Killed-in-Action, 22nd September 1914
When HMS ABOUKIR was Sunk by German Submarine U-9
[BIOGRAPHY]
Charles Frederick Day was born 22nd January 1879 at Godwin’s Croft, Christchurch, Hants. Prior to enlistment into the Royal Marine Artillery at Bournemouth on 29th December 1898 at age 19 he had been a Bricklayer’s Labourer.
On 16th December 1910 he passed his driving test on a 40hp Napier at Portsmouth.
He was clearly getting qualified to become a paid driver as he received his R.A.C. (paid driver) certificate on 23rd December 1910.
After 12 years service in the R.M.A. he transferred into the Royal Fleet Reserve on 14th January 1911.
At the outbreak of the Great War he was again immediately mobilised on 2nd -3rd August 1914 and went aboard HMS ABOUKIR on 4th August 1914 as a gunner R.M.A.
His family posthumously received his R.F.A. Long Service Medal on 17th March 1923 with trio arriving a year earlier in March 1922. Included are the original medal condolence letter, registered envelope & medal boxes.
[THE LOSS OF “THE LIVE BAIT” SQUADRON]
HMS CRESSY, HMS HOUGE & HMS ABOUKIR were all sunk by torpedoes fired by German Submarine U-9, in under One Hour on 22nd September 1914 . The men on board were some of the earliest Royal Naval casualties of the Great War. It was also the very first time that the Royal Navy had been “seriously shot at” since the enemy guns of the French and Spanish fell silent at The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
"Perhaps the Most Famous & Successful Submarine Action of all time"
In August 1914, Kapitanleutant Otto Weddigen took command of Submarine U-9 and became world famous when on 22nd September 1914 he sank three 12,000 ton British cruisers in under One Hour and was responsible for the killing of 1,459 men in one single day.
After later sinking of HMS Hawke and other merchant ships he was awarded the Iron Cross and later the Pour Le Merite (The Blue Max).
Previously, during trials on 16 July 1914, the crew of U-9 reloaded her torpedo tubes while submerged, the first time any submarine had succeeded in doing so. This development was to have far reaching implications for The Royal Navy in the early part of The Great War at sea.
[THE ACTION On 22 September 1914]
While patrolling the Broad Fourteens, a region of the southern North Sea, the U-9 (Ltn. Otto Weddigen) found a squadron of three obsolescent British Cressy-class armoured cruisers (HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, and HMS Cressy).
These were very old ships and had been sardonically nicknamed the "Live Bait Squadron", which had been assigned to prevent German surface vessels from entering the eastern end of the English Channel. The Three vessels were steaming NNE at 10 knots without zigzagging. Although the patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots and zigzag the old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed and the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war.
The U-9 spotted the ships and fired all six of her torpedoes, again reloading while submerged, and sank all three ships in less than an hour. 1,459 British sailors died. It was one of the most notable submarine actions of all time. Members of the Admiralty who had considered submarines to be "mere toys" no longer expressed that opinion after this event.
The U-9 manoeuvred to attack and at about 06.25 fired a single torpedo at HMS Aboukir, which stuck her on her port side. HMS Aboukir rapidly suffered heavy flooding and despite counter flooding developed a 20 degree list and lost engine power. It was soon clear that she was a lost cause and Captain Drummond ordered her to be abandoned, although only one life boat had survived the attack so most crew had to jump into the sea.
At first Drummond thought that HMS Aboukir had been mined and signalled the other two cruisers to close and assist but he soon realised that it was a torpedo attack and ordered the other two cruisers away, but too late as HMS Aboukir rolled over and sank, half an hour after being attacked.
U-9 then fired two torpedoes at HMS Hogue that hit her amidships and rapidly flooded her engine room. Captain Nicholson of HMS Hogue had stopped the ship to lower boats to rescue the crew of HMS Aboukir, thinking that as he was the other side of HMS Aboukir from U-9 he would be safe. Unfortunately U-9 had manoeuvred around HMS Aboukir and attacked HMS Hogue from a range of only 300 yards. U-9 subsequently sank HMS Cressy in a similar fashion.
Cressy was the last to be torpedoed and the only one of the cruisers to open fire on U-9. A second torpedo fired by U-9 just missed HMS CRESSY and passed about 10 feet astern. About a quarter of an hour after the first torpedo had hit, a third torpedo fired from the submarine just before the starboard beam hit the hull just under the No.5 boiler room. The boilers exploded and many of the stokers were scalded to death by the high pressure super heated steam. It seems likely that Josiah Baldwin who’s group we also have, was one of these unfortunate men. The time was 7.30 a.m. The ship then began to heel rapidly, and finally turned keel up, remaining so for about twenty minutes before she finally sank, at 07.55.
A Superb and Rarely Complete R.M.A. (Gunner) LSGC Casualty Group to a man lost in one of the most famous submarine actions in naval history. All medals are “GEM MINT STATE” with original mint ribbons. Full service history sheet is included with several other items of interesting paperwork.
£1550