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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 254

A Post-War Singapore M.B.E. and remarkable Second World War 1944 North-West Europe 'Immediate' M.C. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel M. Evans, Royal Army Service Corps, late East Lancashire Regiment, who was shot in the stomach during a firefight

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, (M.B.E.) Military Division, 2nd Type Member's breast Badge, silver; Military Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated '1944', additionally engraved 'Lt. M. Evans, E. Lan. R.'; 1939-1945 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya (Capt. M. Evans. M.C. R.A.S.C.), small edge bruise to the last, otherwise good very fine (7)

M.B.E. London Gazette 10 June 1961:

'Major Evans has made an outstanding contribution to the furthering of good relations between the Fighting Services and the local population during 1960. This, in turn, has meant an outright contribution to the maintenance, and even improvement, of the British in Singapore.

He has worked up his activities with the utmost tact and ability to the point where his name is literally a by-word in Government, Social Welfare and Youth Movement Circles in Singapore.

His activities have entailed organising many Army activities with local authorities and the teeming youth of Singapore. This, he has done with untiring energy and skill through Community Centres, Cadets, Boy Scouts, Boys' Brigade and other Youth Organisations and Charitable Institutions.

He has organised and run Youth Leadership Courses for those selected by the People's Association; this has entailed living entirely with the Asian Students at an Island Camp off Singapore. These courses have been run on "Outward-bound" lines with such outstanding address that Major Evans has received personal recognition from the Prime Minister and other Ministers. Entirely due to this success, the Singapore Government will now adopt the methods as displayed.

The success of Major Evans has once again shown this astounding flexibility and versatility of the ordinary Regular Army Officer when he possesses personality and a really sound military education; a fact too easily taken for granted.

This Officer's example and enthusiasm has been an encouragement to all who have come into contact with his work.

M.C. London Gazette 21 December 1944. The recommedation states:

'On 19 Aug 1944, near Necy, Normandy, Lieut Evans's company was ordered to occupy all areas by night. Throughout the action that followed, Lieut Evans displayed leadership, determination and personal courage of a very high order. Fighting continued during the day in close and difficult country, during which his complete disregard of fire and his quick tactical decisions resulted in the capture of three German scout cars and the killing or capture of a number of the enemy. In the evening, he extricated an officer of his company who had been wounded on a patrol and was lying in a ditch under automatic fire. Lieut Evans brought two Bren guns into action on commanding ground and drove off the enemy, enabling the wounded officer to rejoin the Company.'

Maldwyn Evans was a resident of Southport, Lancashire who attended the King George V School. Prior to joining up he was in the Civil Service and had served with "C" Company of Southport Home Guard. He joined up in November 1942 and received an Emergency Commission on 22 October 1943.

Evans landed at Normandy on 29 June 1944 and saw action soon after:

'The first imitation that we were crossing a minefield occured when the F.O.O.s Carrier touched off amine, killing or wounding the F.O.O. and all his assistants plus four of the escorting rifle section. My stretcher bearers stopped to cope with this party but the Coy. moved on without a check up the hill and on to the objective. We cleared through some building and an orchard and emerged on the far side. Then we came under the most intense fire and all dropped. Some never to rise again and others, including myself, to crawl to cover. Observation then revealed four German Tiger Tanks standing off between 200 and 300 yards away and "browning" us with their heavy machine-guns for all they were worth. I doubled back about 50 yards and got behind a bank and commenced to take stock. At this moment Pte Walmsley, lying beside me, was killed instantly by an enemy machine-gun bullet.

Wyn Evans commanding the right forward platoon crawled forward to get better observation and called for his P.I.A.T. to be brought up.

A man (Pte Craig) started to bring it but was killed as the fire from the tanks intensified. Then both Wyn Evans and Joe Briscall, the other platoon Commander, crawled forward to administer morphia (which all offficers carried) to badly wounded men lying in the open. One N.C.O. Cpl. Heath, I think was killed by a fresh burst as Evans lying beside him was administering the dope. Harry Lythgoe at this moment was slightly chipped on the leg by a bullet, but made light of it.

