Incredible survival story of WWII seaman who went down with FOUR torpedoed ships and survived Japanese Prisoner of War camp

It is a story of survival against all the odds which ranks as one of the most extraordinary in military history.

Now the little-known events surrounding the incredible service of Commander Ian Forbes, who was sunk four times and lived through a brutal prisoner of war camp, has been revealed as his collection of wartime medals go on sale.

Just like Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses, Cdr Forbes down with nearly every ship he served on during World War II.

He saw numerous comrades killed but managed to dodge the torpedoes, shell fire and strafing by enemy aircraft.

The officer escaped shark-infested seas and even swam away from one uninhabited desert island only to very nearly be executed by restless natives on another.

He also witnessed at close hand the Allies’ worst naval disaster of the war; the sinking of HMS Hood with the loss of 1,400 men by the German battleship Bismarck, which then turned its guns on his vessel.

Cdr Forbes was eventually captured by the Japanese after the sinking of his final ship in March 1942 and then suffered three years of hell at the hands of his savage guards.

Like hundreds of other prisoners held by the Japanese, the Royal Navy officer was regularly beaten, punished and tortured but was fortunate enough to survive.

Immediately after the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his ‘great courage’ while serving on two of his previous ships.

He died in 1992 aged 73.

His medal group has been in the hands of a collector of gallantry medals who is now selling them at auction. They have a pre-sale estimate of £5,000.

Survivor: Commander Ian Forbes was among the stricken seamen, pictured, abandoning the sinking Prince of Wales, but survived the incident

David Erskine-Hill, of London auctioneers Dix Noonan and Webb, said: 'The war at sea produced some extraordinary tales of survival, among them those of men who escaped unscathed from torpedoed ships on more than one occasion.

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'But over 30 years as a specialist in medals, I have never heard of a man who survived the loss of four ships in such horrific circumstances - not to mention a close encounter with the Bismarck and the shocking trauma of three years as a prisoner of the Japanese.

'Today the accolade of ‘hero’ is a much abused one - it is to men such as Ian Forbes that it should be applied.

'The only thing that equals my amazement at his having survived so many trials and tribulations is the fact he was not decorated a second or third time.'

Glittering service: The medals of decorated war hero Commander Ian Forbes, pictured from left to right, DSC, WW2 star, Atlantic star, Africa star, Pacific star, War medal, Naval GSM and Coronation medal, are to be auctioned

During the war: Just like a real life Uncle Albert, pictured left from Only Fools and Horses, Cdr Forbes managed to survive the sinking of nearly every ship he served on during World War II

Cdr Forbes entered the navy in 1933 and by the outbreak of the war he was a sub-lieutenant on the escort vessel HMS Bittern.

The ship was sunk off Norway in April 1940 after being attacked by German Stuka planes. The survivors were picked up by the destroyer HMS Janus.

He was promoted to lieutenant and moved to the battleship HMS Prince of Wales which, alongside HMS Hood, was attacked by the Bismarck in May 1941.

The Prince of Wales would have suffered the same fate as Hood had its captain not withdrawn from the battle having been hit by four shells with the loss of 13 men.

The ship was later relocated to the Far East but she was sunk off Malaysia in December 1941 after coming under attack by Japanese bombers.

Some 327 men were killed in the action. Cdr Forbes scrambled into a rubber dinghy and was later rescued by a navy destroyer and taken to Singapore.

Fierce battle: Cdr Forbes survived the sinking of HMS Hood, a battlecruiser, pictured during a manoeuvres exercise, which was sunk in May 1941 with the loss of 1,400

Two months later he was on the last ship to depart from Singapore Island during the Fall of Singapore.

The river gunboat, HMS Grasshopper, was crippled by a hit from a Japanse bomber and then attacked by 30 fighter planes.

In his official report, Cdr Forbes later wrote: 'I began to realise that I had a charmed life. For some reason I changed position at the last minute a couple of paces to port.

'The bomb dropped. Where I had just been was riddled with large holes. I only got a small graze on my right forearm.'

The ship beached at Lingga Island in the South China Sea. Many survived only to be cut down in the water or on the beach when they were strafed by the enemy planes.

Cdr Forbes was one of 24 survivors and he and a Malay sailor swam to a neighbouring island to find help.

He wrote: 'When I swam from the desert island on which we were beached to a neighouring island, which was inhabited, a Malay sailor volunteered to come with me and his astute handling of his fellow countrymen saved my life.

'On first meeting me they were of a mind to put me to death. Through his intervention they changed their minds and became most helpful.'

Resilient: Commander Ian Forbes survived his first sinking while on HMS Bittern, pictured smoking after being hit, only to escape from going down with his ship on three more occasions during World War II

The officer was later transferred to the destroyer HMS Stronghold which was involved in the disastrous battle of the Java Sea in which 2,300 Allies sailors were killed.

Five minutes after abandoning ship following a torpedo attack, he watched from a life raft as another torpedo blew the vessel up.

This time he and the other survivors were picked up by the Japanese. He spent the next three-and-a-half years in PoW camps in the Far East.

After the war he became the British naval attache to Sweden and served in NATO before retiring to Dumfriesshire.

His medals will be auctioned on June 19 in London.