A Great War D.S.M. group of four awarded to Chief Stoker H. C. Tibble, Royal Navy, a long-served submariner decorated for his part in J5 during Operation 'BB', the daring plan to ‘flush out’ enemy submarines near their bases; his submarine had previously had the good fortune to escape a 'blue-on-blue' torpedo from Captain Naismith, later of V.C. fame, during the Cuxhaven Raid on Christmas Day 1914 Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (278813. H. C. Tibble, Sto. P.O. Submarine Service 1917.); British War and Victory Medals (278813 H. C. Tibble. Ch. Sto. R.N.) the Victory Medal with officially re-impressed naming; Naval L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (278813. H. C. Tibble, Ch. Sto. H.M.S. Titania.) contact marks, otherwise very fine (4) £1,000-£1,400 --- D.S.M. London Gazette 9 November 1917: ‘For services in submarines in enemy waters.’ Henry Charles Tibble was born at Battersea, London on 14 November 1875, the third son of Andrew and Frances Tibble. He enlisted in the Royal Navy on 22 January 1895, at Portsmouth and saw extensive service aboard a wide range of ships and shore bases, including the cruiser Tauranga which served in Australian waters. Returning home, he joined Drake on a tour of the Caribbean Islands in 1903, before returning to Portsmouth the following year and joining the submarine depot ship Thames on 16 March 1905. From here Tibble commenced an early career in the silent service, transferring to Mercury in 1906 and Vernon, the torpedo school ship at Porchester Creek, on 14 January 1913. On 24 August 1913 he joined Dolphin, the submarine depot and school at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport, before joining depot ship Adamant at Harwich for service in the Submarine D6 on 9 September 1913. The Cuxhaven Raid: A narrow escape As the Christmas Truce took place on parts of the Western Front, Tibble found himself in the thick of the action on Christmas Day 1914 during the Cuxhaven Raid, when combined British air and sea forces attempted to destroy the German Zeppelin base. As part of a line of 11 submarines placed between the surface ships and the German coast, D6 had seen the British seaplanes return and land on the sea. Twice rising to the surface to see if she could help the crews, she firstly had a lucky escape when she was misidentified by Captain Martin Naismith (later Admiral V.C., K.C.B., K.C.M.G.) in the E11, who, mindful of orders to destroy British seaplanes that could not be brought home, focussed his attention upon machine gunning three empty seaplanes instead from the conning tower of his submarine. Rising for a second time, D6 found the German airship L-5 fifty feet directly overhead: 'With machine gun bullets clanging against his hull, he (Lt. Cdr. R. C. Halahan, Captain of D6) quickly submerged and headed for home.' Tibble transferred to Maidstone and again Dolphin, before being appointed to the newly commissioned H7 on 1 July 1915, which had only been completed in Montreal a few days earlier. On 16 February 1916, he joined J5, which was commissioned in May 1916 under the command of C. P. Talbot. It was a pretty inauspicious start; sailing for a patrol off the Dogger Bank on 10 July, J5 had great trouble with depth keeping and on one occasion hit the bottom at 140 feet. On 31 July, she was in collision with H.M.S. Vixen and had to be re-docked at Blyth for repairs to the stem and bow shutters to No. 1 tube. Before the end of 1916, J5 was in dock on three further occasions and during the latter half of the year Commander E. C. Boyle, who had won the V.C. aboard E14 in the Sea of Marmora, assumed command. Operation 'BB' In June 1917, Admiral Beatty, flush with naval intelligence that predicted that a succession of U-boats would pass outward-bound through the North Sea between the 15th and 24th, decided to flood the area around the northern part of Scotland with four flotilla leaders, forty-nine destroyers and seventeen submarines, including J5. The surface ships were deployed in such as way as ‘...to force enemy submarines to dive through certain areas occupied by destroyers so they would be on the surface whilst passing through adjacent areas occupied by our submarines’. During the ten days allocated, 19 German submarines passed through this zone, 12 homeward bound and 7 outward bound; there were 26 sightings and 11 attacks made, eight by destroyers and three by submarines. For