On the night of May 15/16 1945 the 26th Destroyer Flotilla, which included Saumarez, Venus, Verulam, Vigilant and Virago, was stalking the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Malacca Straits .
Captain Douglas Stobie
Stobie was the torpedo officer in Saumarez which, as the attack developed, became the main target for Haguro’s 8in guns.
One shell punched through her forecastle and another took off her funnel-top. Splinters cut the wireless aerials, but the sides of the destroyer were so thin that they did not set off Haguro’s biggest shells.
Stobie was on the starboard bridge wing when a 275lb shell exploded in the sea nearby, throwing up a vast sheet of water that drenched him. A seaman on the bridge noted that Stobie, like the other officers, was “terribly British and very brave, pretending to be unemotional, calm and faintly bored”. As the water drained away, Stobie wiped his eyes to see Haguro crossing the prongs of his torpedo-aiming sight; all eight of his torpedoes were fired.
Several other destroyers fired too, and at 01h15 three explosions split the darkness, while “gold-coloured splashes” towered higher than Haguro’s bridge as her guns fell silent; a short while later the blazing wreck capsized. Stobie and several officers and men of the 26th Destroyer Flotilla received awards for their outstanding courage, coolness and skill during the action .
Douglas Millar Harry Stobie was born on May 13 1919 in Durban. His father died soon after and his mother brought him, aged four, to live in Cheltenham.
He was educated at Dean Close School and joined the Navy before the war, serving in destroyers on convoy duties until January 20 1944 when, at 03h57 hours, U-278 fired a torpedo which struck the destroyer Hardy, in which Stobie was serving. Hardy was seriously damaged and, after the survivors had leapt onto the deck of the destroyer Venus, she was sunk.
Postwar Stobie commanded the C-class destroyer Creole, which in 1951 escorted the Empress of Scotland on Princess Elizabeth’s visit to Canada; he served on the staff of the Flag Officer Flotillas in the Mediterranean (1952-1953); and in the shore base HMS Highflyer at Trincomalee in the late 1950s, while the Sri Lankan Navy was being established.
Later he commanded HMS Vernon in Portsmouth; the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine Training School from 1963 to 1965; served on the British naval staff in Washington; and was captain of the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland, Dorset.
Stobie retired in 1971 and for the next 10 years was Director of the National Environment Research Council’s base in Barry .
Stobie settled in Cheltenham, where he raised funds for the Outward Bound Trust and for King George’s Fund for Sailors.
Douglas Stobie, who died on August 16, married Mavis Shingleton-Smith in 1947. She died in 2006, and he is survived by their son and two daughters.
He was educated at Dean Close School and joined the Navy before the war, serving in destroyers on convoy duties until January 20 1944 when, at 03h57 hours, U-278 fired a torpedo which struck the destroyer Hardy, in which Stobie was serving. Hardy was seriously damaged and, after the survivors had leapt onto the deck of the destroyer Venus, she was sunk.
Postwar Stobie commanded the C-class destroyer Creole, which in 1951 escorted the Empress of Scotland on Princess Elizabeth’s visit to Canada; he served on the staff of the Flag Officer Flotillas in the Mediterranean (1952-1953); and in the shore base HMS Highflyer at Trincomalee in the late 1950s, while the Sri Lankan Navy was being established.
Later he commanded HMS Vernon in Portsmouth; the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine Training School from 1963 to 1965; served on the British naval staff in Washington; and was captain of the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland, Dorset.
Stobie retired in 1971 and for the next 10 years was Director of the National Environment Research Council’s base in Barry .
Stobie settled in Cheltenham, where he raised funds for the Outward Bound Trust and for King George’s Fund for Sailors.
Douglas Stobie, who died on August 16, married Mavis Shingleton-Smith in 1947. She died in 2006, and he is survived by their son and two daughters.
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