Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eight: Commander (E) R. S. Wallace, Royal Navy, who survived the sinking of H.M.S. Royal Oak after she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47 whilst at anchor at Scapa Flow, 14 October 1939; he would later also come through desperate engagements in the Mediterranean in H.M.S. Illustrious and H.M.S Argonaut, before seeing further active service during the Korean War in H.M.S. Belfast

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (Cdr. R. S. Wallace. R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued; Coronation 1953; mounted as worn, very fine or better (8) £400-£500

Richard Sydney Wallace was promoted Sub Lieutenant (E) on 8 November 1938 with seniority 1 July 1937 and Lieutenant (E) on 1 May 1939. Navy lists show that he was appointed to serve aboard the battleship H.M.S. Royal Oak from 10 August 1938. On 14 October 1939, whilst at anchor at H.M. Naval Base Scapa Flow, Orkney, the Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-47 under the command of Günther Prien; of the total ship’s complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed or subsequently died of wounds, including Rear-Admiral Henry Blagrove, commander of the Second Battle Squadron.

Prien later said of his actions:
‘Inside of Scapa Flow, the harbour of the English sea force, it was absolutely dead calm in there. The entire bay was alight because of bright northern lights. We then cruised in the bay for approximately one and a half hour, chose our targets, fired our torpedoes. In the next moment there was a bang and the next moment the Royal Oak blew up. The view was indescribable. And we sneaked out, in a similar fashion as we got in, close past the enemy guards, and they did not see us. You can imagine the excitement and happiness we all felt, about the fact that we managed to fulfil our task and achieve such a huge victory for Germany.’

Wallace survived the sinking and shortly afterwards, on 30 November 1939, was appointed to serve aboard the newly launched aircraft carrier H.M.S. Illustrious. The lead ship of her class, her first assignment was with the Mediterranean Fleet, with which her aircraft’s most notable success was at the Battle of Taranto; surprising the Italian Fleet at anchor in the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, 21 obsolete Fairey Swordfish from Illustrious sank the battleship Conte di Cavour, seriously damaged two other battleships and in the process dramatically changed the balance of capital ship power in the Mediterranean. Two months later, Illustrious was herself attacked and crippled by the Luftwaffe off Malta when repeated waves of Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers caught her off Pantellaria on 10 January 1941, killing 126 Officers and men and wounding 91.

Kenneth Poolman’s history, Illustrious, describes the opening sequence of this relentless airborne assault thus:
‘The Stukas came in from three bearings, port and starboard bows and starboard quarter, all at the same time. Bill Banham watched them, diving in groups of three from each direction, dove-tailed neatly together, clover-leaf fashion. Down they hurled through the 4.5 barrage and into the pom-pom screen. Nothing could stop them. In a terrifying crescendo of crashing sound, Illustrious disappeared in spray and smoke. All was bursting bombs, bursting shells, the racket of the guns and the roar and scream of aircraft.’

Worse was to follow as Illustrious suffered repeated bombardments including a one thousand pound bomb which ripped through the flight deck causing enormous damage below decks but, remarkably, despite losing her steering, she reached Valetta, however, while undergoing repairs, she was bombed again on 16 January by 17 Ju-88 medium bombers and 44 Stukas. Following further aerial attacks the stricken carrier next limped to Alexandria for more running repairs before sailing to the United States via Durban for a more permanent refit. The naval historian J. D. Brown noted that ‘There is no doubt that the armoured deck saved her from destruction; no other carrier took anything like this level of punishment and survived.’

Wallace’s next appointment was aboard H.M.S. Argonaut from 20 February 1942. He would serve aboard this cruiser in the Mediterranean during Operation Torch in October and November 1942 before Argonaut then joined the newly formed Force Q, charged with disrupting German-Italian convoys on the Tunisian coast. On 1 December, Force Q took part in the Battle of Skerki Bank, during which they attacked and largely destroyed an Italian convoy, sinking four troop ships and one destroyer (the Folgore) without loss of their own. However, two weeks later, on 14 December 1942, Argonaut was itself heavily damaged by torpedoes from the Italian submarine Lazzaro Mocenigo. Although only three crew members were killed, the damage was so great, the bow and stern having been effectively blown off and the steering wrecked, the Axis forces mistakenly thought the Argonaut had been sunk. Defiantly however, the ship succeeded in finding its way via Algiers to the United States for a seven month reconstruction.

Navy Lists next show Wallace serving in the destroyer Atherstone, formerly of Operation Chariot distinction, in January 1945 and then in the post war period he was stationed ashore at H.M.S. Excalibur from 1 July 1946. Promoted Lieutenant-Commander (E) on 1 January 1947, Wallace was assigned to the cruiser H.M.S. Belfast from 26 January 1948 and was present in her at the time of the Amethyst Incident in April 1949, during which, as flagship of the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Belfast would be the Far Eastern Station's headquarters ship. Wallace also saw subsequent active service in Belfast during the Korean War before returning to shore at H.M.S. Drake (Royal Naval Barracks) on 2 April 1951. In the latter part of his career, he served as Senior Engineering Officer at H.M.S. Neptune (Shore Establishment at H.M. Naval Base Clyde) from May 1958 before finally retiring on 25 December 1964.