WAT AT SEA
A TRAGIC SINKING
THE LOSS OF HM SUBMARINE OXLEY IN 1939
On 8 November 1939, some nine weeks after the outbreak of World War II, Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, announced, ‘Since the outbreak of war one of our submarines, HMS Oxley, has been destroyed by an accidental explosion’. The announcement was untrue because, not only was Oxley lost some seven weeks earlier, on 10 September, but the ‘explosion’ was not accidental.
It would be over a decade before the true story became public knowledge.
HMS Oxley had an unusual career, having been ordered originally, with her sister Otway, for the Australian Navy. They were built at Barrow-inFurness, launched in 1926 and completed in 1927. The two boats were similar to the Royal Navy’s Odin class, with a surface displacement of 1,350 tons, and submerged 1,870 tons. Armed with one 4-inch (101.6mm) gun and eight 21-inch (530mm) torpedo tubes, they were propelled by diesel engines on the surface and electric motors while submerged.
Neil McCart describes the tragic incident in September 1939 which saw one Royal Navy submarine firing on another, with fatal consequences.
HM Submarine Oxley in Malta’s Grand Harbour during her service with the Mediterranean Fleet.
They carried a complement of 54 officers and men.
The two submarines left Portsmouth for Sydney in February 1928, but at Malta, with faults found in their engine columns, they were taken into dockyard hands for what turned out to be major construction work. In the event the two submarines remained at Malta until midNovember 1928, and it was mid-February 1929 before they finally arrived in Sydney. Oxley’s career with the Australian Navy was short, and just over 12 months after her arrival in Sydney she was paid off into reserve. The Great Depression of the early 1930s hit Australia hard, and in January 1931 the Australian Government offered to transfer both Oxley and Otway to the Royal Navy, an offer which was accepted.