Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War 1940 ‘Defence of Calais’ M.M., post-War B.E.M. group of four awarded to Armourer Sergeant M. H. Chase, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, attached King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was captured during the Defence of Calais in May 1940, and spent the rest of the War as a Prisoner of War in Stalag 383

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (7585412 Armr. Sjt. M. H. Chase. R.E.M.E.); British Empire Medal, (Civil) E.II.R. (Malcolm Horace Chase); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, with Army Council enclosure; together with a Royal Grammar School Colchester Prize Medal, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘Junior Relay 1927 M. H. Chase’; three Travers Clarke Athletic Meeting Medals, for the years 1935, 1936, and 1938, all unnamed; and a Suffolk County Rifle Association Medal, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘1947 Horsley Cup’, extremely fine (4) £1,400-£1,800

M.M. London Gazette 20 September 1945:
‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the defence of Calais in May 1940.’

B.E.M. London Gazette 3 June 1972:
‘Malcolm Horace Chase, Principal Photographer, Eastcote, Ministry of Defence.’

Malcolm Horace Chase was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Colchester, and attested for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He served during the Second World War with the British Expeditionary Force attached to the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and was present at the Defence of Calais in May 1940:

‘The situation of the 60th was desperate. A death-struggle at the bridges. Barricades of burned-out lorries and trucks off the Rue Edison and Place Richelieu were manned by the surviving officers and riflemen. Houses in the area had long been devastated by the flames and blown by shellfire into heaps of rubble behind which the defenders fired on the Germans. The mortar bombs came in an endless stream exploding dead on the road-blocks.
The 60th, lying without cover in the streets, had little protection from the Stukas. No one who experienced the attack on the morning of the 26th is ever likely to forget it. A hundred aircraft attacked the Citadel and the old town in waves. They dived in threes, with a prolonged scream, dropping one high explosive and three or four incendiaries. They machine-gunned the streets and dropped a few heavy bombs between the 60th H.Q. in the Rue des Marechaux and the docks. The first effects on the defence were paralysing but, as others had experienced with Stukas, the damage was moral rather than physical. Within a few minutes, the riflemen eagerly fired Bren guns and engaged the Stukas, one of which was brought down on the seashore...’ (The Flames of Calais by Airey Neave refers).

Taken prisoner of War, Chase was held for the rest of the War at Stalag 383 at Hohenfels, Bavaria. Repatriated following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, he was awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry during the defence of Calais. He was subsequently employed by the Ministry of Defence and was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1972 Birthday Honours’ List.