Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith

A Naval General Service Medal awarded to Stoker Mechanic O. A. M. Bridges, Royal Navy, who was killed aboard H.M.S. Affray, 19 April 1951, in the last Royal Navy Submarine to be lost at Sea

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (D/SKX 832096 O. A. M. Bridges, S.M., R.N.) prefix ’SKX’ corrected, otherwise nearly extremely fine £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith.

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The N.G.S. sold with a rare Admiralty condolence slip named to ‘A. A. M. Bridges, D/SKX 832096, Sto.M.’

Stoker Mechanic O. A. M. Bridges, R.N. was one of 75 R.N. & R.M. personnel to die when the British Amphion class submarine, Affray, was lost during an exercise on or about 19 April 1951.

The Affray was laid down at the Cammel Laird Yard in Birkenhead in January 1944 and was launched on 12 April 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. On 16 April 1951 the Affray set out on a simulated war exercise called ‘Exercise Spring Train’. Her normal crew had been reduced from 61 to 50, but to that number were added four Royal Marine personnel and additional specialist R.N. officers, making a total of 75.

The exercise, to take place in the English Channel, involved landing the Royal Marines on the Cornish coast, simulating a wartime special operations landing. The submarine left her base on 16.00 hrs. on 16 April 1951 and at 21.00 hrs made normal contact giving position, course, speed etc, and that she was preparing to dive. That was her last signal and when she missed her normal 8.00 on the 17 April, an immediate search was organised. 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 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 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. With copied research.