What is it about?
In November 1944 the submarine HMS Sturdy sank a coaster off the SW coast of Borneo by demolition charge. The problem: there were passengers still aboard. This article traces the differing reactions of the flotilla captain at Fremantle, C-in-C Eastern Fleet at Colombo, the Lords of the Admiralty at Whitehall, and press and political reactions when the issue resurfaced 44 years later.
Featured Image
Photo by nathaniel abadji on Unsplash
Why is it important?
At a time when opinion tends to fracture along rigid ideological lines it is useful to look at a controversial incident from several angles, to stand in different shoes and see how individuals' circumstances can affect their perspectives.
Perspectives
I was launched down this path by stumbling on an eyewitness account of the incident. Trying to verify what I could of the story produced a multifaceted picture which deserved to be explored in detail.
Mr Derek Nudd
Society for Nautical Research
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The
Sturdy
Incident, 1944: Collateral damage or forgotten war crime?, The Mariner s Mirror, July 2024, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2024.2371201.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
