Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Second World War anti-U-boat operations D.S.M. group of five awarded to Able Seaman F. Whitehead, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX. 154129 F. Whitehead, A.B., H.M.S. Nasturtium), swivel suspension, officially impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, generally good very fine (5) £1200-1500

D.S.M. London Gazette 9 September 1941:

‘For enterprise, skill and devotion to duty in action against enemy submarines.’

The original recommendation states:

‘This rating is recommended for an award for the vital part he played in first obtaining and classifying the echo which led to the destruction of a U-boat. He maintained contact until relieved by the H.S.D. 20 minutes later. Further, he was one of the first volunteers in the boat to go away as an armed boarding party to board the U-boat.’

Frederick Whitehead was decorated for his part in the destruction of the U-556 in the North Atlantic on 27 June 1941, while serving as an Asdic operator in the corvette H.M.S. Nasturtium during convoy HX. 133. Commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Ronald Freaker, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N.R., and working in the company of fellow escorts Celadine and Gladiolus, the Nasturtium delivered at least four attacks and expended all of her depth-charges, in addition to sending over a boarding party to the stricken U-boat - all but five of the German crew were eventually picked-up, including Kapitain Herbert Wohfarth, an experienced commander and a holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. It is worth noting that the Nasturtium’s boarding party had a close shave when their boat was lifted by the heavy seas on to the deck of the U-boat and then washed off again, but they managed to get back without loss.