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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 55

The Naval General Service Medal awarded to Gunner H. Brooks, Royal Navy, who was present in the destroyer H.M.S. Opportune when she delivered a telling close-range torpedo strike against the mighty Scharnhorst at the battle of North Cape in December 1943

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (JX. 131328 H. Brooks, L.S., R.N.), good very fine

Harry Brooks was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 3 July 1911 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1928.

Having then seen active service off Palestine, he was employed as a Petty Officer in the cruiser H.M.S. Enterprise on the outbreak of hostilities. Then in December 1941, he was commissioned as a Gunner, R.N., in consequence of which he did not qualify for the L.S. & G.C. Medal.

His subsequent wartime service included the destroyer Walker in the period June 1942-February 1943, when she was employed as a convoy escort in the Western Approaches, and the destroyer Opportune in the period April 1943-January 1945.

The latter appointment was of an action-packed nature, witnessing as it did her part in the destruction of two U-boats and much challenging work on the Arctic run.

But it was his ship's close encounter with the Scharnhorst in December 1943 that was probably the most memorable. On that famous occasion, as part of Force 1, under the command of Vice-Admiral R.L. Burnett, C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E., Opportune and her consorts, Musketeer, Matchless and Virago, were ordered to close and finish off the enemy battleship. Opportune, under Commander John Lee-Barber, D.S.O., fired two salvoes of four torpedoes each at a range of 2000-2500 yards, and claimed two hits.

Opportune went on to witness the disastrous D-Day rehearsal off Slapton Sands, when, under her new captain, Commander Robert Ryder, V.C., of St. Nazaire fame, she engaged the offending E-Boats. The services of 'Gunner, R.N.' Harry Brooks were no doubt much in demand on that and subsequent occasions - for Opportune fought further anti-E-boats actions off Normandy in July and August 1944.

His final wartime appointment was in another destroyer - the Chaplet - which he joined in July 1945. He died at St. Anne's on the Sea in Lancashire in August 1981.


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Sold for
£230

Starting price
£100