McBride family history and West Kootenay local history
November 10, 2014
Victoria Cross Brock House, Fritz Peters, Sam McBride, The Bravest Canadian, Victoria Cross Leave a comment
Sam McBride, the author of “The Bravest Canadian — Fritz Peters VC: The Making of a Hero of Two World Wars“, will do a presentation on the book at 10:30 am on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at the Brock House in Vancouver.
Frederic Thornton “Fritz“ Peters, in about 1935.
The Brock House Society provides a variety of events and activities for members at the Senior Centre at Jericho. http://brockhousesociety.com
November 17, 2012
Uncategorized Charlottetown, Dogger Bank, Frederic Thornton Peters, Fritz Peters, Operation Torch, Oran, The Bravest Canadian, Victoria Cross Leave a comment
A new book released in Canada and abroad this month tells the story of one of Canada’s most decorated – and least known — military heroes, Capt. Frederic Thornton “Fritz” Peters, VC, DSO, DSC and bar, DSC (U.S.), RN.
Previous attempts at biographies of Peters were stymied by a lack of information in official records, but The Bravest Canadian – Fritz Peters, VC: the Making of a Hero of Two World Wars by Sam McBride is based on a treasure trove of recently-discovered personal letters that reveal his personality, motivations and zest for battle. They also answer many questions about his mysterious life, including service with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, exploits in the Gold Coast colony of west Africa in the inter-war years, three stints of Royal Navy service over a 37-year period, and his tragic death in a flying boat crash returning to England after miraculously surviving heavy fire from all directions when he led a charge into the Vichy French-held Algerian port of Oran.
Book release coincides with 70th anniversary of Victoria Cross Action in Operation Torch
November 8, 2012 was the 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion of North Africa, code-named Operation Torch. The invasion of Vichy French territory was the first large combined operation of British and American forces, and would prove to be a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany. The initial targets of the invasion were Oran and Algiers in Algeria, and Casablanca in Morocco.
Fritz Peters’ courage in leading an attack by two converted Coast Guard cutters through barriers and inside Oran harbor at 3 a.m. on Nov. 8, 1942 in the face of point blank fire from French shore batteries and moored warships was honored with the highest awards for valor offered by Britain and the United States.
Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1889, Peters moved with his family in 1898 to Victoria, British Columbia, where he lived until joining the Royal Navy in 1905, aside from time in England at naval prep schools. The Peters family resided in Oak Bay and then Esquimalt before moving to Prince Rupert.
Loyalist Heritage Shaped Fritz Peters’ Character
Peters was determined to live up to his family’s tradition of military leadership and courage in battle, going back to United Empire Loyalist leaders in the Revolutionary War, and a prominent general of the Crimean War. Peters’ father, P.E.I. Premier Frederick Peters, was a close grandson of shipping magnate Sir Samuel Cunard, one of the reasons why his son Fritz chose a career in the navy.
At age 53 in 1942, Fritz Peters was the oldest Victoria Cross (VC) recipient in the Second World War. Twenty-seven years earlier, in January 1915, he received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal, second only to the VC as an award for valor, in the Battle of Dogger Bank in the North Sea. He was also Mentioned in Dispatches, earned a British Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in 1918, and then a bar to his DSC in 1940. His Oran gallantry was recognized with the Victoria Cross and the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross, the highest medal for valor awarded by the U.S. to non-Americans.
Duties With Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service
In the inter-war years he developed technology for miniature submarines, and was an early user of plastic explosives and time-delay fuses in his work with secret intelligence. In 1940 he commanded a school for spies and industrial sabotage for expatriates who later returned to their native countries in Occupied Europe to fight the Germans from within.
Peters’ admirers included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Allied commander-in-chief U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, and British naval commander Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. However, several level American officers were bitter opponents of Peters in planning and conducting the Oran harbor attack, and blamed him for heavy casualties suffered by U.S. troops.
Tragically, Peters died as a passenger in an air crash before he had a chance to tell his side of the story. Later, British authorities chose to downplay the Oran action to avoid antagonizing the French when they resumed as allies against the Nazis. Some government documents were destroyed, and others were kept secret for 30 years. As a result, the personal story of Fritz Peters – recipient of six medals for valor in two world wars – remained a mystery until the author’s discovery of the Peters Family Papers.
