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HMS Thrasher Print and 5 Signatures.
DPK1181. HMS Thrasher Print and 5 Signatures. <Clipped Signatures and Print Pack.
Items in this pack :
Item #1 - Click to view individual item
DHM6760APB. HMS Thrasher by Ivan Berryman. A T-Class submarine of the Royal Navy launched in 1940 and commissioned in May 1941, HMS Thrasher famously survived an attack by aircraft in 1942, her crew gaining two Victoria Crosses in the process. Immediately after attacking a supply vessel on 16th February, HMS Thrasher was bombed from the air but escaped unscathed. After resurfacing, two unexploded bombs were discovered within the casing of the submarine. The first was easily removed but the second took a contorted effort in confined spaces - an hour-long combined effort by Lt Roberts and PO Gould literally manhandled the lethal ordnance safely over the side. For actions that likely save the submarine, they were both awarded the Victoria Cross. Professionally produced using a high quality inkjet digital press and printed on 300gsm art stock. Signed Ltd. Ed of 30 artist proofs. Image Size 13.4 inches x 9.4 inches (34cm x 24cm) Paper Size 16.5 Inches x 11.7 inches (42cm x 29.6)
Item #2 - Click to view individual item
CLP2505. Clipped Signature - Reggie Fitzgerald. Served as the casing officer aboard the submarine HMS Thrasher in the Mediterranean during World War Two. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Clipped Signature.
Item #3 - Click to view individual item
CLP2506. Clipped Signature - Albert Davies. Served on battleships and then submarines including HMS Thrasher in the Mediterranean before commanding HMS Stubborn and becoming the last British submariner to sink a Japanese warship in WW2. He retired in 1958 and later qualified as a barrister. He died in 2004. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Clipped Signature.
Item #4 - Click to view individual item
CLP2503. Clipped Signature - L B Barker. Served as the engineering officer aboard the submarine HMS Thrasher in the Mediterranean during World War Two. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Clipped Signature.
Item #5 - Click to view individual item
CLP2504. Clipped Signature - Thomas Gould. Tommy Gould was awarded his Victoria Cross together with another of the crew of HMS Thrasher for crawling through 20ft of casing with an unexploded bomb to dispose of it, at great danger from both the bomb and drowning should the sub have to dive. He died in 2001. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Clipped Signature.
Item #6 - Click to view individual item
CLP2502. Clipped Signature - Hugh Mackenzie. Served as a submariner in World War Two commanding subs inlcuding H28, H43, Thrasher and Tantalus. He remained in the Navy until retiring in 1968 as Vice-Admiral, and was knighted. He died in 1996. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Clipped Signature.
Website Price: £ 270.00
To purchase these prints individually at their normal retail price would cost £315.00 . By buying them together in this special pack, you save £45
All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling
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| Signatures on item 2 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Commander Reggie Fitzgerald DSC
*Signature Value : £40 (matted)
| Casing Officer on board HMS Thrasher. |
| Signatures on item 3 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Lieutenant A G Davies DSC (deceased)
*Signature Value : £45 (matted)
| Albert George Davies was born on May 6th 1920 at Ramsgate. He was offered a choral scholarship by Westminster Abbey, but high Anglicanism overawed him. Instead he became a contemporary of Edward Heath, the future Prime Minister, at Chatham House School where the fees were four guineas a term. Encouraged by his father, who had been a telegraphist in the Royal Navy, young Davies sat the Civil Service examination for a naval scholarship, which he passed with good marks to join as a special entry cadet in September 1937. He recalled that, in his first ship, the light cruiser Newcastle, early in 1939, the official visit of the French President had necessitated for the last time naval officers to wear cocked hats, frock coats, epaulettes and white kid gloves. Soon after the outbreak of war he was at Scapa Flow when Gunther Prien in U-47 sank the battleship Royal Oak. In November he was still in Newcastle when she was adjacent to the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi on the Northern Patrol line between Scotland and Greenland. His career promised well when he was made sub-lieutenant of the gunroom of the battleship Queen Elizabeth, where he was expected to keep the young Australian, British and Polish midshipmen in order; but after a boisterous evening in Gibraltar, involving a stolen carpet and a runaway car, he was sent in disgrace to the submarine depot ship Medway. His introduction to the trade was harder than usual, the bullying Crap Miers declaring he would not have Davies in his submarine, Torbay, and E F Bertie Pizey, captain of Oberon, claiming exclusive use of Davies' childhood first name. Being pot valiant, Davies told Miers that he wouldn't serve with him anyway, and thereafter he hyphenated his first names, Albert-George. In August 1941 a shortage of officers