From The Daily Telegraph 30 March.
Lieutenant-Commander John Angell, who has died aged 92, won a DSC for his service as a submariner during the Second World War.
Angell was under training in the cruiser Southampton when the war broke out, and on courses at Portsmouth when the BEF was being driven towards Dunkirk. Like many of his contemporaries, he was sent to take charge of a small boat and help evacuate the beaches.
Two months later he was appointed to the battlecruiser Hood and witnessed the bombardment of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940.
Angell had, however, volunteered for “the trade” (the submarine service), and within a year was the junior hand in the T-class submarine Trident on operations off Norway.
In September 1941 he became liaison officer in the Polish submarine Sokol, which, while on patrol in the Mediterranean, penetrated Navarino Bay and torpedoed the Italian destroyer Aviere. Returning to the same place two weeks later, Sokol torpedoed the 2000-ton Italian tanker Berbera. Angell met General Sikorsky when he came on board to decorate Sokol’s commander Boris Karnicki with the Virtuti Militari.
Aged 23 Angell passed his “perisher”, the demanding course for all potential submarine captains, and for three months he commanded the training submarine H34.
In August 1943 he was given command of Sea Rover, in which he made his reputation in the Far East. As the Allies drove the Japanese back to their home islands, large targets were becoming increasingly hard to find, and Angell scored most of his successes by gunfire. He would stalk his prey underwater until he was within range; then he would suddenly surface and fire off several rounds at close range from a 3-inch gun.
In this way, in March 1944 he sank the Japanese Matsu Maru No 1 in the Strait of Malacca; in all he sank nine Japanese vessels and damaged two more off the coast of Malaya and Sumatra, frequently entering shallow waters to do so. His last victim was a small ship off Java that December. He was awarded a DSC .
Full obituary with photograph.
Lieutenant-Commander John Angell, who has died aged 92, won a DSC for his service as a submariner during the Second World War.
Angell was under training in the cruiser Southampton when the war broke out, and on courses at Portsmouth when the BEF was being driven towards Dunkirk. Like many of his contemporaries, he was sent to take charge of a small boat and help evacuate the beaches.
Two months later he was appointed to the battlecruiser Hood and witnessed the bombardment of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940.
Angell had, however, volunteered for “the trade” (the submarine service), and within a year was the junior hand in the T-class submarine Trident on operations off Norway.
In September 1941 he became liaison officer in the Polish submarine Sokol, which, while on patrol in the Mediterranean, penetrated Navarino Bay and torpedoed the Italian destroyer Aviere. Returning to the same place two weeks later, Sokol torpedoed the 2000-ton Italian tanker Berbera. Angell met General Sikorsky when he came on board to decorate Sokol’s commander Boris Karnicki with the Virtuti Militari.
Aged 23 Angell passed his “perisher”, the demanding course for all potential submarine captains, and for three months he commanded the training submarine H34.
In August 1943 he was given command of Sea Rover, in which he made his reputation in the Far East. As the Allies drove the Japanese back to their home islands, large targets were becoming increasingly hard to find, and Angell scored most of his successes by gunfire. He would stalk his prey underwater until he was within range; then he would suddenly surface and fire off several rounds at close range from a 3-inch gun.
In this way, in March 1944 he sank the Japanese Matsu Maru No 1 in the Strait of Malacca; in all he sank nine Japanese vessels and damaged two more off the coast of Malaya and Sumatra, frequently entering shallow waters to do so. His last victim was a small ship off Java that December. He was awarded a DSC .
Full obituary with photograph.
