Midget Submarines and the VC
I recently blogged about Mudget Submarines (XE craft) built in Huddersfield on the site of the University by local company Thomas Broadbent.
Leading Seaman Magennis VC
I recently stumbled across a local Victoria Cross winner buried in Halifax.
James Joseph Magennis was not a local man by birth. He was born in Belfast to a working-class Roman Catholic family, sadly it was only 10 years after his death that his home town recognised him and his achievements. It was only in 1998 after the troubles had started to relax and the Good Friday agreement in place that the Council of Belfast finally honoured their VC winner. A memorial was erected for him in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.
Having joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 Magennis, he served initially of Destroyers before moving to Submarines and later volunteering to serve on Midget submarines.
Megennis a diver took part in the sinking of Turpitz (1943) for which he was mentioned in dispatches, before also taking part in the sinking of Takao. It was this mission for which he earned his VC.
After a period of training in Australia, the crews of the XE craft took part in Operation Struggle, an attack on Seletar Naval Base.
London Gazette Citation
Leading Seaman Magennis served as Diver in His Majesty's Midget Submarine XE-3 for her attack on 31 July 1945, on a Japanese cruiser of the Atago class. The diver's hatch could not be fully opened because XE-3 was tightly jammed under the target, and Magennis had to squeeze himself through the narrow space available. He experienced great difficulty in placing his limpets on the bottom of the cruiser owing both to the foul state of the bottom and to the pronounced slope upon which the limpets would not hold. Before a limpet could be placed therefore Magennis had thoroughly to scrape the area clear of barnacles, and in order to secure the limpets he had to tie them in pairs by a line passing under the cruiser keel. This was very tiring work for a diver, and he was moreover handicapped by a steady leakage of oxygen which was ascending in bubbles to the surface. A lesser man would have been content to place a few limpets and then to return to the craft. Magennis, however, persisted until he had placed his full outfit before returning to the craft in an exhausted condition. Shortly after withdrawing Lieutenant Fraser endeavoured to jettison his limpet carriers, but one of these would not release itself and fall clear of the craft. Despite his exhaustion, his oxygen leak and the fact that there was every probability of his being sighted, Magennis at once volunteered to leave the craft and free the carrier rather than allow a less experienced diver to undertake the job. After seven minutes of nerve-racking work he succeeded in releasing the carrier. Magennis displayed very great courage and devotion to duty and complete disregard for his own safety.
XE-3 was just one of the eight Midget submarines built in Huddersfield, so it seems fitting that after the war, Magennis chose to settle just up the road in Halifax.
