Auction Catalogue

17 September 2004

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 1236 x

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17 September 2004

Hammer Price:
£2,200

A fine Second World War D.S.M. group of seven awarded to Shipwright 1st Class R. A. Roach, Royal Navy, for bravery aboard the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Illustrious when she was severely damaged after facing sustained enemy air attack off Malta for several hours on 10 January 1941

Distinguished Service Medal
, G.VI.R. (M. 6462 R. A. Roach, Shpt. 1, H.M.S. Illustrious); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals, generally good very fine or better (7)
£800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 17 June 1941:

‘For great courage and devotion to duty in the face of enemy air attack.’

Reginald Arthur Roach was decorated for his deeds aboard the aircraft carrier H.M.S.
Illustrious when she was severely damaged in an enemy air attack 75 miles east of Malta on 10 January 1941. Few better descriptions of this relentless airborne assault may be found than that contained in Kenneth Poolman’s history, Illustrious, from which the following extracts have been taken:

‘The Stukas came in from three bearings, port and starboard bows and starboard quarter, all at the same time. Bill Banham watched them, diving in groups of three from each direction, dove-tailed neatly together, clover-leaf fashion. Down they hurled through the 4.5 barrage and into the pom-pom screen. Nothing could stop them. In a terrifying crescendo of crashing sound,
Illustrious disappeared in spray and smoke. All was bursting bombs, bursting shells, the racket of the guns and the roar and scream of aircraft.

They knocked the broadcasting system out of action and shattered the radar. A bomb hit P1 pom-pom on the port side for’d, smashing the gun, killing two of its crew as it passed through the gun platform and exploded on hitting the water, sending jagged pieces of metal flying upwards to kill and wound more men.

The bombers that came in from the starboard bow hit S2 pom-pom and destroyed it and all of its crew. The same bomb killed three men on S1 pom-pom below and injured many in the ammunition supply parties.

Another heavy bomb fell directly into the after-lift well when the after lift was halfway down. On the lift was a Fulmar with its young Midshipman pilot in the cockpit. Jago, in the hangar, heard a great crash aft. The Fulmar on the lift had been obliterated and the lift itself thrown up end on.

Aircraft at that end of the hangar started to burn. Heavy chunks of metal from the bomb flew in all directions through the walls of the lift well and into the gun bays of the after turrets. All eight 4.5-inch guns located aft were knocked out and their crews killed or wounded ...’

Illustrious was already in serious trouble, yet worse was to follow:

‘High-level bombers came over this time as well. Once again the ship lurched and staggered as bombs fell all round her. The noise between decks was terrifying, like a thousand tube trains roaring out of the tunnel. A bomb smashed through the flight deck and through the boys’ mess deck. Passing out of the ship’s side it hit the water and exploded. White hot metal shot in all directions, holing the ship in many places above and below the waterline and causing bad flooding in the unarmoured for’d section. Blast from the same bomb smashed into an arch. Wind rushed immediately into the hangar through this arch, and fanned the fires there into a great blaze. Flame and smoke poured from the after-lift-well.

Jago had dashed into the spraying room at the side of the hangar to get the sprayers working. When he got back into the hangar it was a ghastly shambles. Dead and badly wounded men lay on the deck, some hit by pieces of steel from the hangar fire screens which had shattered to pieces and flung sharp slivers like scythe blades through the hangar. He saw an officer he knew looking straight at him. The man had no top to his head ... The flight deck became in places laminated with the heat and too hot to walk on. When the water was turned on from the hoses, clouds of steam arose to mingle with the smoke and flame pouring from the lift wells and the holes in the deck. Those guns still intact kept firing ...’

And still the punishment continued:

‘Then there was a blinding, staggering crash and a great thousand pounder struck the flight deck right on the centre line. It burst through the armoured deck and the hangar deck below, hit the after ammunition conveyer and exploded, killing and badly wounding everybody in the wardroom flat. All the officers taking a hasty meal in the wardroom were wiped out. The whole after part of the ship went dark and dead. The fire took hold everywhere and raged through the torn and shattered compartments where the men lay trapped. A smashed petrol pipe sprayed streams of liquid flame through the dark, smoke-filled passages ... Another thousand-pound bomb had plunged into the after-lift well. This bomb burst the deck of the lift well and put the steering gear in the compartment below out of action. The ship began to swing crazily round in circles. She remained out of control until Captain Boyd began steering her on the main engines alone and headed for Malta ...’

Interestingly, Poolman refers specifically to the rescue operations carried out by Warrant Shipwright L. E. Guttridge, R.N., who won a D.S.C., so it is more than likely that Roach formed part of these gallant activities. Interestingly, too, another D.S.C. won that day in
Illustrious was to an attached Lieutenant-Commander, U.S.N.

Having reached Valetta, the
Illustrious took a further pounding from the Germans and Italians, still hell-bent on avenging her part in the Taranto raid. The official account of the R.A.F. in Malta between June 1940 and November 1942 (H.M.S.O.), entitled The Air Battle of Malta, describes how she several times ‘disappeared beneath clouds of spray from near misses; but the flame and smoke of her guns never ceased’, an observation so vividly portrayed in an accompanying text photograph.

Roach received his D.S.M. at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 28 October 1941.