UNIQUE CONSPICIUOUS GALLANTRY MEDAL AWARDED TO HELMSMAN OF ONE OF THE MIDGET SUBMARINES THAT ATTACKED THE TIRPITZ TO BE SOLD AT NOONANS

The unique Second War ‘attack on the Tirpitz’ Conspicuous Gallantry Medal group of four awarded to Engine Room Artificer Fourth Class Edmund ‘Eddie’ Goddard, helmsman of H.M. Midget Submarine X6 in sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria at Noonans on Thursday, November 7, 2024. Following the attack, the crewmembers from X6 were all taken prisoner and were being interrogated aboard the Tirpitz when their charges exploded underneath the battleship. Expected to fetch £40,000-£50,000, the medals are being sold by the estate of a deceased collector [lot 175].

Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans, said: “This medal was awarded for gallantry, skill and daring during the successful attack by His Majesty’s Midget submarines X6 and X7 on the Tirpitz.”


He continues: “The Tirpitz was the Bismark’s sister ship and Germany’s biggest battleship, so she had a major effect on the movements of the British Home Fleet, and consequently a way had to be found to attack her where she spent most of her time - in harbour. The answer to the problem was the four-man Midget Submarine or X-craft. At fifty feet in length the X-craft was small enough to penetrate the fjord defences and yet large enough to carry a four-ton charge and to operate unsupported for several days.
The attack on the Tirpitz in 1944 is one of the most well-known events of the Second War. Following the attack, Goddard’s skipper Lieutenant Donald Cameron was awarded the Victoria Cross, as too was the skipper of X7, Lieutenant Basil Place.”

In an interview many years later for the B.B.C. documentary ‘Target Tirpitz’, Eddie Goddard recalled: “We were taken on board Tirpitz’s quarter-deck and told to empty all our pockets, which we did. Then we were taken below, and put in a corridor, and I heard lots of clanging of chains and whatnot, and I thought, oh dear, they’re going to move the ship before our charges go off. Eventually the charges did go off, which shook us a bit; all the lights went off, and a foam extinguisher started to pour forth on my German guard who didn’t like it very much. He grabbed me by the neck, and we went up on deck, and I was very disturbed the ship didn’t appear to be sinking.”

Edmund ‘Eddie’ Goddard was born in 1921 and, after his education at St Edward’s School in Oxford, started as an apprentice tool maker in Coventry. In 1941 he joined the Royal Navy but found, instead of travelling the world by sea, he was fire-watching on the roof of the Royal Naval Barracks in Portsmouth. As a result, he volunteered for ‘special and hazardous service’, not knowing what that might entail, and found himself on the early X-craft training programme. He died at Tilehurst, Berkshire, in 1992. FULL CATALOGUING IS AVAILABLE




Also included in the sale is a rare and outstanding Korean War ‘Commando (Amphibious Raiding Force)’ Military Medal group of four awarded to Marine Arthur Alexander Henry Harper of 41 Independent Commando, Royal Marines, attached 1st U.S. Marine Division. This is one of nine M.M.s awarded to the Royal Marines for the Korea War, all for the Chosin Reservoir campaign, and four of which reside in the collection of the Royal Marines Museum. Marine Harper’s award is unique, being the only one for a direct combat action on 7 December 1950 and is estimated at estimated at £20,000-£30,000 [lot 180].
While an outstanding and excessively rare post-War ‘Yangtze Incident’ Distinguished Service Cross awarded to Flight Lieutenant Michael Edward Fearnley of the Royal Air Force, who was flown-in under heavy fire in a Sunderland to take up appointment as Medical Officer in the stranded H.M.S. Amethyst is estimated at £14,000-£18,000 [lot 160].