The Collection of Medals Formed by Bill and Angela Strong

Three: Lieutenant D. C. Bell, Royal Navy, killed in action when the submarine C.25 was attacked by German seaplanes on 6 July 1918

1914-15 Star (S. Lt., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.) nearly extremely fine (3) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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David Courtney Bell was born on 25 October 1894. Entering the Royal Navy, he was appointed a Midshipman in May 1912. Promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant in September 1914 and Sub Lieutenant in March 1915, he served on the battleships Lord Nelson, May 1912-April 1914 and Iron Duke, April 1914-February 1916. Transferring then to submarines, he was promoted to Lieutenant in October 1916. As Lieutenant in command of H.M. Submarine C.25, he was killed during a surface action with German seaplanes on 6 July 1918.

H.M. Submarine C.25 on patrol on the surface off the East Anglian coast was spotted by five enemy seaplanes returning from a raid on Lowestoft. Lieutenant Bell, in command of the submarine, assumed the aircraft were British and took no evasive action. Turning into the sun, the seaplanes dived and attacked the submarine with machine guns, having expended their bombs on Lowestoft. Lieutenant Bell and four ratings were killed immediately. In desperately trying to dive for safety, a seriously wounded rating trapped in the hatchway was forcibly pulled through only to die in the control room. Just as they were about to dive one of the dead bodies in the conning tower rolled over and blocked the closure of the hatchway with a leg. Orders were given to cut away the leg off so that the hatch could be sealed. As this grizzly work was being done, two more men were killed, cut down by the continuing hail of machine gun bullets piercing the submarine’s thin hull. Then with the hatch shut they prepared to dive only to find that the motors had been put out of commission. Just when all seemed lost, the attack ceased. Opening the hatch the dazed survivors of C.25 found that the seaplanes had been driven off by gunfire from the submarine E.51 that had arrived on the scene, returning from patrol. The E.51 then took the C.25 in tow into Harwich. The interior of the boat was said to resemble a ‘slaughter house’.

Lieutenant Bell was buried in Shotley Churchyard. He was the son of Robert Arthur and Eveline Maud Bell, of 31 Waldegrave Park, Strawberry Hill, Middlesex.

Oberleutenant F. Christiansen, an ‘Ace’ with 21 victories and holder of the Order Pour le Merite (the ‘Blue Max’), led the seaplane attack. The commander of the seaplane station at Zeebrugge created a precedent by crediting the C.25 to his score of ‘kills’. Though technically the submarine survived and was towed to safety, it never sailed again and was soon scrapped.

Sold with book By Guess and By God, by William Guy Carr - the story of British submarines in the War; also the copied article ‘A Unique Victory’, by Hal Giblin (in Coin and Medal News) - both of which give details of the incident; also copied service paper and other research.

See lot 709 for the group of medals awarded to Admiral Marrack who was commended for his part in in the action.