NAVAL AWARDS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 118, 15 November 1945, Page 6

NAVAL AWARDS

ATTACKS AGAINST JAPAN

LONDON, Nov, 13.

Awards of the Victoria Cross to three Royal Navy men for exploits in attacks against Japanese shipping were announced tonight in the London "Gazette." Two go to the commander and a leading seaman of a midget submarine which forced its way under tlie enemy cruiser Takao lying in Johore Straits last July, and attached limpet mines to it. They are Lieutenant Edward Fraser, D.S.C., R.N.R., of Wallasey, and Leading- Seaman James Joseph Magennis, of Belfast.

Only under the midship portion of the Takao was there sufficient depth of water for their midget, the X 23, to place herself for the attack. For eight minutes the submarine's motors churned the waters in an effort to clear a hole into which it had fallen; finally it rose clear then after another 40 minutes the craft pushed its way along the seabottom until Fraser forced her right under the centre of the cruiser. The hatch wouldn't open fully, but Magennis, who was the midget's diver, squeezed out and fixed limpet mines to the cruiser's hull. X 23 was submerged during the operation for sixteen and a half hours. The third Victoria Cross is awarded posthumously^ to Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, D.S.C., R.C.N.V.R., of Nelson, British Columbia, who, taking off from the aircraft-carrier Formidable, led an attack on shipping off the Japanese mainland. Gray gave his life at the very end of his fearless runin to bomb a destroyer. His aircraft was hit and hit again, but he kept on. The plane caught fire as he neared the destroyer, but Gray pressed on within 50 feet of the destroyer before releasing the bombs which sank it.

NEW ZEALANDER'S D.S.O.

The "Gazette" also announced awards to three officers and three ratings who shared in the midget submarine attack on the Takao, including the D.S.O. to Sub-Lieutenant James Lanyon Smith, R.N.Z.N.V.R., whose skill in handling and controlling his craft through the 80-mile trip contributed largely to the operation's sue-, cess. The citation added that the mechanical perfection of the craft was also grealty due to his organisation and personal supervision. Flight Lieutenant D. S. Lord, D.F.C, of Wrexham, was the first member of the R.A.F. Transport Command to receive the Victoria Cross. The award announced today was. made posthumously. Lord piloted a Dakota for the first airborne supply operation over Arnhem; his aircraft was hit by flak and caught fire but Lord continueduntil all the panniers had been dropped and then ordered his crew to bail out. As he gave the order the machine disintegrated and all the crew were killed except the navigator, who was thrown clear. Lord enlisted as a ranker in the R.A.F. in 1936 and was commissioned in 1942. Two among the few men who had seen an atomic bomb explode met today when his Majesty at Buckingham Palace knighted Professor James Chadwick, who has just returned from America, and invested Group Captain Cheshire with the Victoria Cross he was awarded for courage and determination on a hundred bombing missions.