meant Davies being lent to the submarine Tetrarch, without the usual training, and his first experience of being depth charged. Tetrarch had torpedoed an Italian merchant ship in the harbour of Benghazi, but while withdrawing through the swept channel it ran aground while submerged and was attacked by two destroyers for several hours. One of the last depth charge salvoes was so close that it blew Tetrarch free of the shingle bottom and it was able to creep away, low on battery power. Davies remembered how sweet the fresh air was when eventually she surfaced after dark. Davies was navigator of Thrasher in March 1942 when destroyers and aircraft hunted it off Crete. Surfacing afterwards, Davies heard a clanking noise but did not identify the cause. After writing up the attack log he went to sleep, unaware of what was happening 10 ft above him. Thrasher's captain, Rufus Mackenzie, had decided not to alarm the crew while two unexploded bombs lodged in Thrasher's casing were removed by the first officer, Lieutenant Peter Roberts and the second coxswain, Petty Officer Tom Gould. Roberts and Gould worked regardless of the risk that the bombs might explode when moved and that Thrasher would dive immediately if sighted by the enemy, thus drowning them: they were both awarded the Victoria Cross. After completing the perisher course for submarine commanders, his first command was the submarine Ursula, where his task was to train a Russian crew and hand it over to the Soviet navy. Lieutenant-Commander Albert-George Davies was the last British submariner to sink a Japanese warship in the Second World War. In April 1945 Davies was commanding the overseas patrol submarine Stubborn on an 11-week voyage from the Clyde to Fremantle to join the Anglo-Dutch 4th Submarine Flotilla, operating under the Americans. He was north of Bali when he heard that a Japanese destroyer was to pass though his area on July 25. Commencing a day-long watch listening on Asdic with an occasional all-round look by periscope, he was in a funk lest the Americans deprive him of his first opportunity to fire a shot in action. Nevertheless he managed several hours of good sleep until propellers were heard drawing close. Although the Japanese destroyer Nadakaze was zigzagging wildly, Davies found a firing position. Two in the salvo of four torpedoes fired at 3,000 yards range struck, and his spontaneous cry of We've blown his bloody arse right off was greeted by his crew's cheers. Davies wanted a prisoner for interrogation, but as he manoeuvred amongst the survivors one of them made what was taken a rude gesture, and was promptly shot through the head by the gunnery officer, using his pistol. It was an instinctive and unpremeditated action, but Davies decided that he must shoot all the survivors to prevent reprisals should Stubborn itself be later captured, and he sent for machine-guns to be brought to the bridge without relish. Looking back years later David was convinced that the decision he had made was the right one. However, an aircraft forced him to dive and, when he surfaced that night, there was no sign of survivors. In the course of this patrol, Davies also destroyed shipping by gunfire, bombarded a harbour in northern Bali, destroying a jetty and some landing craft, and boarded junks at night; in one of these incidents the gunnery officer went missing. Davies was awarded the DSC. From 1947 to 1949, he commanded the submarine Ambush, in which he conducted trials of an improved design of snort mast, which would enable submarines to recharge batteries while remaining submerged. He was then loaned to the Royal Indian Navy as an instructor and studied at the staff college in southern India, and afterwards was first lieutenant of the frigate Sparrow, when she doubled for Amethyst in making the film Yangtse Incident. When he retired from the Royal navy in 1958, Davies qualified as a barrister at Gray's Inn and worked for some years for the marine insurers Thomas Miller, managers of the UK P & I Club. He was secretary to the Williams Hudson shipping company, and latterly worked for the 600 Group. When Davies realised the unfair anomalies of the Ministry of Defence's pension scheme he crusaded to have them removed through the pages of The Daily Telegraph. Davies died on March 13th, 2004 aged 84. |
| Signatures on item 4 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Lieutenant L P Barker DSC
*Signature Value : £40 (matted)
| Engineering Officer on board HMS Thrasher. |
| Signatures on item 5 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Petty Officer Tommy Gould VC (deceased)
*Signature Value : £70 (matted)
