Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War minesweeping operations D.S.M. group of four awarded to Signalman J. Lisle, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his services in H.M.S. Cockatrice, not least in respect of the D-Day landings and the hotly contested assault on Walcheren in November 1944

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (Sig. J. Lisle, C/JX. 270843); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, good very fine (4) £800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 11 December 1945:

‘For distinguished service during the war in Europe.’

James Lisle was born in Barrington Road, Toxteth Park, Liverpool in April 1915.

As verified by his account of his wartime career - which is held in the Imperial War Museum (Catalogue No. 4765 80/18/1) - he served in the Flower Class corvette H.M.S. Pimpernel, a ship of Escort Group B5, on Atlantic convoy duties from mid-1942 to August 1943.

On 17 August 1942, Pimpernel picked up 29 survivors from the British merchantman Fort la Reine, which ship had been torpedoed and sunk by U-658 in the windward passage west of Haiti. The following day, she rescued 43 survivors from the merchantman Empire Bede, which had been torpedoed and damaged by the U-553 north of Jamaica; the damaged Empire Bede was finally sunk by gunfire from the corvette. On 6 March 1943, Lisle and his shipmates were involved in another rescue, this time of of 62 men from the American merchantman Thomas Hooker, which had been damaged by bad weather and abandoned by her crew; the drifting wreck of the merchantman was found and sunk by the U-653 on the 12th. In his wartime memoirs, Lisle also describes an attack on a U-Boat caught on the surface, which was claimed as possibly destroyed after it crash-dived and was depth-charged.

In August 1943, he transferred to the minesweeper H.M.S. Cockatrice of the 18th M./S. Flotilla and it was in this capacity that he participated in vital D-Day sweeps on 5-6 June 1944. He describes Cockatrice’s part in these operation, off Gold Beach, in his wartime memoir:

‘After re-fitting in Aberdeen in May 1944, H.M.S. Cockatrice sailed down the east coast, round the Channel, and dropped anchor in the straits between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, where we joined our own flotilla, the 18th M.S.F.. Here we stayed for several days. On the afternoon of 3 June 1944, whilst on duty, I received a signal commencing ‘Raise steam and be ready to proceed at 0900.’ It was a long signal and contained full instructions as to the part we were to play in the D-Day landings. A second signal was received to say the whole thing had been postponed 24 hours because of bad weather. On 5 June we received another signal to proceed and this time we got under way. This was it. We formed a screen around the Landing Craft. There was an outer screen of cruisers and a patrol of battleships.

By dusk we went ahead and proceeded to sweep a path in the direction of the French coast. Two trawlers attached to us were dan-layers. These followed astern and laid dan buoys marking the outer boundaries of the swept channel to enable Landing Craft to pass safely between them. It was early morning on 6 June as we approached the French coast. We finished the sweep at 0700 and made a rendezvous with the battleship H.M.S. Warspite and two monitors, Roberts and Erebus. These ships were to bombard the shore prior to the landings. Our job was to protect these ships during the bombardment. First we made a smoke screen, then Radar and Asdic watches. The landings commenced at 0900 and we pretty much had a grandstand view through our binoculars of the whole thing. Cockatrice was to rescue the survivors of H.M.S. Pylades, a Catherine Class minesweeper, sunk by a torpedo off Normandy on 8 July 1944 ... ’

Cockatrice was afterwards engaged at the assault on Walcheren in November 1944, in addition to minesweeping off the Belgian, Dutch and German coasts in 1945. Here then further operations that would have contributed to the recommendation for Lisle’s award of the D.S.M.

He died in Liverpool in April 1992, aged 77 years; sold with an original ship photograph and a newspaper cutting, together with extensive copied research, including the recipient’s account of his wartime career.