through the periscope he saw that one ship carried French colours, and consulted his identification books to determine her identify. The crew identified the name on her hull—Damieni. The second ship was called Alberta. There was no intelligence of neutral shipping in the area and both ships sounded Italian. After some thought, Wanklyn attacked. Three torpedoes were fired and Capitaine Damiani, a Vichy French vessel travelling under Italian charter, sank by the stern roughly 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) south-west of Punta di Pellaro. Alberta carried out evasive action and the escorting vessels dropped 26 depth charges and hunted Upholder all afternoon. The following afternoon a further 21 were dropped. None came close. With no Asdic, Wanklyn dived to 150 feet, as he could not easily determine enemy movements. The enemy abandoned the attacks and at dusk Upholder surfaced. As it grew dark, lookouts spotted a large ship with five destroyers. The Italian liner-turned troopship SS Conte Rosso was identified by periscope. As he moved to attack he was nearly rammed by the destroyer Freccia which had not seen the submarine. He fired his torpedoes and dived to 150 feet. He heard two explosions and the ship, carrying the flag of Rear Admiral Francesco Canzoneri, sank with 2,279 soldiers and crew on board roughly 50 km (27 nm) east of Portopalo di Capo Passero in Sicily. Around 1,300 of these men died. Over the next hours he evaded 37 depth charges as the escort counter-attacked. Several days later, one of life boats from the Conte Rosso was found wrecked upon Malta and the sinking was confirmed. The sinking of the 19,000-ton ship, which was under heavy guard, and without working Asdic, prompted the award of the Victoria Cross, the most prestigious award for bravery and skill in the face of the enemy. Wanklyn was gazetted for his actions on 1 December 1941. The strain of operations was already showing and commander Simpson ordered Wanklyn to be taken off patrols. Simpson could not spare his crew and they were not afforded the same respite. Wanklyn was now one of the most successful submarine commanders on the Allied side and Simpson was anxious to rest him. While off combat duty, Wanklyn lectured and tutored new officers if he was asked, but preferred not to force junior commanders to listen to his experiences. Simpson did not want to expose Upholder to undue risk