Britain’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, was well deserved by people like Able Seaman Magennis, the diver aboard the midget submarine, XE-3, and it’s skipper, Lt. Ian Fraser, during the successful mission to sink the Japanese cruiser, ‘Takao’, at her mooring in Singapore, on 31st July, 1945.
(Adapted to meet the warmer conditions encountered in tropical climes, the XE class of midget submarines, developed by the Royal Navy during WWII, carried a crew of four – at least one of whom was the designated diver – but were slightly larger than the X-craft used in the attack on the German Battleship, ‘Tirpitz‘, in 1943. )
XE-3’s attack involved a shallow water approach to the cruiser before settling to the sea bed beneath it as a prelude to Magennis, kitted up in dry-suit and oxygen rebreather, exited the submarine through the cramped Wet & Dry compartment hatch in order to place six limpet mines on to the hull – an operation made more difficult by the barnacle and weed encrusted hull plates that required being scraped clean before the magnetic mines could be attached. 
Once Magennis had re-entered the submarine, the next phase of the operation entailed releasing the two detachable side cargoes, each filled with 4 tons of high explosive Amytol armed with fuses set to detonate after six hours, following which XE-3 would then make its escape and return to the waiting mother submarine.
While the port charge acted as designed and thumped on to the sea floor, the starboard side cargo remained firmly attached to XE3. With an outgoing tide further risking the chance of the small submarine being trapped between the hull of the ‘Takao’ and the shallow seabed, Magennis – exhausted by his previous efforts but still dressed in his suit – again wriggled through the W&D compartment hatch and, armed with a spanner, managed to release the stubborn side cargo.
With Magennis managing to squeeze himself back through the hatch and into the submarine – that still remained undetected and unobserved by the ‘Takao’ – XE-3, started its motors and, extricating itself from between the cruisers hull and the silt of the sea floor, made a successful retreat to safety before the detonating charges crippled the ‘Takao’.
As Fraser later wrote: “Looking back on the limpet placing part of the operation , I see how wonderfully well Magennis did his work. He was the first frogman to work against an enemy from a midget submarine in the manner designed: he was the first and only frogman during the whole X-craft operations ever to leave a boat under and enemy ship and to attach limpet mines: in fact, he was the only frogman to operate from an X-craft in harbour against enemy shipping.”
—ENDS—
Image Captions:
1) Leading Seaman Magennis (L) and Lt Ian Fraser
2) Schematic of the 4-man X-craft , showing cramped Wet and Dry Compartment allowing a diver to exit and re-enter the submarine.
Categories: History
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