Upholder's exceptional patrol record and disputed loss

Upholder completed 24 patrols with the Malta flotilla and sank about 93,000 tons of shipping. Her successes included warships, submarines, troopships, and cargo vessels, and her captain earned the Victoria Cross for a 1941 patrol. She disappeared on her final patrol before a planned return to England, with uncertainty even over whether a later patrol-line signal reached her. Pegaso's depth charges, an aircraft attack, and mines are competing explanations. The torpedo-boat attack produced no observed debris, and the aircraft claim lacks a matching German record in this account. The favoured explanation is a minefield near her likely route whose extent the Royal Navy had not understood.