McGeoch was serving with HMS Clyde when the Second World War broke out, returning to England in January 1940. He then served as 1st lieutenant (second-in-command) of the old H-class submarineHMS H43, engaged in landing secret agents on Guernsey.[1] He was appointed as second-in-command of the new submarine HMS Triumph in July 1940, but was selected for the Commanding Officers' Qualifying Course before he saw active service.[1] The course, still run, is known as the "perisher" due to its high failure rate, and that failure means an end to a career on submarines. He passed and was returned to the 10th Submarine Flotilla on Malta as a "spare" commanding officer, to cover for illness or injury.[1]
McGeoch took command of HMS Ursula on one patrol, but was not confident in his own abilities, so, unusually, elected to return to England to take the "perisher" a second time.[1] He passed again, and took command of the new S-class submarineP228, just launched at Chatham Dockyard on 13 January 1942.[1] He and his brand new ship (named HMS Splendid January 1943) were posted to Gibraltar to take part in Operation Torch,[1] and then back to Malta.
HMS Splendid, photographed on 18 August 1942, ten days after she was commissioned.
From November 1942 to May 1943 (the Operation Torch landings to the defeat of Axis forces in North Africa), Splendid sank more tonnage on its six patrols than any other submarine.[1] Lieutenant McGeoch was awarded the DSO[1] after his fourth patrol, and the DSC after his fifth. Under McGeoch's command, Splendid sank the Italian auxiliary submarine chaser San Paolo, the Italian merchants Luigi Favorita, Devoli, and XXI Aprile, the small Italian merchant Commercio, the Italian auxiliary minesweeper No. 107 / Cleopatra, and the Italian tanker Giorgio.
Splendid also sank the Italian Soldati-class destroyerAviere, escorting the German transport ship Ankara with her sister ship Camicia Nera - Splendid also attacked Ankara, but missed her. Splendid also sank the Italian merchant Emma, despite her being heavily escorted by the Italian torpedo boats Groppo, Uragano and Clio. The German merchant Sienna (the former French Astrée) was missed in the same attack. Splendid also torpedoed and damaged the Italian destroyer Velite.[2]
Splendid left Malta for the last time on 17 April 1943. Her sixth patrol would take her to the waters off Naples and Corsica. Off Capri on 21 April 1943, she ran into the German destroyer Hermes (formerly the British-built Greek destroyer Vasilefs Georgios).[1]Splendid's periscope was spotted in the calm conditions in the Tyrrhenian Sea.[1] Three accurately-dropped patterns of depth charges forced Splendid to the surface, where McGeoch ordered the crew to abandon ship and scuttled the vessel.[1] Five officers, including McGeoch, and 25 ratings were picked up; 18 men were lost with the ship.[3] McGeoch suffered a wound to his right eye, and never recovered its sight.
McGeoch and the other survivors from her crew became prisoners of war in Italy.[1] Despite blindness in one eye, McGeoch nevertheless made several escape attempts.[1] After the surrender of Fascist Italy in September 1943, he was able to walk out of the camp gate and travelled 400 miles (600 km) to Switzerland, where a metal fragment was removed from his sightless right eye.[1] He travelled across occupied south France in December 1943 to Spain. He was interned in Figueres, but British diplomats arranged for his release to Gibraltar, and he returned to England on the old battleship HMS Centurion. His escape won him a mention in dispatches.
He studied social sciences at the University of Edinburgh from 1970, and received an MPhil in 1975[1] after the direction of historian Professor John Erickson, writing a thesis on the origins, procurement and effect of the Polaris programme.[5] He edited the Naval Review from 1972 to 1980.[1] He worked with other senior officers, including General Sir John Hackett, on The Third World War: The Untold Story (1978 and 1982). He published a memoir of his wartime service, An Affair of Chances: a Submariner's Odyssey, 1939-44 in 1991, and his biography of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, entitled Earl Mountbatten, The Princely Sailor, was published in 1996.[1]
^Vice-Admiral Sir Ian McGeoch (1975), The British Polaris Project(PDF), University of Edinburgh (MPhil), archived from the original(PDF) on 17 August 2010, retrieved 30 July 2008
