Lieut-Commander ROBERT CROSBY HALAHAN - H.M. S/M "E18"

liverpool annie · Jun 4, 2009

Does anybody know the real story ?

In Memory of
Lieut-Commander ROBERT CROSBY HALAHAN

H.M. S/M "E18", Royal Navy
who died
on 11 June 1916
Son of the late Col. Halahan (5th Bn. Royal Fusiliers); husband of Gwladwys Mabel Davenport (formerly Halahan), of Stubbington, Hants.

Remembered with honour
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/memorials/Memo...morialPage=2&MemorialID=M1844&Full=Transcript

E18 left for her fifth patrol on 6 January 1916, her orders were to patrol the area between the Sound and Bornholm. The first two days of this patrol they were trying to call her back in as the patrol had been cancelled but she didn't reply. On returning she encountered gale force winds and icy conditions to the point where she had difficulty closing her conning tower hatch due to ice. She was unable to return to Reval on her own and had to wait hours for the Finnish ice breaker Sampo to arrive and bring her back in, she arrived in Reval on the 13 January 1916 completely iced over, after this the British submarines were iced in and could not move until April. Although she did not sail E18 was made ready for sea on the 13 February 1916. She was the first of the British subs to make a trip in the bay at Reval on 29 March 1916 after the big freeze.

After operations were halted for the winter, E18 resumed patrols in the spring of 1916. Her second last patrol was to the Gulf of Riga with HMS E1, leaving Reval on the 28 April 1916 to show their presence to the Germans, this was achieved by diving twice while the Russian destroyers shelled beaches. While returning via Moon sound on the 1 May 1916 E18 ran aground and had to be towed off, she returned to Reval on 2 May. During this operation E18 and E1 tied up alongside the Russian battleship Slava

In late May, she sailed for her final patrol; E1, E8 and two Russian submarines left the same day. Records differ on her exact fate, but it is certain neither she or any of her crew ever returned.

The diary of Francis Goodhart, commander of E8, states that E1 and the Russian Bars departed at 1400 hrs, E8, E18 and the Russian Gerpard left port together at 1800 hrs on 25 May; E8 's patrol was uneventful, and she returned to Reval on the 31st. However, E18 failed to return; by 5 June Goodhart noted that the crews were "very worried". On the 6th, he noted that he had "Heard from Essen that their W.T. had vaguely indicated presence of a submarine off Redshoff on Tuesday Very slender hope..." By the next day, 8 June, he recorded that a meeting had noted she had sailed with only 15 days food; the situation was "very hopeless now, I fear. No news whatsoever" By the 9 June E8's officers began collecting the belongings of E18's Halahan, Landale and Colson from their cabins. On a sad note Goodhart learnt that Halahan had his future told by a local woman prior to this last patrol. She told him he was in grave danger, this affected the superstitious Halahan who then asked the wife of the British Vice Consul in Reval to send a wire to his family before they got the official Navy telegram in case something happened to him. This indeed she did when Halahan failed to return

Michael Wilson, a historian, records that E8 and E18 sailed on the 25th and parted the next day. On the 26th, at 4:42 PM, E18 torpedoed the German destroyer V100, blowing off her bow. Had it not been for the calm seas, it is likely she would have sank from the damage; as it was, she was towed back to port with several of her crew killed, requiring major repairs. Two days later, on the 28th, E18 was sighted by a German aircraft off Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania), E18 was last sighted on the 1 June 1916 at 1500 hrs sailing north by the German U-boat UB-30 northwest of Steinort. Wilson further states that it is believed she was lost "most likely by striking a mine" on her return to Reval west of OselThe logs of the German destroyers with V100 also support the same dates as Goodhart's diary and Wilson's observations.

Various sources record her simply as having been sunk on 24 May by a German decoy ship though this clashes with the known attack on V100 on the 26th and the observations reported by Wilson and Goodhart in subsequent days. It is quite possible that this is a garbling of an encounter between one of the Russian submarines and a decoy vessel around the same time. The German decoy ship Kronprinz Wilhelm, known as K, did attack two submarines during E18 's patrol in May. K rammed the Russian Gerpard and the following day took the Russian Bars under fire in Hano Bay, the Germans thought they had sunk both submarines, E18 was not in the area of these actions.

Tsar Nicholas II sent a telegram of condolences on the loss of E18, and awarded Halahan the Order of St. George, with the other two officers receiving the Order of St. Vladimir and each of the crew being posthumously awarded a medal. These Orders were not normally awarded posthumously Three of E18's crew did not sail on her last mission; one, John Ryan had measles and later transferred to E19, another Albert Phillips missed her patrol for unknown reasons. The other was E18's signalman Albert Edward Robinson who was replaced on this mission by E8's telegraphist George Gaby; he was later sent home in January 1917 and joined E4 on her recommissioning. Ryan and Phillips went home in January 1918. When people research the subject of E18, 11 June 1916 is stated as the date on the crews papers as being lost at sea, as they had no idea when and where E18 was lost at the time this date was purely for administration purposes to close the books on E18. The wreck of E18 has never been located
Click to expand...

liverpool annie · Jun 5, 2009

Robert got his Aviators certificate December 24th 1913 !

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cach...ALAHAN&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

cally · Jun 8, 2009

Perhaps this might be the nearest we will get to the real story!

As for the confusion of dates on E18's loss, I have carried out some very intense research both from British and German archives. E18 departed Reval on the 25-5-1916, torpedoed V100 on the 26-5-1916, sighted by an aircraft of Memel on the 28-5-1916 and i have looked into the log of UB-30 which did sight an enemy submarine on the 1-6-1916 at 1500 hrs north west of Steinort, all other allied submarines were back in Reval at this time. E18 was due to report into the Dagerort coastguard station but didn't get there, she was due into Reval on the 2-6-1916. There is no evidence to support her being sunk by a German ship, no evidence to say she radioed a report of her attack on V100 and you can see the date of her loss as the 24-5-1916 is wrong as she was still in Reval.
You just need to view the diary of Lt Cdr Francis Goodhart who give all the correct dates that all match up with the Germans dates...

liverpool annie · Jun 9, 2009

Interesting Cally !

How do we get to view the diary of Lt Cdr Francis Goodhart ? ... I see different things he wrote about but not that .......

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