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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 1036

(x) Three: Lance-Corporal D. Wood, South African Engineer Corps

Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Africa Service Medal 1939-45, all officially impressed '194262 D. Wood', very fine (3)

David Wood was born on 22 August 1904 and served with the 61st Tunnelling Company, from 25 November 1941. He embarked East London for Suez aboard Eastern Prince on 18 December 1941 and disembarked at Beirut on 12 January 1942. Serving in a crack brigade of 200 engineers and miners under the direction of General Smuts, Wood took part in the construction of two tunnels designed to connect Palestine and Syria by rail. As well as an impressive feat of logistics - stretching over 3000 metres through mountainous terrain - the tunnels were also intended to discourage Turkey from entering the war on the side of the Axis.

Equipped with a power plant, explosives, rails, pipes, survey instruments and all the other items sufficient to develop a gold mine, the men immediately got down to the job and carved out the Ras Chekka and the Ras Buyada tunnels at a rate of up to 27 metres per day. Having achieved their objectives, Wood and the rest of the 61st volunteered to construct an irrigation canal in the Lebanon mountains which succeeded in irrigating 7000 acres of land. On 10 November 1943 the men landed at Durban to considerable public acclaim, including the award of an M.B.E. and more than a dozen 'mentions'.' (The Reef, What a Crack Team They Were!, July 1982, refers)


Having been subject to an unspecified injury on 30 May 1943, Wood made his way to Johannesburg to recuperate and rest. Admitted to Springfield Hospital on 17 November 1943, he spent six days under the gaze of the medical authorities. This was repeated two weeks later when he was admitted to the Johannesburg Military Hospital for a further five days, before he was finally discharged from the service and permitted to resume employment in the mines, likely returning to his former occupation as a plant driver; sold with copied service record and Certificate of Service confirming full entitlement, with the original article from The Reef.


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Estimate
£40 to £50

Starting price
£30