Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Private A. Woodall, Army Air Corps, late Royal Engineers and Irish Guards

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (5) £100-120

Arthur Woodall, who was born in December 1918, was a Royal Engineer (Territorial) from May 1937 to July 1939, prior to enlisting in the Irish Guards (Regular Army) at Sheffield in the latter month. Active service quickly followed as a member of the 1st Battalion in Norway in April-May 1940, when his unit formed part of the 24th (Guards) Brigade, North-Western Expeditionary Force. More or less beyond doubt, therefore, he was present when the Battalion’s transport the M.V. Chobry, was bombed and sunk by an enemy aircraft on 14 May. In scenes reminiscent of the famous Birkenhead disaster, the Guardsmen formed up in perfect ranks on the sinking ship’s upper deck, none moving until ordered to do so by the captain of a destroyer sent to their assistance:

‘When they did move they did so at a deliberate walk, refusing to part with their weapons ... This superb discipline held good when the Irish Guards arrived back at Harstad. Many of the survivors were dressed in boiler suits and seamen’s greatcoats given by the sailors. A few were clad in a single blanket. The wounded were taken off to hospital at once’ (The Doomed Expedition, The Campaign in Norway 1940, by Jack Adams refers).

A few days later, Woodall was embarked for service in the British Expeditionary Force in France, in which theatre of war he remained until as late as 24 June 1940, presumably on attachment to the 2nd Battalion at Boulogne, part of the 20th Guards Brigade.

Transferring to the Army Air Corps in August 1942, he was embarked for North Africa in January 1943, and remained actively employed in the Mediterranean theatre of war until returning to the U.K. in January 1944 - a period that almost certainly witnessed him participating in the 1st Airborne Division’s assault on Sicily in July 1943, as a member of a Parachute Battalion.

Woodall was finally released in February 1946, while serving in the Reserve Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, and finally discharged from “B” Reserve in September 1947.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including two wartime portrait photographs and the recipient’s Regular Army Certificate of Discharge, this latter confirming all of the above overseas postings and his then entitlement to the ‘1939-45 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal’.