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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 497

H.M.S. Consort

20 April 1949

Casualties: 10 killed or died of wounds, 29 wounded

'The Wireless Transmitting office received a shell which exploded inside killing two outright and a third later died from severe blast effects. Later the T.S. office received a direct hit killing two instantaneously. In the small cross passage beneath the Captain's day cabin three men were dismembered when a large shell exploded there. I saw all of these cases, where, of course, nothing could be done … '

Surgeon Lieutenant Mark Bentley recalls the horrific scenes unfolding aboard H.M.S. Consort on 20 April 1949; the rating from the W./T. office who died of severe blast wounds was Ordinary Telegraphist Dennis Iredale.


The Naval General Service Medal awarded to Ordinary Telegraphist D. Iredale, Royal Navy, who was mortally wounded aboard H.M.S. Consort on 20 April 1949

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Yangtze 1949 (P/SSX. 660981 D. Iredale, Ord. Tel., R.N.), together with Admiralty condolence slip and registered medal forwarding envelope, this last addressed to 'Mrs. E. L. Iredale, 148 Castleton Road, Mottingham, London S.E. 9', extremely fine

Dennis Iredale's emergency treatment under Surgeon Lieutenant Mark Bentley included two pints of plasma, delivered from Black Swan at 2200 hours on the 20th, but tragically he succumbed to his blast and shrapnel wounds.

Of all the attempts made to reach and rescue the Amethyst, Consort's was beyond doubt the most determined. Flying seven White Ensigns and three Union Jacks, she steamed down from Nanking at an incredible 29 knots, coming under heavy fire as she neared her goal. Her 4.5-inch guns managed to silence some of the opposition on the north bank, but she remained under fire from a concentrated number of 37mm. anti-tank guns as she attempted to take Amethyst in tow on two separate occasions. When, at length, she was compelled to abandon her mission, she departed the scene with 68 hits and 39 casualties.


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Estimate
£1,800 to £2,200