Tributes paid to Royal Navy hero who freed 300 war prisoners in daring raid

Members of HMS Dauntless’s crew joined a commemoration at a cemetery near Worthing, West Sussex, to remember Warrant Officer John Smith.

WO Smith was a sailor who helped free almost 300 British prisoners during the storming of The Altmark on February 17, 1940.

Delivering a speech over veteran’s grave, Commander Neil Hall said the raid represented ‘one of the most audacious feats’ of the Second World War.

‘Altmark was a very important act, which at the time was a huge boost to national morale,’ he said.

‘It was a wonderful example of that great British seafaring tradition.’

The Altmark was a Nazi tanker that supported the battleship Graf Spee. After the Graf Spee was scuttled by the British Navy in December 1939, the Altmark hid in a Norwegian fjord – at that time neutral territory – with 299 captured merchant Navy seamen on board.

But it was discovered by HMS Cossack and boarded in a daring raid. WO Smith was one of the boarders and was shot in the shoulder after entering a booby-trapped door.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and served for the rest of the war, before he died in 1973, aged 69. His grave reads ‘safe harbour beyond all storms of life’.

The event was attended by representatives from the Norwegian Embassy and civic leaders from Worthing.