Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Leading Stoker E. E. Shearman, Royal Navy, who witnessed extensive action in H.M.S. Nelson on the Malta run

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (K. 63799 L. Sto., H.M.S. Nelson), very fine and better (5) £160-180

Emanuel Edward Shearman was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1939, while serving in H.M.S. Nelson, and accompanying photographs and postcards (see below) would suggest that he was still serving in the same battleship as late as August 1942, a period that witnessed her winning a Battle Honour for “Malta Convoys 1941-42”, and, more specifically, the famous “Pedestal” convoy.

In fact, as part of Admiral Somerville’s Force H, and afterwards Vice-Admiral Syfret’s Force Z, Nelson participated in many important Malta convoys, the first of them, “Operation Substance”, taking place in July 1941, when the Naval escort lost a destroyer, and one cruiser and another destroyer damaged. “Mincemeat” followed in August, and “Status I” and “Halberd” in September, the latter operation nearly witnessing Nelson’s demise when she was hit by a torpedo on the 27th, an incident recorded in Richard Woodman’s definitive history, Malta Convoy:

‘This intense action lasted less than half an hour, then there was a brief respite until a second wave of about seven Fiat BR20s was seen approaching very low from the east at 13.27. These divided, coming in on the starboard bow and starboard beam of the convoy, three of them penetrating the barrage to attack Nelson. Captain Troubridge swung the battleship to comb the anticipated torpedo tracks as one Italian aeroplane flew down Nelson’s starboard side, to be cut into three pieces by pom-pom shells. But another Italian aeroplane let her torpedo go right ahead, at 400 yards distance. ‘The chances of a hit seemed remote,’ Somerville later wrote to Cunningham, ‘until the bloody bubbles appeared about 120 yards ahead ... coming stright for us. Possibly helm hard over keeping her swinging to starboard might have let us take it on the bulge but I doubt it. Anyhow there was always the danger of a hit right aft which would have been far worse.’ The aircraft flew low over Nelson, only to be shot down by the combined fire of the ships astern. The battleship had been hit on the port bow and her speed rapidly dropped to 18 knots as water poured into her forward hull and she settled by the head. The full extent of the damage was not of course known until later, but it proved serious ...’

Following another attack by some SM79s, and now with 3500 tons of water in her damaged hull, the Nelson was escorted back to Gibraltar by three destroyers, where, with much regret, Somerville transferred his Flag to the Rodney. By the summer of 1942, the Nelson was ready to return to the Malta run as flagship of Vice-Admiral Syfret’s Force Z, a role that saw her participating in the famous “Pedestal” operation - indeed the final planning conference with the R.N. and Merchant Navy commanding officers was held aboard his command.

The convoy sailed from Scotland, reaching the Straits of Gibraltar on 10 August 1942, at which stage the enemy’s attention became constant, the U-Boats’ first victim being the aircraft carrier Eagle, and between then and the conclusion of the convoy, the Naval escort lost two cruisers and one destroyer sunk, in addition to many other ships sustaining considerable damage, another aircraft carrier and cruiser among them; of the 14 merchantmen, nine were sunk and three others severely damaged, many of these, of course, as a result of enemy air attacks. The main Naval escort, including the Nelson, could not be risked beyond the Skerki Channel, but covered 950 miles of the total distance of 1150 miles to Malta from Gibraltar, and throughout Syfret’s flagship put up constant and spectacular anti-aircraft barrages amidst frequent near misses that rocked her mighty keel.

Sold with a fine series of wartime picture postcards / photographs, the majority appertaining to the Nelson and the Malta convoys of 1942, including “Pedestal”, and several captioned on the reverse in the recipient’s hand - the earliest image is captioned “Northern Patrol 1940” and the latest August 1942, thereby verifying his probable span of service aboard Nelson.