Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eleven: Chief Petty Officer J. W. Watts, Royal Navy, who was Mentioned in Despatches for his services in H.M.S. Exeter during her epic encounter with Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939

1914-15 Star (L. 4759, J. W. Watts, O.S.3, R.N.; British War and Victory Medals (L.4759 J. W. Watts. O.S.1 R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Jubilee 1935; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue, with Second Award Bar (L.4759 J. W. Watts O.S.1. H.M.S. Danae.) mounted as worn, the earlier awards heavily polished and the second with slack suspension thus fine, the rest good very fine (11) £800-£1,200

Provenance: Spink, September 2001.

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 February 1940:
‘In recognition of the gallant and successful action with the Admiral Graf Spee.’

Joseph Westcott Watts was born in Wellington, Somerset in 1897 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Servant on 5 September 1913. Joining the Cruiser H.M.S. Foresight on 30 July 1914, he remained in her throughout the war, witnessing action at the Belgian Coast 1914 and Dardanelles 1915-16. Notably, during the latter campaign, she came to the assistance of survivors of the Titanic’s sister ship, H.M.H.S. Brittanic, which sank after being mined in the Kea Channel in October 1916.

Remaining in the Royal Navy between the wars, Watts was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal while aboard H.M.S. Danae in January 1931 and his Jubilee Medal while in the Heavy Cruiser H.M.S. Exeter, which ship he initially joined in August 1933. Advanced to Chief Petty Officer in 1934, he was due to be pensioned ashore in 1939 but the commencement of hostilities found him once more required aboard the Exeter, now part of Commodore Harwood’s South America Cruiser Squadron, ‘Force G’ consisting of Cumberland, Exeter, Ajax and Achilles, which had been disposed by the Admiralty to locate and sink the commerce raiding German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. Two of Admiral Graf Spee’s last victims, SS Doric Star (2 December 1939) and SS Tairoa (3 December 1939), had succeeded in transmitting wireless signals before being sunk and upon receipt of the report of the attack on Tairoa, Harwood correctly concluded that the Admiral Graf Spee’s next destination would be the River Plate.

At dawn on 13 December, Admiral Graf Spee sighted H.M.S. Exeter off the estuary of the River Plate and closed at full speed, opening fire on Exeter at 06.17 with her six 11 inch guns at a range of 19,000 yards, thus beginning the Battle of the River Plate. Exeter, also closing at full speed, got her 8-inch guns into action four minutes later at a range of nine miles. Ajax and Achilles meanwhile worked their way north east to split the German’s fire but it was Exeter who bore the brunt:
‘Just five minutes after the commencement of the action, an 11-inch shell burst alongside the British ship [Exeter], killing the Torpedo Tubes’ Crews. A minute later she received a direct hit on 'B' turret which put its two 8-inch guns out of action. Splinters swept the Bridge, killing or wounding all but three of the Officers and Ratings there. The Captain escaped and, finding the Bridge out of action and the Wheel-house communications wrecked, he made his way aft to fight the ship from there. As he did so, Exeter received two more direct hits from 11-inch shells forward. Nevertheless, a few minutes later she fired her starboard torpedoes at the Admiral Graf Spee, but before they reached their mark the Pocket Battleship had turned away under cover of smoke ... Two more 11-inch shells hit the Exeter, causing further casualties and extensive damage. One entered the hull and started a fierce fire between the decks. The other put the fore-most turret and its two 8-inch guns out of action. It was on the occasion of these hits that the spotting aircraft reported, “She has completely disappeared in the smoke and flames, and it was feared that she had gone. However, she emerged and re-entered the action”. In doing so the men of the Exeter proved again the indomitable spirit of the Royal Navy. Their ship was badly stricken. Two of the three turrets were out of action, leaving her no guns forward. She had a 7 degrees list and was down by the head. All her compasses had been smashed, and the Captain was handling the ship with the aid of a small boat’s compass. In these circumstances she altered course towards the enemy and fired her port torpedoes ... The Exeter, gradually dropping astern, fought on until she had nothing left to fight with. At about 7.30 a.m. her sole remaining turret was flooded. Ten minutes later she turned to the South-East and slowly limped away, making necessary running repairs as she went’ (The King's Cruisers, by Gordon Holman, refers).

Harried by its three smaller opponents and suffering damage, the Admiral Graf Spee was obliged to make for the port of Montevideo. Rather than renew the action, Captain Langsdorff scuttled the Admiral Graf Spee on 17 December 1939. The gallant Exeter having the largest calibre guns of the cruiser squadron had naturally been the Admiral Graf Spee’s primary target and suffered 61 killed and 23 wounded in the action. Chief Petty Officer Steward Watts was Mentioned in Despatches in part for assisting these wounded men during and after the action: ‘Throughout the action and during the passage to the Falklands, C.P.O.S. Watts worked efficiently and tirelessly, and was of every encouragement to the wounded. He stayed below decks for a period of 48 hours on end without thinking of taking a brief respite. He had practically no sleep.’

Watts left the Exeter in April 1940. In September the following year he joined the Cruiser H.M.S. Charybdis and was aboard her during the period in which she won Battle Honours for “Malta Convoys 1942 “ and “North Africa 1942”. He was then fortunate to be transferred to H.M.S. Hannibal, the Naval Base in Algiers in April 1943, and as a result avoided the fate of the 462 crew members of Charybdis who lost their lives six months later when their ship was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel. Watts final wartime appointment, in May 1944, was aboard the newly commissioned aircraft carrier H.M.S. Implacable. With squadrons of Fairey Barracudas and Supermarine Seafires aboard, the carrier witnessed considerable action off Norway later that year, including sinking six ships and and damaging a German submarine during Operation Athletic. She was then ordered to the Pacific in May 1945 where her first operation as part of the British Pacific Fleet was against Japanese airfields at Truk in the Caroline Islands. He was finally pensioned ashore in July 1947.