On a dramatic night in the waters of the Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt in 1942, the heroic actions of three people altered the course of the Second World War – and one of them was just a teenager.
Fifteen-year-old Tommy Brown had lied about his age to work on P-class destroyer HMS Petard as a Naafi canteen assistant, determined to make his contribution to the war effort.
However, little did he know that just a year later his brave actions would start a domino effect that would assist in shortening the war and see Royal Navy ships sail more safely across the Atlantic.
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On the night of 30 October 1942, Lieutenant Tony Fasson, 29, joined forces with Able Seaman Colin Grazier, 22, and Tommy to race towards sinking German U-boat U-559 and retrieve whatever documents had been left by the submariners who were desperately trying to escape their vessel.
Spotted underwater earlier in the day by a pilot from 47 Squadron, U-559 had been left damaged beyond repair after being attacked by P-class destroyers HMS Petard and HMS Pakenham along with H-class destroyer HMS Hero and Type II Hunt-class destroyers HMS Dulverton and HMS Hurworth.
After 10 hours of bombardment, the U-boat was severely damaged and was forced to the surface.
Back in the UK, codebreakers at Bletchley Park had been working for 10 months without the necessary information needed to crack the new German codes and help Allied forces navigate safely around hidden U-boats.
The Kriegsmarine–the German navy–had added a fourth rotor to its Enigma machine in February 1942 which added a new layer of encryption, making previously cracked codes irrelevant.
It was codenamed Shark.
The Petard Pinch
It was the quick thinking of Lt Fasson, AB Grazier and Tommy Brown to grab documents such as the weather signal and short signal codebooks before the submarine sank that proved vital to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
On the hunt for anything useful, Tommy frantically explored both the engine and control room before U-559 sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking any possible secrets with her.
Once out of the submarine and standing on the conning tower, Brown screamed to Lt Fasson and AB Grazier to abandon ship, realising their fates would be sealed if they didn't act immediately.
Describing the sailors' heroic, final moments at a Naval inquiry, Tommy Brown said: "I saw Grazier and then the Lieutenant appear at the bottom of the hatch.
"I shouted 'You had better come up' twice, and they had just started up when the submarine started to sink very quickly."
Tommy was the only one of the three to survive.
The actions of Lt Fasson, AB Grazier and Tommy stayed a secret for many years due to the intense secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park.
However, their contribution proved vital in changing the course of the Second World War.
Author Robert Harris, known for his critically acclaimed 1995 novel Enigma, strongly believes that without the brave actions of Lt Fasson, AB Grazier and Tommy Brown, the Second World War might have lasted longer than six years.
He said: "Without these men, it might never have been possible to have D-Day in June 1944.It's hard to think of three individual servicemen who did more to hasten the Allied victory."
Have you ever visited @I_W_M HMS Belfast in London? 🚢 There’s lots to see and do onboard and a visit to the #NAAFI is a must! You can learn more about WWII hero Tommy Brown, who worked as a NAAFI canteen assistant. pic.twitter.com/wbJYdfea0A
— NAAFI (@naafisocial) January 5, 2023
What happened next?
Lt Fasson and AB Grazier were posthumously awarded the George Cross – they missed out on the Victoria Cross because their deaths didn't happen while under fire – and Tommy was awarded the George Medal, becoming one of its youngest recipients.
Their combined bravery to retrieve the Enigma documents meant codebreakers at Bletchley Park could now crack Shark.
This led to the Royal Navy suddenly knowing the location of U-boats between the US and Britain, saving an estimated 1,250,000 tons of shipping from being attacked in just two months.
It helped bring a quicker end to the Battle of the Atlantic – the longest continuous military operation in the Second World War – and was crucial to the Allies' success.
Of the Battle of the Atlantic, Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote: "The only thing that ever frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril."
Tommy's bravery saw him being promoted to Senior Canteen Assistant and transferred to HMS Belfast.
While on leave from the Town-class light cruiser, Tommy again proved himself fearless when he tried to rescue his 11 siblings from a house fire in February 1945.
This time, however, Tommy didn't survive.
He is buried alongside his four-year-old sister in Preston Cemetery, North Shields.
Nearly four decades later, Tommy's brothers Stanley and David presented the Naafi with his medals. A stained-glass window was dedicated to the teenager in his hometown on North Tyneside in 1987.
There is an incredibly moving exhibition dedicated to the brave trio inside Hut Eight at Bletchley Park called The Petard Pinch.
The home of the codebreakers also has several items belonging to Lt Fasson, AB Grazier and Tommy Brown on display such as AB Grazier's bible and a clock awarded to Tommy from the crew of HMS Petard for his bravery.
Tommy's vital contribution to the recovery of documents from the sinking U-559 means his name is now forever connected to a crucial turning point in the Second World War.
Related topics
- Feature
- History
- Naval History
- WWII
- Navy
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