J5 and her crew, it had been a relatively quiet period but all that changed on 25 June when the British ships began to return to base and the Germans surfaced; J5 released four torpedoes from 6000 yards range at the conning tower of an enemy submarine. They missed and the Germans replied with the deck gun. On 9 July, through her periscope and in rough seas, J5 fired two torpedoes from 2000 yards at U-86; one hit the fore part of the submarine but failed to detonate. Between 28 July and 21 August 1917, J5 sighted enemy submarines on three further occasions. Returning home, J5 was docked at Newcastle from 9 January to 26 March 1918. In the meantime, three members of the crew were duly honoured for their patrol; Tibble was awarded the D.S.M., Artificer Engineer William James Williams received the D.S.C., and Commander Cecil Ponsonby Talbot received a Bar to his D.S.O. A near fatal error Tibble remained with J5 for the rest of the war and had a lucky escape on 26 May 1918, when her Captain sighted a German submarine on the surface. Altering course, J5’s speed was increased and her deck gun was manned. On closing to 8,000 yards the target was identified as hostile and orders to fire were issued. However, after firing eight rounds, two of which may have been hits, the gun jammed and the J5 dived; she had been running however with the ventilators open, and in haste, these were not shut on diving. Surfacing again with a large bow-up angle and only 500 yards from the U-boat, the J5 was quite unmanageable. There was an estimated 40 tons of seawater in the engine room, chlorine was being given off from the batteries and a flare had been triggered. Luckily, in this moment of extreme vulnerability, the U-boat decided to make off after firing a few ‘desultory and inaccurate’ rounds, perhaps also damaged. Following the conclusion of the Great War, the Admiralty presented the six remaining boats of the ‘J’ Class to the Australian Government. For Tibble, he could be glad of his transfer from D6, which had been sunk by U-73, in June 1918. He was demobilised on 20 January 1919, and eventually discharged from the Submarine Reserve on 10 April 1922. He is also entitled to the 1914-15 Star. Sold with copied service record and other research.
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ITT - A boxed ITT Combat Radio and Combat Periscope. The radio appears in Very Good condition and takes 4 x C batteries (not included) the battery compartment is clean and the box is Good with some wear. The periscope appears in Very Good condition with no makers name. (This does not constitute a guarantee)
Collection of bijouterie and collectibles including large carved walnut shell with building inside, plated skirt lifter, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA brass trench art cigarette lighter, bronze plaque, impressed 'Suemori Norihiko Chieka', brass trench art style periscope, badges, Parker Hale Roll-off gun sight in box, etc
St Dunstan's Made Fund Raising Periscoperectangular wooden panels with side mounted, steel sliding brackets. Together with loose mirror plates in envelope with fixing instructions. All contained in a card paper bag printed "St Dunstan's Periscope. Made By A War Blinded Man". Together with a pair of the periscope wooden panels with side mounted sliding brackets. 2 items.
Royal Navy interest - A submariners Goodwill Tour of the Pacific souvenir collection comprising original news sheets titled "The Periscope" of the 4th submarine flotilla, dated No.7 August 11th 1946 & No.19 November 7th 1946; No.17 "The Dittybox" The Navy's own magazine, dated November 1945; Church Gazette Diocese of Polynesia, No. 70 SUVA, FIJI May 1946; The Jolly Rogers 'In the Royal Navy's Goodwill Tour of the Pacific', concert programme, Present Their Show to their audience at the Town Hall, Suva, Fiji, Sunday, August 11, 1946; three newspapers, Nippon Times, etc, various postcards and other souvenirs from Japan and Fiji, all contained in a vintage brown leather case.
Topper Toys Secret Sam Attaché Case Super Spy Set, contains periscope, pistol shoots long range/short range plastic bullets, attachable rifle stock, silencer, special message missile, secret camera, press secret button in case to shoot bullets through case, complete with instruction leaflet, in very good original condition, missing one long range plastic bullet. This Toy gun set can only be shipped in the U.K.
