Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An impressive Second World War submariner’s D.S.M. and Bar group of six awarded to Leading Seaman F. F. Gavin, Royal Navy: gaining a “mention” for his services in Torbay in August-November 1941, aboard which submarine Keyes, V.C., and his Commandos were embarked for the famous raid on Rommel’s H.Q., he won his first D.S.M. for like services in the period December 1941 to March 1942, when his skipper, Commander Miers, was awarded the V.C., and a Bar for subsequent services in the Trenchant in Far East

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar (JX. 155038 F. F. Gavin, A.B.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf, the first with edge nicks, contact marks and somewhat polished, nearly very fine, the remainder rather better (6) £6000-8000

D.S.M. London Gazette 7 July 1942. The original recommendation states:

‘For his continued good services as trainer of the 4-inch gun in H.M.S. Torbay during three war patrols since previously being recommended for a mention in despatches. In this patrol, six enemy vessels have been sunk largely owing to the excellence of the training which has greatly facilitated the spotting by the G.C.O.

He has moreover, shown courage and endurance of a high order on five occasions of working with boats on the casing in rough weather off the enemy coast, these being subsequent to the cases cited in the previous recommendation for this rating. He shows a complete disregard for his personal safety, and it is typical of him that he has recently volunteered for special service of an arduous and dangerous nature as soon as the opportunity to do so arose.’

Bar to D.S.M. London Gazette 24 April 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘Leading Seaman Gavin is the Gunlayer of the 4-inch gun in H.M.S. Trenchant. At all times he sets an example of courage, efficiency and offensive spirit to his Guns’ Crew. Largely due to his steadiness in action, the 4-inch gun has been very efficient. Actions include:

On 9 August 1944, the sinking of a Japanese M.L. and Auxiliary Vessel off Sablat, Sumatra.

On 10 November 1944, the sinking of a Motor Junk, when two enemy Submarine Chasers were fast approaching.

On 21 December 1944, the sinking of two Landing Craft while an enemy aircraft was approaching.

On 25 December 1944, the sinking, with H.M.S. Terrapin, of an enemy Anti-Submarine Trawler.

In addition, Leading Seaman Gavin is an excellent Lookout. He sighted an enemy convoy in the Malacca Straits on 9 November 1944, which enabled it to be intercepted and attacked.’

Felix Francis Gavin, who was born in November 1921, entered the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in September 1939, and volunteered for submarines in early 1941.

“Torbay” - June to November 1941 - Rommel raid - M.I.D.

Joining H.M.S. Torbay in June 1941, from the depot ship Medway, at Alexandria, Gavin’s new C.O. was Commander Anthony Miers, R.N., who would shortly win the V.C. and a brace of D.S.Os for his gallantry and aggressive leadership.

And for the newly embarked Gavin, who was to serve as Trainer on Torbay’s 4-inch gun, much action lay ahead, including being subjected to numerous depth-charge attacks. Of Miers’ tactics under such attack, Peter Padfield’s War Beneath the Sea explains:

‘His technique when hunted differed from that of most C.Os; he never dived below about 80 feet - whether or not there was, as in this case, a ‘feather-bed’ layer - believing that the submarine’s frame and vulnerable hatch and other openings were in a better condition to resist the shock waves from depth-charges when not already under extreme pressure at maximum depth; further that he could more easily come up to periscope depth to review the position from 80 feet. By shutting off all auxiliary motors and maintaining the lowest speed compatible with holding trim, he hoped to remain undetectable by the Italian passive listening devices ... ’

Gavin’s first patrol in Torbay, the submarine’s third operational outing in the Mediterranean theatre of war, was a typically successful one, her final ‘bag’ amounting to one Italian submarine - the Jantina - one freighter, the Citta di Tripoli, her second tanker, the Strombo, and several local troop and supply transports, including caiques.

