In this picture he sent to his wife, Maureen, whom he married 67 years ago, Derek Walling (top far right) is seen in Malta in 1947.The arrival of four merchant ships and a battered tanker in Grand Harbour in August 1942 is celebrated every year but the convoy included many unsung heroes who did not make it to the island.
Operation Pedestal, which saved Malta more than 70 years ago, came at the high price of nine merchantmen, one aircraft carrier, two cruisers and a destroyer. A badly damaged tanker, the Ohio, carrying crucial supplies sailed in on August 15, 1942, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, which is why the Maltese speak of Santa Marija Convoy.
Retired Lieutenant Derek Walling was checking electrical distribution boxes in the port wing engine room of HMS Eagle when the aircraft carrier was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on August 11 while on her way to Malta.
My escape from the ship was nothing short of miraculous
“My escape from the ship was nothing short of miraculous. But I survived and have my wife, two daughters, two sons and five grandchildren as proof,” he said when contacted in the UK.
Mr Walling, 92, was born in Portsmouth and joined the Royal Navy at 15 as an engineering apprentice. Six years later he was on the Eagle.
Then Engine Room Artificer 4th Class, Mr Walling recalls the struggle to get out of the sinking vessel.
“We were being tracked by enemy submarines and the Eagle was the first ship to be torpedoed. She went down in seven minutes.
“I spent all seven minutes trying to escape before the ship sank and I was only 50 yards away when she turned over.
“After helping about six shipmates to reach an open hatch from which the ladder had fallen, by allowing them to climb on my back, I was left trapped inside the ship.” Mr Walling recalls he could not see anything because it was pitch black and he had to feel his way around in the smoke.
“I was close to giving up. It seemed impossible. Then, I thought of my parents and prayed ‘oh God help’ and, in the last minute or two, I found my way out of the engine room.
“Once on the high side, I knew the nearest place out of the ship was through the boiler room air intakes. As I got there, a stoker came up from the boiler room, mad with fear, and tried to get me to go back down into the ship.
“Somehow I got him to help me open the hatch, pushed him up and, thankfully, he helped me up too. But I still had to shove him over the side of the ship to safety as he was still convinced he should go the other way. Without the stoker, I would not be here. We needed each other.”
Covered in oil, Mr Walling was scooped to safety and taken to Gibraltar on the destroyer Laforey.
Although he did not set foot in Malta during the war, he visited the island in 1946 after he got married. He remembers Malta as “a wreck bombed to hell”.
“In my 26 years in the Royal Navy I spent many happy days in Malta after the war as we took on stores and fuel to continue minesweeping and other duties.”
Nowadays, he is surrounded with photographs and memories reminding him of that part of his life. He tries to attend as many Maltese Cultural Movement events (in the UK) as he can and recalls how one of his proudest moments was receiving a medal from the Maltese Government.
“I remember the Maltese in my prayers every night, including on August 15,” he added.