Orders, Decorations and Medals

Five: Stoker Petty Officer C. E. McCann, Royal Navy

Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (K.62081 S.P.O., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (K.62081 S.P.O., H.M.S. Havock) generally good very fine (5) £100-140

On the 6 April 1942 the destroyer, H.M.S. Havoc was bound for Gibraltar with a large number of officers and ratings as passengers, in addition to her official complement of 145. She ran ashore off Kelibia, on the coast of Tunisia, and became a total wreck, but only one rating of her entire company lost his life. The French authorities, who were not friendly to the British at the time, placed all the survivors in a prison at Laghouat, in Algeria. They were released when General Eisenhower’s forces landed in North Africa in November 1942.