14. HMAS AE2
WW1 - The Royal Australian Navy - HMA Submarine AE2
Saluting their Service - Grahame Old
The RAN and the Flying Corps in WW1
Although history shows that the majority of service personnel who served during WW1 were the soldiers of the AIF, the importance of the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Flying Corps should not be overlooked. Australia was the only country of the commonwealth outside Britain who formed a flying corps during WW1. 2694 men served with the corps and 169 died. From August 1914 through to August 1919 the Australian Navy came under the command of the British Admiralty. The RAN began the war with 16 ships, two submarines and 3800 personnel (including 850 from the Royal Navy). The number grew during the war to more than 30 ships and 5000 personnel. By the end of the war the RAN had lost two submarines and 171 men died (including 63 from the Royal Navy).
A ‘Collie Boy’ served with the RAN throughout WW1. This is his story.
SUCKLING, Charles George
Service No. 2148
Petty Officer Stoker
Royal Australian Navy
Charles Suckling was born on 8 June 1893 in Perth WA to parents George Alfred and Lilian Suckling. The family later moved to Collie and in 1912, at 19 years of age, Charles enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy for a five year service period which included WW1 active service. His listed Next of Kin at enlistment was his mother Lilian Suckling, Johnstone St Collie WA. Charles younger brother Lionel John (Jack) enlisted into the Army in 1916 and served on the Western front. Service number 2153, private 44th Infantry Battalion, his listed Next of Kin was his father, George Alfred Suckling.
Naval Service
Charles early navy training took place at HMAS Cerberus VIC, he was then drafted to the cruiser HMAS Encounter. In September 1913 he found himself in England standing alongside the RAN’s latest state of the art submarines, HMA Submarine AE1 & AE2. The RAN took possession of the two submarines which they were to steam the two thousand odd miles back to Australia, the longest submarine trip ever undertaken at that time. The voyage commenced on the 2nd March 1914 and the submarines steamed through Sydney heads on the 24th May. Upon his return to Australia Charles married Margaret Cross and his service record was altered to show his next of Kin as his wife Margaret, with place of residence Perth. There was little time to celebrate however as war was fast approaching.
Australia joined the war against Germany in August 1914 and the Submarines AE1 & AE2 were deployed with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to seize German New Guinea. The naval force was based at Rabaul and the submarines and destroyers guarded against enemy shipping approaching the area. On the second day the AE1 and destroyer HMAS Parramatta were patrolling in low visibility weather when disaster struck. The destroyer lost sight of the AE1 and the Submarine was lost with all crew, 3 officers and 32 sailors. Despite a desperate search no sign was ever found and the loss remains a mystery to this day.
The Naval force then moved to Fiji and from there the AE2 was ordered back to Sydney for refit before joining the newly formed Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in Albany bound for Egypt. On the last day of December 1914 the second convoy of the AIF sailed from Albany for WW1 service.
The Dardanelles
In early February 1915 the AE2 was ordered to join the Mediterranean Fleet stationed off the Dardanelles, a narrow 60 mile long stretch of water dividing Europe from Asia and the landing place of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. The duty of the fleet including the AE2, which was the largest and most modern submarine in the waters, was to guard against enemy shipping attack whilst preparations were being made for the Gallipoli landing.
There was considerable debate as to whether it would be possible for a Submarine to dive below the Dardanelles strait and into the sea of Marmora where she could cause havoc amongst enemy shipping. The dive would be very risky, the narrow straits, less than a mile at the narrowest point, were 45 miles long and the AE2 could only cover around 50 miles below surface. To surface would mean almost certain destruction by shore and surface attack. In addition the straits were mined. Despite the great risk the Captain of the AE2, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander, Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker, believed the crossing was possible and volunteered to do so. Commander Stoker was admired and respected by his men, when he explained the dangerous mission he offered any man who wished to leave the boat the opportunity to do so. Not a man asked to be relieved.
On the 25th of April, the day of the Gallipoli landing, the AE2 entered the Straits and despite running aground and suffering hull damage she managed to reach the Sea of Marmora on the 26th of April. For the next four days she successfully attacked Turkish shipping; however disaster struck on the 30th of April when the AE2 was struck by a torpedo and was unable to dive, this spelt the end. The crew were forced to abandon ship which was then scuttled by her officers to prevent the submarine falling into enemy hands.
Lieut Commander Stoker praised his crew with these words whilst they watched the AE2 slide silently beneath the waves; “No Captain has been more proud of the men under his command than I was while commanding, with my good fortune, that Australian submarine. Good comrades, loyal servants and brave men”. The crew, including Charles Suckling, were taken prisoners of war by Turkish forces.
Prisoner of War
Charles Suckling later wrote; “Then began a life for us which was nothing but a sorry existence, and I don’t think if we had known what was ahead of us, not one of us would have left the boat. And when we were released from Turkey three and a half years later, leaving four of our numbers behind, we were nothing more than living skeletons”.
The treatment of Prisoners of War in Turkey during WW1 varied between hard and quite harsh. The main problem was lack of food and clothing. Prisoners could occasionally work and were paid a small sum this enabled them to purchase foodstuffs and some clothing. The crew of the AE2 were first shipped to Constantinople and then by train to Afion Kara Hissar where they joined other POWs from Gallipoli. During the day they were taken to a quarry to break stones for road works. Daily diet consisted of boiled wheat a two pound loaf of bread between ten men and a bowl of potato or cabbage soup for the evening meal.
From Afion the crew were moved by train to Angora and then marched for four days to Changre military barracks where they remained with other POWs from the Gallipoli Peninsula, for the winter. In spring the crew were marched back to Angora and then were sent by train to Bela-Medik where they were forced to work digging railway tunnels through the Taurus Mountains, southern Turkey. Life initially improved here, they were paid for their work and able to purchase clothing and extra food.
Charles Suckling and three other crew members attempted an escape from Bela-Medik, they hid in the mountains for four days but lack of food forced their return. Malaria then raged and four crew members from the AE2 died, the remainder were reduced to skeletons. Unable to work the crew were returned by train to Afion Kara Hissar where they joined a large camp of POWs from Palestine. The Turkish Red (Cross) Crescent Society handed out parcels from England and Australia and the men slowly re-gained strength. POWs did not have to work here but Charles and several other AE2 crew members volunteered to work on local farms and the remainder of their captivity was spent repairing farm machinery and planting crops. When the war finished Charles and the remaining AE2 crew were repatriated to England via Alexandria and an Australian military rest camp at Port Said. From England the AE2 crew were shipped back to Australia arriving home on the 19th Feb 1919.
Home
Charles George Suckling took discharge from the RAN on the 24th April 1919. He and his wife ran a Butchers shop and Delicatessen in Fremantle WA until his eyesight failed due to injuries received whilst a POW in Turkey. Sometime after the war Charles wrote a detailed memoir of his time on the AE2 and in captivity. Extracts from that memoir have been the basis of this story. His detailed memoir was donated to the Australian War Memorial in 1975 and is available to read on the AWM website.
2148 Petty Officer- Stoker, Charles George Suckling, the last living member of the AE2 crew died on the 9th February 1984 in Perth, aged 90 years. An ordinary man in extraordinary times, he is remembered forever at the Collie Cardiff RSL Sub Branch.
‘Lest We Forget’