Secret Scotland

VE, or Victory in Europe Day passed quietly this week, marking the day when German command representatives headed by Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel were invited to sign the final German Instrument of Surrender, which entered into force at 23:01 Central European Time.

I mention it after noticing some debate about whether or not it should be more publicly celebrated than it is, and comparing it to Remembrance Sunday,  the second Sunday of November, the Sunday nearest to November 11 (Remembrance Day), which is the anniversary of the end of the hostilities of the World War I at 11:00 am in 1918.

I also noticed that part of the debate observed that VE-Day meant nothing to many young people. I found that interesting after watching a news item this morning, which was exposing the apparently ineffective management of national school exam timetable, resulting in situations where pupils may be required to sit anything up to four exams in the one day, spending anything up to 7 hours under exam conditions. I’ve been there, most of have, and two would be more than enough, split between morning and afternoon. Heads should roll over something like this, as the folk collecting wages for running our exams are clearly incompetent, based on this, and  other fiascos they have have presided over recently.

Regardless of that, given the level of ignorance suggested, one is moved to ask what the surfeit of exams is aimed at, if the pupils are not even being taught basic modern history?

A Little Local Memorial

On a more positive note, I spotted some (relatively) local news of an act of remembrance for three submariners who lost their lives during a training exercise in a midget submarine in Loch Striven, just off Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute.

Operation of the X Craft was hazardous at best, but on March 5, 1945, even routine testing was to prove fatal. On this day, three of the crew of XE11 were lost during a routine operation.

A test dive, to calibrate the depth gauge was to be carried out. two crew would normally have been sufficient, but on this day, three extra crew were being carried to gain experience. Rising in 10 foot increments from a depth of 100 feet, the craft struck the keel of the Boom Defence vessel Norma, stationary and silent, just at the moment her screws began to turn. The craft’s pressure hull was ruptured, and she sank to 210 feet. When the hatch was opened, two crew members were swept out by the escaping air and recovered on the surface. Sadly, the remaining three crew members were unable to escape. Their bodies were recovered by divers the next day, along with the craft, and laid to rest in Rothesay cemetery.

At 210 feet, the event is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the deepest unaided ascent from a sunken submarine.

In 2005, a small memorial garden was opened during other events on the island, held to mark the 60th anniversary of VE-Day. The ceremony was attended by the surviving crew member who related the story of the escape, Bill Morrison. (His personal account is the source of the date given above, March 5.)

In 2008, for the first time, those in attendance included the widow of ERA Les Swatton.

Those remembered:

• Lieutenant Aubrey Staples SANF (V), commanding officer
• Able Seaman J J Carroll
• Stoker E Higgins

Those who survived:

• First lieutenant, Sub-Lt Bill Morrison RNVR
• ERA Les Swatton