Eldridge, then a newly promoted Sub-Lieutenant, led the last human torpedo attack of World War II by the British Royal Navy, sinking two Japanese ships off Phuket.
In late 1944, the British received intelligence reports that the Japanese, now critically short of ships, had re-floated two Italian ships that had been scuttled in Ao Makam Bay in Phuket at the
beginning of the war.
They were about to sail them to Singapore to refit them as troop transports. The British decided to go in and blow them up.
The submarine HMS Trenchant crossed from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and moored off Koh Dok Mai. Strapped to the Trenchant were two undersea “Chariots” – modified torpedoes steered by two-man frogman crews. That night, four British naval frogmen under the command of Sub Lt Eldridge, mounted the two Chariots, left the submarine and approached the Italian ships underwater to fix huge explosive charges to their hulls.
One of the mines would not attach, so one of the divers, Stewart Brown, daringly climbed aboard the ship carrying the mine after the timer had been set. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his bravery.
He rushed back to his Chariot and the four men then hurriedly attempted to get back to the open sea and the Trenchant, but the breathing apparatus on one of the Chariots broke down; two of the men had to come up and travel on the surface out of the guarded harbour.
They were just clear of the harbour at 5:30 am, when the explosives went off, blowing great holes in the two ships’ hulls and re-sinking them.
In the ensuing confusion, all four divers made it back to the submarine. Worried that a Japanese destroyer was nearby, the submarine captain ordered the Chariots to be dumped, the divers were taken aboard and the Trenchant made good its escape.
These two discarded Chariots have been located on the sea floor near Koh Dok Mai, but the British government – which still officially owns them – refuses to allow them to be salvaged.
This was the last time these underwater Chariots were used in the war. The British navy prohibited their use after the Japanese high command sent a specific warning to the British that anyone captured using a Chariot in the future “would lose both eyes and their testicles.”
Adapted with permission from A History of Phuket and the Surrounding Region by Colin Mackay. Available from bookshops or from Amazon.com. See also historyofphuket.com