"Lieutenant Commander Michael Marwood, who has died aged 96, was a Royal Navy navigator who helped to sink two U-boats. On the outbreak of war Marwood was a 19-year-old acting-sub-lieutenant in the destroyer Antelope under Lieutenant-Commander RT “Dick” White (who would be awarded three DSOs for sinking U-boats). By 1940 the Navy had expanded so rapidly that there was a bare minimum of qualified officers in each ship and for several months Marwood kept “watch and watch” (four hours on watch, four hours off). “After 20 days at sea,” he wrote, “it became exceedingly difficult to keep awake.” As navigator Marwood’s task, whenever a U-boat was detected, was to plot its position and likely course, and to draw a search pattern in order to find it again. February 5 1940 found Antelope south of Ireland as the sole escort of Convoy OA84, and Marwood, after “months of appalling boredom”, was longing for the excitement of a U-boat attack to relieve the monotony, when the German submarine U-41, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Gustav-Adolf Mugler, attacked. Mugler’s first torpedo salvo sank the freighter Beaverburn and damaged the tanker Ceronia, but Antelope pounced, fixed the U-boat with her Asdic, and dropped a pattern of depthcharges. Nothing more was ever heard of U-41, which was afterwards reckoned to be first U-boat to be sunk in a one-on-one engagement between a U-boat and destroyer. Eight months later, on the morning of November 2, Antelope fought a second singleton battle when U-31, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Wilfried Prellberg, crash-dived off north-western Ireland, intending to attack the destroyer. As Prellberg stalked Convoy OB237 he was detected by Antelope, which carried out an urgent attack, dropping a salvo of six depthcharges and driving the German deep. Marwood now carefully plotted the U-boat, and a cat-and-mouse skirmish ensued lasting several hours. After losing and regaining Asdic contact, Marwood guided Antelope to several accurate attacks with depthcharges which ruptured U-31’s ballast tanks, and Prellberg ordered his boat to surface and be scuttled. As U-31 broke surface there was a huge cheer from Antelope, quickly stifled when the Germans manned a gun and opened fire, but when Antelope returned fire Prellberg’s crew began to abandon ship. Antelope lowered a boat, hoping to board and capture secret documents, but the now abandoned U-boat, whose motors were still running, turned out of control, collided with the destroyer, then capsized, having been flooded through the hatches of her open conning tower. Antelope now turned to rescue 44 submariners whose officers, to their surprise, were made honorary members of the wardroom. “I lent one some clothing,” recalled Marwood, “but received little thanks. They thought we were mad. As the war became total and cruel, we treated future prisoners very differently!” Marwood was awarded the DSC. Michael Travers Marwood was born in Portsmouth on May 16 1919 and first went to sea as a boy on a raft of planks and oil drums on which he attempted to cross Langstone Harbour to explore the “foreign” shores beyond. His father had helped to pioneer the tank, having joined the RNVR and served in 20 Squadron of the RN Armoured Car Division when the Admiralty began its experiments on “land ships” during the First World War. Michael was educated at King’s College, Taunton, and entered the Navy as Special Entry cadet in 1936. Still under training, he joined the cruiser Delhi and then, during the Spanish Civil War, the cruiser Devonshire and the battleship Barham. After sub lieutenant’s courses at Portsmouth and Greenwich, Marwood joined Antelope in August 1939." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12134367/Lieutenant-Commander-Michael-Marwood-obituary.html
