VC Action: Edward Courtney Boyle
VC (23 March 1883 - 16 December 1967), was 32 years old, and
a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy during the First
World War when the following deed took place for which he
was awarded the Victoria Cross.
The three-day-old land battle to seize control
of the Dardanelles had fallen short of expectations. The Turks
were holding on to the peninsula and were thwarting the Allied
push towards the Bosphorus.
It was decided that a submarine could run
amok in the Sea of Marmara and disrupt the vital supply and
communication line for the Turkish war effort if they could
first get through the 36 miles of narrow, mined and heavily-patrolled
waters of the Dardanelles.
On 27 April 1915 in the Dardanelles, Turkey,
Lieutenant-Commander Boyle, in command of submarine E14, dived
his vessel under the enemy minefields and in spite of great
navigational difficulties from strong currents and the presence
of hostile patrols waiting to attack he found himself in the
Sea of Marmara. The E14 sailed for the next two weeks, where
possible, on the surface to scare the enemy. Boyle rigged
a dummy gun on the upper deck, which was enough to panic the
crew of one Turkish steamer that ran aground trying to flee.
Boyle also managed to torpedo and sink a gunboat, a minelayer
and finally a troopship. The former White Star liner Guj Djemal
was bound for Gallipoli, carring 6,000 troops and a battery
of field guns.
Boyle made at two more tours of the Sea of
Marmara aboard E14 during the Battle of Gallipoli, spending
70 days in all targeting Turkish shipping. He later achieved
the rank of Rear-Admiral before retiring in 1932, although
he was recalled to service in World War II.
In December 1967 Edward Boyle was knocked
down by a lorry on a pedestrian crossing and died of his injuries.
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