The Warwick Deeping (Wreck) | Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, interesting place

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, interesting place, invisible

There was nothing "HMS" about Warwick Deeping when this 545 ton trawler was built by Cochrane Shipbuilders of Selby in 1934 for the Newington Steam Trawler Company of Hull. She was intended strictly for peaceful fishing.
And that's what she did until September 1939, when the 154ft long trawler, with a beam of 26ft, was bought by the Admiralty and converted for war.
That conversion consisted of fitting a 4.7in gun on her bow, and a machine-gun on her stern, adding depth-charge racks and submarine detection gear, and calling her HMS Warwick Deeping.
In the early evening of 11 October1940, Warwick Deeping and L'Istrac, a former French auxiliary patrol vessel which had escaped from France and been taken over by the Royal Navy, were patrolling to the south of St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight.
Here they ran into five German E-boats of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla based at Cherbourg.
The crew of L'Istrac thought the boats approaching at speed were British MTBs and turned on their identification lights. The Germans immediately opened up with their deck guns. Badly damaged and wallowing, L'Istrac was quickly finished off by a torpedo from the E-boat Greif.
At first Warwick Deeping was luckier. Despite having taken several hits, she ran for the Isle of Wight. Two torpedoes followed her. One went beneath her and the other failed to explode. But the earlier shells had holed her, and when water rose over the engines she slid to a stop and began heeling to port.
The E-boats obviously thought it was not worth wasting any more torpedoes on her and raced off to the south. It had been a good sweep for the E-boats. Later on in the same mission they sank two Free French submarine-chasers, CH6 and CH7.
The 22 crew of the Warwick Deeping took to the boats as she sank and reached shore safely. The crew of L'Istrac were picked up without loss at dawn.