Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A very rare Great War anti-submarine operations D.S.C. and Bar group of four awarded to Commander W. T. A. Bird, Royal Navy: as captain of the torpedo boat destroyer Ouse, he was credited with the destruction of at least two enemy submarines - both of them as a result of close liaison work with the Royal Naval Air Service, including the airship R. 29

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, hallmarks for London 1918; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Lieut., R.N.), mounted as worn, good very fine or better (4) £3000-3500

D.S.C. London Gazette 29 November 1918:

‘For services in action with enemy submarines.’

Bar to D.S.C. London Gazette 24 March 1919:

‘For services in action with enemy submarines.’

Walter Thomas Arthur Bird, who was originally commissioned as an Acting Gunner in June 1912, commenced his wartime career aboard the battle cruiser H.M.S. New Zealand, transferred as a Mate to the torpedo boat destroyer Mallard in December 1914 and was advanced to Lieutenant in August of the following year. A further appointment followed aboard the M-26, and in late 1917 he received his first command, the torpedo boat destroyer Ouse, in which capacity he served with distinction until the end of hostilities.

His first encounter with an enemy submarine occurred on 28 May 1918, when Ouse’s depth-charge attack damaged the UC-75, but his D.S.C. was awarded in respect of the destruction of the UC-70 on 28 August 1918, when, having been alerted to her presence by an R.N.A.S. seaplane off Whitby, the Ouse carried out a more telling depth-charge attack. Interestingly, in an early example of air-to-sea co-operation, the seaplane remained on the scene of the attack, dropping Very lights along the track of the enemy submarine.

Bird’s second D.S.C. resulted from a unique episode in the history of British airship warfare, for on that occasion - the destruction of the UB-115 - he worked closely with the R. 29, the only British wartime rigid airship to score a combat success at sea. Abbott’s The British Airship at War 1914-1918 states:

‘On Sunday, 29 September 1918, at about half past one in the afternoon and in exceptionally calm conditions R. 29, commanded by Major G. M. Thomas, was escorting a convoy bound for Scandinavia when a faint patch of oil was seen discolouring the water near Newbiggin Point. A message, “Oil patch rising below me,” was flashed by Aldis lamp to H.M.S. Ouse, one of the escorting destroyers, which turned at once to help. Her captain could not see the slight evidence that was apparent to the airmen high overhead and he signalled for more information, “Drop light over it.” In reply the airship indicated the probable whereabouts of the submarine by dropping not a flare but a 230lb. bomb, the destroyer joining in the attack with two depth charges as the first explosion subsided.

Then R. 29 dropped a second bomb and a calcium flare to mark the position of the oil patch, at which another destroyer, H.M.S. Star, joined with the Ouse and two armed trawlers to add more depth charges to the barrage. At half past two H.M.S. Star reported considerable quantities of oil rising to the surface, and the destroyers then steamed off after the convoy. A buoy was placed as a marker by one of the trawlers and a deep depth charge was dropped, while R. 29 remained on watch for more than an hour. When she at last left to rejoin the convoy at four o’clock large amounts of oil were still bubbling to the surface.

It was subsequently confirmed from Intelligence reports that UB-115 had been destroyed in the attack. It was the sole success recorded by any British wartime rigid.’

Bird remained in the Navy after the War and finally retired in the rank of Commander in June 1927.