Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to include a Fine Collection of Napoleonic Medals

A Second World War North-West Europe operations M.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant G. C. Burder, The Rifle Brigade, who was killed in action in April 1945

Military Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, extremely fine (4) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 1 March 1945.

An accompanying report in the Hants Post, 4 January 1945, states:

‘Forty men of the Rifle Brigade, assisted by a troop of tanks, recently beat back two attacks by 500 Germans determined to dislodge them from a Dutch village. For the loss of one man, who died of wounds, and with only one other man wounded the gallant band inflicted these losses on the enemy: 20 killed, 80 wounded, 7 prisoners. They also captured several weapons.

During the fighting Lieutenant G. C. Burder, son of the Rev. and Mrs. C. V. Burder, Wyton Rectory, won the Military Cross.

Talking to a military observer, Lieutenant Burder told how the Germans first attacked - about 50 strong - down a lane running at right angles to the village street where our men were deployed. “Our N.C.O. opened fire with his Bren when they were 10 yards distant,” he said, “and the enemy replied hotly, machine-gunning and hurling grenades.” After several bursts from a supporting tank, however, Jerry beat a hasty retreat leaving his weapons on the ground. Four dead Germans were found next morning.

A second attack, 80 strong, was launched down a second lane and a fierce battle ensued, including a grenade duel across the width of the lane. Then came a lull, during which the enemy tried to infiltrate down the railway embankment, but Lieutenant Burder called for defensive fire from our field artillery and a barrage crashed down on the Huns.

In that engagement 10 Germans were killed in the houses of the village and five more outside the village.

The enemy had brought with them 15 sacks of explosive to blow up the tallest building in the village and render it useless as an O.P., but they never reached it. They fled, leaving the sacks on the ground, plus two Spandaus and eight bazookas.’

George Christopher Burder was killed in action leading his men at Heber, Germany on 17 April 1945, while serving in the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade. The son of The Revd. Claud Vernon Burder, M.C., and Mary Gabrielle Fielding Burder, of Wyton Rectory, Huntingdonshire, he was 21 years of age and is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery.

Sold with a large quantity of family postcards, contained in three albums, and many more unbound cards; an old family photograph album, and around 40 or so unbound photographs; and several wartime newspapers, one of them including a feature on the recipient’s award of the M.C., as cited above (Hants Post, 4 January 1945).