H.M.S. Thule Intercepts

London: Elek Books, 1956. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. [10], 241, [1] pages. The contents include: Hotel at Arrochar Christening, Trial and Error, By Suez to Ceylon, Tragedy on Patrol, Minelay; Ramming; Depth-Charged; Across the Equator; Crashing the Sunda Strait; Silent Invasion; The Strain Begins to tell; Royal Marine Landing; Australian Interlude; Gun Blood; Bombed into the Mud; The War Ends. Postscript--Submarines of the future, Appendix I--Awards, and Appendix II--Glossary of Terms. This book is the direct sequel to the author's brilliant and successful submarine story, Unbroken. Lieutenant Commander Alastair Campbell Gillespie Mars, DSO, DSC and Bar (1 January 1915 – 12 March 1985) was a Royal Navy World War II submarine commander. In 1952 he was court martialled and dismissed from the service under controversial circumstances and pursued a career as an author. In November 1941 Mars was appointed as commanding officer of HMS Unbroken, which he served on until June 1943 on operations in the Mediterranean. From August 1943 until December 1943 he was a staff officer at HMS Dolphin submarine base in Portsmouth. In December he was placed in command of HMS Thule in the Far East, remaining there until November 1945. Mars was arrested and court martialled for insubordination and absence without leave, which resulted in his dismissal from the Navy in June 1952. The controversy over his dismissal was the subject of a parliamentary question the following month, when the future prime minister James Callaghan asked the then First Lord of the Admiralty whether Mars would receive his pension. This book covers the period from about half-way through the War when the author was given command of the submarine HMS Thule and sent East, sailing on patrols out of Freemantle against Japanese shipping, until the end of the War. HMS Thule was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P325 at Devonport Dockyard, and launched on 22 October 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Thule, after Thule, the mythological name for a northern island. Thule served in the Far East for much of her wartime career, where she sank thirteen junks, two lighters and five sampans with gunfire in the Strait of Malacca in a twelve-day period between 17 December 1944 to 29 December 1944. She also attacked a submarine, probably the Japanese submarine Ro-113 and believed she had sunk it, but Thule's torpedoes exploded prematurely and the submarine escaped unharmed. She went on to sink a further five sailing vessels and three coasters, as well as laying a number of mines. She survived the war and continued in service with the Navy. In May 1951, Thule was sent to Canada to train with the Royal Canadian Navy. On 18 November 1960, Thule, a member of the 5th Submarine Squadron, was taking part in an anti-submarine exercise off Portland Bill, when she was accidentally rammed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Black Ranger when at periscope depth. Thule's snort was broken, one of her periscopes was bent and her casing was damaged. The submarine was scrapped at Thos. W. Ward, Inverkeithing on 14 September 1962.
Her first commander, Alastair Mars, wrote HMS Thule Intercepts, about her operations from commissioning in Scotland to the end of the war in Australia.
Condition: Good / Good.

Keywords: H.M.S. Thule, P325, Submarine, T Class, Royal Marines, Naval Operations, Pacific Theater, Freemantle, Japanese Shipping, strait of Malacca, Torpedo, Minelaying, Ro-113

[Book #84108]

Price: $50.00

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