Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Second War submariner’s D.S.M. group of six awarded to Leading Seaman F. J. Voyzey, Royal Navy: having been decorated for his part in Una’s successes while attached to the famous “Fighting Tenth” Flotilla 1942-43, he added a ‘mention’ for services in the Tiptoe in Far Eastern waters in 1945 - on one occasion surviving a sustained depth charge attack while ‘bottomed at just 40 feet’

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX.149558 F. J. Voysey. A./L. Smn. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Burma Star, 1 clasp, Pacific; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, very fine (6) £1,200-£1,500

D.S.M. London Gazette 22 December 1942:
‘For gallant and distinguished services in successful patrols’

M.I.D. London Gazette 20 November 1945:
‘For gallantry, skill and outstanding devotion to duty whilst serving in H.M. Submarines... Tiptoe... in numerous successful patrols in trying climatic conditions in the Pacific, frequently carried out in shallow and difficult waters and in the presence of strong opposition.’

Francis James Voyzey was born on 18 March 1920 in Headington, Oxfordshire. He commenced qualifying service in the Royal Navy on 18 March 1938, aged 18 years, most likely having joined as a Boy 2nd Class some two years earlier. He joined the Submarine Service at the shore establishment H.M.S. Dolphin on 17 February 1941 and was assigned to H.M. Submarine Una on 5 December 1941, serving in her during all her War Patrols in the Mediterranean, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

H.M.S. Una - ‘Fighting Tenth’ Flotilla - Mediterranean 1942-43 - D.S.M.
H.M.S. Una was a ‘U’ Class Submarine built by Chatham Dockyard and commissioned on 27 September 1941. With a complement of 27 to 31 men and an armament of 8 - 10 torpedoes and one 3 inch gun, she was Commanded initially by Lieutenant D. S. R. Martin.

Following testing and trials in Scotland and an uneventful first patrol in the Bay of Biscay, H.M.S. Una’s 2nd war patrol saw her ordered on 5 December 1941 to depart Holy Loch, patrol in the Bay of Biscay, proceed to Gibraltar and then upon completion of the patrol to join the 10th Submarine Flotilla at Malta under the overall command of Commander C. W. G. ‘Shrimp’ Simpson. Una, as one of the fighting 10th’s ‘1st XI’ submarines, went on to complete a further 13 patrols in the Mediterranean between December 1941 and March 1943 sinking a number of Italian sailing vessels and merchant ships and conducting various special operations.

During Una’s 4th patrol on 12 February 1942, Lt. Martin, suffering from double pneumonia and a 104 degree fever, erred by torpedoing and sinking the Italian tanker Lucania 20 nautical miles north-east of Crotone, Calabria, Italy. Lucania had obtained safe conduct from the British government as she was transporting fuel for a refugee ship carrying civilians from Mombassa. The Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Station, Admiral Harwood, excused Lt. Martin’s error due to his illness at the time, but not before Martin had flown back to England to explain in person to Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, why he had sunk the tanker. Martin would go on to win a D.S.O. and two bars in 1943.

Lieutenant C. P. Norman replaced Martin in command of H.M.S. Una on 16 February 1942 and sank the Italian fishing vessel Maria Immacolata with gunfire off Tunisia on 13 March 1942 and torpedoed and sank the Italian merchant ship Ninetto G. east of Sicily on 5 April 1942.
On 9 August 1942, H.M.S. Una departed Malta for her 11th war patrol (9th in the Mediterranean) with orders to carry out a special operation and to patrol East of Sicily. During the night of 11/12 August 1942, 6 men were landed near Catania, Sicily, Italy to attack the local airfield - Special Operation ‘Why Not’. It was intended to land 9 men but 3 men were forced to abort due to damage to one of the Folbots. Una then waited at the rendezvous location but the landing party never returned. Another special operation, ‘Wash Leather’, was carried out during the evening of 14 October 1942, when Una landed a party near Stazzo, Sicily.