The tanks then withdrew, and the enemy defensive fire, both shell and mortar, began to fall on our position. I now started to move around and reorganise and re-position my Coy. The wireless operator Pte. Stott announced that the 18 set was "off the air". This always happened in moments of crisis! My Batman, Pte. Cooper, had been wounded in the foot, so I sent another runner back through the minefield with a message to my temporary C.O. whilst L/Cpl Stapleton the Coy. Clerk and Pte.s Weir, Wigley and Nolan started to dig slit trenches for Coy. H.Q. at a speed surpassing anything ever achieved on training exercises. I was urgently in need of Stretcher Bearers. A/Tank Guns and Medium machine-guns but, of course, nothing could be sent forward until a lane had been cleared through the minefield. So we took under our wing some lost sheep of a disintegrated Coy. of the Warwicks and started to consolidate. We had quite lost touch with the Coy. on our left, and our right appeared to be "in the air". Some half-dozen prisoners were now sent in by the forward sections. They proved to be young thugs of the 2/26th Panzer-Grenadier Regt of the 12th S.S. Panzer Div (Hitler Jugend) but they seemed very chastened at this moment. The shell-fire now eased off and comparative peace reigned. Our casualties proved to be seven killed and fifteen wounded, some badly. This knocked a big hole in our Coy. fighting strength of some eighty-odd. C.S.M. Potts now volunteered to go back and try to guide our supporting weapons up to us, and disappeared into the gathering gloom. So we sat there in complete isolation feeling a bit lost and vaguely unhappy for about three hours. I sent a couple of patrols forward at intervals but failed to make contact. Then, about 21:00 hrs the lane through the minefield was completed and up poured all our requirements, except food! We eventually had support at 8 o'clock the next morning. There was now a suspicious lull on the front "D" Coy sent some prisoners back under escort to the Coy. Clerk L/Cpl Stapleton, and all platoons began to dig in. The tanks having done magnificent work, moved back to "forward rally", some guns of the A/Tank Pl under Sgt Roskell began to move up into position, and it was expected that the Lancashire Fusiliers would soon pass through for a fresh phase of the attack. But this plan was forestalled by the enemy who now intensified their fire along the whole front. Bullets began to come from the right flank and C.S.M. Potts of "D" Coy. was wounded. The situation on the right was obscure, although it transpired later that the Bn. of 49th Div. on the right ran into trouble actually on their start line, with the result that they made no progress at all and the right flank in consequence was nakedly exposed.

Four "Tiger" tanks now came into view some fifty yards from the half-dug positions of the two forward platoons of "D" Coy. They moved steadily forward shooting hard. The Coy. Commander called the C.O. on the set and said to Major Hinde: "We are being counter-attacked with tanks". A burst of fire from a tank then went through the 18 set and killed the operator, pte. Stott, leaving the Coy. Commander holding a dead mictophone. The latter joined the general dive for cover. A few moments later Lt. Evans Commanding 17 Pl. who saw this incident from nearby crawled out into the open to the 18 set, extracted the "Slidex" and other code lists and swallowed them, lest they should fall into enemy hands.

The A/Tank guns not really settled into their positions, were heavily shot up by the tanks at close range and failed to get a round off. In any case their 6pdr shells would probably have bounced like footballs off the Tigers' massive armour. German infantry followed the tanks and resumed their old trenches. A Tiger was then hit and set on fire by one of our "M.10" self-propelled guns of 198 Bty. located back near Bn. H.Q.. This caused the tanks to withdraw to the top of the rise where they covered their own infantry moving into position.'

Evans was interviewed by the Southport Visitor on his exploits in France as follows:

'I was walking along with a comrade when a German sniper started shooting at us from 200 yards in our rear, the first shot missed us, but the second went through my rifle strap and right through my boot and buried itself in the ground. I was told I could go back and be treated in England, but I preferred to stay where I was and get on with the job.

We had made an attack and captured a position in the Tilly sector. Shortly afterwards Jerry counterattacked with tanks, and we were overrun. I was with my Major's batman and we hid in a hole. German tanks continued to race around us, but luckily we were not spotted. Eventually I went back to sleep, and after four hours the batman awakened me, and we decided to try and get back to our lines. We crawled around for about 300 yards, we went through the enemy's lines and got back to our own lines.

Our Battalion counter-attacked the next day, and I visited the hole wehere I had hidden, and found it was only two feet deep. It was a miracle how I got in it.

Three Tiger tanks came to attack us, and my Company knocked out two of them, and the other bolted.'

The advance at this stage was very quick , and before long they were in Belgium. The Platoon was ordered to capture an airfield with a small town on its outskirts. They crossed the airfield, and entered the town without meeting any opposition:

'The Mayor of the town was so pleased to see us that he kissed me on my cheeks. At the end of the street we saw about a thousand Jerries. We opened fire on them, and they pulled out very quickly.

We were advancing near the Dutch border, and I marched my men through a minefield, but we came through without any mishap. God must have been leading us. Just as we had got to the other side we ran into four Germans. We halted them at ten yards, but they opened fire, and I was hit in the stomach. I walked about a hundred yards to a Company Headquarters, and was there three hours. An ambulance could not get through because of the minefield, so I was carried half a mile on a stretcher.'

He was operated on at a field dressing station, and returned to England. The 5th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment was disbanded in August 1944 and the Companies posted to other Battalions. Evans's Company went to the 2nd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment.

He transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps in May 1947 and served with them until 1957. He was a Staff Captain at the R.A.S.C. HQ in Aldershot in 1948 and was a Staff Captain (Q) in 1956. Retiring to Wales, he went into partnership with the business North Wales Greeting Card Company, based at Rhosllanerchrugog.




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Estimate
£3,000 to £4,000

Starting price
£2400