A Second War Coastal Forces D.S.C. and Second Award Bar group of five attributed to Lieutenant P. F. S. Gould, Royal Navy, the legendary Motor Gun Boat skipper who was decorated for his actions in the English Channel in M.G.B. 43, including the daylight ‘Channel Dash’ attacks on the German ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen in February 1942; his final action in April 1943 off Cap Bon in the Mediterranean was thought worthy of a V.C. but resulted in the award of a Posthumous ‘mention’

Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse of the Cross officially dated 1941, hallmarks for London 1940, and additionally engraved ‘Lt. P. F. S. Gould’, the reverse of the Bar officially dated 1942; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; War Medal 1939-45, with small M.I.D. oak leaf, these unnamed and mounted for display, extremely fine (5) £1,400-£1,800

D.S.C. London Gazette 21 October 1941: ‘M.G.B. 43 - For an attack on an enemy convoy in the Channel on 8 September 1941’ (Seedie’s Coastal Forces List refers).

D.S.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 31 March 1942: ‘M.G.B. 43 - For daylight attacks on the German ships SCHARNHORST, GNEISENAU and PRINZ EUGEN in the Dover Strait on 12 February 1942’ (Seedie’s Coastal Forces List refers).

M.I.D. London Gazette 5 July 1940: ‘M.T.B. 16 - For good service off the Dutch Coast’ (Seedie’s Coastal Forces List refers).

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 January 1942: ‘M.G.B. 43 - For an attack on an enemy convoy in the Dover Strait on 3 November 1941’ (Seedie’s Coastal Forces List refers).

M.I.D. Posthumous London Gazette 11 January 1944: ‘32nd M.T.B. Flotilla - For an action off Kelibia and Cap Bon on 28 April 1943’ (Seedie’s Coastal Forces List refers). Accompanying Admiralty letter states: ‘For his distinguished services in a daylight sweep against an escorted Enemy Convoy in the Mediterranean in April 1943. Lieutenant Gould was Senior Officer of the 32nd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla and showed outstanding gallantry in deliberately drawing on to his own light craft the fire of a much more heavily armed ship and so enabling the rest of his Flotilla to carry out a successful Torpedo attack on the Enemy. In the course of this gallant action Lieutenant Gould was killed.’

Philip Francis Stewart Gould was born on 29 May 1916 at Eastbourne, Sussex, eldest son of Colonel Philip Gould, D.S.O. He entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in January 1930; passed as a Cadet in September 1933; and went afloat for the training cruise in the Frobisher, and from May 1934 was a midshipman in the Neptune, Home Fleet. On completion of his courses for Lieutenant, in 1937 he was appointed to the minesweeper Hazard, but in July 1938 was selected for service with motor torpedo boats. In command of M.T.B. 16 he was Mentioned in Despatches for services off the Dutch Coast when he was the last boat to leave the Hook of Holland as the Germans invaded, and did good work during the evacuation from Dunkirk. Gould later took part in the blocking of Zeebrugge and Ostend, taking off the crews of the blockships under fire. Following the loss of M.T.B. 16 to a mine in the Thames Estuary on 31 October 1940, he transferred to Motor Gun Boats and took command of M.G.B. 43.

Of the action fought on the night of 8-9 September 1941, in the Straits of Dover off Blanc Nez, when M.G.B. 43 operated alongside M.G.B. 52, and a flotilla of M.T.Bs, Bryan Cooper in his history The Battle of the Torpedo Boats, states:

‘Fifteen miles away, the gunfire was seen by Lieutenant Stewart Gould from the bridge of M.G.B. 43. Together with M.G.B. 52, commanded by Lieutenant Barry Leith, R.N.V.R., this boat was racing towards the interception, having received a bearing from Dover Command headquarters. The boats altered course slightly to head directly for the lights flashing over the distant horizon ... As Gould headed for the distant gunfire, he too was wondering if now, at last, they were to have their chance. It would be galling for the M.T.Bs to have it all their own way; at this time there existed a friendly rivalry between the crews serving in the two types of craft ...The first to actually sight the convoy was Gould, in M.G.B. 43. He signalled the information to Dover Command and also to Pumphrey [Flotilla C.O. of the M.T.Bs].

As far as Gould could make out, there was one merchant ship and about six escorts, two of them armed trawlers and the remainder E boats. He decided to shadow the convoy until the M.T.Bs had time to close for their attack, and took station on the port quarter, about three-quarters of a mile behind. But the minutes passed and there was still no sign that the M.T.Bs had seen the convoy. All Gould knew was that they were several miles to the west. At 01-40, he decided to make a depth charge attack with the dual purpose of inflicting as much damage to the enemy as he could and also guiding the M.T.Bs to the area. Just at that moment, however, he saw small craft coming up astern of the convoy at high speed. It wasn’t where he expected to see the M.T.Bs, but they could have changed their position.

