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Anthony Miers
Rear-Admiral Sir Anthony Cecil Capel Miers, VC, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar (11 November 1906 – 30 June 1985), known as "Crap Miers" and "Gamp", was a Royal Navy officer who served in the submarine service during the Second World War.
Miers was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was allegedly responsible for two war crime incidents, while commanding HMS Torbay, including the shooting of seven Germans in a life raft.
Born in 1906 in Inverness, Scotland, the son of an army captain killed in the First World War, Miers was educated at Stubbington House School in Gosport, Edinburgh Academy, and Wellington College. In 1924 he joined the Royal Navy as a special entry cadet and volunteered for the submarine service in 1929. He could be hot-tempered, and in 1933 was court martialled for striking a rating. Miers' career however continued, with HMS L54 his first submarine command (1936–7). He then served in the battleship HMS Iron Duke, before joining, as a lieutenant commander, the staff of the commander-in-chief, Home Fleet (1939–40), where he was mentioned in despatches.
In November 1940 Miers was given command of HM Submarine Torbay. While working up, Torbay collided with the British tanker Vancouver in Loch Long though no serious damage was caused.
Torbay began its first patrol in March 1941. The submarine left at very short notice, with half the crew on leave and replaced by members of the spare crew of the depot ship, the reason being that the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had arrived at Brest and the Royal Navy wanted them shadowed in case they sailed for the Atlantic sea lanes. The submarine later continued to Gibraltar, then Alexandria, Egypt to join the 1st Submarine Flotilla.
On 27 April 1941, while on patrol off Cape Ferrato, Miers attacked a two-masted single-funnelled merchant ship of about 4,000 GRT. Torbay fired two torpedoes but both missed.
Torbay's third war patrol was in the northern Aegean Sea. On 28 May 1941, Torbay sank two Greek caiques with gunfire, then torpedoed and damaged the Vichy French tanker Alberta off Cape Hellas.
In 1989 former Royal Naval officer and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy published his autobiography, in which he describes "a submarine atrocity" on the night of 9 July 1941, which gave rise to the accusation of war crimes. According to the accounts, on two separate occasions Miers ordered the machine-gunning of several shipwrecked German soldiers in rafts who had jumped overboard when their vessels were sunk by the Torbay. These events were witnessed and reported by acting First Lieutenant Paul Chapman who reported "everything and everybody was destroyed by one sort of gunfire or another". Miers also made no attempt to conceal his actions, his patrol log recording: "Submarine cast off, and with the Lewis gun accounted for the soldiers in the rubber raft to prevent them from regaining their ship..." When informed of Miers' actions, Flag Officer Submarines, Admiral Max Horton wrote to the Admiralty about the possibility of German reprisals: "As far as I am aware, the enemy has not made a habit of firing on personnel in the water or on rafts even when such personnel were members of the fighting services; since the incidents referred to in Torbay's report, he may feel justified in doing so."[citation needed] The Admiralty then sent a strongly worded letter to Miers advising him not to repeat the practices of his last patrol.[citation needed]
Anthony Miers
Rear-Admiral Sir Anthony Cecil Capel Miers, VC, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar (11 November 1906 – 30 June 1985), known as "Crap Miers" and "Gamp", was a Royal Navy officer who served in the submarine service during the Second World War.
Miers was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was allegedly responsible for two war crime incidents, while commanding HMS Torbay, including the shooting of seven Germans in a life raft.
Born in 1906 in Inverness, Scotland, the son of an army captain killed in the First World War, Miers was educated at Stubbington House School in Gosport, Edinburgh Academy, and Wellington College. In 1924 he joined the Royal Navy as a special entry cadet and volunteered for the submarine service in 1929. He could be hot-tempered, and in 1933 was court martialled for striking a rating. Miers' career however continued, with HMS L54 his first submarine command (1936–7). He then served in the battleship HMS Iron Duke, before joining, as a lieutenant commander, the staff of the commander-in-chief, Home Fleet (1939–40), where he was mentioned in despatches.
In November 1940 Miers was given command of HM Submarine Torbay. While working up, Torbay collided with the British tanker Vancouver in Loch Long though no serious damage was caused.
Torbay began its first patrol in March 1941. The submarine left at very short notice, with half the crew on leave and replaced by members of the spare crew of the depot ship, the reason being that the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had arrived at Brest and the Royal Navy wanted them shadowed in case they sailed for the Atlantic sea lanes. The submarine later continued to Gibraltar, then Alexandria, Egypt to join the 1st Submarine Flotilla.
On 27 April 1941, while on patrol off Cape Ferrato, Miers attacked a two-masted single-funnelled merchant ship of about 4,000 GRT. Torbay fired two torpedoes but both missed.
Torbay's third war patrol was in the northern Aegean Sea. On 28 May 1941, Torbay sank two Greek caiques with gunfire, then torpedoed and damaged the Vichy French tanker Alberta off Cape Hellas.
In 1989 former Royal Naval officer and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy published his autobiography, in which he describes "a submarine atrocity" on the night of 9 July 1941, which gave rise to the accusation of war crimes. According to the accounts, on two separate occasions Miers ordered the machine-gunning of several shipwrecked German soldiers in rafts who had jumped overboard when their vessels were sunk by the Torbay. These events were witnessed and reported by acting First Lieutenant Paul Chapman who reported "everything and everybody was destroyed by one sort of gunfire or another". Miers also made no attempt to conceal his actions, his patrol log recording: "Submarine cast off, and with the Lewis gun accounted for the soldiers in the rubber raft to prevent them from regaining their ship..." When informed of Miers' actions, Flag Officer Submarines, Admiral Max Horton wrote to the Admiralty about the possibility of German reprisals: "As far as I am aware, the enemy has not made a habit of firing on personnel in the water or on rafts even when such personnel were members of the fighting services; since the incidents referred to in Torbay's report, he may feel justified in doing so."[citation needed] The Admiralty then sent a strongly worded letter to Miers advising him not to repeat the practices of his last patrol.[citation needed]
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