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Auction: 5012 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 530

A Great War D.S.O. Group of Six to Captain R.L´E.M. Rede, Royal Navy Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., gilt and enamel, with top riband bar, centres loose; 1914-15 Star (Commr. R.L´E.M. Rede, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.); France, Legion of Honour, breast Badge, gold and enamel, minor green enamel damage, with rosette on riband; Italy, Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, breast Badge, gold and enamel; except where stated extremely fine, the group mounted for wear with original, faded, ribands (6) Estimate £ 1,800-2,200D.S.O.London Gazette 21.6.1918 ´Admiralty 21 June 1918- Honours for Services in the Action with Enemy Destroyers off the Belgian Coast on the 21st March 1918.´ Rede, Roger L´Estrange Murray, Commander R.N., Commanding H.M.S. Botha. He took his ship through a heavy barrage of gun-fire, and, without waiting to ascertain that the rest of his division were following, proceeded to engage the enemy with ram, torpedo and gun-fire. He rammed and cut in two an enemy torpedo boat. The success of the action was undoubtedly due to his gallant leadership and initiative.´ France, Legion of Honour, Officer, London Gazette 6.8.1918 Italy, Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, London Gazette 10.8.1917 The German Raid of 20-21 March 1918 The protection and security of the sea flank of the Allied armies had been a serious naval responsibility from an early period of the war.The two chief threats were a rapid landing on the low shelving foreshore behind the Allied front at Nieuport, and a naval bombardment of the lines of communication between Dunkirk and Nieuport. The German Offensive in Picardy which began on 21 March with the break through the Allied lines at St Quentin, was inevitably accompanied by increased naval activity on the coast. On 18 March the Commodore of the German Flanders Flotilla issued an operation order for an attack against the Dunkirk-Bray Dunes line. In the early morning of 19 March, a motor launch on patrol located a group of four enemy destroyers near the light-bouy at the northern end of Zuidcoote Pass. The Germans were carrying out a preliminary reconnaisance. The impending attack was expected, and in Dunkirk Roads, Commander Rede in H.M.S Botha, the flotilla leader, accompanied by H.M.S. Morris and four French destroyers, was ´at the ready´. The enemy bombardment began at 3.45a.m. on 21 March. At 3.55a.m. the Botha and her division slipped their cables and steamed towards the Zuidcoote Pass. They sighted the enemy, five destroyers and two torpedo boats, off the north eastern end of Smal bank, at 4.35a.m. The British and French ships at once opened fire, which the Germans returned. Ten minutes into the action the Botha was hit in the No.2 stokehold, and her speed began to fall off. Commander Rede, seeing the enemy were drawing ahead, turned to port to attack them with torpedos. Having fired two he closed the enemy´s line still further, and rammed the leading torpedo boat, the A19, which was hurrying after the division of destroyers with the A7, the second torpedo boat, astern of her. The Botha struck the German torpedo boat amidships and cut her in two pieces. As she did so a smoke screen from the German destroyers covered a large part of the division. Commander Rede could only see A7 coming up astern of A19, which he had just rammed, so he again put his helm over. He missed her, and passed ahead, but raked her at almost point blank range with his after guns. The rest of the German division made off, and the French destroyers eventually caught up with their leader, sank the A7, and formed a screen ahead of the crippled Botha, which was taken in tow by the Morris. As far as the Admiralty could judge, this short and fruitless raid against the Flanders coast was the only attempt that the enemy naval forces in the southern area made to support their great offensive on land. Captain Roger L´Estrange Murray Rede, D.S.O., R.N. Commander, 30.6.1914; commanded Torpedo Boat 23, 1914; commanded H.M.S. Botha, 1918; Captain 31.12.1918, commanded H.M.S. Bruce 1921; Captain Rede died 3.3.1930.

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