Orders, Decorations and Medals

An Interesting Presentation Sheath Knife, the blade inscribed ‘L/t. M.G. Hillerns, winner assault competition, Phantom, March 1942’, the other side of the blade inscribed ‘Gillwell’, with banded brass and wood handle and bone pommel, 22cm overall, lacking sheath and with general contact wear £100-150

Lieutenant Michael Guy Hillerns was killed in action 19 August 1942 whist taking part in the raid on Dieppe. At this time he held a commission in the Devonshire Regiment, being described in the Army List as ‘Specially Employed’. During the raid on Dieppe he was serving with the special operations unit Phantom (General Headquarters Liason Regiment), attached to No.3 Commando.

His party ran into bad luck almost right from the start, when at 1am on 19 August 1942, just six hours into their mission they ran into several German E-Boats. Thus before they had even landed they suffered a number of casualties. When they reached their destination of Yellow Beach some four hours later, the Germans were waiting for them and they were met with a hail of fire.

Hillerns and his men did however manage to effect a successful landing and immediately set about their business of getting messages out to Headquarters regarding the situation at Dieppe. As time went on it became increasingly obvious that the situation was untenable an at about 10am Hillerns received the order to withdraw. Acting on this he destroyed the radio and code books and led his party back to the beach under cover of a smoke screen. However when they arrived back at the beach they discovered that there were no boats there to take them off, and they were forced to take shelter in some caves under increasingly heavy fire.

Hillerns and his men did however manage to effect a successful landing and immediately set about their business of getting messages out to Headquarters regarding the situation at Dieppe. As time went on it became increasingly obvious that the situation was untenable an at about 10am Hillerns received the order to withdraw. Acting on this he destroyed the radio and code books and led his party back to the beach under cover of a smoke screen. However when they arrived back at the beach they discovered that there were no boats there to take them off, and they were forced to take shelter in some caves under increasingly heavy fire.

An account of Hillerns death states that he took off his uniform revealing civilian clothing underneath, and announced his intention of making a break for it. Then a small boat was spotted, drifting a considerable distance from the shore, and Lieutenant Hillerns, a strong swimmer, removed his remaining clothing and set out to swim for it. He didn’t get very far, being caught by machine gun fire and sank from sight after calling out once or twice for help. The remainder of No. 3 Commando finally surrendered about 3pm after conducting a hopeless resistance from the caves.His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on Brookwood Memorial.

The name “Gillwell’ inscribed on the blade refers to the scout training camp situated in Epping Forest, where it would seem apparent that his unit attended a training course.