Captain Fredrick Thornton Peters VC, DSO, DSC & Bar (USA) DSC Royal Navy
Plymouth Hoe Memorial Project
I am developing a project to erect a memorial to a “forgotten” recipient of a Royal Navy VC of WW2 and I am seeking support from a cross section of the armed forces and ex-service associations.
In researching Naval Heroes and recipients of the Victoria Cross for an informal briefing paper for Devon Royal British Legion and the local branch of the Royal Naval Association, I was surprised to discover an unrecorded VC recipient from the official Devonlist. A true naval hero, whose heroism was played down for political reasons by Admiral Cunningham and the War cabinet during WW2 to avoid infuriating General DeGulle and the Free French Forces, the more I researched and read about this man and the truth relating to how shabbily we treated his memory the more I felt determined to right a wrong.
I refer to Captain Fredrick Thornton Peters VC, DSO, DSC& Bar who was awarded the United States of America 2nd highest medal of honour the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). Though recommended by senior officers of the US Army who witnessed his bravery, allegedly for the Congressional Medal of Honour (CMH) that medal can not be awarded to a foreign national. (Peters was Canadian).
Peters had a distinguished and heroic career in the Royal Navy in both World Wars, leaving Canada at a young age to become a Midshipman at Dartmouth, he was a Lieutenant at the outbreak of WW1; his first honour was awarded at the Battle of the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, selflessly entering a burning engine room to save a collapsed and trapped seamen and later for his sinking of enemy submarines, he received the DSO & DSC respectively.
Following the end of the first WW1, it is recorded that he undertook secretive operations for the Foreign Office, though remained on the RN active list. This episode during the wars is borne out by an unlikely source, the MI6 traitor Kim Philby who named Peters in his biography as one of the most professional and inspirational spies he had ever met.
At the start of WW2 Peters was recalled to active service and in command of a flotilla won a bar to his DSC for sinking 2 enemy submarines, but his past caught up with him and he was quickly seconded to the Special Operations Executive and then liaison to Combined Operations as a planner. It was here that he masterminded the Commando raid on the Port of Oranin North Africa called Operation Reservist which was part of the much wider combined North Africa landings, Operation Torch.
He was given the task of securing the port and disabling the remainder of the Vichy French Fleet, approximately 31 ships including 2 unknown submarines, which had escaped from the bombardment by the Royal Navy of the French Fleet in Operation Catapult on the 3rd of July 1940 further along the coast of Algiers. This pre-emptive action had caused widespread condemnation of Britain by her allies; in particular the French who it was feared would fight any landings on the coast of Algiers.
Peters settled on a combined operation involving Royal Marine (SBS) & Army Commandos in support of specialist elements of the United States Army carried in RN ships lead by an American “gift horse” HMS Walney. The attack would also include (probably) the first known use of RM canoeists to plant mines whilst the ships were engaged from the shore by the RM/Army Commandos and US Forces. (The more famous Operation Frankton was mounted the following month, December 1942)
Unfortunately 5 days before the operation was to take place intelligence reports indicated that the plan had been compromised, most probably by a senior Free French Officer who had Vichy sympathies, at this late stage Admiral Cunningham ordered the assault to take place though it was obvious the element of surprise on which the plan depended had been eliminated.
Peters, who at 52 years of age was considered one of the best planners at SOE & Combined Ops, was not selected to undertake the raid; on hearing the news that the operation had been compromised and was now considered almost suicidal, he insisted that he would take command of the operation and lead the raid himself from the lead ship HMS Walney.
I do not propose to go into the full details of the action of the 8th of November 1942, which are recorded elsewhere, it is suffice to say that Peters though severely wounded and blinded in one eye, continued to press home his attack even though all the bridge crew of HMS Walney were dead following a number of direct hits, he took the wheel and guided the Walney under concentrated and sustained fire from Vichy French ships and shore batteries directed as the lead ship of the small flotilla.
Peters tried to ram a French Destroyer, having rammed his way through a blockade before he managed to berth HMS Walney at the inner harbour mole, then under intense small arms fire he personally ran forward and secured her bow mooring with a fellow officer, then went back to the quarterdeck to oversee the securing of the aft, before ensuring the safe landing of the RM Commandos and US Forces, unfortunately not many had survived the assault. He then oversaw the evacuation of the crews from the vessels under his command before passing out due to his wounds.
Operation Reservist was deemed a failure with a disastrous loss of allied Special Forces personal. Two days later the port surrendered to US forces who had landed nearby as part of Operation Torch. Peters was released from captivity and bizarrely hailed a hero by the French who carried him shoulder high through the town before handing him over to allied forces, he was flown to Gibraltar where after a short stay in hospital recovered enough to be transferred back to the UK.
In a strange twist of fate the RAAF Sunderland he was being carried in crashed in heavy fog due to an instrument failure whilst attempting to land near the breakwater in Plymouth Sound on Friday the 13th of November 1942. Of the 14 people on board Peters and 2 other wounded men were the only fatalities, the 11 man crew escaping, though the pilot attempted to save Peters he was unable to and recorded that Peters disappeared under the waves of the Sound, despite a search his body was never recovered. He is listed on the RN Portsmouth memorial but to my knowledge has no known personal memorial marking his heroism or last resting place in the waters off Plymouth.
(Though I have read posts on a forum which suggested some attempt to mark his death was being considered in 2009, I have found nothing further)
He was gazetted for a posthumous VC, which as stated was played down at the time, he was survived by his mother as next of kin and in line with the effort not to affront the French his VC was posted ordinary mail to his mother in Canadato add insult to injury there was no covering letter. President Roosevelt personally sent a senior American Officer to present her with Peters American DSC, accompanied by a band and a contingent of the American Army who paraded through his home town to a civic reception, his mother received a hand written letter from the President extolling Peter’s heroism.
As a firm believer that it is never to late to do the right thing, in this the 70th anniversary year of his death, I am seeking support to have a memorial to Peter’s erected on Plymouth Hoe overlooking the Sound which became his grave. I plan for it to be unveiled in a memorial service on Tuesday the 13th of November 2012 and have representatives from all the armed services involved in the Operation, supported by ex-service associations. I have the backing of senior staff in Devon’s RBL who were unaware of Peter’s and have held informal meetings with Plymouth City Council planners and the Museums Heritage officer. (The RBL would seek to engage surviving members of Peters family in any memorial/unveiling service)
I am seeking funding and donations from business and ex-service associations who may wish to contribute or support this project. I have made contact with DML regarding their apprentices using this idea of a memorial as one of their projects, however in the first instance I would ask RNA members who may have knowledge of Peters and Operation Reservist or can add, or put me right if they spot anything wrong in what I have written, to contact me in order that I can move this along as time is short to make a November deadline.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at the following email addresses:
e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
