An outstanding Gulf of Suez mine disposal M.B.E., Falklands War bomb disposal D.S.C. group of ten awarded to Commander N. A. ‘Bernie’ Bruen, Royal Navy, who commanded a Fleet Clearance Diving Team in Operation ‘Corporate’

In the immediate wake of the death of a fellow bomb disposal specialist in H.M.S. Antelope, he successfully disposed of a 1,000 lb. UXB which had crashed through R.F.A. Sir Galahad’s port side and ended up in the battery room, wrapped in torn steel and surrounded by smashed carboys of acid: the device was carefully lowered on to a Gemini inflatable which was cushioned with boxes of cornflakes before being ditched at sea

He also assisted with another 1,000 lb. UXB in the R.F.A. Sir Lancelot, a nerve wracking 22-hour-long operation in which he cleared away asbestos from inside the bomb’s fuse with a toothpick purloined from the ship’s dental surgery

Nonetheless, as recounted in the pages of his autobiography, ‘Keep Your Head Down’, Bruen still found time to play his beloved violin and was nicknamed the ‘Falklands Fiddle’ for his performances during ‘raids, funerals and parties.’ He was, in fact, according to one of his old ratings, ‘mad as a box of frogs but a good bloke’

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military), Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; Distinguished Service Cross, E.II.R., reverse officially dated ‘1982’ and additionally engraved ‘Lt N. A. Bruen’; General Service 1962-2007, 2 clasps, Northern Ireland, Mine-Clearance-Gulf of Suez (Lt. N.A. Bruen, R.N.); South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (Lt. N.A. Bruen NP 1890); Oman, Sultanate, Distinguished Service Medal; Dhofar Peace Medal, with Action Crown, engraved ‘Ra'ees N. A. Bruen RN - CO SNV l Mujahid 1980-82’; 10th Anniversary Medal, engraved ‘Ra'ees N. A. Bruen RN - CO SNV Al Mujahid’; 20th Anniversary Medal; 25th Anniversary Medal; United States of America, Expeditionary Medal, for services rendered to U.S. Forces at Diego Garcia during the Iranian Hostage Crisis 1979-80, mounted court-style, nearly extremely fine (10) £70,000-£90,000

M.B.E. London Gazette 15 June 1985: An award for mine clearance operations in the Gulf of Suez in 1984.

D.S.C. London Gazette 8 October 1982:
‘During the evening of 25 May 1982, R.F.A. Sir Galahad was struck by a 1,000lb. bomb which failed to explode. Lieutenant Bruen, Officer in Charge Fleet Clearance Diving Team 3, was tasked to effect its removal. The bomb was lodged in a difficult position, surrounded by broken batteries which had splashed acid around the compartment. The decision was taken to raise the bomb to the vehicle deck and dispose of it overboard. This difficult and dangerous task was successfully completed by the team in the early hours of the following day. During the operation, Lieutenant Bruen showed great personal courage and impeccable leadership.’

Nigel Arthur ‘Bernie’ Bruen was born in Haverfordwest, Dyfed, on 20 November 1946, the son of Commander John Martin Bruen, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N. Educated at Wellington College and the Birmingham School of Dramatic Art, ‘Bernie’ worked as a stage manager and lighting engineer, ‘a splendid period of my life that I still look upon with fondness and pride.’

At length, however, and perhaps motivated by his father’s achievements in the Fleet Air Arm, he next applied to the Royal Navy for a short service commission as a helicopter pilot, passed his Admiratly Interview Board, and entered the R.N.C. Dartmouth in 1968.

Flying, as it transpired, was not for him, but he did qualify as a naval diver. Having then enjoyed several seagoing appointments in the interim, some of them as gunnery officer, Bruen finally won a place on the Long Clearance Diving Course at H.M.S. Vernon. As recounted in Keep Your Head Down, he was ‘put through the mill in what is perhaps the most complete diving and mine warfare course in the world.’ Duly qualified, he joined the mine clearance ship Gavinton. He was also accepted as a member of the Royal Navy’s boxing squad:

‘My finest hour came when I drove from Rosyth to Portsmouth in seven hours and twenty-three minutes, through freezing fog, to contest the Royal Navy Open Championship with Nickie Croombes, the then European and Commonwealth silver medallist and considered to be the most dangerous man on the circuit. He beat me, of course, but we had the crowd on its feet and cheering us all the way to the dressing-room. It was the finest night of my life and a cracking fight … ’

Bruen was next posted to Diego Garcia as First Lieutenant of the Naval Party and fought his last boxing bout against ‘an American construction battalion steelworker who was eleven inches shorter, eleven pounds heavier and eleven years younger than I, and very handy.’ Bruen won, ‘but it was a very hard fight.’ Then, shortly before the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, he was attached to the Sultan of Oman’s Navy and given command of the patrol boat Al Mujahid, in which ‘we patrolled endlessly the entrance to the Gulf and kept safe passage for all.’

His return to the U.K. in 1982 was short-lived, however, on account of Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands. He was summoned to the Admiralty and ordered to hastily assemble a special group of divers and, as recounted in his autobiography, ‘before long we found ourselves en route for Ascension Island in the noisy cold belly of an R.A.F. Hercules transport, with the minimum of gear and a great feeling of adventure.’

