12th March 1943, Frank Edwin FAULKNER, aged 39, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve

[Victor Harvey]

Stoker Frank FAULKNER was born in Cheltenham on 30th July 1903, the son of Frederick William and Jane FAULKNER of 42 Hudson Street, Cheltenham. He had been a Royal Navy Reservist for 21 years and was called-up for Service in January 1940. He had previously been employed as foreman at the Gaumont Cinema, Cheltenham. In 1943 he was on board the 1,920 ton destroyer HMS Lightning, built in 1940 by Hawthorne Leslie & Co. and a sister ship to HMS Legion which had been adopted by the town of Cheltenham. The ship took part in operations supporting the defence of Malta in 1941, acting as escort to supply convoys. In April of that year she was part of the force of "Operation Ironclad", when British units landed in Madagascar and between the 10th-15th August 1942 was on "Operation Pedestal", escorting a large supply convoy to Malta when that Island was under serious threat of starvation. On the 18th January 1943, HMS Lightning, in company with the destroyer Loyal sank an Italian ship south of Sardinia. Whilst engaged in operations off the North African coast on 12th March 1943 Lightning was sank by an Italian Motor Torpedo Boat with the loss of 2 officers and 44 ratings killed and 8 wounded. Frank FAULKNER was amongst those lost. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial (Grave/Memorial Reference: 72,1.) and on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial. Inscription reads "FAULKNER, STO, 1ST F.E. R.N.". His name appears in the Parish Roll of Honour in the church of St Paul, Cheltenham. He left a widow, Helen FAULKNER and 3 children living in Cheltenham.

L'est we forget

[Victor Harvey]

Official account from the Imperial War Museum

Whilst operating as part of Force Q with Aurora, Sirius and Loyal on the offensive sweep near Galatia off the Algerian coast on 12th March 1943, Lightning was attacked by 12 torpedo bombers at 1815 hours, the attack lasting until 1936 hours, by which time she had shot down 1 of her attackers. At about 2200 hours the "headache" operators in Lightning intercepted radio traffic between enemy E-boats, then at 2218 hours an E-boat, believed to be S-55 or S-158 (official records disagree on this point) attacked from port beam. Lightning swung hard to port to comb the torpedo track, but was hit almost head-on. The torpedo blew off her bows, back as far as "A" turret, which was tilted over onto one side, and Commander WALTERS immediately slowed the ship to minimize the structural damage forward. All electrical power was lost, and the ship's guns could not train round onto the E-boat which circled round to Lightning's starboard and fired a second torpedo. Lightning broke her back and quickly sank in Position 37 51"N, 09 50"E, with the loss of 8 officers and 42 ratings. One rating was picked up and taken prisoner by the enemy, and 8 officers and 173 ratings (of whom 8 were wounded) were picked up by Loyal.
The Battle Honours awarded to Lightning were: Barfleur (1692), Vigo (1792), Velez Malaga (1704), Louisberg (1758), Baltic (1854-5), Diego Suarez (1942) and Malta Convoys (1941-2).
The ship's badge consisted of three rays of lightning, gold on a black background.
HMS Lightning (G55) was ordered on 31 March 1938, as Job No. J4052, and laid down on 15 November that year, and was launched on 22 April 1940 at Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard, and commissioned on 28 May 1941, having been assigned to the 19th DF, Home Fleet, her commanding officer being Commander R.G. STEWART.

[4LauraM]

I just returned home from at trip to England and spent two days at Portsmouth Harbour and the Royal Navy museum.

I was blessed to have spent time with a very knowlegeable man and learned that my father, CLARKE Bruce John, was aboard HMS Lightning for Operation Pedestal.

Sadly, I don't actually recall my Dad speaking of this specific incident.

I am still sorting through his records to get a better idea of his timeline, etc., of his twelve years in the Royal Navy. I believe at the end of his service he was a Petty Officer.