SS Tembien was an Italian steamship sunk during the Second World War. She had been built in Germany in 1914 and served under a number of names before joining the Italian company Ignazio Messina as Tembien. She was sunk on 27 February 1942 by the British submarine Upholder. She was carrying 468 Allied prisoners of war, a fact known to the British through Ultra decryptions. Her sinking caused the deaths of at least 390 prisoners and 78 crew and guards.
Tembien was a two-deck steel-built, oil-driven cargo vessel. She had a gross register tonnage of 5,584 and measured 417 feet (127 m) in length, 32 feet 2 inches (9.80 m) in width and 27 feet 5 inches (8.36 m) in depth. She was built by the Rickmers Group in Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1914. Her 500–nominal horsepower engines were made by AG Weser of Bremen. During her career she sailed under the names Mouni, Milluna, Nwc.No.3, Franziska, Mabel, Syd.No.2 and Mabel Rickmers. By the Second World War she was in service as Tembien for the Italian Ignazio Messina company and was based out of Genoa. [1]
Tembien left Trapani, Italy, for Tripoli, Libya on 16 February 1942, escorted by the destroyer Saetta and arriving two days later. This journey went un-hindered by the Allies as Enigma decryptions (so-called Ultra intelligence) recorded only a convoy of unknown composition, and details of its position arrived too late for an attack to be made. [2]
On 27 February 1942 Tembien, having left Tripoli, was sailing around 25 miles (40 km) to the west of the city, carrying 468 Allied prisoners of war from the North African campaign to Italy. [3] Although the wounded were often transported in hospital ships, which granted protective status, the Axis often transported unwounded prisoners in unmarked cargo vessels which made them indistinguishable from legitimate targets. [4]
Tembien was spotted by Lieutenant Commander David Wanklyn's submarine HMS Upholder. Two of Wanklyn's torpedoes struck the Tembien, causing her to sink and leading to the deaths of between 390 and 419 prisoners, 68 Italian crew members and 10 German guards. [3] [5] The route and manifest of the Tembien were known to the British through Ultra decryptions so it is not known why she was allowed to be attacked. [5] One possibility is that to allow all prisoner-of-war ships safe passage on the basis of decrypted information would have alerted the Axis powers that the British had broken the Enigma codes. [6] Sinkings of prisoner-of-war vessels decreased significantly later in 1942, suggesting a shift in policy. [7]
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. Ultra eventually became the standard designation among the western Allies for all such intelligence. The name arose because the intelligence obtained was considered more important than that designated by the highest British security classification then used and so was regarded as being Ultra Secret. Several other cryptonyms had been used for such intelligence.
Two Royal Navy submarines have been named HMS Upholder.
HMS Upholder (P37) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 30 October 1939, launched on 8 July 1940 by Mrs. Doris Thompson, wife of a director of the builders. The submarine was commissioned on 31 October 1940. She was one of four U-class submarines which had two external torpedo tubes at the bows in addition to the 4 internal ones fitted to all boats. They were excluded from the others because they interfered with depth-keeping at periscope depth.
Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn, was a Royal Navy commander and one of the most successful submariners in the Western Allied navies during the Second World War. Wanklyn and his crew sank 16 enemy vessels.
Bolzano was a unique heavy cruiser, sometimes considered to be a member of the Trento class, built for the Italian Regia Marina in the early 1930s, the last vessel of the type to be built by Italy. A modified version of the earlier Trento class, she had a heavier displacement, slightly shorter length, a newer model of 203-millimeter (8.0 in) gun, and a more powerful propulsion system, among other differences influenced by the Zara class that had followed the Trentos. Bolzano was built by the Gio. Ansaldo & C. between her keel laying in June 1930 and her commissioning in August 1933.
HMS Hursley was a Second World War Type II Hunt-class escort destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She is the only Royal Navy ship to have carried this name. Hursley is a village in Hampshire. Commissioned in 1942, she served in the Mediterranean, before being transferred to the Hellenic Navy in November 1943 and renamed Kriti. She took part in the landings in Sicily, Anzio, and southern France, and remained in Greek service until 1959.
The Battle of the Tarigo Convoy was a naval battle of World War II, part of the Battle of the Mediterranean. It was fought on 16 April 1941, between four British and three Italian destroyers escorting a convoy, near the Kerkennah Islands off Sfax, in the Tunisian coast. The battle was named after the Italian flagship, the destroyer Luca Tarigo.
HMS P32 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness.
HMS Splendid was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was laid down on 7 March 1941 and launched on 19 January 1942. After an initial patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, Splendid conducted two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea; one was abandoned after technical problems and on the other she sank two Italian ships. On her next patrol, the submarine attacked two Italian convoys, sinking an Italian destroyer in the second attack. Based in Algiers, the boat operated north of Sicily, sinking six Italian ships, including two tankers and two heavy merchant ships. Splendid was detected by a German destroyer on 21 April 1943 while patrolling off Naples, Italy; the submarine was attacked with depth charges by the destroyer and forced to surface, after which she was scuttled and her surviving crew members taken prisoner. She was the most successful British submarine by tonnage sunk between November 1942 and May 1943.
HMS Sickle was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1942, she made her initial war patrol off the Norwegian coast. Sickle then sailed to Gibraltar, from where she conducted one patrol, then to Algiers, French North Africa. From 10 May to 10 October, the boat patrolled the Gulf of Genoa five times and sank a German submarine as well as three minesweepers and an escort ship. She then moved to Beirut, French Lebanon, and conducted two patrols in the Aegean Sea, sinking three caïques and a merchant ship, in addition to landing resistance operatives in Greece.
HMS Sahib was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was launched on 19 January 1942 and commissioned on 13 May 1942. She was the only British naval vessel to bear the name Sahib.
HMS Unruffled was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unruffled.
HMS P38 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness.
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain at the time – aged 36 – and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian.
SS Scillin was a 1,591 GRT cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1903, passed through a succession of owners of various nationalities and had a succession of different names. She was built as H. M. Pellatt but was successively called Memling, Nicole Le Borgne, Giuliana Pagan, and Scillin Secondo before becoming Scillin in 1937.
HMS Regent was a Rainbow-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy, and was launched on 11 June 1930. She was lost with all hands after striking a mine on 18 April 1943.
Italian submarine Tembien was an Adua-class submarine built for the Royal Italian Navy during the 1930s. It was named after a Tembien region of Ethiopia, where Italian troops fought two battles against more numerous Ethiopian troops during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Captain Michael Lindsay Coulton "Tubby" Crawford DSC & Bar was an officer in the Royal Navy and submariner.
Turbine was the lead ship of her class of eight destroyers built for the Regia Marina during the 1920s. Her name means whirlwind.
Pegaso was a torpedo boat and an escort aviso of the Italian Regia Marina. She was one of the most successful Axis anti-submarine warships of World War II.