A WWI trench periscope with wooden handle and khaki painted tube (marked for Dixey, London Bond Street) in original canvas carry case marked for Major C.G. Cole-Hamilton 12th Batt. R.I.R. Central Antrim Volunteers - sold with a small brass bell with painted mark Royal Irish Rifles Lenfer Wood
A fine Second War submariner’s D.S.O. and D.S.C. group of eleven awarded to Captain Dudley Norman, Royal Navy, who won the D.S.C. when in command of H.M. Submarine H.44 for sinking shipping off the coast of Norway in 1940, and the D.S.O. when in command of H.M. Submarine Upright for sinking the Italian cruiser Armando Diaz in February 1941; he was afterwards the first Commodore of the Malaysian Navy Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., silver-gilt and enamel, reverse officially dated 1941, with integral top ribbon bar; Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1941, hallmarks for London 1940; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Jubilee 1977; Malaysia, Pingat Khidmat Berbakti; Denmark, silver medal for Galathea Deep Sea Expedition 1950-1952; Netherlands, Red Cross Decoration, silver-gilt and enamels, and Red Cross Medal of Merit, silver, medals unmounted, together with mounted group of eight miniature dress medals and a loose Jubilee 1977, generally good very fine (12) £4,000-£5,000 --- D.S.O. London Gazette 23 September 1941. Seedie’s Submarine roll confirms award ‘For sinking the Italian Cruiser Armando Diaz off Kerkenah Bank in the Mediterranean on 25 February 1941, and a supply ship.’ D.S.C. London Gazette 1 January 1941. Edward Dudley Norman was born on 2 August 1910, and went to Dartmouth in 1924. He joined the Submarine service in 1932 and served in submarines at Devonport, Gosport and Portland before undergoing the Submarine C.O.’s Qualifying Course in 1940. His first submarine command in March 1940 was the 1920-vintage H.44, in which he carried out several patrols in the North Sea, sank enemy shipping off the Norwegian coast, and was awarded the D.S.C. In December 1940, Norman went out to the Mediterranean to take command of Upright in the Malta-based flotilla, later dubbed ‘The Fighting Tenth’. Sailing for his second patrol in February 1941, Upright had to encounter a new hazard: Italian acoustic mines laid in the harbour approaches. Upright’s sailors detonated them by firing machine gun bullets into the water about 100 yards ahead of the boat. On 21 February, Norman took Upright inside the Tunisian harbour of Sfax to look for targets, but found none. “As we were then scraping along the bottom at periscope depth,” he said, “it seemed prudent to reverse course and retire to the open sea.” Four nights later, Upright was on the surface off Sfax, charging main batteries, when the officer of the watch sighted “a cruiser or a very large destroyer, escorted by two destroyers, one on each bow”. Norman estimated the target’s course and speed, fired four torpedoes, and then dived. “As I got below,” he said, “the periscope was going up. I got it on the right bearing in time to see the first torpedo hit, in the light of which I considered the target was probably a cruiser.” He had, in fact, sunk the 5,000 ton Italian cruiser Armando Diaz and was awarded the D.S.O. Invalided home from Malta with dysentery in July 1941, he took command, in October, of the German U-boat U.570, which had surrendered to an R.A.F. Hudson aircraft south of Iceland in August, and was renamed H.M.S. Graph. U.570’s cryptographic material had been ditched and many instruments smashed, but in a year’s trials under Norman, Graph gave the Allies priceless information about the construction, performance and weaponry of the standard Type VII U-boat. After Graph, Norman commanded Tuna and Alcide, one of the first of the long-range A Class patrol submarines intended for the Pacific. Norman left the Submarine Service in 1947 and had appointments in the Admiralty, with Nato, as Executive Officer of H.M.S. Heron, the naval air station at Yeovilton, where he learned to fly, and in command of the sloop Nereide on the South African Station. The Royal Malaysian Navy, which formed on independence in 1957, began modestly with the purchase of a handful of ex-Royal Navy minesweepers. But as its first Commodore, Norman laid the foundations of a small but efficient force which played a full part in the confrontation with Indonesia in the 1960s. When Norman retired in 1960, he was awarded the Malaysian decoration, the Pingat Khidmat Berbakti. In retirement, Norman was secretary of the Royal Malta Yacht Club, and he played an influential role in establishing the first Whitbread Round the World Race. He died in 1998, aged 87. Sold with original warrant and statutes for D.S.O., award certificates for Coronation Medal and Netherlands Red Cross Decoration (16 January 1959), various correspondence, and an original photograph album compiled by Norman with 16 large black and white photographs of the captured U.570 on later trials as H.M.S. Graph, some captioned and dated 15 October 1941, showing interior images and various detailing around her, together with four larger loose photographs of the submarine.
