Claude Percival Wilson

PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Panel 76, Column 1.

HMS Fidelity

The 2,456 ton ship was built by H. & C. Grayson Ltd. of Garston, Liverpool, and completed in 1920 for Compagnie de Navigation Paquet, Marseilles. In June 1940 Le Rhin was seized by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Claude Andre Michel Peri at Marseilles and sailed for Gibraltar. Peri and his crew wished to continue the fight after the Fall of France and Le Rhin was turned over to the Royal Navy at Barry, Wales.

Le Rhin was converted into an auxiliary warship, and commissioned on 24 September 1940 as HMS Fidelity (D57) under the command of Lt. Peri, serving as Lieutenant Commander Jack Langlais RNVR. Her officers included Lt-Cmdr. Albert Guérisse serving as Patrick Albert O'Leary RNVR, and First Officer Madeleine Bayard serving as Madeleine Barclay WRNS. Because they had families in occupied Europe crew members were serving under pseudonyms. Bayard was Peri's mistress and one of very few women to be a commissioned officer on a Royal Navy ship.

In December 1942, Fidelity, with T Company, 40 Commando aboard, joined Convoy ON 154. The convoy was attacked by U-boats from 27 December while north of the Azores. On 29 December Fidelity, suffering from engine problems, fell out of the convoy. She launched her aircraft as an anti-submarine patrol while repairs took place. During this time her aircraft reported lifeboats to the southwest and her landing craft was sent to pick them up. These were 44 men from Empire Shackleton, the convoy commodore’s ship. During the night Fidelity was making 5 knots towards the Azores, but came under attack twice. She was fired on by U-225, and later by U-615. Both U-boats were driven off when Fidelity fired back.

On 30 December she was found by U-435, under the command of Siegfried Strelow, was torpedoed twice. Strelow observed the sinking and estimated about 300 survivors in the water, but when he made his report later he was asked "whether their destruction in the prevailing weather can be counted on". This was some months after BdU’s infamous Laconia Order, instructing U-boat commanders not to assist survivors in any way, and regarded at the Nuremburg Trials as a tacit encouragement to ensure there were none.

At the time of her sinking Fidelity had on board 369 men (274 crew, 51 Marines and 44 survivors from Empire Shackleton): All were lost including Able Seaman Claude Wilson from Nottingham. The only survivors were the eight crew of the motor torpedo boat, detached on anti-submarine patrol, who were later picked up by HMCS Woodstock (K238), and two crewmen of a seaplane that had crashed on takeoff on 28 December and been picked up by HMCS St. Laurent (H83). To this day 40 Commando has never reused T as a company designation in memory of the loss. (Wikipedia).

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