Auction Catalogue
Create new listFour: Lieutenant M. P. Neel-Wall, Royal Navy, killed when H.M. Submarine Tempest was torpedoed by the Italian destroyer Circe in February 1942
Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (Mid., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal, nearly extremely fine (4) £300-400
This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars.
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Michael P. Neel Wall was born on 29 November 1920. He entered the Royal Navy as a Midshipman on 1 May 1938, became Sub-Lieutenant in March 1940. After service in the Repulse and Barham, he joined the Submarine service on 11 November 1940. He joined the newly commissioned T-class submarine Tempest on 14 October 1941, and sailed for the Mediterranean on the morning of 1st January 1942, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander W. A. K. N. Cavaye. Whilst on patrol in the Gulf of Taranto, on 13 February 1942, she was detected by the Italian torpedo boat destroyer Circe which attacked with a devastating salvo of depth-charges. Over the course of the next six and a half hours the Italians dropped a total of forty-five depth-charges. In the last attack the battery boards of No. 3 Battery burst open and chlorine gas appeared in large quantities. Lieutenant-Commander Cavaye realised that the position was now hopeless and ordered the confidential books put into a weighted bag, ditched later by Sub-Lieutenant Neel-Wall who failed to survive the sinking. Tempest was now forced to the surface but sank when an attempt was made to take her in tow. The surviving crew members were picked up by the Circe, some after two hours in the water, and were made prisoners of war. Thirty-nine of the sixty-three crew had perished, including her commander William Cavaye, the nephew of a general and a veteran of almost thirteen years in the Submarine service. Lieutenant Neel-Wall is commemorated by name on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
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