Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas (Part I)

The outstanding Second War ‘Bismarck action’ D.S.M. group of ten awarded to Chief Petty Officer (Airman) S. E. Parker, Royal Navy, who flew as Telegraphist Air Gunner in the Swordfish piloted by Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, C.O. of 825 Naval Air Squadron, in the first of two celebrated Fleet Air Arm attacks launched against the mighty Bismarck

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (FAA/FX.76360 S. E. Parker. P.O. Airman. H.M.S. Victorious); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (JX.133661 S. E. Parker. L.S. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, 1 clasp, Atlantic; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (L/FX.76360 S. E. Parker C.P.O. R.N.); UN Korea 1950-54; Naval L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (FX.76360 S. E. Parker. C.P.O. Air. H.M.S. Daedalus) ship and part of rank officially corrected on this, mounted court-style for wearing, generally good very fine (10) £5,000-£7,000

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

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One of five D.S.Ms awarded to the Fleet Air Arm for the Bismarck action in May 1941.

D.S.M. London Gazette 16 September 1941: ‘To men of H.M. aircraft carriers and Naval Air Stations for gallantry, daring and skill in the operations in which the German battleship Bismarck was destroyed.’

The original recommendation states:

‘Petty Officer Parker is the Air Gunner in the Squadron Commander’s aircraft. He had been at Dunkirk on the same operation as Sub. Lieutenant D. A. Berrill. A fine rating in action in the face of the enemy. His single Vickers G.O. gun gave the guns’ crews of the Bismarck all that it could and never stopped once.’

Stanley Edgar Parker entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in 1929 and qualified as a Telegraphist Air Gunner - or ‘T.A.G.’ - in the Fleet Air Arm on the eve of hostilities.

Posted to No. 825 Naval Air Squadron (N.A.S.) in the following year, he first witnessed active service during Operation ‘Dynamo’, when 825 carried out operations against U- and E- Boats in the Calais area. The Squadron was next embarked in the carrier H.M.S. Furious, from which, as Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde’s T.A.G., Parker participated in a strike against enemy shipping at Trondheim on 22 September 1940. But it was for their subsequent part in attacking the Bismarck that both men were decorated.

The attack was launched from the pitching deck of the carrier Victorious at 10 p.m. on 24 May 1941, when, in particularly foul weather, Esmonde, with Parker, led off his flight of nine Swordfish. A journey of 120 miles lay ahead and not a few on board the Victorious thought that would be the last they saw of them. Bismarck’s gunners, of course, were fully alert, and Esmonde’s striking force was met with an ‘exceptionally heavy’ barrage of A.A. fire, several aircraft sustaining damage. Amidst this inferno, one eye-witness described seeing Parker ‘firing his gun madly,’ an observation surely supported by the words of the recommendation for his D.S.M. Moreover, one of Esmonde’s pilots claimed a torpedo hit amidships, thereby fatally slowing down the Bismarck.

Re-forming away from the guns of their damaged and angered foe, the much-battered Striking Force made off for Victorious, a return flight fraught with danger as a result of the loss of radio contact. At length, however, having overrun the Victorious in pitch darkness and driving rain on at least one occasion, Esmonde, his gallant T.A.G., and the remaining aircrew touched down at 2 a.m. Once again the Fleet Air Arm had triumphed and Esmonde received a well-merited D.S.O. He went on to win a posthumous V.C. less than a year later, in his immensely courageous strike against the components of the ‘Channel Dash’.

Meanwhile, 825 N.A.S. transferred to the Ark Royal, and witnessed extensive action in the Mediterranean, mainly on the Malta run, prior to the carrier’s loss to a torpedo strike in November 1941.

Back home, Parker received his D.S.M. at a Buckingham Palace investiture held in May 1942 and ended the war as an instructor in Trinidad. His post-war appointments included photographic interpretation at the Royal Naval School of Photography at Ford, Sussex but he returned to sea in the carrier Glory at the time of the Korea War.

On finally being pensioned ashore, Parker settled at Chichester, Sussex, where he became custodian of the town’s assembly rooms and mace bearer.