FRASER, Ian E (#67)
#67
Lieutenant Commander Ian Edward FRASER VC DSC RD* JP
Royal Navy
18 December, 1920 - 1 September, 2008
‘The last and most audacious underwater attack of the Second World War’
“Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fraser won the Victoria Cross as captain of the midget submarine XE3 in Operation Struggle, a daring attack on the Japanese 10,000-ton heavy cruiser Takao in the Johore Straits, off Singapore Dockyard, just before the end of the Second World War.
HM Submarine X24 approaching an anti-submarine net by J. Brooks (1945). Underwater scene showing a midget submarine and an anti-submarine net. A diver is cutting through the net, standing by the open bow hatch. © IWM Art.IWM ART LD 5507
Takao had previously been damaged in action. But it was thought she could be repaired and used as a floating gun-battery to defend the Straits.
Towed by the submarine Stygian, XE3 sailed on July 26 from Labuan, off Borneo. “Tich” Fraser and his crew — Sub-Lieutenant “Kiwi” Smith (RNZNVR), Artificer Charles Reed and the frogman diver Leading Seaman “Mick” Magennis — transferred from Stygian on July 30 to relieve XE3’s passage crew . That night, at 11 pm, the midget sub slipped its tow at the eastern end of the Singapore Channel.
By J. Brooks (1945): A diver is shown cutting through an anti-submarine net with a pneumatic cutter as the midget submarine moves through the hole in the net. © IWM Art.IWM ART LD 5508
The party now set off on an intricate and dangerous passage of some 40 miles. They passed shoals and wrecks and crossed minefields to proceed betweeen Singapore Island and the Johore mainland. Had they fallen into Japanese hands they would probably have been executed as spies.
XE3 made a steady five knots on the surface and passed the Johore listening posts just after 2am on July 31. At 4.30am Fraser had to dive hurriedly to avoid a tanker and its escort which came looming up out of the dark, and XE3 hit the bottom at 36ft. This damaged the logs which measured speed and distance on which Fraser relied for his dead-reckoning navigation.
Midget Submarines by Stephen Bone (April 1944): a submariner wearing overalls stands on the deck of a midget submarine. Copyright: © IWM ART LD 5794. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/3286
In the heat and confinement of the Xcraft, conditions were extremely unpleasant. The men kept themselves going by sipping orange juice from the refrigerator before taking Benzedrine tablets at 6am.
Three hours later, Fraser sighted the line of buoys which marked the boom, and, waiting outside, managed to follow a small, unwary trawler through. As XE3 worked her way steadily up the Straits at 40ft, Magennis began to dress in his rubber frogman’s suit, assisted by Fraser. Inside the submarine, the temperature was 85 degrees and the air heavy and sticky.
“WITH OUR MIDGET SUBMARINERS IN THE PACIFIC. JULY TO 8 SEPTEMBER 1945, SYDNEY HARBOUR, AUSTRALIA. PERSONALITIES AND CRAFT AT A BRITISH MIDGET SUBMARINE BASE IN SYDNEY HARBOUR.” (A 30569) Members of the crew of a midget submarine at their diving stations. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161674
At 12.50 Fraser saw the shore of Singapore Island to his left, some buildings ahead, and then the target — Takao. “Although she seemed to appear with the suddenness of an apparition,” he recalled, “I had the feeling that I had been staring at her for a long time. She was heavily camouflaged and she lay in the exact position I had plotted on my chart.”
Midget Submarines: Herald and Excelsior by Stephen Bone (1944) © IWM Art.IWM ART LD 4065. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/3149
An hour later, when the crew had been submerged for nine hours and had been 19 hours without proper sleep, he began his attack.
Takao was anchored with her stern only 100 yards from the Singapore side of the Straits. The depth of water around her was between only 11ft and 17ft, but she lay across a depression in the seabed some 500ft wide. Fraser had somehow to get XE3 across the shallows and into the hole below Takao (though he had told the depot-ship staff that this would be impossible).
