Leslie McAlister

Son of Arthur and Kathleen McAlister, of Welford, Warwickshire.

HMS Calypso

HMS Calypso (D61) was a C class cruiser of the Caledon sub-class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1917 and sunk in 1940 by the Italian submarine Alpino Bagnolini. Calypso was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company. Her keel was laid down in February 1916 and she was completed in June 1917.

During the early part of the Second World War, Calypso served with the 7th Cruiser Squadron on Northern Patrol duty as a blockade ship in the North Sea between Scotland and Iceland. On 24 September 1939, Calypso intercepted the German merchant ship Minden south of Iceland. The crew of Minden scuttled their ship before she could be captured. On 22 November, Calypso captured the German merchant ship Konsul Hendrik Fisser off Iceland. Following the sinking of the Rawalpindi on 23 November, Calypso was involved in the search for the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In early 1940, Calypso was sent to Alexandria in the eastern Mediterranean.

Calypso was the first British naval vessel to be sunk by the Regia Marina in the Second World War. Two days after Italy declared war on Great Britain, Calypso was on an anti-shipping patrol against Italian ships travelling to Libya when she was struck by a torpedo from the Italian submarine Alpino Bagnolini (Capitano di corvetta (Lieutenant Commander) Franco Tosoni Pittoni [it]) about 50 mi (80 km) south of Cape Lithion in Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean at 00:59 on 12 June 1940. Thirty nine sailors (including Leslie McAlister) from Calypso perished in the sinking. The majority of her survivors were rescued by the destroyer Dainty and taken to Alexandria. (Wikipedia)

No photos