In Watkins’ preface to this biography of
Godfrey Place it is revealed that it is a book written in surprise that there
hadn’t previously been an account of such an accomplished naval officer. When
one reads of Place’s enormously successful, varied, and colourful career, this
is a surprise, and a pleasure that this wrong has now been righted.
The central thrust of “Midget Submarine
Commander” looks at Place’s involvement with Operation ‘Source’, the attack on
the German battleship Tirpitz in Alta
Fjord. This focus reflects Churchill’s own fixation with Tirpitz, but a lot of what is contained here raises questions about
whether this was warranted. Watkins highlights many of the reasons behind
Churchill’s fixation with it, and yet also flags up how it was, to a large
extent, something of a paper tiger. Churchill felt that the resources tied up
by Tirpitz impacted the “entire naval
situation throughout the world”, and that if she could be eliminated it would
allow a significant rebalancing in the Pacific. That said, the coverage of Tirpitz through Watkins’ narrative
illustrates how limited her activity was, with prolonged periods of her
undergoing planned maintenance while the astonishingly long preparations for
the X craft operations we carried out. Herein a key point is made about the
nature of a fleet in being – a significant warship does not need to be
particularly active to cast a very long shadow.
Place may have won his Victoria Cross for
his operations against the Tirpitz, but in many ways this, and the title of the
book, masks the wider achievements of his career. Indeed Place himself
downplayed the significance of this episode in his career, seeing it as “a
grossly over-publicized attack in a small submarine on the Tirpitz in 1943” (p.116). It is in this wider career that Watkins’
book is at its strongest, producing rich anecdote and delivering valuable
context and colour to any serious student of the period.
In the accounts of Place’s service aboard the Polish submarine
Sokol in the Mediterranean some
genuinely fresh pieces of history emerge, including the ‘official’ declaration
of war against Italy by Poland – the humorous delivery of which, described on
page 34, and involving some fantastic language and a hand thrown shell – masks
the real and potentially oft-missed point of how legal niceties such as this
were handled during the Second World War. Place’s own accounts of his time on Sokol reveal the deep sense of humour
that ran through his personality. His claim that his “award of the Polish Cross
of Valour entitled him to a mistress, two cows and half a hectare of land” (p.56)
cannot fail to raise a smile.
Perhaps one of the most striking points
about Place’s career is that he was very much not just a submariner. After his
release from prisoner of war camp and frustrated attempt to rejoin the
submarine service, he transferred to surface ships where he played an active
role in attempts to counter the insurgency in Palestine that led to the
creation of the state of Israel, and then in another significant career change,
in 1951 he joined the Fleet Air Arm and qualified as a carrier aviator. This
led to his service aboard HMS Glory
in the Far East, carrying out combat missions over Malaysia, and most significantly
Korea.
Late in the book a small point jars. Place
was promoted to Captain on 31 December 1958, having passed through the Joint
Services Staff Course, and in many ways this marked the run towards the end of
his career, and certainly the end of Watkins’ work; at this time he was 37.
When the reader considers all that had been achieved by then it is reminiscent
of Caesar weeping at the sight of a statue of Alexander the Great when thinking
that by the age of 30 Alexander had conquered most of the known world. Place is
similar to Alexander, achieving a vast amount in critical times for his
country.
Disclaimer: a free review copy of this book was provided by Pen and Sword Books.
