Pair: Fusilier C. H. Coppins, Royal Fusiliers, who died of wounds during the Dunkirk Retreat, May 1940

1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Army Council enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mrs. A. Coppins, 44 Appleford Road, North Kensington, W10’, extremely fine (2) £70-90

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties.

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Charles Herbert Coppins served with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers during the Second World War, and died of wounds sometime between 16 May and 3 June 1940, aged 21, during the Battalion’s rearguard action back to Dunkirk. He is buried in Oostduinkerke Communal Cemetery, Belgium. As James Holland recounts in his book, The Battle of Britain, ‘The Eastern sector of the defence perimeter was suffering badly under the onslaught of the German 18th Army. The 2nd Battalion began to suffer heavily under this sustained attack. Their depleted number armed with rifles, a few Bren guns, and way too little ammunition could only hold on for so long against massively superior fire and man power. Their remaining carriers had now been pressed into service as ambulances to carry the wounded back to the Regimental Aid Post. Casualties were now critical so Major Lotinga ordered them to fall back another 800 yards. By 31st May it was clear that the Eastern defence perimeter was collapsing. The Battalion HQ was now little more than a ditch in the village and about 9 p.m. orders were received that they were to pull back and embark from La Panne beach about ten miles up from the main Dunkirk evacuation beach. Out of 800 men who had marched into Belgium two weeks earlier a little under 150 remained. The fighting had died down as the Germans never liked attacking much at night. Gathering their remaining carriers they collected themselves together and under cover of dusk headed on down the road to La Penne now largely empty but pitted with shell craters and lined with houses and buildings mostly reduce to rubble’.