Recognition at last for unsung heroes of war against Hitler

Published on Monday 3 August 2009 19:32

THEY are the forgotten heroes of one of Scotland's most vital contributions to the Allied victory in the Second World War.

But plans were unveiled yesterday for a permanent memorial to the servicemen based at HMS Ambrose, the wartime submarine base in Dundee, including 296 submariners and commandos who lost their lives.

Nothing remains of the sprawling base that was home to the submarine flotillas of five nations – Britain, Norway, France, Russia and the Netherlands.

From their base, they set out to destroy Nazi shipping in the North Sea and take elite commando units, undercover agents and members of the Special Intelligence Service behind enemy lines. Those who died included seven British commandos, shot by the Gestapo after a "Heroes of Telemark"-style raid on a hydro power station in Norway.

Next month, a sculpture honouring all service personnel who were based in Dundee, including those who perished, will be unveiled at the city's Victoria Dock.

Dundee City Council, in partnership with Unicorn Property Group, the company behind the City Quay development, agreed to fund the memorial after being contacted by Dr Andrew Jeffrey, a historian and the author of This Dangerous Menace, the definitive account of Dundee at war.

Dr Jeffrey said: "The submarine base at Dundee is very much a forgotten part of the war effort. Its contribution was probably incalculable, but until now it has been unsung."

His campaign to secure a lasting tribute began while he was researching Scotland's maritime role in the Second World War.

"I discovered Dundee was the only Allied submarine base that didn't have any form of permanent memorial," he said. "There was nothing to commemorate the base or the 296 servicemen who lost their lives. A total of 281 submariners died on six Dundee-based submarines that were lost – two British, two Dutch, one Norwegian and one Russian. The others who died were commandos and Special Intelligence Service agents."

Seven of the commandos who died were executed on the direct orders of Hitler after the hydro power plant raid in September 1942. An eighth commando was killed in action during the raid.

Dr Jeffrey said: "Commandos were taken by a Dundee-based submarine into a fjord, 40 miles inside enemy held territory, and then climbed a glacier and blew up the power station.

"The seven who were captured were taken to Colditz, then to Berlin, where they were tortured by the Gestapo, and then to Sachsenhausen, where they were shot with a bullet to the back of the head."

SOVIET COMMANDER WHO ROSE TO NATIONAL FAME

THE submariners who lost their lives while serving at HMS Ambrose in Dundee included one of the most celebrated wartime heroes of the Soviet Union.

Israel Fisanovich was a Soviet Navy submarine commander who was made a "Hero of the Soviet Union" – the Russian equivalent of receiving the Victoria Cross – for his exploits during the Second World War.

His submarine was credited with sinking two warships, ten transports and a tanker. In July 1943, he was appointed to command a division of the submarine brigade of the Soviet Northern submarine fleet.

He was killed, with his crew, in 1944 when his submarine – formerly HMS Sunfish, and renamed the V-1 – was sunk in a "friendly fire" incident while on passage to Russia.

Fisanovich is reported to have ordered that his submarine submerge rather than stay on the surface and send a recognition signal.

Fisanovich's rise to fame was even more remarkable as he came from a working class Jewish family.

After leaving school he had initially worked in a Ukrainian tractor factory but went on to study at the Frunze Military Academy where he was top cadet.