Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An emotive submariner’s group of eight awarded to Petty Officer Telegraphist F. G. Woods, Royal Navy, who was mentioned in despatches for services in H.M. Submarine P34, one of Malta’s famous “Fighting Tenth” Flotilla, and who died in H.M. Submarine Affray when she was lost with all hands in April 1951

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (JX. 136971 Tel., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (JX. 136971 P.O. Tel., H.M.S. Sea Eagle), mounted as worn, minor official correction to the recipient’s number on the last, generally good very fine (8) £800-1200

Mention in Despatches London Gazette 29 December 1942: ‘For distinguished service in successful patrols in H.M. Submarines.’

Frederick George Woods, who was born in June 1916, entered the Royal Navy in June 1934. Having joined the submarine branch in February 1938, he was serving as a Telegraphist in H.M. Submarine Otus on the outbreak of hostilities but, in June 1941, he transferred to the P. 34 (afterwards Ultimatum), then being commissioned at Barrow. In October the P. 34 arrived at Malta, joining the famous “Fighting Tenth” Flotilla, with whom she would serve with distinction over the coming year, under the command of Lieutenant P. R. H. Harrison, R.N., who would win a D.S.O. and a Bar to his D.S.C. during the period in question. For his own part, Woods was mentioned in despatches.

P. 34’s first encounter, following unevenful patrols off Lampedusa, Cephalonia and Calabria, was a torpedo strike against a merchantman on 5 December, although it appears to no avail. But the new year brought fresh opportunities and on 26 January 1942, during a patrol off the Straits of Messina, she torpedoed and sank the Italian Dalmatia - luckily her destroyer escort mounted an ineffective counter-attack, and Harrison slipped away as two enemy flying-boats arrived on the scene.

Again on patrol, off the south Calabrian coast, on 14 March, the P. 34 sighted the conning tower of an Italian submarine, the Ammiraglio Millo, and Harrison quickly attacked with four torpedoes, two of which found their mark, one forward and the other amidships. Harrison later wrote in his patrol report:

‘After the attack, the P. 34 surfaced and closed the position and those on board Millo who managed to escape - there had been many on her bridge when hit - were rescued from the sea: fourteen survivors were picked up. Rescue operations were in full view of the shore and took some time as P. 34 had to be manoeuvred alongside each survivor in the water; whilst this was going on we believed that ineffectual fire from the beach was being directed against the submarine, and she was no doubt reported. In due course, the expected flying-boat arrived over the area but not, again fortunately, until after rescue operations had been completed and the submarine submerged. In view of the numbers of survivors on board a small submarine, P. 34 returned to Malta and landed them the next day. She then resumed her patrol.’

Harrison was awarded an immediate D.S.O., while for like services in P. 34’s eight war patrols since arriving at Malta in October 1941, other crew members received a D.S.C., six D.S.Ms and four ‘mentions’. Woods’ turn was to follow shortly, but in the meantime, damaged by a mine whilst submerged off the tip of Italy in a another patrol in April, the P. 34 put in for repairs back at Malta and later at Alexandria.

The recommendation for the Bar to Harrison’s D.S.C. takes up the story of her next major engagement:

‘On 24 June 1942, P. 34 was returning to Alexandria from a convoy operation in the Ionian Sea and at 0735 was submerged some 30 miles south of the western point of Crete, when hydrophone effect was heard. Five minutes later a U-Boat was sighted to the north-eastward on a southerly course, and though at great range was identified as German. During the ensuing 20 minutes of attack the enemy altered course towards P. 34 twice, thus a salvo could be fired at the long range of about 7,000 yards, resulting in one torpedo hit which stopped the enemy’s engines instantaneously. Immediate periscope observation showed the enemy still on the surface stopped, but P. 34 then momentarily lost trim and could not watch the enemy. One minute 40 seconds after the torpedo hit a loud explosion occurred and two minutes later observation showed that the enemy had disappeared. One German U-Boat is claimed as sunk.’

The same recommendation also features the devastating depth-charge attack suffered by the P. 34 that September, an incident that receives appropriate mention in Wingate’s history of the “Fighting Tenth”:

‘On 7 September P. 34 was sailing across the Ionian Sea for her last patrol off the Greek island of Cephalonia when she was diverted to attack a three-ship convoy escorted by eleven destoyers. Such a sizeable escort indicated a truly worthwhile target and Lieutenant Harrison fired one full salvo. He thought he obtained one hit, but could not be sure as he at once faced the escort’s very determined counter-attack. Two depth charges were extremely close, and the submarine plunged to 270 feet. Leakage from the stern glands flooded the bilges to the level of the bottom of the main motors, but bilge pumps could not be used as the noise would reveal her position to the hunting destroyer. The port motor suffered extensive damage, but the starboard motor was sufficient to take Harrison and his crew safely back to Malta.

This had been P. 34’s thirteenth and last patrol before returning to the U.K. for a refit. Patched up in Malta’s dockyard, she was at last able to sail on 25 September ...’

In addition to another D.S.C., to Lieutenant E. K. Forbes, a Canadian, the crew received a brace of D.S.Ms and four ‘mentions’, Woods being among the latter. He next joined the Sunfish, aboard which submarine he served until the end of 1943, and, in January 1944, the Visigoth, in which he served until the end of the War, latterly in the Far East.

The Loss of H.M. Submarine Affray, April 1951

Woods remained a regular submariner right up until his loss aboard the Affray in April 1951. The last Royal Navy submarine to sink at sea, Affray was an ‘A’ class submarine of 1945 vintage, and had been on exercises off the south coast of England, carrying a team of four Royal Marines and an extra 20 specialist Officers, among them Sub. Lieutenant William Linton, the 21 year old son of Commander John “Tubby” Linton, V.C., D.S.O., D.S.C. Affray departed Portsmouth in the afternoon of 16 April 1951, but by late morning of the 17th she had failed to make a scheduled surface report. By 2 p.m., a substantial submarine rescue operation was in full swing - it was known that Affray had dived some 30 miles south of the Isle of Wight on the previous day, but the intervening period greatly extended the potential area to be searched. 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 18th the Ambush picked up the code letters representing WE ARE TRAPPED ON THE BOTTOM. On the 19th 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 the 19th 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. These factors led to speculation that the mast’s associated valve had failed to enagage 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.

Woods, who had attained the rank of Petty Officer Telegraphist and been awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal at the submarine depot Sea Eagle in the late 1940s, was officially discharged dead on 19 April 1951.