Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry x6
The important Second War ‘sinking of the Bismarck’ D.S.O. group of ten awarded to Rear-Admiral A. J. L. Phillips, R. N., in command of H.M.S. Norfolk during the action
Distinguished Service Order,
G.VI.R., silver-gilt and enamel, reverse officially dated 1941, with integral top riband bar; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. A. J. L. Phillips, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A. L. J. Phillips. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, good very fine (10) £6,000-£8,000
D.S.O. London Gazette 14 October 1941: ‘For mastery, determination and skill in action against the German Battleship Bismarck; Captain Alfred Jerome Lucian Phillips, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Norfolk.’
Alfred Jerome Lucian Phillips was born on 2 August 1893, and entered the service on 15 May 1906; Midshipman, 15 January 1912; Acting Sub-Lieutenant, 15 May 1913; Sub-Lieutenant, 15 January 1914; Lieutenant, 15 February 1915; Lieutenant-Commander, 15 February 1923; Commander, 30 June 1928; Captain, 31 December 1934; retired, 8 January 1944; Rear-Admiral retired, 22 December 1947. Captain Phillips was appointed to the command of H.M.S. Iron Duke in October 1937 and commanded H.M.S. Norfolk from 12 February 1940 to 19 January 1942. He was awarded the D.S.O. in recognition of the significant part played by H.M.S. Norfolk in the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941.
Sinking of the Bismarck
The moment it became known that the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had put to sea from Bergen, dispositions were at once made to prevent the enemy from breaking into the Atlantic to execute Admiral Lutjens’s ‘Good hunting and good bag.’
Sent to patrol the Denmark Straits, the cruisers H.M.S. Suffolk and H.M.S. Norfolk set out to track down the enemy, poor weather with fog and ice floes making their brief all the more difficult. On the evening of 23 May 1941, however, lookouts aboard the Suffolk, followed by those in the Norfolk, sighted the German ships sailing at high speed on a south-westerly course. Admiral Wake-Walker, with his flag in Norfolk, immediately reported this intelligence to the surrounding British forces.
Throughout the night the two cruisers continued to shadow the enemy force and, on the following morning, witnessed the attack carried out by the Prince of Wales and the Hood, the ultimate result of which was the terrible loss of the latter battleship. Hits, however, were observed on the Bismarck, and soon afterwards a successful torpedo strike was delivered by a Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the Victorious.
On the evening of 25 May contact was lost and it was not until a Coastal Command aircraft re-sighted the Bismarck 550 miles west of Land’s End that the Royal Navy moved in for the kill, a victory that prompted Churchill to state to the House of Commons on 27 May:
‘Great as is our loss in the Hood, the Bismarck must be regarded as the most powerful as she is newest battleship in the world, and the striking of her from the German Navy is a very definitive simplification of the task of maintaining the effective mastery of the Northern Sea and the maintenance of the Northern Blockade.’
The Norfolk’s role throughout the pursuit of the Bismarck was a significant one and on at least one occasion she came under the Bismarck’s direct fire. The following extract was taken from “Pursuit”, by Ludovic Kennedy:
“
...Norfolk, meanwhile, fifteen miles away inside the fog, had picked up the first of Suffolk’s signals: her Captain Alfred Phillips was in his sea-cabin eating cheese on toast when the Yeoman of Signals burst in with the news. Phillips at once increased speed and steered for the open water, but in his eagerness not to lose touch, he misjudged the direction, and emerged from the fog to find Bismarck only six miles ahead, coming straight at him. This time there was no doubting her readiness. As Norfolk swung to starboard to get back to the safety of the fog, Bismarck’s guns roared in anger for the first time. On the Norfolk’s bridge they saw the ripple of the orange flashes and brown puffs of cordite smoke, heard the scream of the shells - a sound which some have likened to the tearing of linen and others to the approach of an express train. Admiral Wake-Walker saw the sea to starboard pocked with shell splinters, observed one complete burnished shell bounce off the water fifty yards away, ricochet over the bridge. Great columns of milk-white water rose in the air, two hundred feet high. Five salvoes in all Bismarck fired before Norfolk regained the mist: some straddled, and splinters came aboard; but there were no casualties or hits.”
The 8-inch guns of Norfolk, alongside the heavier armaments of the Rodney and King George V, greatly contributed to the final bombardment of the Bismarck and as the Dorsetshire’s torpedoes delivered the coup-de-grâce, so ended one of the greatest threats ever placed upon allied convoys in the North Sea.
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