Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An early Second World War destroyer operations D.S.M. group of five awarded to Master at Arms E. R. Stallard, Royal Navy, who saw much action in H.M.S. Venomous in the summer of 1940, when she was regularly subjected to enemy aircraft attacks during the evacuation of Boulogne and Dunkirk

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX. 142935 E. R. Stallard, A.B., H.M.S. Venomous); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (5) £800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 27 August 1940:

‘For good services off the Dutch, Belgian and French coasts.’

Ernest Roy Stallard was born in Llanelly, Carmarthen, in July 1918, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in October 1934.

An Able Seaman serving aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Venomous by the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he quickly saw action in operations off the Belgian, Dutch and French coasts in early summer of 1940, when his ship was subjected to frequent attacks by enemy aircraft.

Venomous had just left Cherbourg on 10 May 1940 when she received a signal that Germany had invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. She was duly assigned to operations in support of the Allied armies, and spent the next week operating in the North Sea off the Dutch coast - she and the destroyer Verity transported a party of Royal Marines to the Hook of Holland on 12 May and, three days later, embarked refugees at Amsterdam, in addition to picking up further refugees from the Dutch lifeboat Zeemanshoop.

Her operational agenda now focused on the evacuation of France, initially at Calais where she fired her anti-aircraft guns at enemy aircraft bombing the harbour and picked up some 200 British subjects on 21 May, also loading submarine detection equipment and manufacturing equipment from a rayon factory. On the following day she escorted the Isle of Man ferry Mona Queen as she transported British troops of the Irish Guards to Boulogne, returning to England with 212 refugees aboard.

On 23 May 1940, Venomous embarked a demolition party of Royal Engineers at Dover and took them to Calais to destroy port facilities there, but the party was unable to disembark due to heavy fighting in the area and Venomous returned to Dover. Later in the day, she joined the destroyers Venetia, Vimiera, Whitshed, and Wild Swan off Boulogne to evacuate troops of the Irish Guards and Welsh Guards, who had become trapped there by advancing German troops and tanks of the 2nd Panzer Division during the Battle of Boulogne. Some 60 Junkers 87 dive-bombers had recently attacked the harbour and French destroyers bombarding offshore, so the British ships awaited the arrival of R.A.F. fighter cover before attempting to enter the harbour. Following the arrival of the latter at 1920 hours, Whitshed and Vimiera entered the harbour first, taking aboard as many troops as possible – over 550 men each - under fire from German forces before steaming back out of the harbour at 2025 hours, with Whitshed completely destroying two German tanks at point-blank range with her 4.7-inch guns as she departed.

Venomous and Wild Swan entered the harbour next, at 2035 hours, followed by Venetia at 2040 hours. The Germans opened fire on Venetia with heavier guns as she entered the harbour, apparently in an attempt to sink her in the harbour entrance to trap Venomous and Wild Swan and bring the evacuation operation to an end. A German shell, probably from a tank, hit Venetia, starting a fire aft and prompting her crew to jettison her torpedoes and burning Carley floats. Another shell hit her ‘B’ gun turret, blowing overboard and killing some of the men there, and German gunfire also inflicted casualties among the men on her bridge, causing her to go out of control and briefly run aground. Gunners aboard Venomous, seeing that Venetia was in danger of being sunk, realised that the Germans had captured Fort de la Crèche on a hill overlooking the entrance and were using its coastal artillery to fire on Venetia. Venomous opened fire on the fort - her first salvo went over it, but her second salvo silenced the fort's guns by blowing off one side of the fort and much of the hillside it was on, causing artillery pieces to tumble down the hill.

Venomous also detected a German light field gun in the garden of a house and fired on it, her first salvo flattening all of the trees in the garden, setting the house on fire, and causing German troops in the vicinity to flee. All the enemy’s heavy guns fell silent after this and, given a reprieve, Venetia, which had taken seven hits and been unable to embark any troops, quickly refloated herself and backed out of the harbour at full speed at 2048 hours. Venomous - using her engines to manoeuvre because her steering gear had jammed - and Wild Swan, followed Venetia out of the harbour, also in reverse, carrying about 400 evacuees each, along the way knocking out a German tank and shooting up two German troop columns. Venomous and Wild Swan then escorted the damaged Venetia to Dover.

At the end of May, Venomous began operations in support of “Operation Dynamo”, making two trips on 31st, carrying 670 troops from Le Panne, Belgium, and Bray-Dunes, France, on the first one, and 408 troops from the pier at Dunkirk on the second. She then transported 630 troops on 2 June, 957 more on 3 June, and 463 troops on her final voyage from Dunkirk on 4 June. And throughout she endured regular visits from the Luftwaffe. Stallard was awarded the D.S.M.

Having then come ashore to a temporary appointment at Drake in January 1942, and by now an Acting Petty Officer, he served at the R.N.A.S. Vulture at St. Merryn, but he returned to sea in the sloop Hastings in October of the same year, and remained similarly employed until being appointed an Acting Regulating Petty Officer back at Drake in December 1943. Hastings saw considerable action on the Atlantic-run, and was fortunate to emerge unscathed from at least two glider bomb attacks in August 1943.

Stallard, whose last wartime appointment was at the Londonderry base Ferret, finally came ashore in the rate of Master at Arms in September 1948, and died in Southwark, London, in May 1972; sold with a file of research.