A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties 296


Four: Lieutenant A. D. Clarkson, Parachute Regiment, late Reconnaisance Corps, who served as the 1st Battalion’s Liaison Officer during Operation Market Garden, and was killed in action at the Battle of Arnhem, 22 September 1944


1939-45 STAR; FRANCE AND GERMANY STAR; DEFENCE ANDWAR MEDALS 1939-45, with named Buckingham Palace enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘H. K. Clarkson, 84 Glasgow Road, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland’, extremely fine (4) £300-400


Alastair Duncan Clarkson was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Reconnaissance Corps on 28 November 1942, and was promoted Lieutenant on 28 May 1943. He transferred to the Army Air Corps on 25 July 1943, and was appointed Liaison Officer of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment. They dropped into the Arnhem zone on 17 September at 14:08 hours, some six minutes behind schedule. Initially the Battalion augmented the 3rd Battalion and were eventually despatched to follow the Reconnaissance Squadron on the Northern Router. They were ordered to take the ground that it was believed the German reinforcements would come. The 1st became bogged down in heavy and confusing fighting and it became impossible for them to take their objective. They were called upon to relieve Lieutenant-Colonel Frost’s command at the Arnhem Bridge. Throughout 18 September the Battalion was engaged in the struggle to relieve the troops at Arnhem Bridge. On 19 September the Battalion received a false message that Frost’s position had fallen and Lieutenant-Colonel Dobie issued orders to try to reach the Bridge by dawn saying “we must help Johnnie Frost”. The British were then attacked by five German battle Groups who were all from 9th Panzer Division and all assigned to defend the bridge approaches. The weight of fire that tore into the Battalion was immense and over this period the Battalion was effectively destroyed. By 07:30 hours of the 140 men who had joined the attack nine were dead and most of the rest captured, with only a handful making it back to the shortened Oosterbeek Perimeter. This small remnant became part of Lonsdale Force which was pounded into submission over the next two days by General Bittrich’s armoured Divisions.


Clarkson was killed in action on 22 September 1944, aged 22. He is buried in Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, Holland.


Sold together with various photographic images of the recipient, including one of him in the glider immediately prior to the Arnhem drop, taken from the Regimental History.


297


Five: Lance-Sergeant A. Owen, 1st (Airborne) Battalion, Border Regiment. killed in action at Arnhem, 24 September 1944


1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR; ITALY STAR; FRANCE AND GERMANY STAR;WAR MEDAL 1939-45, with named Buckingham Palace enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘R. H. Owen Esq., Leyswood, Station Road, West Moors, Dorset’, extremely fine (5)


£180-220


Archibald Owen, a Liverpudlian, served in the Indian Army prior to the Second World War. He had been working as a tram conductor in Coventry when the War began, but returned with his family to Liverpool when their home was destroyed during the first big air raid on the city. Once back in Liverpool his new house was similarly lost to bombing, necessitating a further mover to Seacombe. Recalled to the Colours, he served in North Africa and Italy, and in north-west Europe post D-Day. At Arnhem, Owen was nominally a member of the 1st Border Regiment attached to the 1st Air landing Headquarters as a member of their defence platoon, and he was killed in action on 24 September 1944, a week after landing. The following letter was written by Major Bryor Blake, the Brigade Major, to Lance Sergeant Owen’s widow: ‘I am writing as your husband’s Commanding Officer to offer you my deepest sympathy and to tell you of the circumstances under which he was hit. It occurred just before the evacuation when the Headquarters was being attacked by three tanks which penetrated to within 100 yards of our escape route. Your husband gallantly seized a Piat and with two other men went out to stop them. He succeeded in turning them aside but in the ensuing action was badly hit. I have closely questioned some men who were in the vicinity and am unable to offer you any hope that he is still alive.


Darkness fell almost immediately and the evacuation took place then, so I was unable to satisfy myself personally on this matter. You will, however, be informed through official sources of the true state of affairs as soon as they can find anything out. Please write to me and let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Your husband will be missed here as nowhere else for his cheerfulness, gallantry and example. It was only thanks to men such as him that so many got away’.


Owen was 35 at the time of his death, and is buried in Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, Holland. Sold together with a photograph of the recipient.


298


Five: Lieutenant G. St. A. Vivian, Royal Engineers, attached Bengal Sappers and Miners, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Ortana, 5-13 December 1943, and was killed in action at Orsara, Italy, 25 October 1944


1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR, 1 clasp, 8th Army; ITALY STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS 1939-45, with named Army Council enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Dr. C. St. A. Vivian, “The Glen”, Plantation Road, Leighton Buzzard, Beds’, extremely fine (5)


£160-200


Graham St. Aubyn Vivian was born in 1922, the son of Dr. Charles St. Aybyn Vivian and his wife Mary Elizabeth Vivian, and was educated at Epsom College, where he was a Prefect and a member of the 1st XV. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1940, and was subsequently attached to the 69th Field Company, King George V’s Own Bengal Sappers and Miners. He was present at the battle of Ortona, 5-13 December 1943. Here the enemy had been ordered to “fight for every last house and tree”. Terry Copp, in his book The Battle of Ortona, gives the following account: ‘The actual terrain over which the battle was fought is the most important primary source of information available to historians, in the grey winter, when rains turn rivers into racing torrents and the ground into thick clinging mud… the next day (9 December) was the hardest of the campaign as the enemy repeated counter attacks all across the front. The Indian troops attacking 1,000 yards to the East ran into the same demonic fury. They carved out a small bridgehead and fended off countless enemy as engineers from 69th Company Bengal Sappers built the “Impossible Bridge” (across the Moro River). When it proved impossible to assemble the Bailey bridge from the South side the sappers manhandled their equipment to the North bank and built the bridge backwards!’


The Battle of Ortana was the culmination of the fighting on the Adriatic front in the Italian campaign during ‘Bloody December’, and the battle was dubbed ‘Little Stalingrad’ for the deadliness of its close-quarters combat. Vivian was killed ten months later, on 25 October 1944 during two days heavy fighting for Orsara, and is buried in Faenza War Cemetery, Italy.


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