Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War ‘aircraft carrier Pacific theatre’ D.S.M. group of six awarded to Ordnance Artificer J. G. Faulkner, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Indefatigable

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (O.A. 2 J. G. Faulkner. P/MX. 51368); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine and better (6) £2,000-£2,600

D.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1946.

John Geoffrey Faulkner was serving early in the Second World War as an Ordnance Artificer aboard the battleship Royal Oak and was fortunate to have been on leave (7-15 October) when she was sunk by U-47 whilst at anchor in Scapa Flow on 14 October 1939, with the loss of 834 lives. Originally thought to have been one of those killed, his wife received an Admiralty condolence letter which was later illustrated together with his lucky ‘Leave Ticket’ in a book on the sinking of the Royal Oak.

Faulkner most probably joined the ship’s company of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Indefatigable when she was commissioned at Clydebank in mid-1944. If so, he would have served off Norway prior to Indefatigable’s departure for the Pacific in November of the same year. More certain is the fact he was decorated for services in that ship in the Pacific (Seedie’s refers).

By early 1945, the Fleet Air Arm aircraft of the carriers Indefatigable, Illustrious, Victorious and Indomitable were hotly engaged against assorted Japanese targets with the British Pacific Fleet during Operation ‘Iceberg’, with air strikes on the Sakishima Islands and in support of the U.S. landings at Okinawa, 23 March to 25 May 1945.

It was at the commencement of the latter operation, on 1 April 1945, that Indefatigable became the first British victim of a kamikaze aircraft, being hit on the flight deck above her ‘island’ superstructure, the detonation of the Zero’s 500lb bomb wrecking both flight deck barriers, the flight deck sick bay and the briefing room - eight men were killed instantly, and the final casualty total was four officers and ten ratings killed, and 16 wounded. Five days later it was the turn of Illustrious to suffer a similar kamikaze attack.

Following repairs at Sydney, Indefatigable returned to an operational footing, and her aircraft were in action right up until 15 August 1945, on which date they fought the last air-to-air combat of the War. Throughout this period she remained under threat from further kamikaze attacks. Most probably, however, the catalyst behind the award of Faulkner’s D.S.M. dated back to Indefatigable’s first painful experience of ‘The Divine Wind’ on 1 April 1945.

Sold with a contemporary ‘Track Chart of H.M.S. Indefatigable from Commissioning 10th Dec. 1943 - Arrival at Portsmouth 16th March 1946’, and various copied research.