Orders, Decorations and Medals

The outstanding Dieppe Raid D.S.C. group of nine awarded to Lieutenant-Commander (E.) A. J. Lee, Royal Navy, for his gallant work in saving the destroyer H.M.S. Brocklesby after she had run aground, under point blank fire, off “White Beach”: by then nearly 50 years of age, he had already been recommended for an immediate D.S.C. for his part in the St. Nazaire Raid

Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1942’; 1914-15 Star (M. 1138 A. J. Lee, E.R.A. 4, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (M. 1138 A. J. Lee, E.R.A. 3, R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, generally very fine or better (9) £12000-15000

D.S.C. London Gazette 2 October 1942. The original recommendation states:

‘Whilst under heavy fire, he showed coolness and skill in effecting repairs to the forced lubrication system, thus enabling the ship to get under way again. As the ship was under fire at point blank range from shore batteries, his promptness saved the ship from becoming a total loss.’

Albert James Lee, who was born in May 1893, and entered the Royal Navy as an Engine Room Artificer 4th Class around the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, attained the rank of Warrant Engineer in April 1925. And, having been commissioned in April 1935, was serving in the destroyer H.M.S. Saladin on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939.

The Saladin, under Lieutenant-Commander James Dover, R.N., subsequently lent valuable service in the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940, when Lee and his engine room staff must have been hard pressed after their ship sustained damage from enemy air attacks on 29th. Having undergone emergency repairs, Saladin participated in “Operation Cycle”, the evacuation of Allied personnel from Le Havre and St. Valerie, in June.

Towards the end of 1940, Lee removed to the recently launched Hunt-class destroyer Brocklesby, then part of the 15th Destroyer Flotilla, Plymouth Command. Having then participated in convoy escort work, he found himself actively engaged in the St. Nazaire Raid in March 1942, on which occasion the Brocklesby, in company with her consort the Cleveland, was charged with covering the withdrawal of the Coastal Forces’ craft from the main assault force. Thus her part in meeting-up with Lieutenant-Commander R. E. D. Ryder, R.N., in M.G.B. 314, at 0900 hours on the 29 March, together with M.Ls 270 and 446, but due to incessant air attack - Brocklesby downed at least one Ju. 88 - the order was given to embark the survivors from the light coastal craft, and then to sink the latter by gunfire: Lee was recommended for an immediate D.S.C. on 9 April, which distinction eluded him on this occasion.

The Dieppe Raid

Five months later, however, having been assigned in Brocklesby to “Operation Jubilee”, the ill-fated attack on Dieppe on 19 August 1942, he did indeed win the D.S.C., on the recommendation of his new skipper, Lieutenant-Commander Nigel Pumphrey, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N., a gallant ex-Coastal Forces man.

Departing Newhaven on the eve of the raid, Brocklesby and her consorts commenced the bombardment of the town’s sea front in the early hours of the 19th, work that continued throughout the morning in support of the landings. And when the signal to withdraw was made a few hours later, the supporting destroyers were urged to close and engage German batteries on the headlands, Brocklesby taking on enemy positions around Pourville. But it was later still, amidst the carnage at the very centre of operations, namely “Red” and “White” Beaches on the town’s sea front, that Brocklesby so nearly came to grief. An indication of the strength of enemy fire at this point is illustrated by the following extract from The Dieppe Raid by R. Neillands:

‘The scenes on Red and White Beaches during this time were quite terrible, each a larger replica of those taking place at Pourville. Of the four L.C.As that made up the first wave into White Beach, all were immediately rushed by troops, one was promptly overturned and then hit by artillery fire, all on board being killed. The other three craft managed to limp out to the destroyers, each carrying some seventy men, about twice the safe number. Another eight L.C.As, supposed to land on White Beach, actually arrived on Red, where six were quickly hit by shellfire and destroyed. These were the last craft even to attempt a landing on Red Beach. The two surviving craft got away - one carrying no fewer than eighty men - but were so badly damaged that they sank shortly after delivering their passengers to the destroyers.’

And it was in the face of just such fire that Brocklesby ran aground about 500 yards off shore. Ronald Atkins in Dieppe 1942: The Jubilee Disaster, takes up the story:

‘The smoke almost brought disaster to Brocklesby when the destroyer moved into White Beach during the evacuation. ‘I approached as close as I considered navigationally safe in thick smoke and then turned parallel to the beach’, said her captain, Lieutenant-Commander Nigel Pumphrey. ‘Since I could give no assistance commensurate with the risk to my ship from staying close inshore, I altered to port to open from the shore but as the ship turned her stern grounded. I continued to go ahead and she came off but hits from shells emptied the lubricating oil reserve tank and shot away the lubricating pipes, putting both engines out of action.’

The situation was now desperate, the enemy’s accurate point blank fire almost certain to claim the drifting destroyer. But it was at this vital moment that Lee came to the rescue, repairing the ship’s systems under fire and, within a few minutes, Brocklesby was under way again.




Moreover, she had earlier managed to embark some survivors, Marine Richard McConkey of ‘A’ Commando among them:

‘I swam.... we were picked up by H.M.S. Brocklesby, and they gave us dry gear and put us below, but then their Skipper came down and said, ''Can any of you Marines use an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun?'' So my mate Knocker White went up and soon had it blazing away. We got hit six times on the Brocklesby and went aground once, but they stayed to pick up survivors - what guts that Skipper had! We came back to Pompey doing four knots under air attack most of the way!” ’

Nigel Pumphrey added a Bar to his D.S.O., and the gallant Lee was awarded his overdue D.S.C. - the only such distinction to Brocklesby for the raid and one he received at a Buckingham Palace investiture held on 17 November 1942.

Their ship having undergone extensive repairs for a month and a half, Pumphrey and Lee returned to operations in mid-October, working in co-operation with Coastal Forces against enemy convoys - thus further damage sustained in an action back off Dieppe on 12 December. In the New Year, Brocklesby transferred to the Western Mediterranean, in which theatre of war Lee remained engaged until April 1943, when he returned to an appointment at the Southampton base Shrapnel - although placed on the Retired List on account of age that May, he remained employed in that capacity until the War’s end. Appointed Lieutenant-Commander (E.) on the Retired List in July 1947, he died in January 1970.