HMS Sickle

Sickle departed Algiers to patrol off southern France on 10 May 1943. After five days at sea, she attacked a German convoy south of Nice, France, and sank the German submarine chaser UJ-2213 which had been painted to appear like an oil tanker.[9] The boat next attacked the German submarine U-755 with torpedoes on 20 May,[10] but missed; U-755 was sunk eight days later by aircraft.[11] The next day, Sickle attacked the German submarine U-303 off Toulon and hit it with two torpedoes; U-303 sank in half a minute.[12][11][10][13] She then returned to Algiers on 25 May. After leaving on her next patrol on 16 June, Sickle unsuccessfully attacked an enemy submarine on 18 June, then returned to port on 1 July.[7]

Sickle's captain Lieutenant James Drummond

On 13 July 1943, the boat departed Algiers to patrol in the Gulf of Genoa and east of Corsica. Four days later, Sickle fired three torpedoes at an Italian convoy without success. On 18 July, she sank with gunfire two Italian minesweepers, No. G.61 and No. R.164, east of Gorgona, Italy. The next day, she sank another Italian minesweeper, V 131, off Porto-Vecchio, Corsica. Sickle next attacked the Italian merchant ship Alfredo Oriani with seven torpedoes; two hit, but the ship did not sink and was towed back to port. The submarine also missed the German oil tanker Champagne on 22 July, then returned to Algiers on 28 July. Drummond was awarded the Distinguished Service Order at the end of this patrol.[7]

She began a new patrol on 17 August, operating east of Corsica. After patrolling for eleven days, Sickle torpedoed and sank the German escort ship SG-10, which was escorting a convoy. Sickle then ended her patrol on 5 September.[7]

On 22 September, Sickle left Algiers to patrol the Gulf of Genoa in the same area as in her previous patrol. In the evening of 28 September, the submarine landed two men near Sestri Levante, Italy; their mission was to gather intelligence as well as organize resistance movements and escapes of Allied prisoners of war to Switzerland. On 30 September and 3 October, Sickle attacked a small coastal trading vessel and a submarine chaser with three torpedoes each, missing with all six. The boat then returned to Algiers on 10 October.[7]

Between 25 October and 1 November, Sickle sailed from Algiers to Beirut, in Allied-occupied Lebanon, then shifted to Haifa. On 11 November, the boat departed Haifa to conduct a war patrol in the Aegean Sea. Sickle first sank with gunfire the Greek caïque Maria (MY 153) west of Amorgos, then torpedoed and sank the Italian merchant ship Giovanni Boccaccio off Monemvasia, two days later.[14] She next sank with gunfire two sailing vessels near Milos; these were the Greek caïques Piraeus no. 795 and Samos no. 45. The boat returned to Beirut on 25 November.[7]

The German torpedo boat TA14, which damaged Sickle with depth charges on 21 December 1943

On 13 December, Sickle departed Beirut for another war patrol in the Aegean and attempted to attack a German convoy on 20 December. The next day, her periscope was sighted while looking into the harbour at Karlovasi, and she was attacked with depth charges by the German torpedo boats TA14 and TA15; Sickle sustained significant damage, especially to her electric motors. On 23 December, the submarine landed four Special Operations Executive Greek resistance men in Kalomos Bay, east of Euboea. Three days later, she sank with gunfire and by ramming two small unidentified Greek sailing vessels east of Mykonos Island; the crews of both ships were picked up by Sickle. The boat ended her patrol on 2 January 1944.[7]

From 14 to 19 January, Sickle sailed to Malta, then to Gibraltar. There, she underwent repairs to her electric motors until 14 April, when she returned to Malta.[7]

On 29 April, Sickle departed Malta to patrol in the Aegean Sea, where she sighted a German transport escorted by three destroyers, but lost sight of them in the fog on 7 May. The next day, the boat sank three Greek sailing vessels with demolition charges and by ramming in the Doro Channel. She initially attacked them on the surface with her deck gun, but it jammed after firing four rounds, so Sickle boarded the first ship, a caïque flying the Greek flag with the German occupation pennon. The ship was carrying a cargo of oranges and lemons, and sailors from Sickle brought a thousand of these to their submarine as an addition to their diet, then holed the caïque's hull, sinking it.[7] The next two ships did not carry any salvageable cargo, and Sickle sank one with demolition charges and the other by ramming. On 11 May, Sickle surfaced and bombarded an enemy radar station with her three-inch deck gun; 17 rounds hit their target but the enemy returned fire four minutes later, wounding three men, including Sickle's captain and forcing her to submerge. Shortly after midnight on 13 May, the boat surfaced and sank the German sailing vessel Fratelli Corrao with gunfire. Two days later, she returned to Malta.[7]

On 31 May, Sickle left Malta harbour for a patrol in the Aegean Sea; this was to be Sickle's last patrol. On 4 June, she engaged enemy ships on the surface at Mytilene; two sailors were wounded, one killed, and another washed overboard and captured. This man later became Sickle's only survivor. She was ordered on 5 June to patrol the eastern approach to the Doro channel. On 6 June, the submarine torpedoed and sank the German merchant ship Reaumur, and on 7 June a German lighter reported having been missed by torpedoes potentially launched by Sickle. On 8 June, a submarine that was possibly Sickle sank three caïques near Skopelos, and she missed the German transport Lola with torpedoes on 9 June. A submarine, again possibly Sickle, sank the caïque Efitichia with gunfire and bombarded a shipyard at Mytilene on 14 June 1944. The submarine was never seen again, and it is considered likely that she was sunk by mines on her way back to Malta in the Kythira Strait on or around 18 June.[7][15][16]