Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second World War ‘capture of Elba’ D.S.M. awarded to Leading Seaman William Whiteside Royal Navy, a member of Naval Party 893, which included many of the R.N. Commandos who spearheaded the assault force; code named “Operation Brassard” the Elba landings were ‘fought in total darkness, relieved only by the light of gunfire and the flash of explosions’

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (L.S. W. Whiteside. LT/JX. 221337.) extremely fine £1,500-£2,000

D.S.M. London Gazette 7 November 1944: ‘For distinguished services in operations carried out in the face of determined opposition from the enemy which led to the capture of the island of Elba.’

The original recommendation states:

‘Leading Seaman Whiteside showed outstanding cheerfulness, energy and devotion to duty in carrying out the many and varied and frequently unpleasant tasks he was called upon to undertake. By his example he inspired his comrades to similar efforts.’

Of the 24 awards of the D.S.M. for the capture of Elba, 12 were given to personnel of Naval Party 893.

The main assault on Elba in June 1944 was carried out by French troops, with the support of R.N. Commandos, and assorted ships and landing craft manned by the R.N. and U.S.N. - among the latter a P.T. Boat commanded by the film star, Douglas Fairbanks, Jnr., who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. In a classic naval ‘cutting out’ operation two LCAs from the Royal Scotsman, each with 27 officers and men of the R.N. Beach Commandos, were tasked with capturing a heavily armed F-lighter strategically placed by the Mole. This they succeeded in doing but when heavy guns shelled the position they exploded pre-positioned demolition charges which lifted the ship, leaving it at 90 degrees to the jetty with its bows resting on it. The force of the explosion had been so great that virtually all those in the immediate area of the F-lighter had been killed. With the F-lighter on fire and ammunition exploding there was an urgent need to take the survivors off the jetty. Whiteside’s recommendation clearly suggests that he was engaged in the unpleasant task of separating the severely wounded from the dead and dying in the chaotic and gory aftermath of this explosion.

In terms of the D-Day landings in Normandy, which had taken place 10 days earlier, the operation may well have been classed as a ‘little sideshow’, but in terms of enemy opposition and resultant gallantry it was anything but little - in fact “Operation Brassard” proved to be an extremely costly enterprise, the R.N. Commandos alone suffering losses of 38 killed.

As confirmed by Rear-Admiral Troubridge’s post-operational report, Allied intelligence had grossly underestimated Elba’s defences - rather than ‘under 800 Germans, preponderantly Poles and Czechs of low morale and all set for evacuation’, the Allied assault was met by a force of ‘2,600 Germans who fought extremely well’, while the local defences were formidable in the extreme, for ‘they had excavated caves in the granite cliffs flanking the beaches and installed 155mm., 88mm. and machine-guns in them’. Added to which, ‘behind the beaches, exactly ranged on the likely places of disembarkation, were heavy mortars’.

William Whiteside, a native of Fleetwood, Lancashire, was serving as a member of Naval Party 893 at the time of the Elba landings on 17 June 1944. According to the Fleetwood Chronicle of 10 November 1944, he was ‘an old boy of Lord-street School, Fleetwood. Leading Seaman Whiteside sailed in Fleetwood trawlers, mainly for the Iago Steam Trawling Company, before enlisting. He was boatswain in the Thomas Hankins when she was torpedoed at the beginning of the war.’

In a subsequent cutting from the Evening Gazette of 5 January 1945, it is reported that ‘Just over two months after hearing that he had been awarded the D.S.M., Mrs W. Whiteside, of Aughton Street, Fleetwood, has had news that her husband, Leading Seaman Whiteside, is seriously ill with chest wounds. Leading Seaman Whiteside was awarded the D.S.M. for his work during the capture of Elba.’

His brother, Stoker Matthew Lewtas Whiteside, was lost in the sinking of the aircraft carrier Glorious on 8 June 1940.

Sold with copied research including original recommendation and two news cuttings.