Page 97 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side

-
!-"#$#%#&!

Born Maidstone in 1924, the second of four children,
David's parents, Walter and Hersey Forbes, married
in Kent’s principle town in 1921. Their youngest
child, Brian, was born in the family home of Ruxley
Cottage, North Cray.

David's mother, Hersey Barbara (nee Boulton), grew
up in a considerably more privileged environment as
the only child of a successful Merchant
manufacturer, who in 1911 at his home in South
Mimms could afford to employ three servants to
maintain and look after the household.

David signed up to serve with the Navy at a very
young age, and was soon assigned as a midshipman on HMS Neptune. (A midshipman was
usually an officer-cadet or a commissioned officer of junior rank).

During World War II, HMS Neptune operated with crew drawn predominantly from the New
Zealand division of the Royal Navy. She was the first British ship to spot the Italian Fleet in
the Battle of Calabria on 9th July 1940, marking also the first time since the Napoleonic
wars that the Mediterranean fleet received the signal "Enemy Battle Fleet in Sight."

During the subsequent engagement HMS Neptune was hit by the Italian light cruiser
Giuseppe Garibaldi.

A week or so before Christmas 1941, HMS Neptune led Force K, a raiding squadron of
cruisers. Their task was to intercept and destroy German and Italian convoys en route to
Libya who were supplying Rommel's Afrika Korps in North Africa with troops and
equipment.

On the night of 19th-20th December, HMS Neptune was leading the line when it struck two
mines (part of a newly laid Italian minefield). The other cruisers present, HMS Aurora and
HMS Penelope also struck mines. Whilst reversing out of the minefield, HMS Neptune
unfortunately struck a third mine, which took off her propellers and left her 'dead' in the
water. There was ultimately no hope of making it back to port. The ship quickly capsized
after being hit by a fourth mine.

Only 30 seamen (out of her complement of 767) initially survived the sinking, and only one
was still alive when their lifeboat was picked up five days later by the Italian torpedo boat
Achille Papa.

#&' David Boulton Forbes, who died just 18-years-old serving his country in
the best way he could, is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

97