An Important Collection of Awards to the SAS and Special Forces

The unique Dhofar D.C.M. group of four awarded to Captain M. K. ‘Taff’ Townsend, Royal Signals and 22 Special Air Service Regiment

Distinguished Conduct Medal, E.II.R., 2nd issue (23722726 Cpl. M. K. Townsend, R. Signals); General Service 1962, 2 clasps, Northern Ireland, Dhofar (23722726 Cpl. M. K. Townsend, R. Signals); South Atlantic 1982, with Combat Rosette (23722726 Cpl M K Townsend, DCM R Signals (SAS)); U.N. Cyprus, mounted court style as worn, edge bruise to the first, otherwise nearly extremely fine (4)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, An Important Collection of Awards to the SAS and Special Forces.

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D.C.M. London Gazette 20 July 1976. ‘L/Cpl. Melville Keith Twonsend, 22nd Special Air Service Regiment (Royal Corps of Signals). L/Cpl Townsend was a member of an SAS Squadron controlling Arab Irregulars in support of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) in Dhofar from September 1974 to January 1975. L/Cpl Townsend was the leader of a 4 man SAS liaison patrol attached to a Company of the Sultan’s Armed Forces taking part in a Battalion operation in Western Dhofar on 6 January 1975. The Company to which he was attached was on high ground covering the move of a second Company across some open country to their front. When the Company was half way across the open ground between 60 and 70 enemy in prepared positions opened fire at close range with heavy and medium machine-guns, mortars and rocket launchers. The fire destroyed the leading Platoon, killing the Company Commander and badly wounding the Forward Observation Officer (FOO). L/Cpl Townsend’s Company was demoralised by the weight of enemy fire and he noticed that very little fire was being returned. L/Cpl Townsend ran forward with 2 other men under very heavy fire, seized the GPMG’s from the Arab soldiers and returned the fire. At this stage it was almost the only fire being returned upon the enemy. Leaving the other 2 men he went back, still under fire, to the Company’s 60 mm mortar, led the team forward, establishing a fire position and persuaded them to begin firing. Once more he returned to the front to try to get the soldiers to fire their rifles. In order to encourage them he openly stood on a rock firing at the enemy with bullets cracking around him until ordered to take cover by a senior SAS NCO.

Having by force of his personality persuaded as many soldiers as he could to put fire down on the enemy he realised that no artillery fire had been returned. L/Cpl Townsend then began shouting instructions to the FOO and personally controlled the artillery fire.

The conduct and courage of this junior NCO throughout this very fierce engagement was magnificent. He undoubtedly saved the lives of many soldiers in the leading Company, besides those of the Company to which he was attached. It was an inspiring example of the highest gallantry and military ability.’

Mel Townsend enlisted in 1959 as a Junior Leader in the All Arms Junior Leaders Regiment at Tonfanau in NorthWales. In 1962 he was posted to 24 signal Regiment in Catterick to undergo trade training as a Radio Operator, and at the end of the year he joined 216 (PARA) Signal Squadron at Aldershot. In 1964, after an injury, he was posted to 3 HQ & Signal Regiment at Bulford and in 1966 Volunteered for the Special Air Service Regiment. Except for a short break he remained with 22 SAS Regiment until 1983 when he was granted a commission with the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment. With this regiment he served at the Depot as Company 2IC and Company Commander. With the 1st Battalion he held posts as Company 2IC, Training Officer and Headquarter Company Commander. Outside the regiment he served with BMATT in Uganda, in NITAT as the Rural Tactics Officer and the UDR as Special Training Company Commander and Second in Command of the UDR Depot.

During his career he saw active service in Northern Ireland and in Dhofar, where he was awarded the D.C.M. for gallantry in an action that took place in 1975 at a place called Sheershitty. The part he played during the Falklands’s War was, however, of a somewhat different nature.

Shortly after the attack on H.M.S. Sheffield by Super Etendards armed with Exocet missiles, on 4 May 1982, elements of “B” Squadron, 22 SAS, began training for an assault on the Argentinian mainland, to attack and destroy the Super Etendards at source. Nine members of the squadron, drawn from different troops, were to be dispatched as an advance force, to be the eyes and ears on the ground. Corporal ‘Taff’ Townsend was one of this advance team which made its way to Ascension Island, from where the team was parachuted into the Task Force. Taking off from the Hermes, a Sea King helicopter, stripped to its bare essentials, would airlift them to their target area. It would then ditch on the Chilean coast, as if blown off course from the Task Force, to allay suspicion.

The main danger for the team was the take-off from the aircraft carrier as the helicopter, overloaded with fuel, might be unable to gain height quickly enough. The helicopter took off like a plane, then dipped drastically seaward. With barely a few feet to spare it began to gain height and headed towards the Argentinian coast, flying low to avoid the coastal radar. Inside, despite wearing Arctic warfare dress, the team were freezing. The pilot landed within a few kilometres of his target, to allow the SAS patrol to infiltrate on foot. As they were preparing to disembark, however, a flare curved into the air over the sea; proof enough that the operation had been compromised. The pilot, therefore, reverted to his alternative plan and put them down over the border in Chile, and flying on the last of his fuel, made the Chilean coast before ditching, as were his orders.

The team now made its way on foot and attempted to make contact with certain agents in Chile, but without success. They next tried to make their war rendezvous points where SAS reception teams would replenish their food supplies, only to find them unmanned. With their rations running low, more by luck than intention they bumped into one of these teams, eating in a restaurant. The team subsequently spent much of the war kicking their heels in Chile, before being flown back to Hereford without engaging the enemy. Meanwhile, back at Hereford, it was believed that the team had been successfully inserted and that all that was now needed was the final go-ahead for the launch of the operation. This final decision was to have been taken at Cabinet level but when the reality of the advance team’s failed mission became known, amidst intense media speculation, the operation was cancelled.