- Author
- Worledge, Ray
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Ship histories and stories, WWII operations, History - WW2
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Rushcutter (Shores establishment)
- Publication
- June 2006 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Darling’s first kill was U-333 on 31 July 1944, when the Asdic recorder took charge of both the ship’s course and the aiming of the two triple-barrelled mortars, as well as setting the fuses to the proper firing depth and firing the mortars. After the attack, the U-boat was found to be lying on its side, and might not have been mortally wounded, so a second attack was made, which apparently counter-mined a torpedo, bringing up much evidence of a kill.
Squid attack
Only a few days later, on 6 August, Loch Killin detected another U-boat, and again carried out a Squid attack, with full reliance on instruments. This time the frigate ran over the bow section of the submarine, which became entangled with Loch Killin’s port A-bracket. The surviving 19 members of U-736 were able to climb aboard the frigate without getting their feet wet, while by good fortune Loch Killin remained fit for sea.
With the war in Europe drawing to a close, Darling accounted for his third U-boat in the Channel off Start Point on 15 April 1945. A surfaced submarine was overtaken from behind. The submarine’s wake made range finding by Asdic difficult, necessitating three Squid attacks for a kill. Loch Killin picked up 17 survivors from U-1063.
Stanley Darling continued in the RAN Reserve after the War, retiring as a Captain, with an OBE to add to his three DSCs.
After winning a DSC in the Norwegian campaign, Sub Lieutenant F.M. Osborne was appointed First Lieutenant of Gentian, one of the first corvettes, in which he was to remain for two and a half years. In 1941, the Captain of Gentian was promoted out of the ship. His replacement was landed ill after two voyages and Osborne, just promoted to Lieutenant, assumed command on a temporary basis. It lasted until he left Gentian in 1943. His first trip in command of Gentian saw the ship in the ill-fated convoy HG73, which lost more than a third of its ships homeward bound from Gibraltar. The disaster prompted a special inquiry, but Osborne’s performance must have been judged satisfactory, as he was confirmed in command.
In the summer of 1942, Gentian did a long refit in the Mersey. Offered another command, Osborne chose to keep Gentian and fill in the time with courses in Navigation and Gunnery, a short spell in a destroyer in the Channel, and a course at the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU). The last was to have a sequel. A pre-war solicitor, Osborne had a keen, analytical brain and a gift for lucid expression, which must have impressed the redoubtable Captain Gilbert Roberts.
Teaching appointment
Gentian was re-commissioned in July, 1942, and after working up at Tobermory joined Commander Macintyre’s crack B2 Escort Group for a hard stint in the North Atlantic. But in February 1943 Osborne was taken out of Gentian and put on the teaching staff of WATU under Captain Roberts. It was not an appointment he welcomed, but he would have given it his very competent best. His pleas to return to sea were ultimately granted when he was given command of the old V&W destroyer Vanquisher, which had been converted to a long-range escort with the latest Asdic gear and electronics. However, North Atlantic weather soon showed up the ship’s age, and she was transferred to duties based on Gibraltar. In April 1944, Vanquisher was recalled to Britain for exercises in preparation for the coming invasion, which was only the overture for months of intensive work in the Western Channel in support of the campaign ashore.
Joint sinking
On the night of 11 March, 1945, Vanquisher overtook a U-boat engaged in following an inbound convoy 300 miles west of Ushant. Vanquisher’s Hedgehog being unserviceable, Tintagel Castle, a corvette fitted with Squid, made the attack using bearing, distance and depth supplied by Vanquisher, thanks to a new experimental depth-finding Asdic set. The U-boat was despatched with the first Squid pattern, and the sinking of U-878 was credited jointly to the two ships, giving Osborne a Bar to his DSC.
His next command was the modern sloop Peacock, in which he sailed on 9 August, 1945, to join the British Pacific Fleet. But the end of the war found the ship in the Mediterranean, enabling Osborne to make his way back to Sydney, followed by his British bride, the former Second Officer Elizabeth Drake, WRNS. Later, he served as a Cabinet Minister in the Australian Parliament, retiring as The Hon. F.M. Osborne, CMG, DSC and Bar, VRD.