“Thinking they might be our M.T.Bs,” Gould later reported, “I challenged. This was answered by heavy and accurate fire from shell-firing machine-guns. I then saw they were German S boats, four of them, in line abreast.”

Both of Gould’s Lewis gunners, Able Seamen S. J. Beckett and E. Fletcher, were severely wounded by fragments of cannon shell, so that they were unable to take any further part in the action. M.G.B. 52 following, increased speed to 30 knots and engaged the enemy S-boats with full armament. Turning north, he then raced across the bows of the leading German boat and dropped a depth charge, set to go off at 100 feet. There was a dull explosion and no more was seen of the S-boat. Meanwhile, the other German boats were being repeatedly hit with Oerlikon and Lewis gun fire, and after a couple of minutes they broke off the action and turned away to the south at high speed. Gould then set about the rest of the convoy, closing to within 600 yards and engaging with gunfire. The enemy were so demoralised by now that they were firing wildly in all directions, and at one point, as Gould later recalled, the trawlers were firing at their own S-boats ... the M.G.Bs broke off the engagement at 02.55 and set course for home ... On the way home, a Dornier 17 shadowed the two craft for about twenty minutes at a height of 500 feet. The plane was finally driven off by 43’s gunner, Able Seaman Lanfear. M.G.B. 43 finally arrived at Ramsgate at 09.20, after [the damaged] M.G.B. 52 had been taken in tow by a destroyer.’ Lanfear won a well deserved C.G.M.

Gould won a bar to his D.S.C. for an extraordinarily gallant attempt to penetrate the enemy’s defensive screen during the famous “Channel Dash” of February 1942 - in the end, under a terrible fire, he engaged an enemy destroyer at 1000 yards range.

From 23 November 1942, he was the commanding officer of the motor torpedo boat H.M.S. St Christopher, transferring in April 1943 to M.T.B. 639 as Senior Officer commanding the 32nd M.T.B. Flotilla equipped with Fairmile D ‘Dog boats’ as they became known. It was assumed, rightly as it turned out, that the German forces were unfamiliar with the Dog boats and they could be mistaken for E-Boats.
On one occasion in the Mediterranean, off the coast between Bizerta and Tunis, Gould found his boat was alone between two enemy convoys, accompanied by several German E-boats. He calmly decided that his best protection was to throw in his lot with one of the convoys. The E-boats, mistaking his identity in the darkness, took up their positions beside him. The convoy steamed on with his boat blithely in the middle of it, until he decided that the moment had come to strike. A close-range torpedo attack sank one merchant ship and damaged another before Gould made his getaway.

As the battle for Tunisia was nearing its final phase in April 1943, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Naval Forces in the Mediterranean, Admiral Cunningham, ordered units of the 32nd Flotilla to ‘carry out a slow inshore patrol of the Cape Bon peninsula in broad daylight’ to bring back essential information for Allied Powers to ascertain whether Rommel was planning a last desperate Dunkirk type operation to get the Afrika Korps out of North Africa. As well as gathering vital intelligence, the small force was given the directive to ‘clear the sea lanes’, causing as much mayhem and confusion as possible. It was a mission ideally matched to Gould's aggressive spirit. German swastika flags were hastily made for three boats, M.T.Bs 639 (with Gould embarked), 633 and 637, the three boats quietly slipping out of harbour on the evening of 27 April 1943.
The story is taken up by a reporter working for the United Press, George Palmer, who had spent 15 months covering the Malta convoys, commando raids on Tobruk, naval actions against the Italian Fleet and had himself been torpedoed:

‘The three tiny ships slipped out of harbour at sunset and arrived off the German shore line at daybreak. Just half a mile away, the lookout saw a powerful coastal battery but the Germans on the beach only waved. The boats cruised slowly on, charting exact positions of all camouflaged gun emplacements and enemy forces. Still the Nazis waved from the beaches. They reached Kelibia Pier from which the Axis were expected to concentrate the evacuation. Soldiers, not more than a few hundred feet away, continued to work on the pier. The M.T.B. observers recorded everything. Around the point, the M.T.Bs arrived at the principal German anchorage and Gould and his officers recorded positions of gun emplacements, radar, storage depots, ammunition dumps and troop concentrations.

