August 1940 carried a report about the cost to the Donegal Board of Health of burying bodies washed ashore on the Donegal coast. The cost of burial was £4 per body and an inquest £5.33 bodies had cost the Board £140 - who could it be claimed from? Shortly afterwards the authorities agreed to discontinue holding coroners’ inquests, and bodies were interred on the authority of a local doctor. The papers from those inquests that were held can be seen at the National Archive in Dublin. A list of ‘Bodies of belligerents washed ashore and victims of crashes of belligerent aircraft’ for the relevant period is held in the Military Archive, Cathal Bruagh Barracks, Dublin.

The London Gazette of 28 April 1942 records the award of the BEM (civ.) to Eman Ali x Ismail Ali for services when the ship was torpedoed and sunk and for launching a life boat.

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