Orders, Decorations and Medals

A particularly fine Second World War escaper’s M.C. and North-West Europe operations Bar group of eight awarded to Major. J. M. Storey, Royal Tank Regiment: having been wounded at Sidi Rezegh and at Tobruk, he was taken P.O.W. but made a successful bid for freedom in Italy at the end of 1943: returning to the fray in 1st Royal Tanks in North-West Europe, he won an immediate Bar to his M.C. for holding out in a German village in March 1945, surrounded by snipers and Panzerfausts, and subsequently commanded the first tank to enter Hamburg

Military Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse officially dated ‘1944’ and the reverse of the Bar ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals; French Croix de Guerre 1939, mounted court-style as worn, good very fine and better (8) £4000-5000

M.C. London Gazette 27 April 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘Lieutenant J. M. Storey was wounded and captured at Tobruk on 20 June 1942. Taken to a hospital at Bergamo, he was, after three months, transferred to Campo 35 at Padula. While here he attempted to escape by making a passage through a roof, but was blocked by a concrete wall. Later he started a tunnel with seven others, but this was discovered after five days. In August 1943, en route to Campo 19 at Bologna, he escaped by jumping from the train, but was re-captured next day. After the Germans arrived at Campo 19 on 9 September 1943, Lieutenant Storey took his tunnel party up to the roof, where they remained for 13 days, during which period the Germans were living below and looting the camp. During the last week he was ill with stomach trouble, but on 22 September he took his party down and they escaped over the wire. He lay up in a house for a while and then made his way to the British lines, arriving on 30 November 1943.’

Bar to M.C. London Gazette 12 July 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘On 23 March 1945, after the crossing of the Rhine, 1st Royal Tank Regiment was ordered to seize the village of Ramsdorf. A patrol of two light tanks was sent to reconnoitre the village and managed to get about half way in without incident. Then the second tank was hit by a Panzerfaust and set on fire. Meanwhile, accurate mortar and machine-gun fire was brought down on the patrol and further shots from the Panzerfausts were directed at the second tank. Captain Storey, who commanded the Reconnaissance Troop from which the patrol came, immediately went forward alone in his scout car to the scene of the incident. He extracted two wounded men from the burning tank and then set about organising a small defensive position with the remaining tanks and the few other men available. Realising the importance of clearing the village and gaining the river bridge so that the advance would not be held up, Captain Storey held on to his precarious footing in the centre of the village for two more hours, under continuous mortar and machine-gun fire, and with snipers working round to his flanks and rear, until the infantry could be brought up to join him. This officer undoubtedly saved valuable hours at a criticial time in the operation and enabled the bridge to be secured in tact.’

John Martin Storey, who was from Rhodesia, was visiting London at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, and immediately enlisted in the British Army. Granted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment, he was embarked for the Middle East, where he was attached to 9 Armoured Brigade. Wounded at Sidi Rezegh on 21 November 1941, and again at Tobruk in June 1942, he was taken P.O.W. on the latter occasion and, after three months in hospital, arrived at Campo 35 at Padula. Thereafter, as described in the recommendation for his M.C., he proved a reluctant prisoner, and in November 1943, after many adventures, reached British Allied lines.

Returning to an operational footing with an appointment in 1st Royal Tanks, a component of 22 Armoured Brigade, 7 Armoured Division, 12 Corps, he served in the Normandy campaign and onwards into Germany, where, as described above, he won an immediate Bar to his M.C. at Ramsdorf in March 1945. And it is for his swift advance into Hamburg that he is believed to have been nominated for his Croix de Guerre, an incident which he later described in a newspaper interview - he was selected by his C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Hobart, to lead the way in his Cromwell tank, and crossed seven bridges in rapid succession: ‘I should have checked each bridge, but after the first one there was no need to waste time on the rest.’

Released in the rank of Major in November 1945, Storey returned to Rhodesia where he farmed near Bulawayo, and died there in 1972.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including his embarkation order for the Middle East, dated 7 June 1941; a signed receipt for the delivery of two German officer and 6 other rank P.O.Ws, dated 11 January 1942; a letter of reference from the Brigadier, 9 Armoured Brigade, dated 5 June 1942 (‘I am extremely sorry to lose him out of my Brigade but knowing him to be a very capable and very gallant officer who did splendid work in 2 Royal Tanks at Sidi Rezegh, I do not think it is fair to stand in his way if by leaving me he can get on ... ’); a Campo 19 stamped payment statement, dated 9 September 1943, the day he hid in the roof of a building after the arrival of the Germans; three hand-drawn but detailed maps of Italy, as apparently used by the recipient in his successful escape, together with a smaller version with details of Rome; a note of confirmation that he had signed a security certificate at No. 1 P.O.W. Transit Camp, dated 3 December 1943; a War Office communication regarding the delivery of his Croix de Guerre, dated 12 November 1945; and his War Office ‘Letter of Release’, dated 20 November 1945, in which he is granted the honorary rank of Major; together with his wartime identity discs, a named card box which once contained replacement spectacles after his original ones were damaged in action in North Africa; an Armoured Division pennant, and his battledress tunic, this last complete with medal ribands, and “Desert Rat” shoulder patches.