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Auction: 22133 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 948

(x) Six: Petty Officer E. Westnutt, Royal Navy

British War and Victory Medals (J.13937 E. Westnutt. L.S. R.N.), the VM with re-impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R. (J.13937. Dev. B.12133) E. Westnutt. P.O. R.F.R.), very fine, together with 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, War Medal 1939-45 attributed to his son Able Seaman E. Westnutt (P/SSX 21440) who was lost on the Royal Oak (Lot)

Ernest Westnutt was born at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire on 17 September 1894. He was originally a shoe hand by trade and on 2 September 1911 enlisted in the Royal Navy at Devonport. In November 1911 he was posted to the armoured cruiser Antrim, and subsequently served in the battleships Prince George (4 May - 3 June 1912) and Thunderer (June 1912 - March 1915).

Revenge

In February 1916 Westnutt joined the battleship Revenge, in which he served at the Battle of Jutland. Revenge gave her name to a class of five battleships laid down in the winter of 1913-14. She was built by Vickers and completed in March 1916. She displaced 28,000 tons, had a speed of twenty-two knots and her main armament consisted of eight 15-inch guns and fourteen 6-inch guns. She was commanded by Captain Kiddle and had a wartime complement of 997.

On completion she was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. At Jutland she was in the 6th Division commanded by Rear Admiral Burney, consisting of ships of miscellaneous classes. As the ship went to action stations a mysterious drumming sound was heard throughout the ship and the more romantically inclined referred to the legend of Drake's drum, which would be heard when England was in danger. (Revenge was the ninth ship to carry the name of Drake's old ship).

When the twenty-four battleships of Jellicoe's fleet deployed into a single line at 19.00 hrs, Revenge was twenty-second in line. The fleet succeeded in 'crossing the T' - that is, most of the British ships could fire on the German ships with their full broadside, while the latter could return fire with their forward guns only. Revenge began an intermittent fire for about seventeen minutes, but visibility was poor and no hits were claimed. Her secondary armament fired on the disabled cruiser Wiesbaden. At 18.36hrs Scheer, the German commander, ordered his ships to disengage and each ship simultaneously executed a turn of 180 degrees. At the same time, a large number of torpedoes were launched at the rear of the British line. Revenge felt a heavy shock from a torpedo which struck her but didn't explode; next ahead, the Marlborough was struck by a torpedo which ripped a hole measuring thirty feet long in her hull below the waterline.

Having skilfully extricated his fleet from Jellicoe's trap, only a quarter hour later Scheer led his ships right back into it; at 18.36 hrs he ordered his ships to reverse course a second time. The British fleet still stretched out before them in a great arc from north to south; as they came under increasingly intense fire, the German ships bunched up and began to lose their formation. German gunners saw nothing but smoke and mist and, in the words of historian John Irving, 'an almost continuous flickering orange light right round the horizon ahead, from port to starboard.' After only a few minutes Scheer realized that his fleet was faced with imminent destruction and, for the third time, ordered a 180 degree turn-away. However, in order to cover the retreat of the battleships, at 19.13hrs he issued a dramatic order to the much-battered battle-cruisers; 'Battle-cruisers at the enemy! Give it everything!'

The charge of the German battle-cruisers towards the British line was later referred to as a death-ride. Derfflinger, which led the charge, came under fire from the Revenge's 15-inch guns with devastating effect. Derfflinger's Gunnery Officer recalled:

'The range fell from 12,000 to 8,000 … Salvo after salvo fell around us, hit after hit struck our ship … A 15-inch shell pierced the armour of 'Caesar' turret and exploded inside. The turret commander had both legs torn off and most of the gun crew was killed. The flames passed to the working chamber and then to the handling room and seventy-three of the seventy-eight men in the turret died … Another 15-inch shell pierced the roof of 'Dora' turret. The same horrors followed. With the exception of one man who was thrown by the concussion through the turret entrance, the whole turret crew of eighty men was killed instantly. From both after turrets, great flames were spurting, mingled with clouds of yellow smoke … Then, a terrific roar, a tremendous explosion, then darkness … The whole conning tower seemed to be hurled in the air … Poisonous greenish-yellow gases poured through the aperture into our control. I called out "Don gas masks!" and every man put his gas mask over his face … We could scarcely see anything of the enemy who were dispersed in a great semi-circle around us. All we could see was the great reddish-gold flames spurting from their guns.'