Amazingly and inexplicably, the Germans still failed to recognise the true identity of the boats. Repeatedly German fighter aircraft passed low overhead, but there was a general disbelief that any such insignificant enemy vessels would dare to come right into such heavily defended harbours in broad daylight.

After an hour and a half, Gould and his team had gleaned all possible intelligence information. Two Italian minesweepers and a convoy escort ship were spotted. Gould ordered his boats into action. The swastikas came down and battle ensigns hoisted. At 300 yards and for 20 minutes the M.T.Bs raked the enemy with two-pounders, pom-poms and machine guns. The shells which missed the enemy ships went into a factory directly behind. Total surprise was achieved. The Italian crews were too shocked to man their guns and return fire; many jumped overboard. Both sweepers were sunk and the support vessel was ablaze, bow to stern. Gould's boats reversed course, shooting at anything which looked interesting. (In fact, later historical records suggest that five ships - two minesweepers, two important supply ships and an R-boat - were destroyed.) A large number of German transport aircraft were also destroyed on an adjacent landing strip and several aircraft were shot out of the skies. The German command thought that they were being attacked by a large scale force and ordered troops to defensive positions and scrambled all available fighter aircraft but in most cases it was too late. Almost out of ammunition, but with vital intelligence and leaving a trail of destruction behind him, Gould could have withdrawn at speed and with great honour, but a sizeable merchant ship and two destroyers were spotted a mile offshore. Gould launched one of the most brazen attacks in naval history. M.T.B. 639 with Gould onboard had already expended its torpedoes and therefore headed for the destroyers to draw their fire whilst the other two boats manoeuvred into position to attack with torpedoes. Hits were observed and it seems likely that the merchant ship was destroyed. However, the M.T.Bs were now taking serious fire both from the destroyer escorts and waves of fighter aircraft. 639 took the brunt. The CO, Lieutenant G. L. Russell, was killed and Gould seriously wounded. 639 was sinking. 633 and 637 came alongside to take off survivors, a tricky and dangerous operation whilst all boats were under fierce attack. The rescue was achieved but Gould died of his wounds shortly after. 637 and 633 were able to get back to Souse and deliver the vital intelligence. In spite of the losses, both in terms of casualties and a boat, it had been an extraordinarily successful and daring operation. The one enduring question, which will now never be satisfactorily answered, is why Stuart Gould was not awarded a posthumous V.C. but in the fog of war and, of course, with the senior officer dead, it took time for the details of the actions to emerge.’ At that time only the V.C. and a mention in despatches could be awarded posthumously, Gould being granted the latter, but, in piecing together the accounts of survivors, the renowned writer Len Reynolds in his book Dog Boats at War is clear that this was one of the most daring and successful actions of the Coastal Forces war in the Mediterranean.

Lieutenant P. F. S. Gould was buried in the Enfidaville War Cemetery, near Souse, Tunisia; he was aged 26 years.

Sold with the following documents and artefacts:
i) Admiralty letter addressed to Mrs. M. Gould enclosing M.I.D. Certificate and describing action for which awarded - see above (Certificate not present).
ii) A rather battered silver cigarette box inscribed ‘To Lieut P. F. S. Gould, D.S.C., R.N. from the Officers of the 3rd M.G.B. Flotilla and C.F. Base 1941.’
iii) Nine letters written by Gould to his wife 1941-43, the last dated 20/4/43 received after he had been killed in action.
iv) Letter of congratulations from Rear Admiral, Coastal Forces, Portland on award of D.S.C., and others offering commiseration from crew members and contemporaries.
v) Approximately 12 various photographs of Lieutenant Gould, including his wedding, group photographs of his Dartmouth Term (all identified), crew of M.T.B. 639, two more of M.T.Bs, and others of his grave marker and funeral service with coffin draped with flags.
vi) The recipient’s Royal Naval Officer’s Full Dress Sword, the blade etched with the Royal Arms and G.V.R. cypher, the top gilt brass panel of the black leather scabbard engraved ‘P.F.S’G’.
vii) R.N. Ensign and Union flag returned to his widow after being used to drape his coffin
viii) Blackwood’s Magazine for August 1943 containing detailed article by Ian Scott, ‘Coastal Forces Memories’ with numerous mentions of Gould and other notable officers and their services; R.U.S.I. journal for August 1944 with mention of Gould’s death given in a lecture; and a copy of Lt. Cdr. Peter Scott’s epic The Battle of the Narrow Seas with photograph of Gould and detailed accounts of his actions.

This is an age restricted lot: the successful buyer will be required to either collect in person, or arrange specialist shipping.