Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The Second World War D.S.M. group of seven awarded to Petty Officer (Pensioner) W. C. Mudge, Royal Navy, who commanded a 6-inch gun crew aboard the armed merchant cruiser Alcantara at the time of her famous clash with the enemy raider Thor in July 1940

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (D/227540 W. C. Mudge, P.O., H.M.S. Alcantara); 1914-15 Star (227540 W. C. Mudge, L.S., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (227540 A.B., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, the Great War trio mounted as worn, the 1939-45 campaign awards in their orginal addressed card forwarding box with Admiralty slip, the earlier awards with contact marks and a little polished, good fine, the remainder very fine and better (7) £2500-3000

D.S.M. London Gazette 27 December 1940:
‘For good services in action against an enemy raider.’

The original recommendation states:
‘For forwardness in action. When his gun’s crew were badly shocked and several casualties caused by the bursting of three shells within 15 feet of his gun, he rallied them promptly and quickly got the gun back into action.’

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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William Charles Mudge was born at Dawlish, Devon in April 1888 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1903. The outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 found him serving as a Leading Seaman aboard the cruiser Duke of Edinburgh, in which ship he served in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf in 1914 and at Jutland, prior to coming ashore in May 1918.

Remaining a “regular” after the War, Mudge was appointed to Admiral Cowan’s flagship, the Delhi, in May 1919, was advanced to Petty Officer and saw much action in the Baltic, while in the period 1923-25 he served in the Cicala on the China Station. He was finally pensioned ashore in April 1928, but, as a result of having forfeited a Good Conduct Badge in November 1917, he was not entitled to the L.S. & G.C. Medal.

Recalled on the renewal of hostilities, Mudge joined the ship’s company of the Alcantara in September 1939, an armed merchant cruiser (ex Royal Mail Line) commanded by Captain J. J. P. Ingham, R.N., a Jutland D.S.O., with Lieutenant-Commander C. Fellows-Gordon, R.N., ‘a great friend’ of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American President, as his second-in-command. For his own part, Mudge was appointed a Petty Officer and given command of one of Alcantara’s 6-inch gun crews.

In January 1940, having completed her refit, Alcantara was ordered to the South American coast, where she was to operate under the overall command of Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, whose three cruisers had so recently won fame for the River Plate action against the Graf Spee. Indeed it was Harwood who ordered the Alcantara to patrol the “Pernambuco Watch”, and more especially to keep an eye on the island of Trinidade, in mid-July 1940, Naval Intelligence having good reason to believe that a German raider was due to arrive in the vicinity.

As Captain Ingham was about to discover, those suspicions were well-founded, for, on the morning of 27 July, his lookouts spotted a “stranger” on the horizon due East - it was the German raider Thor, commanded by Kapitan Otto Kahler, a talented cigar-smoking adversary, who had served in U-Boats in the Great War. While Ingham was still signalling the Thor to reveal her identity - range 17,500 yards - the German commander ran up his battle ensign and opened fire, the beginning of a ferocious duel. Of the enemy raider’s first salvo, one shell burst over the Alcantara’s quarter deck, killing the trainer of the P4 6-inch gun and knocking out the ship’s W./T. aerials, thereby hazarding the ship’s entire gun-control system. Ingham signalled Harwood for assistance, just as another shell burst over the liner’s old tennis deck, causing considerable damage. Then another brace of projectiles from Thor’s third salvo slammed into the Alcantara’s unarmoured starboard side aft, tearing gaping holes, while a third burst just four feet above the waterline causing damage to the orlop deck. Added to which:

‘Enemy near-misses falling short burst on impact with the sea, throwing up geysers of white water heavily speckled with black which drenched the guns’ crews. Shrapnel and anti-personnel shells with time-and-percussion fuses were bursting in a continuous fusillade of sharp explosions overhead or on impact, sending jagged metal shards whistling through the air close to the unprotected heads of the men on deck, including the men at the guns, which had no shields.

One shell hit the old Promenade Deck just to starboard of the funnel, damaging the deck, bulkheads and alleyways and the wardroom, slicing electrical leads and engine room voicepipes, starting a fire which was energetically doused by the Midship Fire Party. Its companion tore a four-foot hole in the funnel, inner funnel and the waste steam pipes inside. Seven boats and three life rafts were holed, the starboard cutter wrecked. All the loud racket of the shell bursts, coupled wih the ship’s own guns firing, made it difficult for the sight-setters to hear orders from the Transmitting Station over their headphones, and the fall of shot soon indicated that the sights at the different guns had got out of step with one another, preventing salvo firing. The order “Check” went round. Firing was stopped while range and corrected deflection were passed to the guns, then re-opened. This had to be done repeatedly’ (Armed Merchant Cruisers, by Kenneth Poolman, refers).

Meanwhile, a hit abreast the fore end of the Alcantara’s engine-room caused much concern, the resultant damage reducing her speed. Luckily, however, with her guns now firing more accurately, she obtained a vital hit on the Thor, ‘a bright flash’ being seen abreast the raider’s foremast - two of her 6-inch shells had found their mark, causing considerable damage and casualties. Even so, the duel continued apace, until the Thor laid down a thick smoke-screen and opened the range, but not before a parting enemy projectile blew away part of the starboard side of the Alcantara’s bridge, causing four more casualties. For a moment it seemed the action had reached its conclusion, the Alcantara by now virtually stopped in the water. But to Ingham’s horror, the enemy raider suddenly burst through the smoke-screen, once more closing her adversary with three-gun salvoes. The Alcantara, now with a distinct list to port, replied in kind, and finally compelled the Thor to flee the scene for good.

The severely damaged Alcantara reached Rio de Janeiro under her own steam on 1 August 1940, where she was permitted to carry out vital repairs before returning to sea, while the Thor went on to become the most successful commerce raider of the War, claiming 22 victims totalling 150,000 tons - Kapitan Kahler was awarded the Knight’s Cross.

Mudge came ashore to an appointment in Drake in December 1940, a few days before his D.S.M. was gazetted, but was discharged as ‘physically unfit for Naval service’ in September 1942.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s parchment R.N. Certificate of Service; Gunnery History Sheet, which confirms his appointment as a P.O. / Gunlayer aboard the Alcantara; Buckingham Palace investiture admittance ticket, dated 25 March 1941; Ministry of Pensions letter, dated 26 August 1942, forwarding the King’s Badge for Invalided Personnel of the Forces; and several “career” photographs, one of which appears to be of a starboard gun position aboard the Alcantara.