In November 1942 Simpson decided that Pat Norman had done enough and should go home. His replacement in command of Una was the already experienced Lieutenant J. D. Martin who immediately took Una out on the unpleasant ‘Tunis Run’. Despatched to the northern coast of Tunisia, around Bizerta, Cape Bon and the Gulf of Tunis itself, one submarine captain described it as ‘quite the nastiest patrol area I have ever endured.’
Una saw further action in February 1943 before returning home to England in March. John Wingate D.S.C. in his excellent account ‘The Fighting Tenth’ describes her final successes and salutes her long and successful spell in the Mediterranean:

‘Una (Lieutenant Joe Martin) opened the February innings off Hammamet on the 1st with a gun attack on two schooners. Both were badly damaged, but when the shore batteries opened up they hit one of the gun’s crew, wounding him in the arm. Una then dived, returning to Malta on the 3rd in order to land her casualty; she then sailed the same day but with a new destination - eastern Calabria.
On 10 February Una sank the 4260 ton Cosala in the Gulf of Squillace and on the 15th, investigating R.A.F. reports that a ship had been beached north of Crotone, she sank it with a torpedo. The R.A.F. reported the next day that only the ship’s upper works were above water. With this Parthian shot to her credit - the Petarca (3360 tons) - Una was returning home. In eighteen patrols she had sunk a total of 13000 tons of enemy shipping, damaged much more and carried out several special operations. She had had a long stint in the Mediterranean. After a tragic start when she sank the Lucania by mistake, she had been welded into a very happy ship by the cheerful and unflappable Pat Norman, and by Joe Martin, Norman’s great friend, who carried on the run of successes.’

Norman was awarded the D.S.O. for his services in command of Una and Martin (J.D.) the D.S.C., the former distinction being gazetted at the time of Voyzey’s D.S.M. for like services.

H.M.S. Tiptoe - Far East 1945 - M.I.D.
Voyzey’s next appointment was in H.M. Submarine Tiptoe, which he joined on 30 April 1944. Built by Vickers Armstrong and curiously named by Winston Churchill, Tiptoe departed Portland for the Far East on 13 January 1945 under the command of Lieutenant Commander R. L. Jay. Tiptoe completed three successful war patrols off Burma and in the Java Sea between 13 May and 21 August 1945, during which a number of Japanese coasters, sea trucks, oilers and cargo vessels were sunk.
Of note, on 1 June 1945, she sank the merchant cargo ship Tobi Maru off Matasiri Island in the Java Sea and came under sustained retaliation and was badly damaged, as recorded in the submarine’s log:
‘1338 hours - Masts were spotted bearing 190°. Lt. Jay commenced an attack. The target was estimated to be 2300 tons. During the approach on the target it was out of sight for about 20 minutes because of rain. After the target came in sight again it was noticed that she must have been stopped for some time. Also the target was steering erratically. When the target finally began steering a steady course Lt. Jay fired three stern torpedoes at 1525 hours. The target was hit by one torpedo in the engine room and began to sink stern first.
It was now that the reason for the targets strange behaviour (stopping / erratic course) became apparent. She was having a rendezvous with an escort vessel that was coming from directly behind and now the escort closed in towards Tiptoe which went deep. In all 13 depth charges were dropped and all of them were fairly close. At 1650 hours the escort broke off the counter-attack. As a result of the counter attack all torpedo tubes were out of action due to air leaks. Also the Asdic was flooded as well as some minor damage to other things.’

Tiptoe’s biggest success, however, came on 3 August 1945, during her final patrol, when she torpedoed and sank the 4000 ton Japanese merchant vessel Tencho Maru whilst she was in convoy and defended by a patrol boat. As a result, Tiptoe once again came under sustained depth charge attack, this time while bottomed at a depth of just 40 feet. This again from the log:
‘1654 hours - Sighted a mast among the smoke.
1801 hours - The enemy could now be seen to be a 4000 tons merchant ship followed by a 3000 tons tanker and two escorts. Continued the attack.
1843 hours - Fired four torpedoes at the 4000 tons merchant ship. Two and a half minutes after firing the last torpedo a torpedo-explosion was heard giving a running range of 2900 to 3500 yards.
1903 hours - Two depth charges exploded fairly close while Tiptoe was on the bottom at 40 feet.
1905 hours - One depth charge exploded very close.
1907 hours - One depth charge exploded a bit further off.
1913 hours - Yet another depth charge, this time quite close. The escort however was not in contact with Tiptoe which was still bottomed at 40 feet.
The escort was now circling Tiptoe and 'tapping' for all he was worth and at 1924 hours ran over Tiptoe dropping one depth charge that was way too close for comfort. Tiptoe now got off the bottom and ran away at full speed. The escort was still 'tapping' but did not come in for another attack.’

Leading Seaman Voyzey was Mentioned in Despatches for his service aboard H.M.S. Tiptoe and returned to Portsmouth in her at the conclusion of hostilities. Post-war, he served in H.M. Submarines Spirit and Thorough and a number of shore establishments until his dispersal from Drake on 13 March 1950.