I am indebted to various sources for this information on the Corfu Channel Incident, our own Gem (hard G) Emery who was on board at the time, various other ex Super Bees, various correspondents to "The Daily Mail", and to a book which I can thoroughly recommend, " Roll On The Rodney" by David Phillipson, published by Sutton Publishing. I have attempted to gather all the information from these sources. The result is my own and is an attempt to pull it all together for the benefit of shipmates of the Cruiser Superb Association, any errors are mine and mine alone (corrections gratefully accepted).

 

The involvement of H.M.S.Superb started in May 1946 when H.M.S. Superb was in Haifa Harbour in (then) Palestine, threats had been received from the Stern Gang, Israeli terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on your point of view. The threats boiled down to "if H.M.S.Superb doesn't leave harbour we'll blow it up", so she did, and they didn't. On May 14th 1946 two British cruisers, Orion and Superb were on passage in the Corfu channel, a narrow channel between the island of Corfu and the Greek mainland, a route regularly used by British warships steaming between the Mediteranean and the Adriatic.

 

Mine clearance in the area was also a British responsibility, but due to the political climate at the time there was considerable anti British feeling among the Albanians. An Albanian shore battery fired on the ships without any hits being scored, the British ships held their fire. Naturally this brought a strong protest from the British Government who were not too thrilled at having their ships shot at, a series of weak excuses from President Hoxha of Albania resulted from these diplomatic exchanges, with the British Government, warning that if British ships were fired on again, then they would be ordered to return fire. The Albanians declared that all foreign ships would need permission to sail through the channel, this was rejected by Britain as the area was International waters. In the afternoon of 22nd October 1946 the Cruiser H.M.S.Mauritius leading the destroyer H.M.S.Saumarez, followed by the cruiser H.M.S. Leander and another destroyer H.M.S. Volage were in the channel with guns trained fore and aft, but with orders to return fire if fired upon.

 

The exercise was designed to show that ships could proceed safely in what were recognised international waters. During the passage down the charted swept channel a violent explosion occurred for'rard of Saumerez's bridge as she hit a mine, followed by a fire. Volage took Saumarez in tow but herself hit a mine which blew her bows off. Eventually all four ships returned to harbour, but there had been casualties, 44 men killed and 40 injured, Saumarez was scrapped and Volage had a new bow fitted.

 

The channel was immediately swept and the swept mines were found to be brand new and had not been long in the water. Albania was taken to the International Court by Britain for illegally mining a swept channel was found guilty and was ordered to pay Britain £843,947 damages which included £50,000 for the lives lost and injuries caused. However, no apology was ever received from Albania for the deaths or injuries.

 

Albania would not pay the damages at the time so Britain laid claim to Albanian gold recovered from the Nazis, but although this was returned after the death of President Hoxha, the fine remained unpaid. In recent times the Albanians offered to pay the compensation agreed at the International Court at The Hague, conditional upon the release of Albanian funds frozen at the time, but still no apology for lives lost or injuries caused.

 

I repeat that the above is a compilation from various sources for the sole purpose of informing any ex ships company of the cruiser Superb of her part in this bit of history

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