Yet this same patrol also resulted in mounting controversy regarding the use of guns against enemy soldiers and crew in such troop-carrying caiques. The first indication of that controversy arose on 4 July, when Miers surfaced to engage with guns an enemy troop-carrying caique and schooner, between Andros and Euboea - having sunk both vessels, two Lewis guns were used from Torbay’s bridge to destroy ‘everything and everybody’. Then on 9 July similar tactics were employed against another troop-carrying caique - also laden with petrol, ammunition and food supplies. And it was on this second occasion that matters appear to have got out of hand, although it is worth noting that the enemy showed stout resistance on being boarded - a Corporal in the Special Boat Section had to shoot a German he saw about to hurl a grenade, and one of Torbay’s officers was compelled to dispatch another who was in the process of raising his rifle. Interestingly, this was not the first time that the R.N. had attracted adverse commentary from enemy survivors, German Naval High Command having already received reports of similar incidents during the Crete campaign.

Next ordered to patrol the Gulf of Sirte, Torbay launched an unsuccessful torpedo attack on an Italian convoy on 12 August, and was herself attacked by an Italian aircraft and torpedo boat. Having then sunk a sailing vessel off Cape Matapan on the 16th, Torbay carried out two night operations in which she picked up 130 Allied troops and Greeks from a beach on the coast of Southern Crete.

A period in dock at Port Said having followed, Torbay commenced her next war patrol in the Aegean in early September, and, in typical fashion, Miers carried out a daring strike against the German merchantman Norburg inside Candia harbour, Crete. Less successful were torpedo attacks against enemy convoys in the Gulf of Athens on 19 and 23 September - depth-charged in retaliation on both occasions, Torbay managed to slip away and returned to Alexandria on the 28th.

In October, Torbay dropped Captain John Haselden behind enemy lines on the coast of Libya, and carried out a shore bombardment of Apollonia for good measure, before ending her sixth patrol. And the reason behind Haselden’s gallant foray was to survey the neighbourhood in respect of a much bigger special mission - namely “Operation Flipper”, the ill-fated raid on Rommel’s H.Q. Here, then, Torbay’s next operation, for she departed Alexandria on the 10th with Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Keyes, M.C., and 25 of his Commandos, whilst her consort Talisman departed with Colonel Bob Laycock and another 25 raiders. Torbay successfully got Keyes and his men ashore on the beach at ‘The Dog’s Nose’ on the night of 14th-15th, with the assistance of four S.B.S. personnel in folbots, where Keyes linked up with the aforementioned Captain Haselden. Talisman was less fortunate, heavy seas permitting only Laycock and seven of his men to get ashore. The rest, as they say, is history - Keyes winning a posthumous V.C.

Gavin, later noted for his good work with boats on Torbay’s casing in rough weather, was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 7 April 1942, refers).

Further operations in “Torbay” - December 1941 to March 1942 - D.S.M. - Miers wins V.C.

On 9 December 1941, Torbay departed on her eighth war patrol, charged with operating off the west coast of Greece and the approaches to Navarino Bay, where she sank several Greek sailing vessels with gunfire and disembarked an S.B.S. folbot team - the latter were discovered by the enemy and fortunate to get back to Torbay. Second and third attempts to get the S.B.S. team into Navarino harbour also ended in failure. But during her next war patrol, Torbay successfully landed a team of eight men and stores on a beach on the south coast of Crete.

It was, however, for Torbay’s next patrol that Miers was awarded his Victoria Cross. John Winton takes up the story in The V.C. at Sea:

‘On 20 February 1942, Torbay sailed from Alexandria for a patrol off the west coast of Greece. Early in the morning of the 26th, while Torbay was surfaced recharging batteries, Miers sighted a tanker escorted by a destroyer. He dived, surfaced astern and fired one torpedo, which was spotted. Torbay herself was also seen and forced to dive again. Eleven depth-charges were dropped. It had been a narrow escape, because Miers had had great difficulty in shutting the upper hatch when the destroyer was heading straight towards him. Later, he found the hatch had been jammed by his own pillow.

