GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 979
A particularly fine and rare Second World War submariner’s D.S.M. and Bar group of eight awarded to Chief Petty Officer W. J. Booty, Royal Navy: having been decorated for his services as Coxswain in the Unbending while attached to the famous “Fighting Tenth” Flotilla 1942-43, he added a Bar to his decoration for like services in the Truculent in Far Eastern waters in 1944 - both commissions witnessing clandestine operations and hair-raising depth charge attacks
DISTINGUISHED SERVICEMEDAL,
G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar (J. 113514 W. J. Booty, A./C.P.O.); NAVALGENERAL SERVICE 1915 -62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (J. 113514 W. J. Booty, A.B., R.N.); 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; AFRICA STAR, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; BURMA STAR;WARMEDAL 1939-45; ROYALNAVY L.S. & G.C.,
G.VI.R., 1st issue (J. 113514 W. J. Booty, P.O., H.M.S. Talbot), minor contact wear, generally good very fine (8)
£5000-6000
Approximately 150 Bars were awarded to the D.S.M. during the 1939-45 War, together with 3 second Bars and one third Bar.
D.S.M. London Gazette 27 July 1943. The original recommendation states:
‘Acting Chief Petty Officer Booty has exerted an excellent influence on the ship’s company to keep up their enthusiasm. He has handled the after planes most efficiently in action and thereby contributed considerably to the success of the submarine.’
Bar to D.S.M. London Gazette 19 September 1944. The original recommendation states:
‘For great skill, devotion to duty and fine bearing which has been an inspiration to all. He has shown cheerfulness and initiative on all occasions and has been an exemplary Coxswain.’
William John Booty, who was born in August 1909 and from Ipswich, Suffolk, entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Seaman in 1925. Appointed an Able Seaman in December 1928, he served in the destroyers in the Mediterranean before transferring to the Submarine Branch in January 1935, his subsequent pre-war appointments including the submarines Thames and Otway, the former incorporating his service off Palestine.
The renewal of hostilities found Booty attending a course at Dolphin, but in March 1940 he joined the Porpoise, in which submarine he remained actively employed until August 1941 and gained advancement to Temporary Petty Officer. Originally under the command of Lieutenant-Commander P. Q. Roberts, R.N., and from August 1940 Lieutenant-Commander J. G. Hopkins, R.N., the Porpoise was largely employed on mine-laying duties off Norway during this period, an early success being the resultant sinking of the German minesweeper M. 5; but her engagements with the U-3 off Egersund on 16 April 1940, and another U-Boat in the North Atlantic on 7 March 1941, proved unsuccessful.
Unbending
Having then attended further courses and been rated as Senior Coxswain in June 1942, Booty joined the P. 37 (afterwards Unbending) that August, and remained similarly employed until September 1943, which period witnessed his appointment to the acting rank of Chief Petty Officer and the award of his D.S.M. - he was recommended by his skipper, Lieutenant Edward “Otto” Stanley, D.S.C., R.N., on 12 April 1943.
During this period Unbending carried out at least nine war patrols in the Mediterranean while attached to the famous “Fighting Tenth” Flotilla, and was credited with sinking one destroyer, six merchant vessels totalling 11,850 tons, and probably sinking a further brace of merchant vessels totalling 10,500 tons, in addition to destroying one schooner and carrying out clandestine Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (C.O.P.P.) missions - the schooner was boarded in the Gulf of Sfax and set alight by a resourceful officer using shale oil.
Excellent accounts of some of Unbending’s patrols appear in John Wingate’s definitive history The Fighting Tenth, from which the following extracts have been taken:
On enemy retaliation:
‘The single U-class submarine not in Tunisian waters at this time was P. 37/Unbending (Lieutenant E. T. Stanley). She was in the southern approaches to the Strait of Messina when, at dawn on 23 January [1943], she sighted two tugs towing an 8,000-ton ship, escorted by two E-Boats and a torpedo boat. She was the Viminale (8,500 tons), the charioteers’ victim at Palermo, patched up and on her way to the repair yards at Messina. Stanley fired three torpedoes, scoring two hits, but the counter-attack was immediate and accurate. The depth-charges having caused considerable damage in the submarine, including thirteen cracked batteries, she was forced to return to base ... ’
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