Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War Bismarck action D.S.M. group of four awarded to Leading Seaman A. J. Sinker, Royal Navy, an R.D.F. Operator in H.M.S. Suffolk

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX. 221851 A. J. Sinker, Ord. Smn., H.M.S. Suffolk); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, the first with one or two edge bruises, otherwise very fine and better (4) £1000-1200

D.S.M. London Gazette 14 October 1941: ‘For mastery, determination and skill in action against the German battleship Bismarck.’

The original recommendation states:

The above two R.D.F. ratings belong to the Action and Relief Action (and Defence watch) crews of type 284; to whose zeal and skilful operation of their equipment the success of the low visibility shadowing by its aid was due.’

The moment it became known that the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had put to sea from Bergen, dispositions were at once made to prevent the enemy from breaking into the Atlantic to execute Admiral Lutjens’s ‘Good hunting and good bag.’

Sent to patrol the Denmark Straits, the cruisers H.M.S. Suffolk and H.M.S. Norfolk set out to track down the enemy, poor weather with fog and ice floes making their brief all the more difficult. On the evening of 23 May 1941, however, lookouts abaord the Suffolk, followed by those in the Norfolk, sighted the German ships sailing at high speed on a south-westerly course. Admiral Wake-Walker immediately reported this intelligence to the surrounding British forces.

Throughout the night the two cruisers continued to shadow the enemy force and, on the following morning, witnessed the attack carried out by the Prince of Wales and the Hood, the ultimate result of which was the terrible loss of the latter battleship. Hits, however, were observed on the Bismarck, and soon afterwards a successful torpedo strike was delivered by a Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the Victorious.

On the evening of 25 May contact was lost and it was not until a Coastal Command aircraft re-sighted the Bismarck 550 miles west of Land’s End that the Royal Navy moved in for the kill, a victory that prompted Churchill to state to the House of Commons on 27 May:

‘Great as is our loss in the Hood, the Bismarck must be regarded as the most powerful as she is newest battleship in the world, and the striking of her from the German Navy is a very definitive simplification of the task of maintaining the effective mastery of the Northern Sea and the maintenance of the Northern Blockade.’

Arthur James Sinker was born at Tunstall, Staffordshire in July 1916 and entered the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in September 1940. Qualifying as an R.D.F. Operator at Victory later that year, his first seagoing appointment was in the cruiser H.M.S. Suffolk between January 1941 and November 1942, which period encompassed her notable contribution to the Bismarck episode. Returning ashore to an appointment at the Signal School Mercury, Sinker was transferred to the Coastal Forces base at Great Yarmouth, H.M.S. Midge, in March 1943, where he remained until July 1945. He was finally released from the Service in February 1946.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Certificate of Service and Naval Gratuity Certificate for his D.S.M., with related Admiralty letter dated 18 June 1946; R.D.F. History Sheet and Order for Release From Naval Service.