On 1 March and again on the 2nd, in what was turning out to be a strenuous patrol, Torbay was depth-charged by destroyers and six near misses lifted her several feet. Miers himself spoke of the effect of depth-charging on him, and like so many submarine captains under stress, of the serenity and reassurance he gained from his crew: ‘I am bound to confess that on many occasions I have felt extremely frightened when the depth-charges have been going off around us. Yet even then the crew of the Torbay has never failed to amaze me. In fact they almost seem to enjoy themselves keeping a scoreboard of the number of enemy depth-charges dropped.’

Miers moved his patrol area to Corfu Island where, on 3 March, he sighted a large enemy convoy escorted by three destroyers entering Corfu harbour. The harbour is a stretch of water thirty miles long from north to south and twelve miles across at its widest point, formed between the island of Corfu and the Greek mainland. The southern entrance is five miles long, with an effective width reduced by shoals for submarines to about two and a half miles. Miers followed the convoy at slow speed until dusk, when he surfaced and entered the southern channel. He had to dive again to avoid a small motor-ship but then surfaced and followed it in.

At 10 p.m. Torbay was trimmed down, with only her conning tower showing above water and her hull turned stern on to the brilliant moon which had just risen, while recharging batteries about five miles east of the main anchorage. A signal was received recalling Torbay from patrol. Miers remarked in a somewhat Nelsonian manner that he was ‘relieved to find that this signal did not conflict with the present operation’. At 1 a.m., Miers had to dive to avoid a patrolling trawler, and then took Torbay slowly across the harbour towards the anchorage. By 2.35 a.m. Miers found himself actually in the roads, having been carried across by a strong westerly set. He could see no sign of ships, and decided to wait until daylight.

Dawn showed that the convoy had apparently sailed again. There were two 5,000-ton transports and a destroyer still in the anchorage. Firing as Torbay swung round, Miers shot one torpedo at each, missing the destroyer but hitting the transports. He and Torbay then endured another forty depth-charges while making their escape to the open sea, after being in closely patrolled enemy waters for seventeen hours.

Miers's V.C. was gazetted on 7 July 1942. He himself wished that the medal could be awarded to the whole ship, but in a remarkable and unprecedented Investiture at Buckingham Palace on 28th July, the King presented Miers with the V.C., his engineer officer, Lieutenant (E.) Hugh Kidd D.S.C., with a D.S.O., Lieutenants Paul Chapman and D.S. Verschoyle-Campbell with Bars to their D.S.Cs, and twenty-four ratings of Torbay with D.S.Ms or Bars to their D.S.Ms.’

And among the gathered throng was Gavin, whose persistently courageous work on Torbay’s 4-inch gun, and in boat operations, had been rewarded with a D.S.M.

“Trenchant” - Far East - Bar to D.S.M.

Having then served in the submarines P. 214 and Thrasher in the interim, Gavin joined the Trenchant under Commander Arthur Hezlet, D.S.C., R.N., in November 1943.

Trenchant subsequently carried out a total of seven war patrols in the Far East between July 1944 and July 1945, Gavin adding a Bar to his D.S.M. for the above cited actions in the period December 1944 to January 1945, and Hezlett a brace of D.S.Os to his earlier D.S.C.

In common with Torbay, Gavin’s time in the Trenchant witnessed a number of special operations, most notably the raid on Phuket harbour on the night of 27-28 October, when Trenchant conveyed a pair of chariots - “Tiny” and “Slasher” - and their two-man crews to the target area. The Sumatra Maru having been sunk, and the Volpi damaged, she collected the charioteers amidst much celebration - all four were decorated.

And in terms of more regular patrol work, Trenchant was equally successful, her victims including the U-589, taken out by a three torpedo strike off Penang on 23 September 1944 and, above all, the Japanese heavy cruiser Ashigara, which fell victim to a full bow salvo of eight torpedoes off Muntok Island in the Banka Strait on 8 June 1945 - the largest warship ever sunk by a British submarine.

Awarded a Bar to his D.S.M., Gavin remained a regular submariner until coming ashore in September 1952, having latterly served in the Alliance; sold with a file of copied research.