GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Steaming in at 18 knots and with the port column only 100 yards from the bank, Ryder began to wonder how long his vessels could withstand the awesome rifle and machine-gun fire from the left bank, not to mention the 75 mm., 150 mm., 170 mm. and 6 in. howitzers of the coastal batteries. Yet incredibly every ship sailed through it all, but Campbeltown was suffering badly. Two of her Oerlikon Crews were hit, the Quartermaster and Coxswain were killed in the wheelhouse, and her 12-pounder high angle gun was blown into the sea along with the crew of a 3-inch mortar. Bullets and shells, and red, white and green tracer were hitting the ships from all angles. Blinded by searchlights, Beattie steadfastly followed in the wake of M.G.B. 314, as they passed the East Jetty of the Avantporte. Here the Gun Boat came under the gunwhales of an anchored Sperrbrecher (Barrage Breaker), which opened fire. Savage and his pom-pom team spraying Sperrbrecher 137 from end to end silenced every weapon on board, including its powerful 88 mm. gun. It was indeed a remarkable feat of gunnery bearing in mind they were firing from a pitching and moving platform. Closing fast on the Normandie Dock's massive southern caisson, Curtis swung the Gun Boat to starboard allowing Campbeltown to increase speed in the final yards. He turned through 360 degrees giving those on board a perfect view of Campbeltown as she cut through the anti- torpedo boom. At the last moment Beattie ordered a slight change in direction to ensure hitting his target square on, leaving the nearby opening to the Old Entrance clear for the
M.Ls. At 0134 hours Campbeltown smashed into the caisson tearing back forty feet of her bows.
Her main mission accomplished, 314 now dropped off Newman and his staff at the Old Entrance, while Ryder also came ashore to ascertain how effectively the Campbeltown had been placed. But while he was away disaster befell most of the
M.Ls, one after the other falling victim to the horrendous point-blank fire - in fact four
M.Ls were destroyed within a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, too, 314’s decks were getting crowded with survivors from the Campeltown, so that by the time Ryder returned, it was time to head for open water - but not before witnessing the fate of two more
M.Ls at the Old Mole, where the Gun Boat also came under heavy fire. And at this moment, perhaps above all, Savage, his No. 2, Able Seaman F. A. Smith, and Stephens, his loader, put on a magnificent display of courage and were a true inspiration to all - for as Curtis brought his exposed pom-pom team to within 250 yards of the Old Mole, they fought a savage duel with the all-powerful Gun 63 it its concrete emplacement, all the while regardless of the web of tracer around them: Gun 63 was silenced, several rounds finding their way through the emplacement’s embrasure.
Continuing on her journey, but her decks now a shambles, 314 came under coastal artillery fire while passing the Les Morees Tower at 24 knots, yet the Gun Boat’s luck continued to hold. In fact, as referred to above, it was at the ‘fag end of the action’ that disaster struck the gallant pom-pom team, when 314 had the misfortune to run into a heavily armed enemy trawler. Dorrian’s Storming St. Nazaire takes up the story:
‘Quickly working up to her full speed, the gunboat raced away, on this occasion sorely missing the firepower of her after pom-pom and powered machine guns. Up on the fo'c'sle gunners Savage and Smith had only seconds in which to train and fire their gun before the German ship drifted behind the shelter of the gunboat's stubby superstructure [so, too, Stephens, as their loader]. ‘It raked us from stem to stern,' recalls Frank Smith, 'with small-arms fire, bullets and shrapnel flying around, pinging off guard rails and metal fittings, and dull thudding sounds as the bullets hit the splinter mats which were secured to the sides of the bridge. The action was sudden and unexpected; we were no more than a hundred yards away when she opened up on us. We only had time to fire a few rounds off before she was abaft the bridge, and the pom-pom couldn't bear.’
And then, almost as suddenly as it had begun, the brief but violent encounter was over. A small fire was visible on the enemy's deck, while the gunboat, sporting a new collection of holes, appeared to have got away with a clumsy encounter which could have spelled the end for all of them. The engines were all right, there was no vital damage to the structure, nor was there any evidence of fatal casualties. It was only when Frank Smith attempted to train the pom-pom fore and found it would not budge that it was discovered that Bill Savage, deserted as ever by 'lady luck', lay slumped across the elevating wheel. Thinking at first that Bill had merely fainted, Frank was greatly distressed to learn that his fellow gunner, with whom every danger of the night had been shared in equal lots, was in fact dead. Hit by a small shell or by chunks of shrapnel, Bill had died instantly from a massive, open chest wound, during the very last throes of an action whose enviable list of honours would include a Victoria Cross in his name, in recognition of the courage displayed by so many of the ratings. Ordinary Seaman Bill Whittle fetched a blanket and covered Bill's body with it. Later Peter Ellingham and Ordinary Telegraphist Reynolds would be detailed to prepare the remains for an eventual transfer to a destroyer. With Bill dead and the loading number, Able Seaman Stephens, dying nearby, Frank was left alone on the gun until such time as Curtis could detail a relief ... ’
Before too long, the destroyers Atherstone and Brocklesby hove into view and, it being decided to scuttle 314, her survivors were transferred to the latter destroyer - among them the mortally wounded Stephens, who died in the ship’s sick bay that night. His body was returned to his home village and interred in St. Mary Magdelene Church’s cemetery.
Savage’s body was retrieved from 314 and buried at Falmouth, the award of his posthumous V.C. being announced in the London Gazette 21 May 1942, not just for his own bravery but on behalf of ‘many others unnamed, in Motor Launches, Motor Gun Boats and Torpedo Boats, who gallantly carried out their duty in entirely exposed positions against enemy fire at very close range.’
Men like Stephens, who was awarded a posthumous mention in despatches.
Sold with a quantity of original documentation and photographs, including the recipient’s M.I.D. certificate in the name of ‘Able Seaman Albert Richard Carver Stephens, D.S.M., H.M. M.G.B. 314’, dated 21 May 1942, and related Admiralty forwarding letter to his mother, which states ‘this Seaman served as Second Coxswain. During the action he showed outstanding zeal and devotion to duty, doing invaluable work wherever it was most wanted. He was mortally wounded while helping at the pom-pom’; his Buckingham Palace memorial scroll, in the name of ‘Able Seaman A. R. C. Stephens, D.S.M., Royal Navy’; the above quoted letter from Christopher Dreyer, congratulating Stephens on the award of his D.S.M., undated, sent from H.M.S. Beehive, Felixstowe; a Christmas card with photograph of M.T.B. 102 at speed, inscribed by the recipient, ‘To Aunty from Dick’; and a fine selection of childhood and Naval career photographs (approximately 25 images).
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