HMS
SYRTIS
(1943
-
1944)
HMS SYRTIS (Lt M H Jupp) sailed from Lerwick for a patrol area off Kya and Bodø on the Norwegian coast on 16 March 1944. On 20 March she was ordered to move from the Kya area to patrol off Bodø. She was instructed to leave her patrol area after dark on 27 March and was due to arrive at Lerwick on 30 March 1944.
She failed to return from patrol and was reported as lost on 2 April 1944. No signals were received from SYRTIS during her patrol, but it is known from German records that she could not have been lost before 22 March. On 22 March 1944, the 241-ton Norwegian steamer Narvik was sunk by gunfire from a submarine that surfaced just ahead of her. This could only have been HMS SYRTIS.
In response, the Germans launched an anti-submarine patrol in the form of a BV138 flying boat, but nothing was sighted. There were no attacks by ships or aircraft that might account for her loss. The only possibility left is mining and there were several minefields close to her patrol area.
The accepted (Royal Navy) date of death of each of the crew is given as 28 March 1944 although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission date is given as 30 March 1944.
PEOPLE WHO DIED WHILE SERVING IN THIS UNIT
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3 responses
Frederick Arthur Storey was my father’s older brother.
I guess he would have been 20 years old.
I intend visiting Bodø in April this year on a cruise to gaze out and pay my respects to him and those other sadly lost brave souls.
Think Leslie Hull was my uncle. I have traced the family tree but struggling as there is nobody around to ask.
As far as I know my father Edmund Artist Butler was the only member of the Syrtis to survive as he took ill just before they sailed and was put into sickbay.