Themes

The Navy's People

• Naval Lives

  • Edward Pitcairn Jones

  • William Waller

  • Loftus William Jones

  • JT Cull

  • A C Green

  • Philip Needell

  • Astle Scott Littlejohns

  • EJF Records

  • Clifford Simkin

  • Frank Clements

  • Margaret Hodgson

  • Charles Sheppard

  • 'Buster' Crabb

  • Sir Frank Twiss

  • Jeff Tall

  • Phil Macquaid

  • Julia Massey

  • Nick Vaux

  • Wayland Austin

• In Focus: Women in the Navy

• In Focus: Recreation and Time off

• In Focus: Discipline and Punishment

Learning

• How To: Understand Naval Medals

Jeff Tall

Article highlights

• The career of a submariner who served in the Falklands War

• Choosing the Submarine Service

• Life as a Commanding Officer

• Service in the Falklands War

• The Belgrano Incident

• Post Falklands career

Life as a Commanding Officer

Tall's first command was on the Oberon class SSK Olympus, also attached to the Third Submarine Squadron at Faslane.

He then had a short spell in command of the SSK Finwhale when he relieved a Commanding Officer who had injured himself. He then spent a couple of years working on the Starboard crew of the SSBN Renown as an Executive Officer.

HMS Finwhale in Gosport, 1974. (RNM)

Tall's next appointment was as an exchange officer on the staff of the Commander of the US Third Fleet. He served as Undersea Warfare Officer based at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

Tall's job entailed co-ordinating fleet exercises that were dominated by the huge US Pacific fleet, but also involved Japanese, Canadian and Australian units.

Although he had already achieved much in his long and successful career in the Submarine Branch, Tall's biggest challange in warfare was to arise during the Falklands War in 1982.

Related External Links

• Royal Navy Submarine Museum