Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War ‘Special Operations’ D.S.M. awarded to Petty Officer F. S. Smith, Royal Navy, 15th M.G.B. Flotilla, who was tragically killed when M.G.B. 2002 struck a mine just four days after V.E. Day in May 1945

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (P.O., F. S. Smith, C/JX. 143074) on original investiture pin, extremely fine £2,400-£3,000

D.S.M. London Gazette 15 August 1944: ‘For gallant and distinguished service in special operations.’ The list following included one Bar to the D.S.O., six D.S.Cs., one Bar and fourteen D.S.Ms. to officers and men of the 15th M.G.B. Flotilla, amongst them Petty Officer Frederick Shepherd Smith. The remaining awards listed under this heading related to officers and men of the African Coastal Flotilla.

The following details have been extracted from the official report and recommendations:

‘Since 1941 the 15th M.G.B. Flotilla has been engaged in maintaining a line of sea communication between U.K. and enemy occupied territory, notably France and Holland, and today the force consists of 5 coastal forces craft and some 125 seagoing officers and men.

The flotilla has benefited from much scientific development and progress since its early days, and whilst its personnel have reached a high standard of efficiency in the special technique required of these clandestine operations into enemy waters the above named officers and men have been brought into prominence by their outstanding ability and conduct, some details of which are set forth below.

Petty Officers Mould, Smith and Webb.
Leading Seaman Hibbert.
A.Bs Bartley, Pickles, Lumsley, Gordon, Markham and Hayden.
Telegraphists Banks and Gadd.
Stokers Peel, Bracey and Andrews.

From a seagoing company of over 100 the above named ratings have been selected for prominent conduct or individual acts of initiative and courage. The majority of these men have taken part in 27 operations to the coasts of France and Holland since mid-1942.

Petty Officer Smith, Leading Seaman Hibbert, A.Bs Bartley, Gordon and Markham and Stoker Andrews have all been continuously employed as surf boat crews.

Petty Officer Mould, D.S.M., who joined the 15th M.G.B. Flotilla in September 1943 has proved most outstanding in his duties as coxswain, and like Petty Officer Smith has spent long hours continuously at the wheel both while the ship has been conned into her anchorage through the dangerous rocky approaches to the north coast of France, and again when weather conditions have reached dangerous proportions necessitating expert steering to luff into seas or to avoid broaching to.

The normal task confronting the officer in charge of a convoy of surf boats or a single craft is a journey of anything between six cables and two miles between the mother ship and the shore in complete darkness invariably athwart strong tidal streams for which the Brittany coast is notorious, and more often than not on to a lee shore. If the tide is low the surf boats have to thread their way through a maze of rocks, and if the actual landing is on rock great care and skill is needed if the boats are to avoid being swamped and smashed. It will be appreciated that all the more accessible and obvious landing beaches are mined or overlooked by strongposts, so that D.D.O.D. (I) is forced to use those landing places least likely to be under enemy observation, and the more difficult the landing place the more likely it is the expedition to complete its business unmolested. The problem of the return passage to the mother ship includes pulling into a head sea with a heavily laden boat if the operation is an evacuation, and finding the mother ship in the darkness.’

Petty Officer Frederick Shepherd Smith was tragically lost when M.G.B. 2002 (formerly M.G.B. 502 until early 1945) was sunk by a mine while on passage to Gothenburg on 12 May 1945, killing six officers and 22 men. There were only two survivors. No fewer than eleven of the ratings killed had been decorated with the D.S.M. for their earlier clandestine work with the 15th M.G.B. Flotilla, not to forget Lieutenant-Commander R. M. Marshall, D.S.C. and Bar, the skipper, also killed. They are all commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

For further details of the work and operations of the 15th M.G.B. Flotilla, see Secret Flotillas: Clandestine sea operations to Brittany, 1940-1944, by Sir Brooks Richards, and The Secret Navies by A. Cecil Hampshire.