Basil Charles Godfrey Place

Digest of citation

Lieutenant Place * commanding the Midget Submarine X7, along with Lieutenant Cameron *, Commanding Midget Submarine X6, on the 22nd September, 1943, at Kaafjord, Norway, carried out a most a daring and successful attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz. Lieutenant Place found a gap in the outer net at 4am on the 22nd September. He waited for a minesweeper to come out before taking the X7 through the opening. Unfortunately the X7 ran into a torpedo net. After going full astern and flooding and blowing the tanks, they got through. At 6:40am, he sighted the Tirpitz, approximately 1700 yards away. X7 got stuck in another net and on freeing itself they broke surface, 30 yards from the Turpitz. They submerged and made contact with the Battleship, approximately 20 ft below its B Turret. They edged below, and under the keel, lined up, fore and aft, with the enemy ship. The X7, then dropped her starboard charge, after which, she went astern for 150 yards or more before dropping her second charge

Additional information

Lieutenant Place was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB); a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) and held the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC ). He was the eldest child, but the only son, of Charles Godfrey Morris and Anna Margaret Place, (née Stuart-Williams) of Wintercott, Little Malvern, Worcestershire. Before the attack on the Tirpitz, Lieutenant Place married Second Officer Althea Tickler, of the WRNS in July 1943. They had a son and two daughters. for the action. The X7's charges were set with a time delay of one hour, giving the X7 time to get away. On his escape, Lieutenant Place became entangled in one net after another, trying desperately to escape. The explosion of the charges freed the X7 and she broke surface and she was fired upon by the German Battleship. He climbed out onto the casing, waving a white sweater as a signal that he was surrendering, and ordered the crew to abandon the submarine. Water spilled over into the small submarine and she sank. One of the crew, sub-lieutenant Aitken, RNVR, made a successful escape using the DAVIS Apparatus. Lieutenant L B Whittam and Engine Room Articifer were unable to escape and were lost. There citation was Gazetted on 22nd February 1944, whilst Lieutenant Place and Lieutenant Cameron were Prisoners of War. After the war both men were presented with the Victoria Cross at an Investiture at Buckingham Palace on 22nd June 1945 by his Majesty King George VI. E-mail from his Wren Driver (Sally Saunders) regarding Admiral Place: Dear Alf, Here are some brief details of my time with the Admiral during my draft in London. March 1968 I was given a loan draft to London as Admiral Driver. I was stationed at HMS President. Admiral Place had just been drafted ACR Rear Admiral in charge of Recruitment and Reserves in London. His base was in the Old Admiralty Building. He also had a flag ship on the Thames which was HMS Discovery the ship of Scott the explorer. He often entertained on board and Discovery was the name of my cap tally and I was the only wren to wear it. Also the reserves ships in London were moored next to Discovery but I don't think any of them are there anymore. When I met the Admiral the first thing that struck me was how short he was. He must have been about 5' 6" Originally the Admiral wanted to get rid of the Wren Driver and have a marine driver but after driving him for couple of months he must have liked me because I was made permanent driver to him was with him for two years. I think the turning point was when two days after meeting him he was late to a meeting of the Master Mariners ( he was a Master Mariner) on one of the liners in Southampton and we ended up flying down this duel carriageway doing something like 80 miles an hour while he was in the back changing into his uniform. His job entailed doing many inspections of Recruiting offices and the Reserve forces all over the country and it was my job to get him there in one piece and at the right time. We really got on well and on long trips he would often share the driving. Also as a Rear Admiral he was entitled to fly a flag on the Humber Hawk and show his stars but he always asked me to cover them up much to the surprise of his staff. It was quite funny really they would be panicking for me to get the flag on and he would come behind and tell me to take it down. We were a team!! Each year the Reserves would go abroad to have Exercise in their Minesweepers and in 1969 they went to Gibraltar and the Admiral arranged it for me to go as well as his Driver which was great as Wren Driver didn't get to go abroad. I think the most memorable event that happened whilst I was driving the Admiral apart from seeing Royalty and well known persons was the time in 1968 there was a big re-union of the VC's and GC's and the Admiral gave me and his car to the then Chairman Sir John Smyth. We had lunch at the Chelsea barracks where I was sat at a table with men from the Ghurkha regiment and after this all the VC's and GC's and their family's got into coaches and I led the procession through London for the reception at Buckingham Palace with the Queen. As you can imagine this was a very exciting day for me as I actually went into the palace for tea (downstairs with all the coach drivers I might add). Afterwards Sir John Smyth thanked me and presented me with a book "The story of the George Cross" which he had signed for me and I have still got. The admiral always involved me with his family and I often stayed at his home in Corton Denham, Somerset when we had been doing inspection in the West Country. I did meet all of his children briefly but the youngest one, Melanie, was still at school in Somerset, so she was the one I saw the most. Andrea was the eldest and I'm not sure what she did, but I believe his son Charles went on to become a Social Worker. Mrs Place was a lovely lady, very tall, who always made me feel comfortable in her presence, and whenever it was my birthday she always went out of her way to make me some homemade sweets. The point, which was so pleasing was that, they bothered. There home in London was at Bishops Park Road, Hamersmith. I left his service in March 1970 and went onto HMS Brawdy and I believe he left the Navy in July 1970 and went on to work for Cunard the shipping line. I think that's about it really. I have got a photo of him which I will try to send to you. Regards Sally

*Lieutenant Place and Lieutenant Cameron were given a joint citation

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Alf recorded the memorial as: not known. There should be a tribute in the Ledger of VC and GC recipients in Westminster Abbey

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