The loss of the minelayer HMS ABDIEL at Taranto. One of her officers is remembered at the Church of St.Michael and All Angels in the village of Rowberrow, Somerset.

South of Churchill on the A38 in Somerset is a narrow lane leading to Rowberrow, one of those Mendip villages once involved in the mining of calamite.  I first explored the lane around ten years ago; this month I decided to have another look.   Just a few hundred yards from the A38, holding fast to the top of a precipitous hill, is the parish church and manor house.  In the churchyard of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels there is a war memorial in the form of a cross with a bronze long sword attached to its west face.  It commemorates the men of the Somerset Light Infantry who died in the First World War and names Captain R.J.R. Leacroft, of Rowberrow Manor, who was killed serving with the regiment on the first day of the Battle of The Somme.

The war memorial in the churchyard at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Rowberrow in Somerset.

Another name was added to the memorial after the Second World War, that of Lieutenant Commander (E) Anthony Holland Brown who was killed on the 10 September 1943 while aboard the minelayer HMS ABDIEL.  This year saw the 75th anniversary of that warship’s loss in Taranto Harbour.

ABDIEL, completed in April 1941, was the first of a class of 6 minelayers.  They were of 2,650 tons displacement with a speed of almost 40 knots, a crew of 242, carried 156 mines and an armament of 4inch AA guns in 3 twin mountings.  Due to their very high speed the ships of the class were often used to run supplies to the besieged island of Malta.     

On September 10 1943 ABDIEL was sunk by mines in Taranto Harbour while taking part in Operation Slapstick.  Because of a shortage of aircraft the plan involved Royal Navy ships landing British troops of the First Airborne Division to capture the Italian ports of Taranto and Brindisi.  Only hours after berthing in Taranto ABDIEL detonated two mines laid previously by German torpedo boats as they evacuated the harbour.  The ship, which sank in 3 minutes, was carrying men from the 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion.   The Battalion suffered 58 men killed and 150 wounded while Lt. Cdr. Brown was among the 48 of ABDIEL’S crew who were lost.    

Operation Slapstick was ultimately successful as the First Airborne Division captured the ports of Taranto and Brindisi in working order.

Lt. Cdr. (E) Anthony Holland Brown was 40 years old and the husband of Jessie Elizabeth Brown B.A. (Cantab.) of Rowberrow, Somerset.  He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial as well as at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Rowberrow in Somerset.