This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS 883


Vice-Admiral Sir Benjamin Martin


Bismarck’s survivors reach the Dorsetshire


A Somaliland and Persian Gulf campaign service pair awarded to Vice-Admiral Sir Benjamin Martin, K.B.E., D.S.O., Royal Navy, who was decorated for his gallant command of H.M.S. Dorsetshire in the Bismarck action in May 1941 - no less notable was the fact he was ‘the first officer who started his career on the lower deck to reach Flag Rank on the Active List in 87 years’


AFRICAGENERAL SERVICE 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (238008 B. C. Martin, Boy 1 Cl., H.M.S. Proserpine); NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (238008 B. C. S. Martin, H.M.S. Proserpine), contact marks and polished, thus fine or better (2)


£1200-1500


Benjamin Charles Stanley Martin was born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight in July 1891 and was educated at the Royal Naval Hospital School, Greenwich, from which he entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1907.


A Leading Seaman in the survey vessel H.M.S. Sealark on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, and fresh back from that ship’s tour of the Pacific, he removed to Vernon that December and was appointed to the warrant rank of Gunner in May 1915. And it was in this same capacity that he was present at the battle of Jutland in the battleship Malaya in the following year - as part of the 5th Battle Squadron, she was heavily engaged in the ‘run to the north’ and received seven direct hits from large calibre shells, sustaining casualties of 67 killed and 33 wounded.


Commissioned as a Mate (Torpedo) in October 1916, he returned to sea in the Malaya and was for a time a mess-mate of the future King George VI and, by the War’s end, had been confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant.


Between the Wars he served as Torpedo Officer in the cruisers Leviathan and Kent, at the experimental station at Shandon, and on the Staff of the Senior Officer of the Reserve Fleet at the Nore until 1924, when he was given his first command, the destroyer Sable. Later he also commanded the destroyers Salmon, Venetia and Vortigern in the Mediterranean and Atlantic and, following promotion to Commander in June 1931, the flotilla leader Voyager. Advanced to Captain in June 1935, he commanded the sloop Folkestone on the China Station in the same year, while in 1937 he was given command of the Broke and Destroyer Flotillas of the Reserve Fleet at the Coronation Naval Review. Martin next went to the Admiralty as Director of Physical Training and Sports - a fitting appointment for a former boxer and rugby player - and, by the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he was in command of the cruiser Dorsetshire on the China Station.


Bismarck incident


At the time of the Home Fleet’s pursuit of the Bismarck in May 1941, the Dorsetshire was serving as a convoy escort off West Africa, but on receiving Admiralty reports regarding the possibility of the enemy’s escape, Martin handed over his duties to the armed- merchant cruiser Bulolo - without formal permission - and steered at 26 knots to get between the Bismarck and Brest. As Ludovic Kennedy observed in his history of the Bismarck episode, Pursuit, perhaps he had remembered Nelson’s dictum: No Captain can do wrong if he lays his ship alongside that of the enemy. Certainly the ploy worked, for by the time Dorsetshire arrived on the scene of battle, virtually all of Admiral Tovey’s force’s torpedoes had been expended, thereby leaving the coup de grace to Martin’s command - taking the Dorsetshire to a mile and a half on Bismarck’s starboard beam, two torpedoes were fired, both of which found their mark; thence he took the Dorsetshire round the other side and, at just over a mile, fired another, which also hit the doomed enemy ship. And to Martin and his men fell the duty of attempting to rescue the survivors, an exercise which had to be broken off in the face of impending attack by U-boats. Ludovic Kennedy takes up the story:


‘After more than an hour’s swimming the first of them reached the Dorsetshire’s side, where rafts, ropes, scrambling nets, fenders, lifelines of all kinds had been let down. Müllenheim-Rechberg noticed that many men, not seamen, didn’t know how to grip a straight rope, urged them to get into ropes with bowlines. Staat’s fingers were so frozen that he couldn’t grip the rope at all, seized it with his teeth, was hauled on board that way. Müllenheim-Reachberg put his foot in a bowline rope, was pulled up by two sailors: when he reached deck level he tried to grab the guard rail, was too exhausted and fell back into the sea: He got into the same rope again, was hauled up by the same two sailors, this time took no risks, said in immaculate English, “Please help me on board” which they did. Midshipman Joe Brooks of the Dorsetshire went down one of the lifelines, tried to get a bowline round a German who had lost both arms and was gripping the lifeline with his teeth: the ship rolled heavily, they both went under, Brooks never saw him again. Blum reached the Dorsetshire’s bow, was sucked under by a sea, felt himself under the keel, then came up the other side. The waves carried him away from Dorsetshire, but Maori was lying stopped a little way off, he managed to reach her and was hauled safely up.


www.dnw.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262  |  Page 263  |  Page 264  |  Page 265  |  Page 266  |  Page 267  |  Page 268  |  Page 269  |  Page 270  |  Page 271  |  Page 272  |  Page 273  |  Page 274  |  Page 275  |  Page 276  |  Page 277  |  Page 278  |  Page 279  |  Page 280  |  Page 281  |  Page 282  |  Page 283  |  Page 284  |  Page 285  |  Page 286  |  Page 287  |  Page 288  |  Page 289  |  Page 290  |  Page 291  |  Page 292  |  Page 293  |  Page 294  |  Page 295  |  Page 296  |  Page 297  |  Page 298  |  Page 299  |  Page 300  |  Page 301  |  Page 302  |  Page 303  |  Page 304  |  Page 305  |  Page 306  |  Page 307  |  Page 308  |  Page 309  |  Page 310  |  Page 311  |  Page 312  |  Page 313  |  Page 314