The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals (Part 2)

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (K.28338 H. J. Shorter, S.P.O., R.N. Palestine 1936) impressed naming, official correction to ‘Palestine’, some edge bruises, therefore very fine and rare

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

View
Collection

D.S.M. London Gazette 6 November 1936 ‘The King has been graciously pleased to approve the undermentioned awards for gallant and distinguished services rendered in connection with the emergency operations in Palestine during the period 15th April to 14th September, 1936: Stoker Petty Officer Henry Jack Shorter, H.M.S. BARHAM.’

Three D.S.M’s were awarded for Palestine, all in 1936. Between the two World Wars a total of only ten D.S.M’s were awarded.

When the general strike was declared in Palestine on 20 April 1936, one of the chief preoccupations of the authorities was railway communication. It was feared that the strike might cripple the railways of the country. This would have been a serious matter, since the strike at the Arab town of Jaffa had virtually closed that port to shipping, and all cargos were being handled at Haifa, from whence distribution was largely by rail.

With the assistance of ten volunteers from ships of the Fleet lying at Alexandria, including H.M.S. BARHAM, thirteen naval crews, each consisting of an engine driver and fireman, were formed. These went ashore from their ships each morning to undergo practical training on the railways. At the same time other naval ratings were being trained as signalmen and in all the other duties involved in the control of traffic on a railway. The naval crews, accompanied by a naval armed guard of two men, travelled on all the important trains. Not only were these men learning all the time, but they were acting as protectors to the Arab drivers and firemen.

In August 1936, Arab extremists made a concentrated effort to make the railwaymen of Haifa join the strike in support of their cause. The intimidation resorted to by the Arabs was so serious that the Arab drivers and firemen were forced temporarily to leave their work. The Royal Navy, with its small railway trained personnel, immediately took over control, and maintained a sixty percent service for ten days. This continuation of the railway service had the desired effect and the Arab railwaymen duly returned to work.

The Arabs became extremely adept at sabotage, removing rails, placing bombs and small land mines on the line, obstructing the track, and so on. Another and most unpleasant form of sabotage, because of the difficulty in seeing it, was the widening of the gauge so that trains came off the rails.

On the afternoon of 4 September 1936, a heavy goods train pulled by two engines was derailed by sabotage on the Jaffa to Jerusalem line near Qalqiliya just north of Lydda, causing the death of a British soldier, a native driver, and five other casualties. In the first engine the native driver was killed and the fireman scalded so badly that he later died. Of the two man military guard, one soldier was killed and the other injured. In the second engine, the driver and the two man naval guard were all injured. The injured were the British driver Sidney Monk, Pte T. Oates of the Cheshire Regiment, Stoker Petty Officer H. Shorter and Stoker W. Brown, Royal Navy.

By September 1936 large troop reinforcements had arrived and the military were able to take over all the tasks of the Royal Navy, apart from maintenance of the coastal patrol to guard against gun-running. Sir Samuel Hoare, First Lord of the Admiralty, paid tribute to the naval personnel serving ashore in a speech on 4 September 1936, after a visit to Haifa. ‘Once again the Navy has readily met an unexpected emergency. If I wanted an example of its adaptability, what better could I have than an armoured train fitted out and manned by naval personnel?’