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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 415

26 DECEMBER 1943: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE "SCHARNHORST"


A pre-war Palestine and Second World War campaign group of six awarded to Chief Yeoman of Signals R. J. Lowman, Royal Navy

Having undertaken sterling service in the flotilla leader H.M.S. Codrington on the Dunkirk run, he removed to the destroyer Saumarez and faced the full fury of the Scharnhorst at the battle of North Cape in December 1943

In an 11-minute exchange with her mighty opponent - in which she claimed a torpedo strike - Saumarez was lucky indeed to avoid destruction, one of Scharnhorst's shells passing right through her Director Control Tower without detonating: it nonetheless killed 11 men

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1939-36 (JX. 131930 R. J. Lowman, L. Sig., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (JX. 131930 R. J. Lowman, C.Y.S., H.M.S. Braganza), mounted as worn, the last with official corrections, contact marks overall, therefore nearly very fine or better (6)

Reginald John Lowman was born at Weymouth, Dorset on 9 March 1913 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1928. He subsequently qualified for his Naval General Service Medal for services off Palestine in H.M.S. Despatch.

Dunkirk

By the outbreak of hostilities, he was serving as a Leading Seaman in the flotilla leader Codrington but quickly gained advancement to Acting Yeoman of the Signals.

On 28 May 1940, Codrington assisted in the rescue of 32 survivors from the torpedoed Aboukir in the North Sea, following which she made haste to Dunkirk's East Mole. Thereafter, over the coming week, she carried out a punishing agenda of return trips to Dover, eventually bringing home over 6,000 troops, among them Major-General B. L. Montgomery:

'Saturday 1 June: Secured alongside eastern pier, Dunkirk, at 0525 hours. Embarked about 500 troops, including Major-General B. L. Montgomery, temporarily commanding a corps. The latter informed me that embarkation at Braye had been very difficult due to the pier being unsuitable. While in Dunkirk harbour low cloud persisted and several low bombing attacks took place ... one Heinkel was brought down apparently by the fire of Codrington and another destroyer' (Stevens-Guille's official Operation "Dynamo" report refers).

Codrington having then been damaged - and bombed and sunk in Dover harbour in the following month - Lowman removed to the minelaying cruiser Adventure. He remained similarly employed until August 1942 and would have been present on the occasion she was mined off Liverpool in 1941.

Sink the "Scharnhorst"!

In May 1943, Lowman joined the destroyer Saumarez and he remained likewise employed until January 1945, a period encompassing good work on the Arctic run, in addition to the destruction of the Scharnhorst at the battle of North Cape.

On 22 December 1943, Convoy RA 55A sailed from Kola, escorted by eight destroyers, including Saumarez, two Canadian destroyers, three corvettes and a minesweeper. The outgoing convoy, JW 55B, had left Loch Ewe on 20 December and was expected to reach Bear Island on Christmas Day about the same time as RA 55A. Cruiser cover was provided east of Bear Island by Belfast, Sheffield and Norfolk, and heavy cover by the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica.

Early on 26 December the Admiralty signalled that the German battleship Scharnhorst was at sea. She was detected by the cruisers and after some hours trying to evade them and strike at the convoy, headed for home. But the Scharnhorst was intercepted and hit by Duke of York and a long chase followed. In the ensuing action, Saumarez's guns fired continuously for eleven minutes, followed by the delivery of a telling torpedo attack. A shell from Scharnhorst, which did not explode, passed through her Director Control Tower, killing eleven men and putting the tower out of action. A near miss also damaged the ship's forced lubrication system.

Saumarez steamed to Murmansk on one engine and, after temporary repairs by the Russians, left for the U.K. Following a refit, completed in March 1944, she was again part of the escort of a pair of Arctic convoys, JW 58 and RA 58, both of which reached their destinations unscathed. The successful Fleet Air Arm attack on the German battleship Tirpitz, which took place on 3 April, was synchronised with the passage of JW 58.

D-Day and beyond

In Operation "Neptune" on 6 June 1944, Saumarez acted as leader of the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla and lent valuable gun support to Force S in the assault on Ouistreham.

Later still, in mid-August, Saumarez and her consort Onslaught engaged a convoy of three or four enemy minesweepers and one merchant vessel off St. Peter Port, Guernsey. The convoy was frequently hit but both destroyers also sustained damage and casualties.

In September Saumarez was part of the escort of another Arctic convoy and Lowman departed her when she returned to Newcastle for a refit in January 1945.

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in November 1945, whilst stationed at the Bombay establishment Braganza, he was finally pensioned ashore as a Chief Yeoman of the Signals in October 1953.

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Sold for
£420

Starting price
£220