caption serviceyears branch commands death_date death_place birth_name birth_place allegiance unit awards battles birth_date nickname rank image article_title name
wanklyn senior engineer j. r. d drummond -lrb- right -rrb- , -lrb- 13 january 1942 left -rrb- with his first lieutenant and 1925 -- 1942 united kingdom 23px hms '' h31 '' hms '' upholder '' 14 april 1942 mediterranean sea malcolm kolkata , british india united kingdom royal navy submarine service victoria cross distinguished service order & two bars second world war 28 june 1911 '' wanks '' lieutenant commander 300px malcolm wanklyn
 malcolm david wanklyn
malcolm wanklyn

lieutenant commander malcolm david wanklyn vc , dso & two bars -lrb- 28 june 1911 -- missing in action 14 april 1942 -rrb- was a british royal navy submarine ace and one of the most successful submariners in the western allied navies during the second world war .
born in 1911 to an affluent family in kolkata , british india , wanklyn was influenced into a military career at a young age .
his father was a successful businessman and engineer who served in the british army in the first world war and his uncle was a destroyer commander who had a successful war fighting german u-boats in the first battle of the atlantic .
he developed a seafaring interest at the age of five and applied to join the royal navy aged 14 .
despite some physical ailments , he was able to pass the selection boards .
he progressed an commissioned officer fairly quickly and by 1931 had been promoted to sub-lieutenant and lieutenant two years later in 1933 .
after serving on a variety of surface ships , he joined the submarine service .
after the outbreak of the second world war , he was given command of hms `` h31 '' which he commanded from february until august 1940 .
wanklyn sailed on patrol in the north sea , during which he sank one vessel .
in august 1940 he was given command of newly commissioned hms `` upholder '' .
in december 1940 the submarine was reassigned to the mediterranean .
wanklyn began the first of his patrols in january 1941 and remained on operations in the battle of the mediterranean for the remainder of his career .
during 15 months of operations , wanklyn led `` upholder '' on 27 patrols and sank eight italian merchant and troopships while damaging two more .
he also sank three german merchant ships and damaged one while succeeding in damaging one vichy french vessel .
during his combat career he fought many actions with `` regia marina '' -lrb- italian navy -rrb- warships .
he sank one destroyer and one minesweeper , and damaged a light cruiser .
in a rare achievement , he also sank three italian submarines .
it amounted to 128,353 tons of enemy shipping .
for the sinking of the heavily defended enemy transport ss `` conte rosso '' without working asdic , he received the victoria cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be bestowed upon personnel in the british and commonwealth forces .
on 14 april 1942 , while on his 28th patrol , wanklyn and his crew disappeared .
he was posted missing in action .
his exact fate remains unknown .
research suggests `` upholder '' was sunk by a combination of an italian warship and german aircraft .
in 1986 the royal navy launched another submarine of the same name .
the upholder/victoria-class submarine hms `` upholder '' served until 1994 when it was transferred to the royal canadian navy as hmcs `` chicoutimi '' .
it remains operational .