Falklands – UXB D.S.C.
Transferring to the R.F.A. Sir Bedivere at Ascension, Bruen and his diving team arrived in darkness in San Carlos Water on the night of the 23-24 May 1982, ‘the only light being the burning H.M.S. Antelope.’ The cause of Antelope’s death throes must have been of huge concern to the likes of Bruen: the detonation of a 1,000 lb. bomb which was being attended to by Warrant Officer John Phillips, R.E. and Staff Sergeant James Prescott, R.E., the latter being killed instantly.

That concern was no doubt heightened when the Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot were likewise hit in another Argentinian raid on 25 May: two enemy 1,000 lb. bombs - one aboard the Sir Galahad and the other aboard the Sir Lancelot, had failed to explode. As commanding officer of Fleet Clearance Diving Team 3, he was ordered by his Senior Controller to deal with them.

The truly heroic feats that followed lasted for eight and a half hours and 22 hours, and resulted in the award of his D.S.C., not least for dealing with the Sir Galahad UXB which lay in an acid-strewn compartment. Bruen has since written at length about both incidents but by way of summary, the following extract has been taken from a special feature that appeared in the Western Morning News on 14 February 2004:

‘Sir Bedivere’s sister ships, the Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot, also suffered hits from bombs which did not explode and Bernie and his team were sent to remove the deadly devices, which they did by unconventional means.

“You treat these bombs like a sleeping baby and you do not want to wake them,” he said. “Because the one in the Galahad had ended up in the battery charging room, we were splashed with acid and our clothes were falling off us. It took more than eight hours to complete the job because the bomb was live – you only had to jar it, nudge it or speak loudly to it and the thing would have gone off.”

Using chain hoists, the bomb was gingerly transferred over the side of the ship into a waiting inflatable which Bernie had filled with boxes of cornflakes taken from the hold of Sir Galahad.

“We had to keep the thing at a certain angle so that it would not go off,” he said. “The idea then was to sink the inflatable so that the bomb would go down with it, but once my boys let the air out of the boat, it refused to sink, so they had to roll the bomb over into the water instead.”

The team then spent 22 hours removing a bomb on the Sir Lancelot and again Bernie used his ingenuity to complete the dangerous mission.

In a bid to find out if the device was armed, he needed to clear away asbestos from inside the fuse. His bayonet failed to do the job, so he improvised by breaking into the ship’s dental surgery, removed a toothpick and uses it to complete his task while standing on his head for 45 minutes. “It was the only way for me to look at it properly,” said Bernie.’

As it transpired, Bruen would once again find himself aboard the Sir Galahad, when he and his team were first to reboard the stricken ship at Bluff Cove, together with her consort Sir Tristram: ‘We put out the fires in Sir Tristram and explosively opened the stern loading door so that her cargo of much needed ammunition could be removed. We were not able to do a great deal on board Galahad as she was still exploding, but we managed to salvage some of her gear. So we did prove useful … ’

In the interim, he and his team had been put shore at the hospital area in Ajax Bay, ‘where we were immediately bombed. We dealt with these devices too, and in daylight hours dived on the Antelope in order to reduce the height of the wreck.’

Then there was the case of the ‘buoyant chemical-horn mine’ which was swept by a mine clearance ship on 25 June 1982. The Western Morning News continues:

‘During the operation he was faced with the deadly dilemma of not knowing which way to turn the detonator so that it could be freed. In the end he decided to treat it “Like a lightbulb” and twisted the device anti-clockwise. “Fortunately, it was the right way,” he said.’

He was awarded the D.S.C.

Post-Falklands – mine disposal M.B.E.
Having taken up the post of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer to the Flag Officer Portsmouth on his return home, in which role Bruen dealt in anything explosive, ‘from Second World War sea mines to hand grenades found in back gardens and terrorist bombs,’ Bruen returned to sea with command of his old ship, H.M.S. Gavinton.

It was in this capacity, when charged with clearing mines in the Gulf of Suez, that he was awarded the M.B.E. He takes up the story:

‘For three months we hunted and at the end we could give a positive assurance that there were no mines in our area. We, the R.N., had found two and we, Gavinton, had been the ship responsible in both cases. One was a beautifully preserved and still lethal Second World War German magnetic mine, which we blew up with delight. The other was an unknown type of Russian ground mine, only the second known enemy mine to be found and defused since Korea. The man who defused it, Warrant Officer Diver Terry Seatle, received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.’

His tour in the Gulf of Suez over, Bruen was sent back to the Falklands to wind up the Fleet Clearance Diving operations. He then took up his final appointment - in the Naval Diving Branch - when he was invited to establish a special team of divers: ‘so for the next year and a half I commanded the finest men that the Navy had to offer. From parachuting to attack swimming to bomb-disposal, we did the lot. Never was there such a highly qualified team. This was indeed the pinnacle of my career.’

Bruen subsequently applied for early retirement and landed himself a job as Ratings Training Officer in the Sultan of Oman’s Navy in 1988, when he was given command of the sail training ship Shabab Oman. And he remained in the employ of the Sultan’s Navy until 1996.

Sold with a signed copy of his autobiography, Keep Your Head Down; assorted newspapers and cuttings, mostly Falklands related; and a VHS tape of his ‘News at Ten’ interview with Brian Hanrahan and Michael Nicholson during the Falklands conflict, a 5-minute feature that was broadcast after hostilities were terminated.

For the medals awarded to the recipient’s father, Commander J. A. ‘Bill’ Bruen; and the recipient’s grandfather, see the following lot (Lot 121).