Colin Grazier,
GC (7 May 1920 – 30 October 1942) was a sailor in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
who was posthumously awarded the
George Cross
The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...
for the "outstanding bravery and steadfast devotion to duty in the face of danger" which he displayed on 30 October 1942 in action in the eastern
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
when capturing codebooks vital for the breaking of the German naval "Shark"
Enigma cipher from the sinking .
Early life
Grazier was born at Two Gates in
Tamworth, the son of Colin Grazier and his wife, Margaret Twynham. He was educated locally and joined the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
as soon as the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
began. He served on
HMS ''Petard''.
Grazier married Olive M. Grazier just before going to war. They lived at 211 Tamworth Road in
Kingsbury, Warwickshire.
30 October 1942
On the night of 30 October 1942, an enemy submarine was reported north of
Port Said
Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...
. The destroyers , , , , and were ordered to proceed from
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
to relieve who had been searching for the submarine (which was German
U-boat
U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
).
HMS ''Petard'', assisted by
Wellesley aircraft of
No. 47 Squadron, located the U-boat and attacked with depth charges for nearly ten hours and finally forced the stricken boat to the surface at around 22:40. The U-boat was caught in ''Petard''s search-lights, and the German crew, with
Kapitänleutnant
, short: KptLt/in lists: KL, ( or ''lieutenant captain'') is an officer grade of the captains' military hierarchy group () of the modern German . The rank is rated Ranks and insignia of NATO navies' officers, OF-2 in NATO, and equivalent to i ...
(Captain)
Hans Heidtmann, were taken on board under guard, but not before they had opened sea valves and petcocks in order to scuttle the submarine before abandoning it. HMS ''Petard'' now sought volunteers to swim over and search the damaged submarine. Lieutenant
Francis Fasson said that he would go aboard.
Fasson stripped off his clothes and jumped into the cold sea. Colin Grazier also volunteered and followed him across. The two men were then joined by 16-year-old
NAAFI
The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the United Kingdom, British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their fam ...
canteen assistant
Tommy Brown, and they began the task of searching the rapidly sinking U-boat for any vital documents, code books or machinery.
The two senior men, Fasson and Grazier, entered the submarine and passed all the information they could get their hands on to Brown, who was waiting on the
conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...
. Suddenly the submarine lurched and slipped beneath the waves, taking Grazier and Fasson with it. Both men were drowned. Their daring mission remained a secret for over 30 years due to the
Official Secrets Act
An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...
.
George Cross citation
The awards of the
George Cross
The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...
to Fasson and Grazier were published in the ''
London Gazette
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...
'' on 14 September 1943.
The medal is on display at the National War Museum at
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...
.
Legacy
Fasson and Grazier had managed to pass out the vital code books that reached
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...
on 24 November 1942. They proved to be the
Discriminant Book (short weather key) and
Kurzsignalheft (short signals) code books, which yielded priceless information in breaking the U-boat
Enigma codes. Convoys could now be rerouted to avoid
wolfpacks and losses were halved
in January and February, 1943.
In Grazier's home town of Tamworth there is an avenue, an office block and a hotel named after him. The hotel contains a gallery of photographs. In October 2002, a commemorative sculpture was unveiled in Tamworth to honour Grazier and his two colleagues involved in the capture of documents from ''U-559''. The sculpture, the work of Polish sculptor
Walenty Pytel, takes the form of three anchors, and the date of the unveiling was chosen to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the action against ''U-559''.
The
museum at Bletchley Park has a section dedicated to his memory.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grazier, Colin
1942 deaths
British recipients of the George Cross
Royal Navy recipients of the George Cross
Royal Navy personnel killed in World War II
People from Tamworth, Staffordshire
Royal Navy sailors
World War II espionage
1920 births
Military personnel from Staffordshire
Military personnel from Warwickshire