Revenge hit the Derfflinger five times from 19.14-17hrs and then shifted her fire to Von Der Tann, obtaining a hit on the after conning tower at 19.19hrs. Shell splinters entered the conning tower through the sighting apertures, killing the Third Gunnery Officer and three others, and wounding everyone else in the tower. The effects of the explosion were equally serious outside - the upper deck and battery deck suffered from the blast and splinters and wreckage were blown down the ventilating shafts to the starboard engine room. All the lights went out and the fumes threatened to asphyxiate the engine room personnel. When the battleships had disengaged, Scheer authorised the battle-cruisers to retreat. At the same time, flotillas of destroyers launched waves of torpedoes at the British line. None struck, but they achieved their purpose by preventing Jellicoe from following up the enemy's retreat.

When the action was over, the fleet went to night cruising stations, expecting to renew the battle the next morning. Shortly after midnight the crippled Seydlitz steamed slowly past Burney's squadron. Marlborough sighted her but did nothing; Revenge challenged her but accepted the wrong response, and Agincourt decided not to open fire in order not to give away their position. It was an astonishing but far from unique failure of initiative. At 03.00hrs on 1 June, Burney transferred his flag to Revenge from the torpedo-damaged Marlborough. Later that morning the British realised that the Germans had escaped in the night and, with great disappointment, they set course for Scapa.

In the course of the battle Revenge fired 102 rounds of 15-inch and 87 rounds of 6-inch ammunition; she was not hit herself, and suffered no casualties.

Battlecruisers

Westnutt left the Revenge in May 1918; following some months at the shore base Vivid, and in Albion (then being used for accommodation at Devonport), from February 1919 to June 1920 he served aboard the battlecruiser New Zealand when she carried Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to New Zealand and the other dominions to draw up plans for imperial naval defence.

He rounded off his naval service with a tour of duty in Hood, from December 1920-June 1922. Hood was first commissioned in March 1920; she was flagship of the Battle Cruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Vice Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, and her company was drawn from all three depots. However, it was then decided to return to the pre-war practice of manning ships with men from a single depot - in the Hood's case, men from Devonport. Also, soon after Westnutt joined her, Keyes was replaced by Vice Admiral Sir Walter Cowan, who soon turned the Hood into one of the most unhappy ships in the fleet.

Westnutt was rated Ordinary Seaman when he attained the age of 18 in 1912, and thereafter was steadily promoted to Able Seaman (1914), Leading Seaman (1917) and Petty Officer (1920). On 23 June 1922 he was discharged and resumed his career in the shoe trade, working as a leather assessor. He joined the Royal Fleet Reserve and earned his L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1937.

In March 1919 Westnutt was married to Edith Lily Roberts of Finedon, Northamptonshire. They had a son, also called Ernest, who was born in September 1919 and joined the Royal Navy. He was their only child and was lost when the Royal Oak was torpedoed at anchor in Scapa Flow on 14 October 1939.

On 22 May 1941 Westnutt Senior re-enlisted in the Royal Navy. The long break in his service meant that his second engagement would not count towards his pensionable service but he was restored to his rate of Petty Officer and retained his Good Conduct badges.

On 25 September 1941 he was drafted to the Duke Of York. She was a King George V class battleship, launched on 28 February 1940 and first commissioned on 4 November 194. Her displacement was 42,076 tons, her main armament consisted of ten 14-inch guns and sixteen 5.25-inch guns, she had a speed of 28.3 knots (52.4 km/h) and a complement of 1,556 officers and men (1945). In mid-December 1941 the Duke of York embarked Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a trip to the United States to confer with President Roosevelt. She arrived at Annapolis, Maryland, on 22 December 1941, made a shake-down cruise to Bermuda in January 1942, and departed for Scapa Flow on 17 January. (Churchill returned by air).

On 1 March 1942 she provided close escort for convoy PQ 12 to Russia. The escort also included the King George V, Renown, the carrier Victorious and other cruisers and destroyers, in response to concerns that the battleship Tirpitz might attempt to intercept the convoy. On 6 March Tirpitz put to sea and was sighted by a British submarine around 19.40hrs; no contact was made, however, except for an unsuccessful torpedo attack by aircraft from Victorious.

Later that month, convoy PQ 14 was formed and Duke of York again formed part of the escort force. In early April, Duke of York, King George V and Victorious formed the core of a support group that patrolled between Iceland and Norway to cover several convoys to Russia. She continued these operations through May, when she was joined by the US battleship Washington. Westnutt left the ship on 25 August 1942.

Westnutt then served ashore for the remainder of his service; Drake, Duke, a training establishment for new stokers at Great Malvern (October 1942 to July 1944), and RAF Clyffe Pypard, an RAF training establishment in north Wiltshire (October 1944-March 1945). He was demobilised on 15 August 1945 and died in 1976 at Wellingborough.


Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£140

Starting price
£100