Ian McIntosh volunteered for the navy in his native Australia in 1938 aged 18. He was awarded the King’s Dirk for graduating top of his class at Dartmouth and elected to qualify as a submariner in late 1940. His gallant wartime career and subsequently in the higher ranks of the navy nearly came to an early and nightmarish close when he was taking passage to the eastern Mediterranean via the Cape in the Anchor Line steamship Britannia.
On March 25, 1941, some 500 miles off Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Britannia was attacked by the German commerce raider Thor. While the anti-shipping operations of German major warships such as the von Scheer and Graf Spee have received most of the historical attention, it is probably true that these smaller commerce raiders were more effective. Thor, a motor ship capable of about 18 knots, with a Japanese name painted on her stern and armed with four 5.9in guns, was nearing the end of her patrol, having sunk ten merchant ships, when she came across the Britannia. Britannia’s single 4in gun was soon knocked out. On fire and sinking, she was abandoned. Early damage to her radio aerial meant that no distress message had been sent.
McIntosh found himself in lifeboat No 7, which was in great danger of being caught under Britannia’s counter. The merchant navy officer in charge, Third Officer William MacVicar, recorded that it was entirely due to the skill of Sub-Lieutenant McIntosh that this lifeboat was kept afloat and survivors were able to embark. Its Board of Trade capacity was given as 58, but 82 were crammed on board.
This meant that only two oars could be used, McIntosh and a naval rating getting the boat clear of the burning ship. For the next day the lifeboat rode to a sea anchor in a Force 5 NE tradewind, the choppy sea requiring energetic baling. On the second day McIntosh located three holes behind the ballast tanks caused by German gunfire, the leaks from which would eventually have been fatal as the survivors grew weaker and unable to bale out such an inflow. By dint of leaning over the gunwhale, often with head and shoulders under water, he was able to plug them with pieces of blanket and then nail pieces of tobacco tin over them, causing himself extreme fatigue and illness.
An attempt was made to sail east towards the African coast, but this was abandoned after 24 hours as the boat was too overburdened to make progress upwind and had probably only moved 20 miles due south. The decision was made to run before the wind and make for Brazil, judged to be about 1,300 miles distant. The boat’s 16 gallons of water in sealed containers and the supply of biscuit and condensed milk were clearly insufficient despite rigorous rationing.
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On the fourth day several of the men fainted. The crew became quarrelsome and the chief cook, who had drunk seawater, threw himself overboard. The heat was terrific and all were getting seawater boils and sores. When rain came their first efforts to save some water were unsuccessful, but on the sixteenth day a violent storm and heavy rain made frantic baling necessary and eased the water rationing, deaths having diminished the number needing it.
After 23 days, they made a landing without mishap on the island of Curupu in northern Brazil and were succoured by fishermen. Forty-four had died. Both MacVicar and McIntosh were appointed MBE for their gallant conduct.
McIntosh returned to England for three months’ recuperation and then was appointed to the 3rd submarine flotilla at Holy Loch and subsequently, in March 1942, to the submarine Thrasher based at Alexandria.
He was awarded the DSC for his part as torpedo control officer in Thrasher’s four war patrols between April and September 1942, during which gloomy period Axis air attacks caused the withdrawal of all submarines from Malta while Rommel’s Afrika Korps captured Tobruk and forced British land forces into the long retreat to El Alamein. One of Thrasher’s successful attacks sank the dispatch vessel Diana, which Enigma decoding had revealed to be carrying 200 technicians and experts sent to restore Tobruk’s port facilities. Losses, particularly of basing facilities, brought Allied submarine operations practically to a standstill; in early July Thrasher was one of only three submarines at sea. Returning to Alexandria, she was attacked by British aircraft and put into dock for a month.
MacIntosh left Thrasher at the end of September and returned home to qualify as a submarine commanding officer. His first command was the obsolescent H44, used for anti-submarine training. This was soon followed by the operational submarine Sceptre in February 1943, working from the depot ship Forth in the Holy Loch. He was awarded a mention in dispatches for his part in Operation Source, the midget submarine attack on the German heavy warships Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lutzow in the Altenfjord on the Norwegian coast.
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This operation called for six submarines to tow the midgets — or X-craft — from Loch Cairnbawn in northwest Scotland to the target area, with the X-craft submerged and the towing submarines mainly on the surface. Sailing on the night of September 11-12, chosen for reasons of moon, darkness and tide, the six were reduced to four by parted towlines and other defects on passage. Sceptre’s midget, X-10, was released as planned, but developed serious defects in her periscope and compasses which could not be cured. Blind, she had to withdraw. Her target, Scharnhorst, had in any case sailed. X-10 was eventually rescued by another submarine.
One of the others was sunk by gunfire, but the two commanded by Lieutenants B. C. G. Place, DSC, RN, and D. Cameron, RNR — who were both awarded the VC — managed to fight their way through torpedo nets and drop their massive side charges under the battleship Tirpitz, completely disabling her, an important strategic victory at a cost of nine officers and men killed and six prisoners of war.
In March 1943 McIntosh was credited with sinking four escorted merchant ships off the coast of Norway. Although all these torpedo attacks resulted in explosions, postwar research indicates that the new torpedo pistol — actuated by the magnetic influence of the target ship as the torpedo passed designedly underneath, so breaking its back — was unreliable, and McIntosh and others did not sink as many ships as was claimed at the time.
In May McIntosh sank two iron-ore carriers off the coast of Spain, the second being found to have been within national waters. He was awarded the DSO for this series of war patrols as well as for two further X-craft operations against a large floating dock at Bergen, the first having with great skill sunk the wrong target, a large merchant ship. Later, two separate attacks on heavily escorted coastal convoys yielded two merchantmen and two escorting warships. He was again mentioned in dispatches.
After the war he commanded the submarine Alderney with distinction, and then served two years with the Australian Navy. In 1950 he was appointed to the responsible post of “teacher” to the submarine commanding officers’ qualifying course, after which he commanded the submarine Aeneas. Promoted to commander in 1952 and captain in 1959, his career included some very satisfying mainstream jobs — second in command of the large aircraft carrier Ark Royal, command of the 2nd Submarine Squadron and command of the aircraft carrier Victorious for two years from 1966. Here he was known for his successful leadership and the careful integration of air group and ship’s crew, making sure that responsibility was delegated downwards to the practical limit.
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McIntosh was promoted to rear admiral in 1968 and appointed Director-General (Weapons) at Bath, managing the naval weapon development programmes. This experience was valuable to his final appointment as Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Operational Requirements) in the rank of vice admiral, a post concerned with making equipment procurement decisions in the light of the “defence interest” and in contrast to the earlier culture of inter-service competition for resources.
He was appointed CB in 1970 and KBE in 1973 when he retired. He was a devoted chairman of the Sea Cadet Association for the next ten years and of the HMS Cavalier preservation trust for 14. He was for many years involved with the Union Jack Club. A man of great modesty and charm, he was much admired by those he led both in peace and war.
He married Elizabeth Rasmussen early in 1943. She died in 1995. He is survived by their three sons, a daughter having predeceased him.
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Vice-Admiral Sir Ian McIntosh, KBE, CB, DSO, DSC, wartime submarine captain and Deputy Chief of Defence Staff 1971-73, was born on October 11, 1919. He died on July 31, 2003, aged 83.