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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 496

The outstanding - likely unique - Second World War Normandy landings D.S.M., Yangtze incident group of seven awarded to Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic J. A. Crennell, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (Sto. P.O. J. A. Crennell, D/KX. 80364), engraved naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Yangtze 1949 (D/KX. 80364 J. A. Crennell, P.O.S.M., R.N.), the Stars re-gilded, contact marks and edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine (7)

D.S.M. London Gazette 14 November 1944. The original recommendation states:

'He remained exposed at his place of duty during intense enemy shell fire, while his ship was holed and splintered around him from near misses. He reorganized repair to the serious underwater damage regardless of his personal safety, working himself to a state of exhaustion, endeavouring to keep the ship watertight. He was at all times a source of encouragement to his shipmates.'

John Alfred Crennell was born at Toxteth, Liverpool on 15 January 1911, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Crennell, both originally from the Isle of Man. Young John entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in June 1930.

The outbreak of hostilities found him serving as a Stoker 1st Class in the cruiser H.M.S. Neptune, and he remained likewise employed until October 1941. Having been deployed in the South Atlantic in the search for the Graf Spee - of River Plate fame - in December 1939, Neptune joined the Mediterranean Fleet and was the first British ship to spot the Italian Fleet in the battle of Calabria on 9 July 1940, During the subsequent engagement, she was hit by the Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi, the 6-inch shell splinters damaging her floatplane beyond repair. Minutes later, her main guns struck the heavy cruiser Bolzano three times, inflicting serious damage on her torpedo room, below the waterline. During 1941, whilst Crennell was still aboard, Neptune led Force K, tasked with the interception of German and Italian convoys en route to Libya.

In September 1943 - and having been promoted to Acting Stoker Petty Officer Mechanic - Crennell joined the landing craft establishment Copra, in readiness for the D-Day landings. As cited above, he subsequently distinguished himself in L.C.I. (L.) 130 off Normandy in June 1944 and was awarded the D.S.M.

Post-war, in October 1947, he joined Black Swan at Tamar in Hong Kong as a Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic, in which capacity he was present in his ship's gallant attempt to rescue the Amethyst on 21 April 1941.

Crennell failed to qualify for the L.S. & G.C. Medal - in consequence of two incidences of 'disobedience' incurred in the 1930s - and was finally pensioned ashore in August 1953. He died at Toxteth, Liverpool on 16 June 1977.


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Estimate
£4,000 to £5,000