The Ron Penhall Collection

The Second World War submariner’s D.S.M. group of six awarded to Stoker 1st Class A. S. Webb, Royal Navy, who served in the Torbay under Commander Anthony Miers, V.C., D.S.O., the latter recommending him for his efficiency in working the periscope during six successful torpedo attacks and for his deeds when boarding the Vichy French tanker Alberta in June 1941

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (KX. 77734 A. S. Webb, Sto. 1, H.M.S. Torbay); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine and better (6) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 7 October 1941. The original recommendation - submitted by Miers - states:

‘For his good service during four war patrols as a Stoker 1st Class in H.M.S. Torbay; for the efficiency with which he worked the periscope during six successful torpedo attacks; for the enthusiasm he has at all times shown in the performance of his duties and in particular for his skill and resource on the night of 7 June 1941 when boarding the tanker Alberta.’

Aubery Spencer Webb was born in November 1907, entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in February 1924 and transferred to the submarine branch as a Stoker 1st Class in April 1930.

Joining the newly commissioned T-class submarine Torbay in 1940, under Lieutenant-Commander A. C. C. Miers, R.N., he arrived in Alexandria in April 1941, where the Torbay joined the 1st Submarine Flotilla. And it was following her first few war patrols in the Mediterranean, between May and July of that year, that Webb was awarded his D.S.M.

The first of these patrols resulted in a ‘bag’ of one destroyer, two tankers (including the Vichy French Alberta), a schooner and three supply caiques, but also the crew’s first experience of a depth-charge attack, during which Miers noted they remained ‘perfectly steady’ - no mean feat given their captain’s preference for remaining very near the surface during such counter-attacks. Peter Padfield’s War Beneath the Sea explains further:

‘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 ... ’

Of the attack on the Vichy French tanker Alberta, Padfield states:

‘On 6 June, after observing much neutral traffic which they were not allowed to touch, since the ‘sink at sight’ zone did not extend to the Aegean, they indentified a Vichy French tanker making for the Dardanelles and the Black Sea; Miers ran in to attack. At the last moment the tanker made a radical turn which left him trailing. He moved right astern and swung round to fire a single torpedo directly up her wake; it hit, wrecking her propeller and rudder but she remained afloat and, lacking any power of motion, dropped anchor. Miers hit her with a second torpedo. Still she wouldn’t sink. He waited until after dark, then brought the submarine alongside, bridge Lewis guns at the ready, and sent a boarding party [including Webb] up over the side. She was deserted, but the engine room was flooded and they were unable to open the valves to scuttle her. Instead they parted the anchor cable with a demolition charge, so casting her adrift. Two days later she was sighted again, this time under tow. Miers fired a third torpedo but it merely frightened the tug away. Finally, they found her again and put forty shells into her waterline. Even this failed to sink her, but she drifted away and was never salvaged.’

Torbay’s next patrol was again a very successful one, her final ‘bag’ amounting to one Italian submarine - the Jantina - one freighter, another tanker and seven local motor sailing troop and supply transports. Yet this same patrol also resulted in mounting controversy regarding the use of guns against enemy soldiers and crew in troop-carrying caiques. The first indication of that controversy came 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 a few weeks earlier.

Webb, who Miers later described as a ‘splendid chap who served for most of the commission with me in Torbay’ (accompanying letter from him to Ron Penhall refers), was most surely present in the patrol in which Torbay landed Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes and his Rommel H.Q. raiders on the North African coast in November 1941, but whether he was still aboard her at the time of Miers’ V.C.-winning exploits in the Corfu Roads in March 1942 needs further research. What is certain is that by the time the Torbay returned home to Portsmouth in early June 1942, her “Jolly Roger” displayed ‘12 bars for merchantmen, one each for a destroyer, a submarine and a minesweeper, crossed cannon with nineteen stars for schooners and caiques sunk by gunfire, and several daggers for special operations’ (Padfield’s history refers). Moreover, we also know that the gallant Webb was among those to attend the remarkable “Torbay investiture” held at Buckingham Palace on 28 July 1942, when apart from Miers receiving his V.C., three of his officers were presented with either a D.S.O. or D.S.C., and 24 ratings a D.S.M. (or Bar to a D.S.M.).