WW2 Distinguished Service Medal, 4 x MID and Arctic Star Medal Group of Eight with Quantity of Ephemera – Leading Seaman J.W. Gammon, Royal Navy

A superb second world war DSM, 4 x mentioned in despatches and Arctic Star medal group of eight awarded to J.102381 Leading Seaman Jack Wilfred Gammon, Royal Navy. 

George VI Distinguished Service Medal named to J.102381 J.W. Gammon. L.Smn. 
1939-45 Star unnamed as issued 
Atlantic Star (Clasp – France and Germany) unnamed as issued 
Africa Star (Clasp – North Africa 1942-43) unnamed as issued 
Burma Star (Clasp – Pacific) unnamed as issued 
War Medal 1939-45 (with 4 x MID oak leaf emblems) unnamed as issued 
George VI Royal Naval Long Service & Good Conduct Medal named to J.102381 J.W. Gammon AB, H.M.S. Arethusa/

The above medals are all swing mounted together for wear. 

Also comes with his Arctic Star which is in its named box of issue with entitlement slip. 

London Gazette:
DSM LG: 21/12/1943 – HMS Hilary – Operation Husky (Invasion of Sicily)
MID LG: 3/1/1941 – HMS Afridi – service in Norwegian waters
MID LG: 8/9/1942 – HMS Cleopatra – Malta Convoy (M61)
MID LG: 14/11/1944 – HMS Scylla – Operation Neptune (D-Day)
MID LG: 11/6/1946 – HMS Indefatigable – Far East – 1st Aircraft Carrier Squadron

Gammon saw action during many of the major naval actions of the Second World. These included being present on HMS Cossack at the time of her spectacular rescue of some 300 British merchant seamen from the German Auxiliary ship Altmark on 16 February 1940, the Norway campaign 1940, escorting Arctic Convoys, escorting Malta Convoys, the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), the Anzio landings (Operation Shingle), the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune) and finally he served with the Pacific Fleet during the U.S. landings on Okinawa (Operation Iceberg). He was on HMS Indomitable when it became the victim of a kamikaze aircraft in May 1945.

Gammon is mentioned several times in Sir Philip Vian’s memoir “Action this Day”. Vian relates the following regarding the Norway Campaign of 1939/40:

“By now, Able-Seaman Gammon, who, as my cabin hand, was stationed on the bridge in action, had developed a flair for picking out, from aircraft approaching, those which had Afridi in their sights; he was nearly always right, and often reported the moment of bomb-release. This information was of great assistance in making the decision when, and which way, to swing the ship to avoid the bombs.”

When HMS Naiad was hit and sunk in the Mediterranean, Vian tells how Gammon was lucky to escape with his life:

“Gammon had a rough time. He had gone off to prepare my sleeping-cabin, which was not used at sea. When the explosion occurred and the ship heeled over, the heavy mahogany door jammed. Using my brass shoe-horn – there was nothing else – he started to bash a hole in the door. The ship heeled further and further over, and he doubted that he would have a hole big enough to escape from. But he made one, with seconds to spare. As he arrived on the by now, almost perpendicular quarter-deck he found one other man left, who was evidently hesitating to jump. Gammon was carrying his lifebelt, as he had had to remove it to get himself through the door; when he got alongside his shipmate, the letter snatched the life-preserver, and took the plunge.

When Gammon was eventually pulled out of the water, a man on the deck of the rescuing ship relieved him of his clothes, which he said would be dried, and gave him a blanket. The clothes included a belt with all his money in the pouch, and this he never saw again.”

Regiment: Royal Navy

Era: WW2