Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The First and Second War group of seven awarded to Commander R. H. D. Lane, Royal Navy, a veteran of Dunkirk who commanded the destroyer Wryneck in the evacuation of Greece, and was among those lost when she was sunk by enemy aircraft in April 1941 - he was last seen sliding off a raft, badly wounded and covered in oil

1914-15 Star (S. Lt. R. H. D. Lane, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. R. H. D. Lane. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, good very fine and better (7) £500-£700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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Robert Henry Douglas Lane, who was appointed a Midshipman in September 1913, was serving aboard the battleship H.M.S. Africa on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Transferring to the Hindustan as an Acting Sub. Lieutenant in November 1915, another ship of the 3rd Battle Squadron, he afterwards completed his wartime service in destroyers, namely the Nonpareil and the Patriot, latterly as First Lieutenant.

Remaining a regular between the wars, Lane gained advancement to Lieutenant-Commander in October 1925 and was serving as Naval Provost Marshal in Hong Kong on the renewal of hostilities. Returning to the U.K. in early 1940, he was given command of the ancient freighter Moyle, one of three blockships ordered to Dunkirk on the last night of the evacuation on 3-4 June 1940. Lane and his crew rammed her into the west pier and scuttled her, prior to becoming among the very last to be evacuated from the battered port. He was subsequently among those men mentioned in despatches in The London Gazette of 10 October 1940, for ‘good services when carrying out blocking operations in enemy occupied ports.’

In July 1940, Lane was appointed to the command of the destroyer Wryneck, in which ship he served with distinction in the Mediterranean, and more particularly during the evacuation of Greece. Having assisted in the withdrawal of troops from Megara on 25 July 1941, and in rescuing survivors from the lighter A.19, Lane was ordered to take the Wryneck on a similar mission two nights later. On this occasion, however, ‘tragedy began to pile on tragedy’, for Wryneck and her consorts departed Navplion at too late an hour to avoid enemy attention in the first hours of daylight. And at 7 a.m. 30 enemy dive bombers commenced a devastating attack on the Wryneck and the Diamond (another destroyer), in addition to the Dutch Slamat, the latter vessel being laden with evacuated troops. First to be sunk was the Slamat, the two destroyers moving in to pick up her survivors. Soon afterwards, and now with several hundred troops aboard, the Wryneck and Diamond similarly fell victim to a succession of heavy bombing attacks:

‘Wryneck, meanwhile, had been equally unfortunate. Taken unawares in the same way as Diamond, a bomb had struck the foc’s’le near ‘A’ gun, killing or wounding everyone at the gun, on the bridge and in the sick bay, shattering the stokers’ mess deck and killing numbers of stokers and soldiers. Another fell down the engine room hatch bursting all the steam pipes, and a third bomb struck aft setting an ammunition locker on fire. With the ship moving at about 18 knots, with a heavy growing list to port, an E.R.A. managed to open the safety valves; then, with others, he got a whaler away which was practically undamaged, and released the rafts before abandoning ship ...’

But, as confirmed in Greek Tragedy, worse was to follow in the water:

‘Where the destroyers had gone down a huge patch of dark brown oil spread like a pall over the blue water of the Gulf of Nauplia. And in it floated the torn corpses of the dead, wrecked and upturned boats, balks of timber, lifebelts, sodden loaves of bread, broken oars, rolled hammocks and shattered pieces of furniture. In it swam those who were still alive and those who were soon to die by drowning. Hundreds of men coated in oil. Men crying for help, coughing and retching to free their bursting lungs of the bitter crude oil that choked them. Men screaming in terror. Men praying to live. Men longing for death to release them from the agony of burning oil seeping into their wounds. Men clutching at chunks of wreckage that slipped from their grasp. Men of high courage, who without a thought for themselves, fought to save their wounded shipmates ... There were a number of rafts and Carley floats drifting in that growing patch of oil, and few of them carried survivors. On one of them was Commander Lane of the Wryneck, with two of his R.N.V.R. Sub. Lieutenants, Jackson and Griffiths, and his Midshipman, Peck. Able Seaman Taylor helped to haul them on to the raft. They were all badly wounded and coated in oil. For a little while they clung to the raft. As it rolled in the rising sea, they slipped off it, too weak to hold on any longer ...’

When at length a handful of Wryneck’s men were eventually picked up, the senior surviving rating was asked to complete a report. He ended it thus:

‘The men of the Wryneck wish me to add that we have lost a fine ship, fine officers and a magnificent Captain.’