With infinite patience and a very delicate touch, Wanklyn sorted out the mangled fingers and strapped them up. For the next four days Wanklyn painstakingly dressed the injured fingers of his patient until he could be transferred to a Military hospital in Gibraltar. Due to Wanklyn's skill and patience, Baker regained the full use of his hand. Upholder eventually arrived at Malta on 10th January, 1941.
Upholder's first four patrols yielded no successes, and doubts were raised as to Wanklyn's competence. However, on her fifth. patrol off Cape Bon, Upholder compensated for her earlier misses with a vengeance - sinking three enemy convoy vessels and 'finishing off' an abandoned supply ship.
Following Upholder's seventh patrol, her commander was awarded the Victoria Cross. The failure of Upholder's Asdic set had robbed Wanklyn not only of a means of detecting the enemy but also of a valuable aid in taking avoiding action during a counter-attack. Despite this handicap, Upholder continued to destroy enemy shipping, and it was the sinking, on 25th May, 1941, of the heavily-escorted troopship Conte Rosse with over 1200 members of the Afrika Corps on board, that earned Wanklyn his VC. Following this daring success, enemy destroyers counter-attacked and, during the next 20 minutes, dropped 37 depth charges near Upholder. The citation for Wanklyn's VC stated - 'The failure of his listening device made it much harder for him to get away, but with the greatest courage, coolness and skill he brought Upholder clear of the enemy and safe back to harbour'.
During the 16 months that Upholder had operated in the Mediterranean, she completed 24 patrols and sank 119 000 tons of German and Italian shipping - three U-Boats, one destroyer, one armed trawler, 15 transport and supply ships, and probably another cruiser and another destroyer - before she herself failed to return from a patrol in April 1942.
Remembering that the Navy lost not only an outstanding submarine commander but also a very highly-trained and experienced team of officers and ratings, the Admiralty took the unprecedented step of publishing a special communique - praising Upholder and all her crew for their long and arduous duty in the Mediterranean - which ended with the words - 'The ship and her company are gone, but the example and the inspiration remain'.
After the war, many of the surviving U Class submarines were put into reserve or lent or sold to other countries. Some boats were later returned by foreign navies to be scrapped, and the last of the Royal Navy U boats was broken up in 1950.
V CLASS
In 1941, modifications were made to the design of the U Class submarines in order to quickly obtain a type of boat which, whilst retaining the same characteristics, would be stronger but simpler and less expensive. The resultant V Class was slightly longer than the U boats and, because of a partly-welded pressure hull, had a greater operational depth - 300 feet as opposed to 200 feet. The electric welding of hull assemblies also enabled a quicker build time.
The class was built exclusively at Barrow and the first eight submarines were ordered in 1941. Large numbers were planned, and 42 V boats were ordered between 1941 and 1943. However, with the capitulation of Italy in 1943, the need for coastal submarines in the Mediterranean decreased and 20 of the class were subsequently cancelled when the end to hostilities in Europe seemed imminent.