The first attack on Takao’s bow was too fine. Fraser retired and at 3am he tried again. This time he slid XE3 neatly under the target. Magennis went out through the “wet and dry compartment” (which could be flooded and pumped to let a diver in or out of the submarine) and began to fix limpet mines to Takao’s bottom.
“Underwater swim suit Mark III, Royal Navy (EQU 2204) i) mask ii) body
Royal Navy frogman swim suit, 2 elements: i) Face mask comprising black rubber mask, round glass face piece, breathing valve and mouthpiece;
ii) Body suit (one piece?) iii) flippers,rubber-denoted left & right © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30015371″
© IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30015371
Since the plates were covered in marine growth, he had to chip and clear away for more than half an hour before he could place his six mines properly. But their magnets were unaccountably weak, and the mines kept floating up and away, with Magennis swimming after them.
When Magennis came back to the sub, Fraser’s next task was to release the two side-charges, each two tons of Amatol explosive. The port charge dropped away cleanly, but the starboard side stuck. So, too, did XE3, underneath Takao. Fraser and his crew had a frantic few minutes’ manoeuvring before the submarine came free.
Fraser wanted to go out to release the remaining charge, but Magennis insisted that he was the diver and he would go. Armed with a spanner, he climbed out again and in five minutes — the longest five minutes of Fraser’s life — he released the charge.
MIDGET SUBMARINES. 17 AND 18 DECEMBER 1944, ROSYTHESAY BAY. MIDGET SUBMARINE OFFICERS, MEN, CRAFT, AND PARENT SHIP. (A 26940) Midget Craft Crew. Left to right: A/B J J Magennis, Bradford, Yorks, diver; Lieut I E Fraser, DSC, RNR, Farnham Common, Bucks, Commanding Officer; Lieut D H Carey, RN, Guernsey, Channel Islands; ERA R Maugham, North Kensington, London. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205158468
“I have never met a braver man”
James Magennis was the only Northern Irish VC awarded in the Second World War, and the first acquired by Lord Ashcroft for his renowned VC collection now on display in Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London. Belfast was somewhat tardy in recognising its son formally, but after a lengthy campaign a bronze and stone memorial statue was unveiled, and, later, a wall mural. His colleague and Captain Ian Fraser VC was reported as saying “Jim gave me bother from time to time. He liked his tot of rum, but he was a lovely man and a fine diver. I have never met a braver man. It was a privilege to know him and it’s wonderful to see Belfast honour him at last.” After years of ill-health, Magennis died hours before his heroism was honoured by the Royal Navy Philatelic Office with a a Commemorative First-day Cover. [Wikipedia]
Memorial to Leading Seaman Magennis VC
Section (from 10m8s) about Operation Surrender and its two VCs from “Victoria Cross Heroes”, Part 3.
Includes dramatised reconstruction and an interview with his son, Jim Magennis.
“Victoria Cross Heroes” screenshot: James Magennis VC
“Victoria Cross Heroes” screenshot: Ian Fraser VC
XE3 returned to Stygian and was taken in tow again, reaching Labuan on August 4. The charges duly detonated and blew a great hole in Takao’s bottom. Fraser was dismayed to find there were plans for him to repeat Struggle. He felt he had done enough and more than enough, and was greatly relieved when the end of the war made the operation unnecessary.
On his way back to Britain, Fraser passed through Singapore and was shown over the remains of Takao. To his bitter disappointment, he found that there had been only a skeleton crew on board. The Japanese Navy had written her off. Nevertheless, he and Magennis were both awarded the Victoria Cross.
Pathe Newsreel: “the last and most audacious underwater attack of the Second World War, an attack for which her Captain and Seaman Diver each received the Victoria Cross”
Ian Edward Fraser was born on December 18 1920, and was taken at a few months old to Kuala Lumpur, where his father was working as a marine engineer. He went to the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and then HMS Conway, the training ship in the Mersey.
In 1938 he joined the Blue Funnel Line and went to sea as a cadet in Tuscan Star and Sydney Star. After joining the battleship Royal Oak as a midshipman, RNR, for what he thought was to be four months’ training, he was aboard for the Fleet Review in Weymouth Bay, Dorset, in July 1939.