| Thomas William Gould, submariner: born Dover, Kent 28 December 1914; VC 1942; married 1941 Phyllis Eldridge (died 1985; one son); died Peterborough, Cambridgeshire 6 December 2001. For the longest 40 minutes of his life, Petty Officer Tommy Gould lay on his back clutching an unexploded bomb, while being pulled by his shoulders through the casing of the submarine Thrasher. He was aware throughout this nerve-racking task not only of strange noises emanating from the bomb, but that in the event of an enemy attack the submarine would have to crash-dive and both men would be drowned. For this remarkable feat of courage, along with Lieutenant Peter Roberts, Gould was awarded a Victoria Cross: the only one to be awarded to a Jewish serviceman in the Second World War. On 16th February 1942, under the command of Lt H.S. Mackenzie, Thrasher sank a supply ship off the north coast of Crete but was immediately attacked by enemy aircraft and heavily depth-charged by the escorting anti-submarine vessels for three and a half hours. Through skilful work by its captain, Thrasher managed to survive the attack but while it was on the surface that night recharging its batteries, an unusual banging noise was heard. This proved to be two bombs, each about three feet long, six inches in diameter and weighing 100lb, that were lying on the submarine's casing just in front of the four-inch gun mounting. Roberts and Gould volunteered to remove the bombs. Gould, as Coxswain, was in charge of everything involved with the casing which enclosed a tangle of pipes, wires and other gear. When they reached the first bomb they wrapped it in an old potato sack and tied it with rope. They cautiously manhandled it forward to the bows where they dropped it overboard. As they did so, Thrasher went full astern to get clear. The second bomb proved to be far more difficult. After an examination of the casing the two men found a jagged hole in the metal; inside was the bomb, resting on top of the pressure hull. There was no practical way to recover the bomb through the hole it had made. The only way was through a hinged metal grating trap-door. Gould was to recall: To get to the bomb we had to wiggle forward through the outer casing. In that confined space there were angle irons to hold the superstructure up, battery ventilators and drop bollards as well. When we got through, I saw that it was another heavy bomb, about 100lb. Then began a nightmarish journey back through the casing, which at points gave only two feet clearance from the hull: I picked up the bomb and passed it through to Roberts. I then laid on my back with the bomb on my stomach, and held on to it while he laid on his stomach with his head to my head pulling me by my shoulders. It was pitch dark and the bomb was making this ticking noise while the submarine was being buffeted by the waves. Also at the back of their minds was the thought that if the submarine was attacked, the captain would have no option but to dive, the unpressurised casing would fill up with water and the two men would drown. After a gruelling 40 minutes they got to the grating. The bomb was then passed up to a sub- lieutenant who was waiting on the forecasing. The bomb was wrapped in sacking and gingerly lowered over the side by ropes. When we knew it was on the surface of the water we let it go, heaving lines as well. Then we ducked and waited for the explosion, but nothing happened – it obviously could not have been primed. On 29 June 1943 Gould received his Victoria Cross from King George VI who commented, I bet it was cold. Gould's father, Reuben, was lost in action in 1916 before Tommy was two years old. Tommy Gould was educated at St James School, Dover, and joined the Royal Navy in 1933 and went into the submarine service three years later. During the war he experienced the horror of being trapped on the ocean floor in the Dutch East Indies as well as being bombed by the RAF off Alexandria. But Gould loved the camaraderie of submarine life and, after being invalided out of the Navy in 1945, maintained an interest in the Navy and with the Jewish community. In 1946 he was in the front row of the Jewish ex-servicemen's march through London to protest against the government's policy towards the Jews in Palestine. He became a Lieutenant with the Bromley branch of the Sea Cadets. For many years he was Chief Personnel Manager with Great Universal Stores. He was very proud to have been elected President of the International Submarine Association of Great Britain. He was also an active member of the Victoria and George Cross Association. Gould was a smart, dapper man who in his later years wore an impressive naval beard. His Victoria Cross was sold at Sotheby's in 1987 for £48,400 and purchased by the Association of Jewish ex-servicemen. He passed away on 6th December 2001. |
| Signatures on item 6 | | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | | Name | Info | 
Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Mackenzie, KCB, DSO*, DSC (deceased)
*Signature Value : £45 (matted)
| Educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Hugh Mackenzie served in world war two becoming commanding officer of the Submarine HMS H28 in March 1941, of the submarine HMS H43 in June 1941, of the submarine HMS Thrasher (in which he sank 40,000 tons of enemy shipping) in March 1943 and of the submarine HMS Tantalus (in which he conducted a single patrol of nearly 12,000 miles) in June 1945 Mackenzie went on to be commanding officer of the Underwater Detection Establishment at Portland in 1952, commander of the 1st Destroyer Squadron in June 1954 and Chief of Staff to the Flag Officer Submarines in December 1956. After that he became Captain of the Boys' Training Establishment HMS Ganges in January 1959, Flag Officer Submarines in September 1961 and Chief of the Polaris Executive in Spring 1963 before retiring in September 1968. Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Mackenzie died on the 10th October 1996. |
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