Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Leading Stoker Mechanic W. J. Green, Royal Navy, who died in H.M. Submarine Affray when she was lost with all hands in April 1951, the last Royal Navy Submarine to be lost at sea

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, S.E. Asia 1945-46 (C/KX. 162120. W. J. Green Ldg. Sto. R.N.) minor edge nicks, good very fine and better (6) £800-1200

Walter John Green was born at Hartlip, Kent on 19 April 1924, and first entered the Royal Navy in November 1942. After initial training, over the next four years he was borne on the books first of H.M.S. Dinosaur, a Tank Landing Craft training establishment in Ayrshire, and afterwards of H.M.S. Copra, the administrative authority for personnel of the Combined Operations organisation serving in landing craft. He ended the war as Temporary Acting Leading Stoker, and was released in November 1946. His Second World War campaign stars, noted on his service certificate, were issued in April 1950 and are mounted as he would have worn them in his final year of service.

In September 1947 he rejoined the Royal Navy, and immediately volunteered for service in submarines, perhaps mindful of the extra pay it would bring. After training at H.M.S. Dolphin, in July 1948 he was drafted to H.M.S. Tabard, in which he was to serve a two year commission. He then returned to H.M.S. Dolphin until his appointment to Affray, on 14 April 1951.

The Loss of H.M. Submarine Affray, April 1951
The last Royal Navy submarine to be lost at sea, Affray was laid down at the Cammel Laird Yard in Birkenhead in January 1944 and commissioned on 25 November 1945. In March 1949 she was fitted with a snorkel device which permitted the submarine to run its diesels for propulsion, whilst underwater. This and further modifications were not entirely successful and in exercises in the Mediterranean during December 1949, she was described as ‘leaking like a sieve’. In January 1951 the submarine entered Portsmouth Dockyard for major engine repairs and in March Lieutenant John Blackburn D.S.C. was appointed her Captain. A nucleus of 23 crew members were retained from her previous complement, and this skeleton crew made one brief day-sortie ‘check dive’ off the Isle of Wight on 13 April of that year, after her release from the dockyard. This was despite the suspicion of oil contamination in one of her battery tanks discovered shortly beforehand.

The next day the remainder of her crew joined (including Walter Green), ahead of the submarine setting out on a week-long simulated war patrol called ‘Exercise Spring Train’ on 16 April. This was to involve dummy attacks on shipping, mock hostile air attacks, and the landing of Royal Marines of the Special Boat Service for a simulated sabotage and enemy observation exercise near Falmouth. Besides the four commandos, Affray was also to host 20 officers and their two instructors from Executive and Engineer training classes, a new intake to the submarine service, who would undertake various seamen’s duties as part of their acquaintance experience. To make room for all these additional personnel a dozen ratings were sent ashore. When Affray departed Portsmouth in the afternoon of 16 April 1951 there were 75 men aboard.

At 2100 hours Affray made normal contact when 30 miles south of the Isle of Wight to confirm position, course and speed and indicated she was preparing to dive. She was expected to make a submerged passage westwards down the Channel in order to surface in a predetermined area off the Cornish coast the next morning, to stand by for exercises with Coastal Command aircraft. But by late morning of the 17 April she had failed to make a scheduled surface report and by 2 p.m. a substantial submarine rescue operation was in full swing. A. S. Evans takes up the story in his definitive work, “Beneath the Waves, A History of H.M. Submarine Losses 1909-1971”:
‘A number of submarines involved in the search reported picking up faint distorted signals on their A./S. listening apparatus. Hull tapping was also heard. Attempts to obtain a cross-bearing on the source of the signals and the sound, both of which were thought to have originated from Affray, were unsuccessful. On the afternoon of the 18 April the Ambush picked up the code letters representing WE ARE TRAPPED ON THE BOTTOM. On 19 April a submarine was dispatched to investigate the reported sighting of a large oil patch near the Casquets, a group of small rocky islands about seven miles west of Alderney which for centuries have been the graveyard of many unwary mariners. Nothing came of the investigation. By the evening of 19 April the intensive search for Affray was regretfully terminated. There was no longer any urgency to locate the submarine in order to save life.’

Yet there remained a pressing need to locate the missing submarine in order to establish the cause of her demise, if only to establish it was some form of mechanical failure that might re-occur in another submarine. In the end an area of 1500 square miles was allocated to assorted search vessels, accompanying divers undertaking great risks to investigate all promising sonar contacts. With no sign of the Affray after a month, underwater cameras were brought in to speed up the search, and by the middle of June efforts were concentrated on an area north-west of Alderney. Evans continues:
‘On 14 June the T.V. camera was lowered 260 feet to a reported wreck. To the delight of all, a picture of a rail of the type round a submarine’s gun platform came into view. Then the camera focused on the letter Y. Moving from right to left the camera picked out the letters A-R-F-F-A. After a search of almost nine weeks the Affray had been found. Her position was 67 miles 228 degrees St. Catherine’s Lighthouse, 37 miles south-west of her last reported diving position. She was lying on an even keel near the edge of Hurd’s Deep and close to the area where the large patch of oil had been reported off the Casquets … Divers could find no evidence of collision damage. They noted that Affray’s radar aerial and a periscope were raised, an indication that Affray had been submerged at the time of her foundering. A check of the hatches showed that all were closed. There was no outward sign that an attempt had been made to release the indicator buoy. Further investigation revealed that both pairs of hydroplanes were at hard to rise. This, and the fact that both pointers of the bridge telegraph were at STOP, might signify that Affray had been going down fast and that Lieutenant Blackburn [the captain] had been trying to correct this.’

Further investigation revealed that Affray’s snort-mast had broken off above deck level and the remnants were salvaged and returned to Portsmouth for proper examination, an investigation that revealed fundamental weaknesses in the metal and in the quality of welding used on the joints. While the cause of Affray’s loss has never been completely explained, these factors led to speculation that the mast’s associated valve had failed to engage when the Affray had submerged, so that the eventual break resulted in water pouring into the submarine through a 10-inch hole, thereby quickly upsetting her buoyancy and sending her to the bottom.

The Affray remains to this day in her last resting place, the protected military grave of her officers and crew. Their names are recorded in the submariner’s book of remembrance lodged in the chapel at H.M.S. Dolphin, Gosport, and at the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire.

Sold with a wartime photograph of Leading Stoker Green, and original documentation to include his Royal Navy Certificate of Service, Certificate of Registry of Birth, Certificate of the Inspector of Seamen’s Wills, and Admiralty condolence slip (accompanying the N.G.S.), named to ‘Ldg. Sto. W.J. Green. C/KX 162120’. Also Order of Service for the Memorial Service held at H.M.S. Dolphin on 2 May 1951, and a photograph of H.M.S. Affray.