The fascinating Great War Second Battle of Durazzo 2nd October 1918 Italian Al Valore Militare in Bronze, awarded to a distinguished naval officer and recipient of the Albert Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, Commander later Captain Henry de Beauvoir Tupper, Royal Navy. Tupper saw continuous service between May 1898 and January 1923. During this period he participated in the Messina Earthquake rescue operations in December 1908, and during the Great War he had command of the destroyer Scourge, being awarded a Mention in Despatches for his services during the Allied landings at Gallipoli on the 25th to 26th April 1915, he went to play a key role in the rescue of survivors from the sinking hospital ship Britannic of the Greek Island of Kea on 21st November 1916. He was later appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur by the Republic of France in June 1918. Tupper held command of the destroyer Comet, which was escorting SS Gordonia from Taranto to Malta when they collided on 4th August 1918, and it was his actions in the aftermath of this incident that led to his award of the Albert Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, earned in conjunction with that to Able Seaman Edward Thomas Spalding, both awards being gazetted on 21st February 1919. In the meantime he had command of the destroyer Lapwing, and was present at the Second Battle of Durazzo on 2nd October 1918 for which he was awarded the Italian Al Valore Militare in Bronze, eventually going on to be awarded the Military Order of Aviz by the Republic of Portugal in February 1921.
Italy - Kingdom of: Al Valore Militare in Bronze, obverse with S.J. initials, reverse engraved in an official form ‘COMMANDER HENRY DE BEAUVOIR TUPPER R.N. DURAZZO - 2 OTTOBRE 1918-’.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Henry de Beauvoir Tupper was born on 7th April 1883 at Hamlet House, Coggeshall, Sussex, and having opted for a career in the Royal Navy, he was sent to the Royal Naval College Britannia on 15th May 1898 and passed out as a Midshipman on 15th November 1899. Promoted to Sub Lieutenant on 15th November 1902, and to Lieutenant on 30th June 1905, he saw service on various stations, and was in the Mediterranean aboard the armoured cruiser Sutlej when he was present in the recovery after the disaster of the Messina Earthquake on 22nd December 1908. Some 160,000 people died. For his services, Tupper was awarded the Messina Earthquake Medal 1908 by the Kingdom of Italy.
Tupper gained his first command, the destroyer Vixen, in May 1910, overseeing her period of commissioning. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 29th June 1913. With the outbreak of the Great War he had command of the destroyer Scourge, which vessel, a part of the Third Destroyer Flotilla, was employed in the Mediterranean and the Dardanelles. Scourge was used during the Gallipoli campaign to help transfer regiments to the shore at Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay. Tupper was awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services “in assisting disembarkation at Gaba Tepe during Gallipoli landing 25/26th April 1915”, the award being published in the London Gazette for 16th August 1915.
Scourge subsequently assisted in the rescue of survivors from the sinking of HM Hospital Ship Britannic after she struck a German mine on 21st November 1916 off the Greek island of Kea. Scourge picked up 339 survivors and the rest rowed to land on Kea, or got picked up by other ships afterwards.
Tupper was promoted to Commander on 30th June 1917, and handed over command of Scourge in September 1917, and was next appointed to the command of the destroyer Comet on 15th May 1918. For his previous command, he was awarded the appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur by the Republic of France, this award being published in the London Gazette for 21st June 1918.
Comet, was escorting SS Gordonia from Taranto to Malta when they collided on 4th August. Two officers and five men lost their lives in the collision. Tupper would greatly distinguish himself in the aftermath of this incident.
The joint citation for Tupper and Able Seaman Edward Thomas Spalding for the award of the Albert Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea was published in the London Gazette for 21st February 1919. It reads as follows:
‘On the 4th August, 1918, H.M.S. Comet, under the command of Commander Tupper, was seriously damaged in a collision. The ship was badly holed on the starboard side, the deck and all compartments eventually filled with water as far as the engine-room bulkhead, and the stern was at any moment liable to fall off. On being informed that the hydraulic release depth-charge was set on fire, Commander Tupper sent away a man in a whaler to remove the primer. It was only possible to remove the primer from one of the charges, leaving the other depth-charge about 15 feet under water, still at “fire”. Commander Tupper then went away in a dinghy himself, and by repeated diving operations tried to render it safe. After a rest he returned to complete the operation, in which Able Seaman Spalding, who was a passenger on the ship at the time and was a good swimmer, volunteered to assist. Commander Tupper at first refused to allow Spalding to assist him, as the latter had no knowledge of depth-charges, and Commander Tupper did not consider it safe for him to go down. Ultimately Commander Tupper and Able Seaman Spalding swam to the spot beneath which the depth-charge was submerged, and alternately gave a turn to the iron bar which Commander Tupper had placed in the handle, until the primer was eventually unscrewed and taken out of the depth-charge, thus rendering it safe. This operation was of the most dangerous nature, as at any moment the stern of the ship might have dropped off before the depth-charge was removed and would have carried down both the officer and the man, who would have inevitable lost their lives. The explosion would also have destroyed the remaining portion of the ship, with loss of life to those of the crew who were on board.’