When war broke out, Fraser served in the destroyer Keith. He was in the destroyer Montrose at Dunkirk, and in another destroyer, Malcolm, when she and other escorts sank U-651 in the Atlantic on June 29 1941.
Then — “for no valid reason which I can now recall” — he volunteered for submarines. He served in P35 and H43 before joining Sahib in the “Fighting Tenth” submarine squadron in the Mediterranean.
He won a DSC in April 1943 after Sahib, west of Corsica on January 21 1943, sank U-301 as well as several Axis supply ships. At a post-patrol party aboard a depot ship, somebody threw a heavy brass ashtray which broke a bone in Fraser’s foot. As a result he was not on Sahib’s next patrol, in which the sub was lost and all but one of its crew became PoWs.
Fraser was appointed first lieutenant of the old submarine H44 which, after refitting at Sheerness, went to Londonderry, where escort commanders on the surface practised trying to find him. This led to his volunteering for Xcraft. He trained in X20 in Loch Cairnbawn before, in November 1944, taking command of XE3 — unofficially named “Sigyn”, after the ever-loving wife of Loki in Norse mythology. It adopted the motto “Softly, softly, catchee monkey”.
In 1945 he was appointed an Officer of the US Legion of Merit, and the borough of Wallasey raised more than £300 by public subscription for Fraser and presented him with a Sword of Honour.
“Above Us the Waves is a 1955 British war film about human torpedo and midget submarine attacks in Norwegian fjords against the German battleship Tirpitz. Directed by Ralph Thomas. A Royal Navy commander sets out to win his admiral’s confidence by launching secret midget submarine raids on the formidable German battleship Tirpitz, which is hiding in the fjords of Norway. However, as time unfolds, the mission becomes increasingly perilous. Second World War drama based on a true story, starring John Mills, Donald Sinden, John Gregson and James Robertson Justice.” (See also the Six Signatories associated with the Tirpitz)
It had been Fraser’s ambition to transfer to the regular Royal Navy after the war, bu it became clear that he was not going to be offered a permanent commission and, in 1946, he withdrew his application. He was discharged the following year.
The VC had changed Fraser’s life, and he used it intelligently and resourcefully to give himself as good a start as possible in his new civilian career. With other ex-frogmen and service colleagues he formed his own company, Universal Divers, and became its managing director and later chairman.
To finance the company, Fraser organised a troupe of frogmen, who went through their underwater paces, re-enacting their wartime experiences in Xcraft in a 20,000-gallon glass-sided tank at such venues as Belle Vue, Manchester, and the Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool.
The act unashamedly traded on Fraser’s VC, and was fiercely criticised as “commercialising” the award. But while upset by the disapproval, he remained unabashed, and continued with his performances.
With Universal Divers and North Sea Diving Services, which he formed in 1965, he expanded into the field of exploration and maintenance of North Sea oil and gas rigs. After selling out to the Blue Star Line in 1975 he served with Star Off-shore Services until 1982.
Fraser remained in the RNR rank until he retired as a lieutenant- commander in 1966. He was awarded the Reserve Decoration with Long Service Bar, became a JP and vice-president of the Merseyside Branch of the Submarine Old Comrades’ Association.
Ian Fraser’s Medal Group (Lord Ashcroft’s Medals)
In addition he was a Younger Brother of Trinity House and, since 2002, had been United Kingdom vice-chairman of the VC/GC Association. His memoirs, Frogman VC, were published in 1957.
Ian Fraser married, in 1943, his childhood sweetheart, Melba Hughes, who was serving as a Wren at Pwllheli on the north Wales coast when they met. They had four sons and two daughters, one of whom recently predeceased him.” Obituary courtesy of the Telegraph
A 1945 British navy frogman with complete gear, including the Davis apparatus, a rebreather originally conceived in 1910 by Robert Davis as an emergency submarine escape set. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Imperial War Museums’ Oral History: Ian Edward Fraser
Japanese card of ‘Takao’
Source: Liverpool Echo
REEL 3 Continues: visit to Singapore, Malaya to see damage to Takao; attitude towards Japanese; naming of submarines and numbering of X-craft.
