Auction Catalogue

11 & 12 December 2013

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Download Images

Lot

№ 1622

.

12 December 2013

Hammer Price:
£2,900

A Second World War battle of Crete M.M. group of four awarded to Corporal N. A. Burford, Royal Engineers, attached No. 7 Commando, 3rd Special Service Battalion, which unit was decimated in the final days of the island’s defence in May 1941, the majority of its survivors - including Burford - being taken P.O.W

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (5571232 Cpl. N. A. Burford, R.E.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (4) £2500-3000

M.M. London Gazette 20 June 1946:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Field.’

Norman Alan Burford was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, in June 1918, where he attended St. Edward’s Grammar School. Originally enlisting in the Wiltshire Regiment on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he transferred to the Royal Engineers a few months later and, in late 1940, volunteered for services in the Commandos. Duly posted to No. 7 Commando for training in Scotland, he was embarked for the Middle East as part of “Layforce”, and no doubt participated in the raid on Bardia in April 1941.

But it was for his gallant deeds in the following month in Crete that he was awarded the M.M. - deeds that were not made available to the Honours & Awards Committee until evidence had been collated from returned P.O.Ws in 1945. The Commandos of “Layforce” arrived as reinforcements on Crete on the night of 26-27 May, a late hour indeed in the island’s unfolding fate. A summary of the force’s subsequent actions appears in Purnell’s history,
Commando:

‘When dawn broke Layforce was holding a defensive position astride the main road inland from Sphakia. Here they were heavily dive-bombed, an ordeal which the men endured with fortitude. Captain Evelyn Waugh, the novelist, an old friend of Bob Laycock's was serving as one of his staff officers. A man of cool, almost insolent courage he delivered himself of this opinion: ‘Like all things German it is very efficient, but it goes on much too long.’

By the 28th it was clear that the battle was lost, and that once more the Royal Navy was faced with the task of getting the Army away. It fell to Layforce to cover the retreat. On that day Captain F. R. J. Nicholls led G Troop in a bayonet charge which drove the Germans from a hill enfilading No. 7 Commando's position. It does not fall to everyone to lead a charge with the cold steel. It is an exhilarating experience, as Nicholls revealed when he wrote home a few days later: ‘One thing I am certain about after Crete is that, man for man, there is not any question as to who is the better. Although they [the Germans] had every advantage of air support, etc., whenever they counter-attacked or got to close quarters, which in our own case was twice, they dropped their weapons and fled before us - a very heartening sight.’ It is sad to have to record that this splendid officer was afterwards killed in Burma.

Laycock, no mean tactician, was not slow to discover the way to fight a rearguard action in the teeth of the Germans. Just before dark he would launch a few light counter-attacks, no more than fighting patrols of seven or eight men. This sufficed to keep the 42 Germans quiet for the night - they like their sleep. Even so it was a time of chaos and confusion; a retreat has a nightmare quality that is difficult to describe. Units hard hit and short of officers begin to fall apart, rumour is rife, and an iron hand is needed to keep the sleepy, hungry soldiers from despair. Laycock was equal to the worst the Germans could devise. On the 28th his headquarters, which chanced to have three tanks with it, was ambushed. What followed is best described in his own words: ‘By the most fortunate chance the ambush was close to the three tanks and the Germans did not see them. The enemy were about thirty yards or less away from us when my Brigade Major and I jumped into a tank and drove straight over the Germans.’ Thus lightly he dismissed this exploit, but how many brigade commanders in any army can drive a tank at all, let alone leap into one and counterattack on the spur of the moment?

In Crete it needed men of this calibre to keep the men going. The troops of the original garrison were exhausted, footsore and thirsty. The Commando men were no better off. A gallant Sergeant, Charles Stewart, recalled that when eventually his men got some rations they ate them ‘quietly as a female pig after suckling her young.’ Eventually the Commandos reached the beach at Sphakia only to find that there were hardly any craft to take them off. Stewart, in order to help two wounded comrades, gave up his own chance of escape. One party got back to North Africa under sail in a landing craft, which had run out of fuel. The sail was made of blankets lashed together with bootlaces and the voyage took six days. It is fitting that the name of the Royal Marines, who commanded this unlikely odyssey should be remembered.’

Burford was not among them and ended the War at Stalag 383 at Hohenfels and, following his repatriation, joined 16th Bomb Disposal Unit, R.E., but declined the offer of a commission in October 1945 in favour of being demobilised. In July 1951, however, he enlisted in the Australian Army, and served in the Royal Australian Engineers, latterly as a Provost Sergeant, until being discharged in July 1957, but saw no active service.

Sold with the recipient’s original Buckingham Palace forwarding slip for the M.M., together with a related gratuity receipt, and copied Australian Army enlistment and service record, from which details of his 1939-45 career have been taken.