The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the VICTORIA CROSS for valour to: Lieutenant Basil Charles Godfrey Place, D.S.C., Royal Navy.

Lieutenants Place and Cameron were the Commanding Officers of two of His Majesty's Midget Submarines X 7 and X 6 which on 22nd September 1943 carried out a most daring and successful attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz, moored in the protected anchorage of Kaafiord, North Norway.

Whilst they were still inside the nets a fierce enemy counter attack by guns and depth charges developed which made their withdrawal impossible.

In the course of the operation these very small craft pressed home their attack to the full, in doing so accepting all the dangers inherent in such vessels and facing every possible hazard which ingenuity could devise for the protection in harbour of vitally important Capital Ships.

The courage, endurance and utter contempt for danger in the immediate face of the enemy shown by Lieutenants Place and Cameron during this determined and successful attack were supreme.Place was awarded the Polish Cross of Valour for his service as liaison officer in the Polish submarine ORP Sokół and the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the sinking of the Italian submarine Guglielmotti by HMS Unbeaten off Sicily in March 1942.