A rare Great War submariner’s D.S.M. awarded to Acting Chief Engine Room Artificer Robert Mills, H.M. Submarine E12

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (271072 R. Mills, Act. C.E.R.A. 2Cl. H.M. Sub. E12) contact marks, therfore nearly very fine £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval and Indian Marine Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1916.

On 18 June 1915 H.M. Submarine E12, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander K. M. Bruce, sailed under orders from Imbros, and on 19th June joined E14 (Commander E. C. Boyle, R.N., V.C.) in the Sea of Marmara. E12 had not arrived without difficulty. Since the passage of E14, which had entered the Sea a few days before, the minefields in the Narrows had been reinforced by steel submarine nets stretched across the Straits. After diving successfully beneath the first minefield, E12 became caught in the net and was brought to a stop. Up above her, watching the indicator buoys on the nets, waited the enemy patrol craft ready to fire as soon as the sumbarine broke surface. They had at this stage of the war no alternative method of attack, for the underwater bomb and its depth charge were still to be invented. Bruce first tried to ease E12 out of the net by going slowly astern. It was no use and she remained firmly caught. The only way left was to break through, to put so much force on the steel strands of the net that they parted under the strain. E12 was ordered to go full speed ahead. As she surged further into the net it brought her to a stop. She then went full astern, until the net stopped her again. Back and forth she went at full power on the engines. One by one the steel strands parted and at last she made a hole large enough to let her through. She reached the Sea of Marmara safely but her engines had been damaged in her fight with the nets.

Six days later, on 25 June, E12 was again in trouble. She had sighted two steamers towing five sailing vessels, and closing on the surface signalled them to stop. One obeyed, the other went on. E12 was brought close up alongside the stationary steamship and her two towed dhows. She looked unarmed and her crews had already donned life-belts. Bruce ordered his First Lieutenant, T. Fox, to board her and sink her by opening her sea cocks. Just as Fox, followed by two seamen, scrambled over her side, a Turk on board threw a bomb on to the deck of E12. It was a dud and bounced harmlessly off into the sea. But it was the signal for the Turkish crew to open fire with rifles, while a small gun concealed aft was unmasked and opened fire. Most awkwardly placed were Fox and his men. On board the steamer they had taken cover and were fighting for their lives. Behind them E12’s gun had been manned and was pumping shells into the enemy at a range of nine yards. At the same time the two dhows took a hand in the battle and came in on the disengaged side, firing rifles and attempting to foul E12’s propellors by towing a rope across them. For a moment it was touch and go. Bruce, ignoring the steamer for a moment, concentrated on the dhows and drove them off. He then finally silenced the steamer, and recovered Fox and his two men. Then, withdrawing to a more discreet range, he sank all three by gunfire.

With those three settled, E12 set about overtaking the other steamer. She was well away and making for the shore. Opening fire at a range of 2000 yards, E12 hit her twice and and started a fire forward. The enemy slipped the three dhows she was towing and beached herself. When E12 closed to finish her off, she was herself fired on by troops ashore with a battery of field guns. E12 retired, and sinking the three dhows, went in search of quieter waters to carry out repairs to her engines. These had been giving trouble ever since the episode with the submarine net in the Narrows. One of them was completely out of action, the other frequently breaking down. It was more than her crew could manage unaided and, a week after entering the Sea of Marmara, E12 made her way home on 27 June for the more complete repairs that only a depot ship could carry out.

In September of that year E12 was again ordered into the Sea of Marmara. She had been to Malta for a refit and came back carrying a four-inch gun, the largest yet fitted to a submarine. She used it to bombard the powder magazine at Mudania and also to silence several batteries of guns ashore. It was the first time that these batteries, set up by the enemy at various points along the shore of the Sea of Marmara, had been seriously engaged and they invariably had the worst of the encounter.

To E12 is credited the first experiment in underwater signalling, Bruce having worked out a system of communication by tapping on the pressure hull with a hammer. This system was later tried by the first of the later H-boats and these early experiments finally led to the development of the Fessenden gear, an electric apparatus which by sending out a sonic beam into the water allowed submarines to communicate with each other at ranges of up to two or three miles or more.

E12’s main excitement came on her way home. She got through the nets fairly easily but in doing so tore away a large portion which draped itself over her bows and got entangled with her forward hydroplanes. It was immovable and the extra weight of the net took the submarine down at a steep angle. She passed 100 feet and the blowing of the forward ballast tanks failed to check her downward plunge. The hydroplanes were put into hand working, and three men struggled to move them to give her rise helm. E12 passed 150 feet, and still she went down, already deeper now than any submarine had ever dived. But the three men on the hydroplanes, using all their strength, began slowly to move them, but not enough yet to check her dive. At 200 feet the immense pressure of the water at that great depth began to take effect. The glass scuttles in the conning tower cracked under the weight of water, and the conning tower was flooded, adding yet more weight to E12. But by now the forward hydroplanes were beginning to take effect and E12 levelled off at 245 feet. The hull began to leak and it looked as though the end had come. For several minutes she remained at that depth, in danger of being crushed like the shell of an egg. At last she began to rise, shooting up at an alarming rate. the three men on the forward hydroplanes struggled to give her dive helm, but could not move the hydroplane fast enough. E12 came up to 12 feet with her conning tower out of the water before she could be got under control. She was fired at and missed. Down E12 went again, again being forced into a steep dive by the weight of the net. She was steadied at 120 feet, but up she came again as soon as the hydroplanes were set to rise. So she continued, alternately near the surface or in the depths, until she ran into the minefield off Kilid Bahr. Here she got entangled in the mine moorings, and these were to prove her salvation. Putting his helm hard over, Bruce went ahead at full speed. The moorings caught in the portion of net and dragged it clear. With this weight suddenly taken off her bows, E12 shot to the surface. She came up just under the guns of the shore batteries and was hit three times, once in the conning tower and twice on the bridge. But the pressure hull was not pierced and E12 was still safe. Two torpedoes, fired from tubes mounted ashore, shot past her without hitting but by this time E12 was regaining her proper trim and was soon down to 60 feet. At this depth she was safe, and E12 kept it until she reached Cape Helles, after which it was plain sailing to the base at Mudros.

Lieutenant-Commander Bruce was awarded the D.S.O., whilst the D.S.M. went to Acting C.E.R.A. Robert Mills and possibly a few others.