GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 1746
A good Second World War Aegean operations D.S.M. group of seven awarded to Chief Stoker R. C. Harvey, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his gallantry in H.M.S. Faulknor, ‘the hardest worked destroyer of the Fleet’, when an enemy convoy was wiped out in 58 minutes
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL,
G.VI.R. (Ch. Sto. R. C. Harvey, P/KX. 77668), in its case of issue; NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1915 -62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (MX. 77668 R. C. Harvey, S.P.O., R.N.); 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR, clasp, France and Germany; ITALY STAR; BURMA STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf, extremely fine (7)
£800-1000 D.S.M. London Gazette 4 April 1944. The recommendation states:
‘For consistently cheerful and willing good service under trying and most straining conditions during which time all three boilers were in use and the ship continually liable to air attack and long periods closed up at action stations.’
Roy Colin Harvey was mentioned in despatches for his good work in H.M. Trawler Hornbeam (London Gazette 11 June 1942 refers), a minesweeper operating out of Birkenhead under Lieutenant A. G. J. Matthews, R.N.V.R., who won a “mention” on the same occasion, and a D.S.C. in the New Year’s Honours of 1943. But it was for his gallant deeds in H.M.S. Faulknor during a successful action against a German convoy in the Aegean on the night of 6-7 October 1943 that he was awarded his D.S.M.
Arriving in the Mediterranean in July 1943, direct from protracted convoy escort duties in the Arctic and Atlantic - an earlier chapter in a wartime career that would witness her winning 11 Battle Honours and being credited as ‘the hardest worked destroyer in the Fleet’ - the Faulknor, under Captain Alan Scott-Moncrieff, R.N., was assigned to the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, and quickly lent support to the Allied invasion of Sicily. So, too, in early September, to the Salerno landings.
And of his subsequent D.S.M. action in the Aegean in October 1943, Ed Gordon’s H.M.S. Pepperpot takes up the story:
‘Following a signal that the Germans were preparing to capture Leros, Penelope slipped out of Alexandria at 1026 on the 6th with Sirius and the destroyers Faulknor, Fury and Eclipse. The squadron steamed at top speed with orders to forestall the invasion by destroying a convoy containing troops. On arrival at 0500 the next day there was no sign of the enemy, but radio operators in Sirius picked up a report by the captain of the submarine Unruly on patrol off Kos that he had sighted a convoy. The enemy shipping was intercepted by the squadron at 0715 off Stampalia after an attack by Ju. 88s escorting had been beaten off. According to Naval Intelligence the convoy had sailed from Piraeus, Athens, the previous day and was due at Kos. Despite continuous air attacks the lone escort, an armed anti-submarine trawler, was sent to the bottom by a few well-directed salvos, and the German freighter Olympus (five thousand tons) containing ammunition was blown sky high in a shambles of flame and smoke. In the meantime the destroyers were rounding on the landing barges, and within an hour a thousand German troops were taking an unexpected bath. The rout had taken exactly fifty eight minutes.’
Churchill signalled his congratulations on the outstanding success of the operation, but not before Penelope sustained serious bomb damage on the return leg to Alexandria - resultant shrapnel and splinters killed or wounded 66 officers and ratings.
For her own part, Faulknor continued to lend valuable support in operations off the west coast of Italy, and escorted the landing ships Royal Ulsterman and Princess Beatrix with No. 9 Commando for Operation “Partridge”, the landings north of the Garigliano, in addition to providing gunfire and anti-aircraft defence during the Anzio landings in January 1944. The whole under Captain Mervyn Thomas, D.S.O., R.N.
Back with the Home Fleet by April 1944, and now under Commander Charles Churchill, D.S.C., R.N., Faulknor joined ‘J’ Force of the Eastern Task Force for the Normandy landings in June, providing support off Juno on D-Day itself. The following day, after returning to Portsmouth, she embarked Field Marshal Montgomery, en route to set up his Tactical H.Q., while towards the end of the month, she embarked the First and Second Sea Lords, and Lord Beaverbrook, on their first visit to the beachhead.
Faulknor remained on duty in home waters until the War’s end, though with a Burma Star to his credit, Harvey most likely departed her for the another seagoing appointment after the Normandy operations.
Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising the recipient’s Admiralty letter of notification for the award of his D.S.M., dated 20 April 1944, and related Buckingham Palace forwarding letter in the name of ‘Chief Stoker R. C. Harvey, P/KX. 77668’; his Mention in Despatches certficate, dated 11 June 1942, in the name of ‘Chief Stoker Roy Colin Harvey’, and his Admiralty campaign medal forwarding slip.
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