Following a minelaying operation off the coast of Newcastle, England on Dec. 13, 1939 three German cruisers and five destroyers were returning to Germany, they were sighted by a lone British submarine, HMS Salmon. Under the command of Lt. Cmdr. E. O. Bickford the decision was made to attack, even though the Germans had vastly superior firepower. This suicidal mission may have been spurred by the fact that the day before Bickford had sighted the German liner Bremen sailing from her hiding place in Russia back to Germany escorted only by aircraft. He was close enough that he could not miss the target, but was aware of the rules of war (even though the Germans had been ignoring them), that a merchant ship could not be sunk without warning. Under these rules he surfaced the boat and ordered the Bremen to stop, but before a shot could be fired across her bow the escorting aircraft began an attack. Bickford dove the boat and escaped leaving the Bremen intact and above the waves.

With this lost opportunity Bickford is rewarded by seeing eight German warships in the lens of his periscope only one day later. The battleships were too far away to attack and only a course adjustment by the cruisers brought them within range of Salmon's torpedoes. Bickford must have known that the Germans might become a little bad tempered if he slammed a torpedo into one of their ships, but torpedo them he did. At the proper moment he let go with six fish. At lease two found the mark, one on the Leipzig and one on the Nürnberg. The Nürnberg took a hit in the bow and was put out of action until May of 1940 while the Leipzig's damage was more severe. Leipzig was hit amidships flooding her boiler rooms and finishing her wartime career. She was never used again in combat, but was relegated to a training ship.

The German response was for the destroyers to depth charge the Salmon for five hours, but Bickford skillfully
evaded the attack and returned to his base. Upon arriving at her base Bickford was awarded the DSO and promoted to Commander. Sadly only seven months later HMS Salmon, still under Bickford's command, was lost with all hands somewhere in the North Sea while on patrol. The Salmon has not been found and what
happened to her is still a mystery.

© 2006 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

HMS Salmon.

Nürnberg.

[More on Nürnberg here .]

Leipzig.