March 28, 2012
Frederic Thornton Peters, Operation Reservist, Peters, Royal Navy, The Bravest Canadian, Victoria Cross 1915, Battle of Dogger Bank, DSO, Fritz Peters, HMS Meteor, Ophelia, Royal Navy, The Bravest Canadian, Victoria Cross Leave a comment
by Sam McBride
Among the memorabilia of Frederic Thornton “Fritz” Peters, VC, DSO, DSC and bar, DSC (U.S.), RN that exists today in the family collection is a Christmas card he sent home to his parents and siblings in Prince Rupert, British Columbia in December 1914.
Scans of the front and inside of the card are shown below. The back of the card was blank. The pre-printed message in the card is “With Christmas Greetings and all Good Wishes for the New Year.” Then, in Fritz’s handwriting, is a personal message which I have not yet been able to figure out. It looks like “Your hangle mongle”. Members of the family often used nicknames and pet phrases in letters to each other, but this is not repeated in any other correspondence.
front of 1914 Christmas card
Fritz had served in the Royal Navy from 1905 until retiring in 1913, and then rejoined the navy at the outbreak of war in August 1914, serving as a lieutenant second-in-command of the destroyer HMS Meteor out of Devonport. His service on Meteor drew front page news coverage on two occasions. First, in October 1914 Meteor stopped the German hospital ship Ophelia after a sea battle off Texel Island. After search and interrogation, Fritz and other Meteor officers concluded the ship was scouting for German submarines, and directed it to Yarmouth where it was converted for British use.
inside 1914 Christmas card
In January 1915 in the Battle of Dogger Bank in the North Sea, Meteor ‘s engine room was hit by an 8.2-inch shell from the German cruiser Blucher. In the face of flames and bursting boilers, Fritz courageously rushed straight to the engine room, saved the lives of two ratings and prevented further damage to the ship from explosions. He was Mentioned in Dispatches and then in March 1915 received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal from King George the Fifth. For a naval officer, the DSO was second only to the Victoria Cross as an award for valour.
There was talk among Fritz’s naval colleagues and friends that his actions at Dogger Bank could have qualified for a Victoria Cross. It may have made a difference if he was in command of the warship rather than a “Number One” (second-in-command). In November 1915 Fritz was placed in command of the HMS Greyhound.
In 1918 Fritz received his next major award for valour in battle, the Distinguished Service Cross, for anti-submarine heroics. Returning for Royal Navy service in the Second World War, he won a bar to his Distinguished Service Cross in 1940, and then won the Victoria Cross and U.S. Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in leading the attack through the boom of Oran harbour in the Allied invasion of North Africa of November 1942.
My book The Bravest Canadian about the extraordinary two-world-war naval career and mysterious life of Frederic Thornton Peters in his native Canada — as well as exploits in Britain, Africa and around the world — will be published later this spring.
December 8, 2011
Charlottetown, Frederic Thornton Peters, Operation Reservist, Operation Torch, Royal Navy, The Bravest Canadian, Victoria Cross The Bravest Canadian 2 Comments
Fritz Peters circa 1912 (McBride Collection)
Capt. Peters 1942 (McBride Collection)
Captain Frederic Thornton “Fritz“ Peters, VC, DSO, DSC and bar, DSC (U.S.), RN would rate among the greatest Canadian war heroes on the basis of his gallant exploits in either the First World War or the Second World War. The combination of these accomplishments – including three major honours for valour in each of the wars – give him a special place in Canada`s pantheon of military heroes.
Previous attempts to tell Peters` story have been stymied by the lack of a paper trail due to his involvement in top secret and controversial projects, his detestation of publicity and self-promotion, and never settling for long in one place. The heart of The Bravest Canadian is a recently-discovered treasure trove of letters from and about Fritz Peters and his family that give insight into his life experience, what he was thinking, and what made him tick.
His Maritime establishment family revered war heroes in its ancestry, ranging from Loyalist officers in the Revolutionary War, through the wars and British Empire skirmishes of the 19th century. Fritz was expected to live up to this tradition, which he did in spades. He was a loveable eccentric, in the best traditions of the Royal Navy in which he served. He loved the Empire and the exhilaration of battle the way other men loved their wife and children.
His is a world-wide story, encompassing boyhood on both coasts of Canada, naval servicer at the romantic China Station, tense battles with German U-boats in both wars, a mysterious career in the spy world, and culminating as leader of a modern-day Charge of the Light Brigade inside an Algerian port against Vichy French guns lined up against him in every direction.
thebravestcanadian 