A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties 270


Three: Marine S. Wakefield, Royal Marines, killed in action when the S.S. Ceramic, bound for Australia, was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-515 in the Atlantic Ocean, 6 December 1942; of the 656 servicemen, nurses, and civilians on board there was only one survivor


1939-45 STAR;ATLANTIC STAR;WARMEDAL 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mr W Wakefield, 31 Manchester Road, Worsley, Manchester M28 5NS’, slightly later issues, extremely fine (3) £80-120


Sydney Wakefield served as a D.E.M.S. Gunner with the Royal Marines during the Second World War, and was killed in action when the S.S. Ceramic, an 18,400-ton ocean liner bound for Australia, was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-515 under the command of Werner Henke in the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Azores, on 6 December 1942. The Ceramic had on board 196 naval and military personnel, nurses of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, and 152 fare paying passengers, including 12 children. Without warning she was hit by three torpedoes fired from U-515. Crippled but still afloat, she launched eight lifeboats, all full. About three hours later, U-515 fired two more torpedoes, which broke the ship’s back and sank her immediately. Sea conditions had become very stormy, and the lifeboats began to capsize. Despite the storm, which was severe enough to be a hazard to the U-boat, Henke returned to the location of the sinking to look for the captain, in the hopes of finding out the Ceramic’s intended destination. However, Henke only stayed long enough to pull one survivor from the water, Sapper Eric Munday, Royal Engineers. Eventually sent to Stalag VIII-B in Upper Silesia, it was not until he was liberated at the end of the War that details regarding the loss of the Ceramic were known by the Admiralty.


Wakefield, aged 20, was one of 14 D.E.M.S. Gunners aboard the Ceramic, returning with his colleagues to the Tana Naval Base in Mombasa, and was one of a total of 655 men, women, and children who were killed in the sinking. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.


271


Three: Petty Officer Cook J. A. Gates, Royal Navy, killed in action when the Special Service Vessel H.M.S. Fidelity was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-435 in the mid Atlantic on 30 December 1942


1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mr. D. Gates, 17 Murington Court, Fallowfield, Manchester’, extremely fine (3)


£100-140


James Alfred Gates served during the Great War in H.M.S. Fidelity. Formerly the French steamship La Rhone built in 1920, she was also operated by the French Colonial Intelligence Service as an armed merchantman. At the fall of France in 1940 she escaped from Marseilles and was taken over by the Admiralty in Gibraltar. After a series of special operations, she returned to the U.K. for an extensive refit and was renamed H.M.S. Fidelity. Completely overhauled and armed with two four inch main guns; four torpedo tubes, two Kingfisher seaplanes, two landing craft (LCV’s 752 and 754) and a motor torpedo boat (MTB 105), she was to operate as a Disguised Merchant ship or S.S.V. (Special Service Vessel), with a crew of 280, and in addition carried 51 Royal Marines and 4 other personnel. In December 1942 H.M.S. Fidelity was sailing as part of convoy ONS 154 from Liverpool to Halifax. The convoy of 50 merchantmen and escorts had been sighted by enemy U-boats on 26 December and had fought a running battle losing several ships. The main attack came on the evening of 28 December, and during these attacks Fidelity escaped torpedoes launched by U-225 and U-615, by lowering her torpedo nets and launching a Kingfisher which unfortunately crashed into the sea. The following morning, 29 December, Fidelity was stopped 30 miles astern of the convoy with engine problems. She restarted her main engines at 5:00 a.m. and declined the offer to dispatch a tug from Gibraltar. Speed was limited to two knots while streaming anti-torpedo nets when she was observed by S.S. Meteor and S.S. Milne at 5:30 a.m. U-615 found Fidelity while her main engines were again stopped for repairs between 10:15 and 11:00 a.m. U-615 identified H.M.S. Fidelity as a Disguised Merchant Ship and shadowed her cautiously. A reconnaissance flight by Fidelity's remaining Kingfisher observed two shadowing submarines and two of S.S. Empire Shackleton's lifeboats. Fidelity immediately launched LCV-752 and LCV-754 to tow-in the lifeboats. She then recovered the Kingfisher and the two-landing craft with S.S. Empire Shackleton's survivors that afternoon and launched MTB-105 to conduct anti-submarine patrols through the night. U-615 launched four torpedoes at Fidelity at about 8:00 p.m., but the anti-torpedo net protected the ship from damage. MTB-105 however experienced engine problems and lost contact with Fidelity during the night. The following afternoon, at 4:30 p.m. on 30 December 1942, Fidelity was torpedoed by U-435, under the command of Siegfried Strelow, approximately 250 miles north-north-west of the Azores. In total it took five torpedoes to finally sink her and she exploded with such force that the German U-boat commander Strelow, suspecting some sort of anti- submarine trap, crash dived immediately. The casualties numbered 325 men, some of which were crew from the Empire Shackleton.


Gates was amongst those killed, and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.


272


Three: Engine Room Artificer 4th Class E. G. Hunt, Royal Navy, who was killed in action in the Mediterranean during Operation Principle- the underwater chariot attack on the Italian Fleet- when H.M. Submarine P311 hit a mine, 2 January 1943


1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; WARMEDAL 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mrs. G. J. [sic] M. Thompson, The Sundial, Liverpool Road, Kingston Hill, Surrey’, extremely fine (3)


£160-200


Edmund George Hunt served during the Second World War in H.M. Submarine P311, a T Class submarine, and the only ship of her class never to be given a name. She was to have been christened H.M.S. Tutankhamen but was lost before this could be formally done. She was one of only two T Class submarines that were fitted with an Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, and in addition to this and prior to her departure from Scotland in November 1942 she was fitted with two deck mounted water tight containers which housed human chariots. On 28 December 1942 she left her base in Malta to take part in Operation Principle, the planned chariot attack on the Italian fleet anchored at La Maddalena. She sent her last signal on 31 December 1942, and was never heard from again. The general theory was that she had hit a mine on her approach to the anchorage, scheduled for 2 January 1943. Subsequently it was thought that the watertight containers may have affected her manoeuvrability and increased her surface profile. The complete crew, including Hunt, and ten charioteers were lost. Hunt was aged 28 at the time of his death, and is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. The date of his death given on the C.W.G.C. Roll, 8 January, was the date of P311‘s scheduled return, and the date on which she was officially reported as overdue.


In 2016, 76 years after her loss, the wreck of P311 was discovered by divers on the sea bed off of the Northeastern corner of Sardinia. The wreck is at 260 feet and was recognised through her deck mounted Oerlikon gun. The divers reported that the bow had been damaged by an explosion but that the hull was intact; this suggests that some of her crew and the charioteers may have still been alive on the sea bed.


Medals issued to the recipient’s widow, Gertrude Violet Maud Hunt, who had subsequently remarried. www.dnw.co.uk


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