Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War ‘Battle of Gazala’ ‘Immediate’ M.M. group of six awarded to Driver J. Whatsize, Royal Army Service Corps, attached 2nd Battalion Highland Light Infantry, who was wounded and decorated for his gallantry and resourcefulness on 5 June 1942 during the chaotic and confused withdrawal from Operation Aberdeen, General Ritchie’s attempted encirclement of Rommel’s forces occupying the ‘Knightsbridge Cauldron’ feature

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (T/243523 Dvr. J. Whatsize, R.A.S.C.) with named card box of issue; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, 1 copy clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine (6) £700-£900

Provenance: Bosley’s, November 2013 (when sold without the Italy Star and Defence Medal)

M.M. London Gazette 24 September 1942.

The original Recommendation states: ‘On the 5th June 1942, North West of Bir El Harmat, Driver Whatsize was a member of a Platoon of troop-carrying vehicles attached to the 2nd Battalion Highland Light Infantry. During the day the Battalion position was overrun. Driver Whatsize, although three out of four tyres were punctured by different shell bursts, and although he himself was hit twice by flying shrapnel, continued until well into the afternoon with work of withdrawing the remnants of the Battalion and their damaged vehicles. He showed great resource in difficult conditions in keeping his vehicles on the road, and fitted two German wheels in place of his own useless ones. Throughout this time he was under fire.’

John Whatsize was born in East Coventry on 19 October 1914 and served during the Second World War with 240 Company, Royal Army Service Corps in the North African Campaign. He was decorated for his gallantry while attached to the 2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, 10th Indian Infantry Brigade, near Bir El Harmat on 5 June 1942 during Operation Aberdeen, Major-General Ritchie’s attempted encirclement of Rommel’s forces occupying the ‘Cauldron’ between the Knightsbridge Box and the 150th Brigade Box.

In response to this allied encirclement counter-attack, the Germans put up a murderous barrage and made their own counter attack in the afternoon, with tanks. The British withdrew with the loss of 6000 men killed, wounded or captured, 150 tanks captured by the enemy and four allied artillery regiments destroyed by enemy armour. During this confused fighting 240 Company, R.A.M.C. lost 22 vehicles with 15 returning after the completion of the action.

A detailed account of the action at the ‘Cauldron’ as it relates to the 2nd H.L.I. and Ten Brigade can be found in Ball of Fire by Antony Brett-James, from which the following excerpts are taken:
‘The battle to destroy the Germans and the Italians in the Knightsbridge Cauldron started in the early hours of June 5, when Boucher’s Ten Brigade went into attack. Sentries walked round to wake the troops at half past two. Just before 3am our artillery barrage began, and for twenty minutes shells from five regiments thudded and crumped upon the two areas of sand and stone that the battalions were to capture: Bir Et Tamar and Dahar El Aslagh. Then riding in lorries, the 4/10th Baluch and 2nd Highland Light Infantry crossed their starting line behind a screen of armour. In moonlight the visibility was good.
It must have been about now that the German armour (15th Panzer Division) counter attacked. They had of course, been waiting to do this, and completely overran our two forward companies and more or less wiped them out. All nine officers were killed except one, who was taken prisoner. The tanks stopped at what had been for so short a time our forward position. From there they used our guns on us. Had these tanks advanced we should have been destroyed, because all the anti-tank platoon guns had been put out of action almost before they had had a chance to fire. But we learned afterwards that the enemy tanks formed part of a force that was after bigger game, namely, Ten Brigade on our right, which they were virtually to destroy later that day”
Then some time after nine o’clock Ten Brigade told Divisional Headquarters that the H.L.I. had been subjected to a fierce tank attack and forced off B.204, having suffered many casualties.
For two hours, from ten-thirty, the H.L.I. who wore the red and white hackle on their bonnets and the Mackenzie tartan, were shelled and machine-gunned steadily. Their wounded were evacuated in carriers, for this was the sole means of getting them back over shell-torn sand. Brigadier Boucher appealed for assistance to our own tanks, and was backed up by requests from the Divisional Commander. But these waited still, a few hundred yards behind the infantry position; they drew down a heavy fire on the troops, and could do nothing themselves to intervene, for fear of undue exposure.
One platoon of H.L.I. and their gunner O.P. were seen to be trapped in a position from which no withdrawal was possible. Just after one o’clock the men tried to escape away to the right. But at once they met four enemy tanks approaching from that flank. One of the Platoon, Private Campbell, was last heard shouting “Withdrawal impossible!” He charged a tank, firing his Bren gun from the hip. Most of these brave men were killed or wounded on the spot.
But for a moment we must turn back to watch the misfortunes that beset Boucher’s Ten Brigade, At 6.30pm on June 5 the enemy delivered a severe bombing attack north-east of Brigade Headquarters. Then he shelled the area from the south. And finally, a few of his tanks came into view 1500 yards away. Forbes, the Brigade Major, ordered the H.L.I. to withdraw in a north-easterly direction. The headquarters remained. But at seven o’clock it was overrun by tanks and forced to withdraw. Many escaped in trucks before the enemy could mop them up. In the course of this withdrawal, communication with the battalions was lost, never to be regained. Brigade Headquarters became separated and, when darkness fell, split up into groups of vehicles, all moving somewhere in the stretch of Desert between Tobruk and El Adem.’

Whatsize’s Military Medal was an immediate award, ultimately sanctioned by General Auchinleck. The war diary of 240 Company, Royal Army Service Corps, contains the following entry for 3 August 1942:
‘Award of M.M. to Sergeant A. B. Freeman and Driver J. Whatsize of this Company for gallantry at Knightsbridge announced in Egyptian Mail, these awards noticeably stimulated the morale of the men, whose sterling work throughout the campaign had hitherto been unrecognised.’

Sold with copied research.