Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good Second World War anti-U-boat operations D.S.M., post-war B.E.M. group of eight awarded to Chief Electrician H. J. Justice, Royal Navy: his captain, Lieutenant-Commander R. B. Stannard, V.C., the hero of the Norwegian operations of 1940, was awarded a D.S.O. on the same occasion
Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX.128514 H. J. Justice, T./P.O.); British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R. (Ch. Elect. Henry J. Justice, D.S.M., P/MX 803817); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (JX.128514 A.B., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Burma Star; War Medal; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (JX.128514 P.O., H.M.S. Victory), mounted as worn (excepting the B.E.M.), contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (8) £1400-1800

D.S.M. London Gazette 18 May 1943:
‘For successful action against enemy submarines while serving in H.M.S. Vimy’.

The recommendation states:
‘Was in charge of Depth Charge Party during the sinking of U-187 on 4 February 1943, and also in subsequent attacks when submarines attacked S.C. 118. He was responsible that no patterns failed.’

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 June 1953. The recommendation states:
‘This rating has a record of 26 years of the most highly meritorious service in the Royal Navy. He served in H.M.S. Dolphin the submarine base and school, Fifth Submarine Flotilla from November 1950 to October 1952, when he completed his time for pension. His service in H.M.S. Dolphin was marked by his outstanding efficiency, zeal, loyalty and devotion to duty. He was employed as the senior rating of a team used for degaussing submarines by the wiping method and by his initiative and energy effected a considerable reduction in the time taken to carry out the operation. His zeal, energy and leadership have been outstanding.’

An account of H.M.S. Vimy’s part in the destruction of the U-187 appears in Clay Blair’s history, Hitler’s U-Boat War:

‘The expected Slow Convoy trailing Halifax 224 was S.C. 118. It sailed from New York on January 24 with forty-four ships. Nineteen ships from Newfoundland joined, making sixty-three. She was guarded by the crack British Group B-2, usually commanded by Donald MacIntyre in Hesperus, but his ship, which had rammed and sunk U-357 on a prior trip, was in repair in Liverpool. The temporary Group Commander was F. B. Proudfoot, new skipper of the British destroyer Vanessa. The Group was quite strong: Vanessa, and three other British destroyers, Vimy, Witch, and the ex-American four-stack Beverley; the big American Treasury-class Coast Guard cutter Bibb; and four corvettes, one British, three French. All nine escorts had radar. Vanessa, Bibb, and the indefatigable rescue ship Toward also had Huff Duff.

The convoy sailed through the Pfeil patrol line undetected in the early hours of February 4. Then, as luck would have it, a seaman on the Norwegian freighter Annik accidentally fired a brilliant snowflake flare. One of the Pfeil boats, Ralph Munnich’s new IXC40 U-187, about three weeks out from Kiel, saw the flare. He closed on the convoy from ahead and radioed a contact report for the benefit of the dozen other boats of Group Pfeil. Bibb, commanded by Roy L. Raney, and Toward, DFed Munnich’s B-bar short-signal contact report.

Proudfoot directed two of the British destroyers to run down the Huff Duff bearing of the U-Boat: the four-stack Beverley (ex-U.S.S. Branch), and the Vimy, commanded by Richard Stannard, who had earlier won Great Britain’s highest award, the Victoria Cross. The two destroyers raced out. Beverley spotted U-187 at about five thousand yards, but owing to the rough seas, she could not fire her main battery. In the event, when he saw the destroyers gaining, Munnich dived and went deep.

Vimy got U-187 on sonar and, with Beverely, commenced a methodical attack with Hedgehog and depth-charges. Munnich released a Bolde noisemaker and attempted to creep away on his motors, but the destroyers held fast. Vimy’s Hedgehog did no damage but some of her thirty depth-charges cracked the boat’s pressure hull centre and aft, flooding the control room with fuel oil and the aft areas with salt water. Much too heavy aft, the boat nosed up at a terrifying 45 degree angle. Two and a half hours into the hunt, when he saw U-187 was doomed, Munnich ordered the crew to surface and scuttle. Most of the crew concluded that escape was impossible and shook hands in lugubrious farewells. But their luck held. With the last gasp of high-pressure air, Munnich achieved sufficient buoyancy to reach the surface.

When U-187 appeared, Beverley and Vimy opened fire with main batteries and anti-aircraft cannon. The fire killed nine Germans, including Munnich and probably his Chief Engineer. The U-187 upended and sank stern first, leaving the rest of the crew in the water. Beverley and Vimy rescued forty-five men, including three officers, after which the two destroyers rejoined the convoy.’

Henry James Justice, who was born at Alverstoke, Hampshire in June 1911, was discharged to a pension in December 1952.