A BOX OF ASSORTED MILITARIA, MAGAZINES AND A SWORD, this lot includes two WWII or post war gas masks, one boxed and one in a canvas bag, two WWI era silk postcards in a frame, a pair of binoculars, fuel ration book, forty three editions of 'the twenty years after' magazine in various conditions, a pair of post WWII trench art vases, a wooden periscope and a twentieth century sword missing its scabbard, this has no markings on the blade but the handle and guard are in good condition, Customers must satisfy themselves prior to sale in regards to conditions and authenticity, viewing is advised, condition reports are available on request
A Voigtlander Vitessa T Camera and a Corfield Periflex 3 Camera a Vitessa T rangefinder camera with a Color-Skopar f/2.8 50mm lens, shutter not working, heavy corrosion to top plate, a Corfield Periflex 3 periscope camera with a Lumax f/1.9 45mm lens, shutter not working, together with two Voigtländer Super-Dynaret f/4 135mm and a Skoparet f/3.4 35mm lenses, overall conditions P-F, (5)
A Corfield Gold Star 35mm Periscope Camera Outfit, chrome, body F-G, shutter working, slow speeds appear to slow, periscope working, leather peeling from body, together with a Lumax f/2.4 50mm lens, optics F-G, some haze & cleaning marks present, also with a Tele-Lumax f/2.8 90mm lens, optics F, some fungus & haze present,
A Selection of European SLR 35mm Film Cameras comprising a KW Praktica camera, 1952 model, with a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar T f/3.5 5cm lens, shutter slow speeds not working, a KMZ Zenit-C camera, 1958, with an Industar-50 f/3.5 5cm lens, shutter slow to close, a LZOS Jupiter-9 f/2 85mm lens, a ZOMZ Mir-1 f/2.8 37mm lens, a Carl Zeiss 8 x 30B monocular tele attachment for SLR cameras, a Corfield Periflex Gold Star and a Corfield Periflex 3 periscope cameras, both with Lumax f/2.8 50mm lenses, both with no working shutters, A/F
A WWI 'The Lifeguard Pocket Periscope'lithographed to one end 'F. Duerr & Sons, Manchester S.W. Patent No. 163/15', in a canvas case11.5 x 11cmCondition ReportThe mechanism is tight. With some rusting and spotting to the metal ends. Mirrors intact, with some spotting. Case is fair, spotting to the metal catch.
A Quantity of Militaria, comprising a post-Second World War prismatic pocket compass in stitched leather case, a Palmer brass mortar sight stamped with a broad arrow in a stitched leather case, an M40 Telescope marked M.H.R.CO., dated 1943, R.J.D. No.23382, the underside numbered C80748, and the side cast 8, with mounting bracket, a mounting bracket stamped SGT 2IN. MR. No.3 Mk.II MR.45.GA. B & Co. and an armoured vehicle periscope sight No.56 Mk.I
A German Third Reich period "donkey ear" prismatic periscope binocular, of heavy bronze, steel and aluminium construction, marked "C P GOERZ BERLIN S.F. 14G H/6400 Gi" etc, with individually adjustable eye pieces and vertical and horizontal spirit levers. Basically GC (the steel barrels dented, eye piece covers missing, all original finish removed); mounted on a wooden base for display) £200-250
A British tank/armoured car periscope, olive green painted finish, with metal MOD record plate affixed to side, no apparent makings to specify to which vehicle it belonged to, 29 x 25 x 9.5cms approx, 9.3kgs, along with a similar smaller example with MOD record plate attached, 29 x 9.5 x 19cms approx, 6kgs, seemingly complete, but extensive service wear to paint finish, plus some minor scratches to the glass, dents to the metal body
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