Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry x5
A Second War destroyer commander’s D.S.O., D.S.C. group of seven attributed to Commander Mark Thornton, Royal Navy, whose exploits included the withdrawal of troops from Dunkirk and the sinking of the U-32 and the U-208 whilst in command of H.M.S. Harvester, and the destruction of two further U-boats whilst in command of H.M.S. Petard, including the highly important capture of a new four-wheel Enigma cypher machine and cypher books from U -559
Distinguished Service Order,
G.VI.R., silver-gilt and enamel, reverse officially dated 1943, with integral top riband bar; Distinguished Service Cross,
G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1941, and hallmarked London 1941; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Greece, War Cross 1940, mounted court style as worn, together with matching set of mounted miniature medals, ribbon bar, three spare oak leaf emblems with enclosure letter, and a Mediterranean Fleet Rifle Meeting, silver prize medal, hallmarked Birmingham 1934, top suspension bar dated ‘1934’ and ribbon bar inscribed ‘Rifle Title 1934’, very fine or better (15)
£1,800-£2,200
D.S.O. London Gazette 12 January 1943: Sinking of the Italian submarine Uarsciek south of Malta on 15 December 1942 by the British destroyer Petard (Lieut.-Commander M. Thornton) and the Greek destroyer Vasilissa Olga.
Greek War Cross London Gazette 22 June 1943: for services as above.
D.S.C. London Gazette 31 January 1941: Sinking of the U-32 north-west of Ireland on 30 October 1940 by the destroyers Harvester (Lieut.-Commander M. Thornton) and Highlander (Commander W. A. Dallmeyer). M.I.D. London Gazette 16 August 1940: Evacuation of troops from Dunkirk by H.M.S. Harvester (Lieut.-Commander M. Thornton). M.I.D. London Gazette 14 September 1943: Sinking of the U-559 in the Mediterranean on 30 October 1942.
Mark Thornton was born on 14 September 1907, and joined the Royal Navy as Acting Sub-Lieutenant on 1 January 1928; Sub- Lieutenant, 16 September 1928; Lieutenant, 16 November 1930; Lieutenant-Commander, 16 November 1938; Commander 31 December 1945; retired 15 May 1956. Served in H.M.S. Scimitar, 7 June 1938 to 26 February 1940; in command of H.M.S. Harvester from 11 March 1940 to 15 March 1942; in command of H.M.S. Petard from 28 April 1942 to January 1943; in command of H.M.S. Verulam from 20 September to 8 December, 1944.
In Harvester, Lieutenant-Commander Thornton was also successful in the sinking of the U-208 in the North Atlantic west of Gibraltar on 7 December 1941, in company with Hesperus (Lieut.-Commander A. A. Tait). His part in the sinking of the U-559 when in command of Petard and the capture of her Enigma cypher code books proved to be of the greatest importance. The following extract is taken from The Real Enigma Heroes by Phil Shanahan:
‘On 30 October 1942, two Royal Navy men serving on HMS Petard drowned whilst capturing codebooks from a German U-boat. A teenager, who helped them, tragically died two years later.
Able Seaman Colin Grazier, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, was 22 and had been married for just two days before he set out to join the British destroyer. First Lieutenant Tony Fasson, from Jedburgh in Scotland, was 29. The Enigma material they seized from the U-559 enabled Alan Turing and his team of brilliant codebreakers at Bletchley Park to crack the German naval Enigma code and pave the way for peace.
According to shipmates, Fasson and Grazier stripped naked and swam out to the crippled U-559. In doing so, they headed for the very hell their enemy was fleeing. They boarded the submarine together and began to smash open cabinets with their guns. They passed the contents, including the codebooks, up to Brown who had joined a boarding party making its way to the vessel on a small boat. Both Fasson and Grazier went down with the U-boat when it took in a sudden rush of water. Their bodies were never recovered. Brown had managed to pass the books up to his colleagues. As the submarine sank he popped out of the conning tower like a cork and survived.
Soon the documents were in the hands of the codebreakers who could scarcely believe their luck. It gave them the clues to finally cracking the four-rotor Enigma code which had prevented them reading the scrambled U-boat messages for the previous 10 months. The codebooks seized from the U-boat included the Short Signal Book and the Short Weather Cipher, which proved to be priceless materials for the Allies. Thanks to the documents the men got from the U-559, the code (known as Shark) was solved at Bletchley Park on December 13, 1942. Retrieving the Enigma codebooks from U-559 meant the messages used by the German high command to communicate with their U-boat fleet out in the Atlantic could now be read. Intelligence gained from the deciphered communications was codenamed “Ultra” and revealed the positions of the submarines. As a result, convoys bringing essential supplies, including food, to Britain from America could be re-routed to avoid attack. The tables were turned as the hunters became the hunted. The U-boat wolf packs had been sinking Allied ships at double the rate they were being built, with a terrible loss of life. In contrast the number of U- boats was doubling as the Germans gained the upper hand in the war. Up to 800,000 tonnes of Allied shipping was being lost in the Atlantic on a monthly basis. It was unsustainable and Britain was getting ever closer to the ropes.
www.dnw.co.uk all lots are illustrated on our website and are subject to buyers’ premium at 24% (+VAT where applicable)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234
