UXB on a Merchant Ship

1st March 1941: Two men are awarded the George Medal after grappling with an unexploded bomb swinging above the engine room of their merchant ship

The view of an East Coast convoy from one of the escorting destroyers, October 1940.

Merchant ships loaded in East Coast ports had to head north around Scotland before heading into the Atlantic.

On 7th October 1941, the London Gazette announced that the George Medal had been awarded to:

Gerard Llewellyn Turner, Esq., Second Engineer.

Bernard Peter de Neumann, Esq., Second Officer.

The citation was very short and to the point:

For brave conduct when their ship was attacked by enemy aircraft.

Furthermore, Captain Theo Pryse had been made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Captain Theo Pryse, OBE (1906-1941). He and the crew of the Tewkesbury not only disposed of an unexploded bomb trapped above the engine room but were credited with shooting down a Luftwaffe bomber.

Unfortunately, Captain Pryse never learnt that he had been awarded an OBE for his actions in command of the Tewksbury. He was the Master of the SS Newbury¹ when she was torpedoed on the 15th September 1941. He and the entire crew were lost.

The dramatic story of the battle to save the Tewksbury only emerged much later². The Tewkesbury was travelling north up the East Coast of Britain. She was headed round the north of Scotland and into the Atlantic, headed to Buenos Aires, with a cargo of coal. But East Coast convoys were regularly coming under bombing attacks by the Luftwaffe.

Ahead of the Tewksbury was the tanker MV Atheltempar, on fire after being hit by two bombs. In total 12 men died, but the fires burnt themselves out, and the Atheltempar was taken in tow and repaired. She was eventually sunk when torpedoed during the PQ18 convoy to Russia in September 1942

The British Steam Merchant Tewksbury survived the UXB on 1st March but was torpedoed and sunk on her return voyage on 21st May 1941.