Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A most unusual Second War submariner’s D.S.M. group of eight awarded to Acting Stoker Petty Officer E. J. James, Royal Navy, for services in H.M. Submarine Graph, formerly the U-570 captured in August 1941 and, taken into service by the R.N., carried out three combat patrols becoming the only U-boat to see active service with both sides during the war

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (KX.85507 E. J. James. A/Sto. P.O. R.N.) impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, the Second War campaign stars and medals all privately named; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue (KX.85507 E. J. James. D.S.M. P.O.S.M. H.M.S. Tabard.) official correction to ship on this last, mounted as worn, good very fine (8) £1,000-£1,400

D.S.M. London Gazette 5 January 1943: ‘For great courage, skill and determination in a successful submarine patrol. - Acting Stoker Petty Officer Edwin John James.’

Seedies Roll confirms award for a ‘successful attack on a U-boat on 21 October 1942.’

The remarkable story of the capture of the U-570 and subsequent service in the Royal Navy as H.M. Submarine Graph is told in detail online in Wikipedia from which some of the following has been extracted:

Graph departed from Holy Loch for her first Royal Navy war patrol on 8 October 1942, with the intention of patrolling the Bay of Biscay. On the afternoon of 21 October 1942, about 50 nautical miles north-north-east of Cape Ortegal, Graph dived to evade a German Fw 200 long-range patrol aircraft. A loud hydrophone contact made Lieutenant Marriott believe a nearby submarine had likewise dived and, 12 minutes later, he observed its conning-tower against the setting sun. After pursuing the German boat, Graph fired four torpedoes. Explosions were heard, and also banging noises, leading the British to believe they had hit the other submarine and the banging noises were caused by her breaking up as she sank. In early 1943, Marriott was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for “great courage, skill and determination in a successful submarine patrol” - Lieutenant Swanston gained a Bar to his D.S.C. and six D.S.M.’s went to other members of her crew.
After the war, examination of German records showed the submarine attacked was the U-333, badly damaged after being rammed by the Flower-class corvette H.M.S. Crocus off the coast of West Africa. German lookouts had seen the torpedoes’ tracks, enabling U-333 to evade them. The torpedoes then self-detonated for unknown reasons. The commander of U-333 was Peter-Erich Cremer who, in his post-war account of the attack, suggested the rattling and banging noises Graph’s crew had heard were due to the severe damage previously inflicted on U-333. His route back to France closely hugged the Spanish coastline, a pattern followed by other U-boats, and he had also believed that Marriott was aware of this and had been lying in wait.
Graph completed two further war patrols but defects, exacerbated by a shortage of spare parts, led to her being placed in reserve and decommissioned from active service on 21 June 1943.