Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte


In the space of a few moments the Broke was converted into a smoking shambles. In places, her decks were literally running in blood. She sustained 57 casualties, of whom 21 were killed outright, and no part of the ship was immune. Two shells had hit the bridge structure, to kill a signalman, and seriously to wound the helmsman and a man at the engine-room telegraphs. But the former, Able Seaman William George Rawles, who afterwards received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for his bravery, continued to steer the ship until G. 42 had been rammed. Then he collapsed from loss of blood.


Many casualties had occurred among the guns’ crews of the forecastle through two enemy shells, one of which had detonated projectiles in a ready rack. All the electric cables and voice-pipes from the bridge had been shot away, while the after compass, after wireless-room, and searchlight were demolished. The foremost funnel was pierced through and through by splinters until it resembled a huge nutmeg-grater. A shell passing in through the side above the waterline had penetrated a coal-bunker, to explode in the boiler- room beyond, killing or wounding every man in the compartment and severing the main steam-pipe, from which the steam escaped with a deafening roar. And, besides the damage from enemy shell, the British flotilla-leader had a badly bent and crumpled bow, and two huge gashes forward above the waterline. Dead and wounded lay everywhere.


With her bows locked in G. 42, she still steamed ahead, her speed gradually diminishing. Every man in sight on the German’s deck had been killed or wounded. Her stern portion was gradually sinking. Finally it disappeared altogether as the Broke ground her way clear. For a time Evans and his officers thought their ship was about to sink; but, once clear of G. 42, they set about trying to inflict further damage upon the flying enemy. Two were still in sight, one ahead and one to starboard, with the Swift in chase, long flames pouring from the funnels of all three as they steamed at full speed.


But the Broke’s speed was dropping fast, and presently an engineer-officer arrived on the bridge with the sad news that the loss of feed- water was so great that she could not steam more than half-speed. He also pointed out that the ship must eventually come to a standstill. Evans accordingly turned and steamed slowly back towards the two sinking destroyers.


About a mile from the spot, they passed through a number of German seamen in the water, who cried “Save! Save!” But at any moment the enemy might return to continue the fight. The Broke could not afford to stop to lower her boats.


A little later they saw the phosphorescent wake of an approaching destroyer, which flashed the usual challenge. The Broke, hit in thirty- two places on the bridge by shell, splinters, and bullets, had had all her electric circuits shot away and could not reply. For a moment it seemed as thought the stranger might open fire, until the yeoman of signals produced an electric torch and spelt out the name of the ship. The other vessel was the Swift, which had pursued the flying Germans until, badly damaged by shell fire, she could pursue no more. Hit many times, her wireless was out of action, and she had four feet of water on the lower mess-deck. The two British ships cheered each other in the darkness.


The Broke then closed one of the sinking Germans, G. 85, which was badly holed forward and was ablaze amidships. Men on her battered forecastle shouted “Kamerad! Kamerad!” and Evans replied through a megaphone, “All right. We will pick you up!”


But other Germans in the stern of G. 85 thought otherwise, and opened fire with the after 4.1-inch gun, a shell from which passed through the Broke’s bridge. She instantly retaliated with four rounds of 4-inch shell, while Acting-Sub-Lieutenant L. W. Peppe fired a torpedo from aft at a range of 200 yards. Set to run at six feet, it struck G. 85 near the stern.


The Broke was then compelled to stop through the damage to her boilers. She was gradually drifting nearer G. 85, which was still blazing. It was a matter of uncertainty whether the German would sink before the flames reached her magazine. If she blew up with the Broke close alongside, the latter might also be sunk by the explosion. By the efforts of those in the engine-room, however, she was able to go astern sufficiently to prevent collision. It was 1. 20 a.m., thirty-five minutes from the time when the enemy had first been sighted, and a few moments later the destroyer Mentor, Lieutenant-Commander A. J. Landon, came alongside, and managed by good seamanship to take her in tow.’


Awarded the D.S.C., Despard removed to the flotilla leader Spenser in November 1917 and thence, in April 1918, to the staff of the S. N.O. Ostend, in which capacity he gained a brace of honours from our Allies, namely his appointment to the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword, 4th Class (London Gazette 15 February 1919 refers), and Chevalier of the Belgian Order of Crown (London Gazette 14 May 1920 refers).


Between the wars and beyond


Between the Wars, he served as a representative of the International Danube Commission and was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in September 1922, but in June 1928, on account of a gunnery accident which resulted in a compound fracture of his left thigh, Despard was placed on the Retired List.


However, he was quickly re-employed as a Naval Adviser to the Finnish Government, in which capacity he was granted the acting rank of Captain and appointed a Commander of the Finnish Order of the White Rose in November 1934. And, according to his service record, also served on the staff of the S.B.N.O. Suez Canal Area in the mid-1930s.


Mobilised in March 1938, and having attended the Naval Intelligence Department, he was appointed a Captain and Naval Attache to H.M. Legations at Bucharest, Belgrade and Budapest, with his headquarters in the latter city, in early 1940, though his services in that respect must have ended in November of the same year, when the Hungarian Prime Minister, under pressure from Germany, was compelled to sign the Tripartite Pact.


Among subsequent wartime appointments, Despard served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Sir Rudolf Burmester, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., the Flag Officer in Charge, Cardiff, and it was in this same capacity, in connection with “Operation Neptune”, that he was the recipient of an Admiralty Letter of Praise.


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