Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Second World War D.S.C. group of five attributed to Sub. Lieutenant (A.) A. W. D. Beale, Fleet Air Arm, who was decorated for his part in the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941, on which occasion he made a solo attack at 50 feet and 800 yards range - the sea around him ‘lashed with shot and fragments’


Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., hallmarks for London 1940, the reverse officially dated ‘1941’ and privately engraved, ‘A. W. D. Beale, R.N., H.M.S. Ark Royal’, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals, extremely fine (5) £600-800

D.S.C. London Gazette 16 September 1941:

‘For gallantry, daring and skill in the operations in which the German battleship Bismarck was destroyed.’

Anthony William Duncan Beale was appointed a Sub. Lieutenant (A.) in January 1941, and won the D.S.C. for his part in the famous Fleet Air Arms strikes mounted against the Bismarck on 26 May 1941.

Taking-off from the Ark Royal in Swordfish 2P, one of three aircraft in No. 2 Sub-Flight, with Sub. Lieutenant (A.) C. Friend as his Observer, and Leading Airman K. Pimlott as his T.A.G., Beale lost his way in thick cloud at 9,000 feet, and had to return to get a bearing from the Sheffield. He then carried out a solo attack on Bismarck’s port bow - Ludovic Kennedy’s definitive history Pursuit takes up the story:

‘Beale climbed towards cloud again, but before reaching it spotted Bismarck, worked his way round to her port bow. Friend thought how wicked she looked with her huge humped back, no clear break in her upperworks as in British ships. Beale turned, made a long, brave upwind attack at 50 feet, dropped his torpedo at 800 yards. Oddly Bismarck didn’t fire until he had turned away, then, said Friend, ‘her decks seemed to explode into crackling flame, the sea was lashed with shot and fragments.’ Leading Airman Pimlott, the air gunner, fired back, less with any hopes of damaging the Bismarck than the sheer impertinent joy of it. Friend watched for signs of a hit, was rewarded by a plume of water rising on the port side amidships. ‘Pimlott was dancing a small jig as I excitedly told Beale. By turning the Swordfish quickly, he too was able to see the splash subsiding. Thus, all three of us saw our hit.’ One of the shadowing aircraft saw too.’

Beale subsequently participated in Operation “Mincemeat”, another strike mounted by the Ark Royal on 24 August 1941, this time against land targets near Tempio, the force being led by Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, D.S.O., shortly to be awarded a posthumous V.C. Sadly, too, Beale did not survive the War, being posted missing on 5 April 1942, while operating out of Lanka, the naval base in Ceylon. The son of Captain Richard Beale, O.B.E., of Norwich, he was 21 years of age and has no known grave, his name being commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial.