Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good 1940 D.S.M. group of nine awarded to Chief Engine Room Artificer John Pullen, H.M.S. Wild Swan
Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (M.1577 C.E.R.A.2 H.M.S. Wild Swan); 1914-15 Star (M.1577 E.R.A.4 R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (M.1577 E.R.A.3 R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp France & Germany; Defence & War Medals; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., coinage head (M.1577 A/C.E.R.A.2 H.M.S. Wild Swan) together with Admiralty instructions for Investiture at Buckingham Palace, good very fine (9) £800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 27 August 1940: ‘For good services in operations off the Dutch, Belgian and French Coasts.’ One D.S.C. and two D.S.M’s awarded to H.M.S. Wild Swan, including that to C.E.R.A.2 John Pullen.

The following details are taken from the original recommendations for awards: ‘H.M.S. Wild Swan. This ship was employed on 10th May to take demolition parties to the Hook of Holland, remaining there until the 13th when she returned to Dover. During this time she acted as Senior Naval Officer until the arrival of H.M.S. Hyperion on the 12th, engaging enemy batteries, parachute troops and carrier borne troops landing on the beaches. Some damage was sustained from a near miss which reduced the speed of the ship to 15 knots, necessitating her being sent to Blackwall for docking on the 14th. From the 21st to 25th she was employed in escorting troop ships and evacuating refugees and troops at Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne. At the latter port she assisted on the 23rd May in the final evacuation in the face of heavy air attack and fire from shore batteries and machine guns.’

C.E.R.A. Pullen was still aboard Wild Swan when she was attacked by a force of 12 Ju 88 bombers on 17 June 1942, some 100 miles West of the coast of Brittany. The ship put up a vigorous defence and brought down four of the bombers, and two others damaged by her fire collided in mid-air and fell into the sea. A fleet of Spanish trawlers was fishing in the vicinity and three of them were sunk by German bombs and a fourth badly damaged. The Wild Swan received a hit which rendered her unmanageable and she collided with the damaged trawler, sinking her immediately. The skipper and ten men of the trawler’s crew were picked up by the destroyer, which was then in a parlous condition. The arrival of another British destroyer enabled the survivors of the action to be taken off before Wild Swan sank. Thirty-one ratings were killed and drowned, Pullen being amongst the survivors. On the 15th August 1942, he went to Buckingham Palace to receive his D.S.M. from the King. The full wartime story of this ship is well told in the book H.M.S. Wild Swan by Peter Smith, and many extracts accompany the medals, together with two letters from fellow crew members on Wild Swan.