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

A fine Second World War “Operation Harpoon” D.S.M. awarded to Chief Motor Mechanic A. F. Close, Royal Navy, who was serving aboard the American-flagged cargo liner Chant: few Malta convoys, “Pedestal” included, were as heavily contested as “Harpoon”

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (MX. 68836 A. F. Close, Ch. Mtr. Mech.), nearly extremely fine £800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 20 October 1942. The original recommendation states:

‘Chief Motor Mechanic Close was wounded in the arm whilst mounting a Browning gun, and when requested by Sub. Lieutenant Raettig to go below for first aid, insisted in carrying on. It was not till he was ordered below later, that he left his post.’

Austin Frederick Close was decorated for his services aboard the American-flagged (U.S. Maritime Commission) cargo liner Chant during “Operation Harpoon”, an important Malta convoy of June 1942, in which one destroyer and four merchantmen were lost, including the Chant.

The convoy set out from the Clyde for Gibraltar on 5 June 1942 and the first part of the voyage was comparatively uneventful. By the morning of the 12th all forces had passed safely into the Mediterranean and the first serious run-in with enemy forces occurred on the 14th, when about 40 torpedo and dive-bombers from Sardinian airfields attacked in two waves. A furious air battle developed around the convoy but the carrier-borne fighters and the A.-A. gunners in the warships and merchantmen put up a very resolute defence, and only one of the convoy was lost. Later in the forenoon and again in the evening Italian high-level bombers made a new series of attacks, but shortly after sunset the convoy reached the entrance to the Skerki Channel. It was here that the heavy ships of the escort turned back for Gibraltar, leaving one A.-A. cruiser, nine destroyers and four minesweepers to carry on with the merchantmen.

After dark that same evening the convoy rounded Cape Bon, turning to the south-east towards Malta, but early the following morning, the 15th, on approaching Pantellaria Island, a new threat loomed up on the horizon - the Italian Navy. An Italian squadron, consisting of two cruisers and five destroyers, was suddenly sighted coming in from the north, and very soon shells began to fall around the merchantmen. The British destroyers at once moved out to attack, while the Commodore turned the convoy away to the south, and ordered all ships to make smoke. Unfortunately at this critical moment a series of dangerous air attacks took place, just when the escort had been depleted in order to deal with the Italian warships, and the first victim was the Chant, hit by a stick of three bombs. Quickly ablaze, she veered out of line and out of control, nearly colliding with another merchantman, and, a few minutes later, ‘crumpled and sank ... leaving only a dense column of black smoke boiling out of the sea and rising high into the blue sky.’

Close, among those survivors picked up by the minesweeper H.M.S Rye, and M.Ls 135 and 462, received his D.S.M. at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 16 March 1943.