GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
803
A Second World War ‘Norway operations’ D.S.C. awarded to Chief Skipper John Wilson, Royal Naval Reserve
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1940’, privately engraved, ‘John Wilson’, hallmarks for
London 1940, in Garrard, London case of issue, extremely fine £500-600
D.S.C. London Gazette 11 July 1940.
A 1940 Birthday Honours award to Chief Skipper John Wilson of H.M.T. Rutlandshire.
John Wilson was born in Newhaven, Leith, Edinburgh, on 15 February 1899. Serving in the R.N.R., he was ranked as a Deck Hand,
1917-24; Skipper, 1924-34; Chief Skipper, 1934-41, and Skipper Lieutenant, 1941-49. He was Chief Skipper of the armed trawler
Rutlandshire, part of the 23rd Anti-Submarine Trawler Group, when it was attacked by German aircraft in Namson Fjord, Norway.
Badly damaged, the ship was run aground and abandoned near Namsos, 20 April 1940.
With some copied service details - see also the dedicated website.
804
A Second World War evacuation of Dunkirk D.S.C. attributed to Commander A. N. P. de Costobadie, Royal Navy,
who also won a “mention” as C.O. Boarding Parties during the Vaagso Raid in December 1941, when he came under
accurate sniper fire
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1940’ and privately engraved ‘A. N. P. de C.’ hallmarks for
London ‘1939’, the reverse in its Garrard & Co. Ltd. case of issue, extremely fine £800-1000
D.S.C. London Gazette 16 August 1940:
‘For good services in the withdrawal of the Allied Armies from the beaches of Dunkirk.’
The original recommendation states:
‘He displayed good judgment and initiative throughout the operation, frequently under fire from shore artillery and under air
bombardment, particularly when he found himself the Senior Officer afloat off La Panne beach on the evening of the 29th, and his
personal efforts in organising the various inshore boats and the troops ashore resulted in more than 1,000 troops being lifted from the
beach to his ship and other offshore craft, there being no Army officers present in charge of the troops.’
Ackroyd Norman Palliser de Costobadie was decorated for his command of the river gunboat H.M.S. Locust during Operation
“Dynamo”, his ship not only evacuating around 1,000 troops but also carrying out valuable shore bombardments and assisting in
getting the crippled sloop Bideford back to Dover. He subsequently received his D.S.C. at a Buckingham Palace investiture held in
September 1940.
Following Dunkirk, de Costobadie participated in Operation “Archery”, the Vaagso raid carried out in December 1941, on which
occasion he was appointed C.O. Boarding Parties and embarked in H.M.S. Onslow. By the end of the operation five enemy
merchantmen had either been sunk, run aground or abandoned, and Costobadie was ordered to board three of them - namely the
Fohn, Fritzen and Eismeer. And, as evidenced by an interview he undertook with the recorder of Combined Operations after the raid,
from which the following extracts have been taken, he came under accurate fire on several occasions:
‘When pulling from the the Onslow to the Eismeer we were sniped at by, I think, a single sniper. He was firing from the hills and his
shooting was very accurate ... The Eismeer was anchored with her bows pointing south. We got inboard over the port side of the vessel
and I was handed a loaded rifle from the whaler. I should explain that, as far as I can judge, the sniper was about 400 to 500 yards
away on the side of the hill to starboard ... Midshipman Hayes went with me to get the ladder and while we were doing so the sniper
fired two shots which hit the paint work just behind us. I handed Hayes the rifle and told him to lie down behind the bulwarks, near to
a bollard lead and return the fire of the sniper. This he proceeded to do very coolly. He exposed himself time and again, trying to locate
the sniper and hit him ... At this time when I was trying to get hold of the ladder I still did not realise how bad the firing was and I,
therefore, made a mistake, for I ordered the whaler to drop away from the port side of the Eismeer. As soon as she got clear of the ship
she came under the fire of the sniper, and the seaman at the stroke oar was hit and mortally wounded ... With this object in view I took
one of the seamen and we tried to get on to the fo’castle and tried to weigh anchor. Several times as we showed ourselves the sniper
had a crack at us. I saw that it was a bit rough on the fo’castle, so I sent the seaman down below to see if there was anyone still in the
ship. While he was below, I tried to crawl to the cable and unshackle it. The sniper, however, made things too hot for me. If I went on I
thought I should be hit. I, therefore, left off trying to unshackle the cable and get the ship underway and returned to the Captain’s cabin,
which I searched. I collected the ship’s papers and took them back to the Onslow in the whaler, which had returned for us. We were
sniped at all the way back. The boat was punctured and an oar broken. I should mention that throughout the proceedings on the
Eismeer, the Onslow was directing machine-gun fire against the sniper, but without effect, as his whereabouts on the mountain side
could not be discovered. On the way back in the whaler I was pulling at No. 3 oar and there were five oars altogether. I was never so
glad in my life as when we rounded the bows of the Onslow and came under shelter from the sniper ... ’
The Commander, who was mentioned in despatches for his part in “Archery” (London Gazette 3 April 1942 refers), died in February
1947, aged 38 years.
www.dnw.co.uk
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