Loss of Two Royal Navy Officers During XE Midget Submarine Training Exercises

Lieutenant David Carey, Royal Navy and Lieutenant Bruce Enzer Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve were lost within several days of each other (June/July 1945) during XE Submarine training exercises being held in the Hervey Bay region of Queensland, Australia.  A fleet of six XE submarines (14th Submarine Flotilla) had been attached to HMS Bonaventure which set sail from Port Bannatyne, Scotland on 21 February 1945 for Australia.  

The intention being that the XE midget submarines would be employed on operations against Japan similar to those of the X Craft (midget submarines) that had attacked the German battleship "Tirpitz" and the floating dock at Bergen, Norway.   Eventually four of the XE submarines undertook missions in late July 1945 (Operations "Struggle", "Foil" and "Sabre) to sink Japanese warships in the Johore Straits (Singapore) and to cut underwater telecommunications cables in the Saigon and Hong Kong regions.  All four craft successfully returned from their assigned missions. 

Two of the crew members from the Johore Straits mission were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross.  Further background to the development of the XE Midget submarines, their deployment to Australia, the training exercises conducted in advance of Operations "Struggle" "Foil" and "Sabre" and the circumstances surrounding the loss of Lieutenants Carey and Enzer is to be found in the book "The Sea Devils" (Mark Felton, Icon Books LTD  ISBN 978-184831-994-3).