Medals from the Collection of the Late Eric Smith (Part II)

Three: Chief Motor Mechanic H. Shaw, Royal Navy, was killed in action in M.G.B. 614 in March 1944

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box, the side inscribed ‘DD 2824/44’, together with related Admiralty condolence slip in the name of ‘Harry Shaw’, extremely fine (3) £60-80

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith.

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Harry Shaw was killed in action in M.G.B. 614 in a fierce “firefight” fought off Dieppe on the night of 28-29 March 1944, an action described in the definitive history, Dog Boats at War, by Leonard C. Reynolds, O.B.E., D.S.C.:

‘March ended on 28-29th with a very different experience for Ian Lyle’s 51st Flotilla in their first action after their reorganization: they had originally been the very early 18th M.G.B. Flotilla. They were now based at Newhaven, and although labelled MTBs, still had their MGB armament and no tubes. Their six-boat patrol that night (611, 602, 614, 613, 608, 615) was later labelled ‘whisker-singeing’ as it took them right to the harbour mouth of Dieppe. As soon as they arrived, they met two groups of R-boats and a corvette or torpedo boat and engaged them at very close range. The shore batteries joined in and illuminated the whole scene with starshell. One R-boat was seen to explode and others were hit, but all the 51st’s boats suffered severely, particularly from the shore batteries, and the resulting casualty list made grim reading: twelve killed, eleven seriously wounded and eighteen with minor wounds. All the boats got back to Newhaven, but repairs put them out of action for some time.’

Shaw has no known grave and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial; the above described card forwarding box is addressed to the recipient’s father, ‘Mr. H. Shaw, 98 Church Hill Road, Solihull, Birmingham, Warwick’.