The damaged Comet remained afloat, and was under tow when she then torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 6th August 1918.
Tupper was very shortly afterwards given command of the destroyer Lapwing from 19th August 1918, and would remain with her for the rest of the war when continuing to serve with the Third Battle Squadron on deployment in the Mediterranean. As such he held command of her during the Second Battle of Durazzo fought on 2nd October 1918.
The Second Battle of Durazzo began on the morning of 2nd October 1918, when British and Italian aircraft attacked by bombarding enemy troop concentrations and artillery batteries while the fleet was still steaming across the Adriatic. Afterwards, several of the Italian and British cruisers formed a two-echelon line to begin their bombardment from about 8,000 yards (7,315 m) off the coast. Meanwhile, the MAS boats and some American and British vessels attacked the three Austro-Hungarian naval ships, SMS Dinara, Scharfschutze and No.87.
The three warships sailed back and forth around Durazzo harbour firing their guns and dodging torpedoes and shell fire. Torpedo boat No. 87 and the two destroyers were chased by the Allied destroyer force as they fled north along the coast, but they managed to escape. Scharfschütze took some minor hits and suffered three dead and five wounded while torpedo boat No. 87 was struck by a torpedo that failed to explode. Dinara managed to escape unscathed. The shelling of the port was carried out by the Italian armoured cruisers San Giorgio, San Marco and Pisa. Three merchantmen, Graz, Herzegovina and Stambul, were hit. Stambul sank but the two others escaped complete destruction. The Austro-Hungarian hospital ship Baron Call was stopped and searched by British destroyers before being allowed to proceed. Most of the American forces were assigned to the covering force and at the battle's beginning were used to chart a clear path through a sea mine field off Durazzo. A few of the submarine chasers took fire from shore batteries at this time, but none were damaged. They were then assigned to screen the other allied ships from submarine attacks. Patrolling to the north and to the south of the battle area, the Americans engaged the two Austro-Hungarian U-boats U-29 and U-31. At 11:05, a sailor on the submarine chaser No. 129 spotted U-29, which was then depth-charged for 15 minutes and damaged heavily, but she nevertheless survived the encounter.
U-31 was also depth charged and survived as well. At one point, No. 129 was fired on by the enemy shore batteries, the closest shot landed about 50 yards (46 m) from the vessel, but the Americans suffered no casualties in the battle. Later, American forces reported sinking the two submarines but this was not the case. The submarines managed to damage at least one allied light cruiser; HMS Weymouth was struck by a torpedo from U-31 under a Leutnant Rigele, which blew off a large portion of her stern and killed four men. Weymouth was shelling inland facilities along with four other British cruisers when the torpedo struck home. She spent the remainder of the war under repair. The other British light cruisers are known to have been lightly damaged by shore battery fire before they were silenced or disabled. A British destroyer was also hit by a torpedo. The battle ended by 01:30 on 2–3 October; from the beginning of the action civilians started to flee the city, and by 11th October the once-busy port was silent. On 10th October, the last Austro-Hungarian units had left Durrës, which was eventually occupied by the Italians on 16th October.
It was for his services in command of Lapwing during the Second Battle of Durazzo on 2nd October 1918 that Tupper was awarded the Italian Al Valore Militare in Bronze, this award being published in the London Gazette for 17th January 1919.
Tupper was present in command of Lapwing at the entry of the Allied Fleet through the Dardanelles on 12 November 1918.
Tupper was ultimately awarded the Officer Grade of the Military Order of Aviz by the Republic of Portugal, this award being published in the London Gazette for 4th February 1921. He left the service on 1st January 1923, and was promoted to Captain on the Retired List on 7th April 1928.
At the time of the Munich Crisis in 1938, Tupper found himself recalled for duty with the Naval Control Service at Kingston, Jamaica, and during the Second World War he was employed with President III on work relating to the operations of Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships that were operating from Belfast, he being employed on the Naval Staff there. Tupper reverted to the Retired List on 18th October 1945.
