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Auction: 23111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 920

An Immediate 1945 M.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant P. A. Hands, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry attached 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who was killed in action around Nijmegen on 24 March 1945

Military Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated '1945'; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their box of issue named to 'A. J. Hands Esq. "Les Arbres", Daws Hill Lane, High Wycombe, Bucks' and with the Army Council Condolence slip, confirming '3' awards and in the name of 'Lieutenant P. A. Hands, M.C.,', good very fine (4)

M.C. London Gazette 22 March 1945. The original recommendation - for this immediate award - states:

'On the advance to Vught from the Hal bridgehead over the River Halsch on the 25th October 1944 this Officer was Commanding the leading Platoon of the Company detail to go forward as advance guard. As the Platoon debouched from the forward carrier screen of the Battalion holding the bridgehead it almost immediately ran into a strong enemy force which had started to launch a counter-attack against the bridgehead. The enemy force included self-propelled Anti-Tank guns and within a few minutes the two leading tanks and 6 carriers of the carrier screen referred to above had been knocked out and the situation became extremely difficult and confused. Lieutenant Hands appreciated that it was vital the rest of his Battalion, which was some distance behind, could be brought forward and under extremely heavy fire and although wounded in the arm at the very start of the encounter he led his Platoon forward into a suitable position to deal with the enemy attack. Conditions in the area in which the Platoon was and in which it continued to fight for some time were exceptionally unpleasant as, in addition to intense small arms and mortar fire which caused heavy casualties in Lieutenant Hands' Platoon the tanks and carriers which have been knocked out all went on fire blocking the road behind the Platoon and separating it from the rest of the Company.

An extremely high degree of leadership was required and shown by Lieutenant Hands in order to prevent such a situation deteriorating. Lieutenant Hands' Platoon successfully prevented the enbemy from deploying off the road and outflanking his position are they attempted to do, and as a result of his skillful and courageous leadership, the enemy attack was later completely broken up and the advance to Vught was continued.

The situation with which Lieutenant Hands was confronted and which he handled so successfully was a most difficult one and might have had extremely serious consequences had it not been for his bold and determined leadership and the splendid example which he set to the men under his command.'

Peter Albert Hands was born in 1924 and was educated at High Wycombe Grammar, where he was Captain of the rugby XV. In October 1942 he volunteered for the Coldstream Guards and by 6 November 1943, was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Serving in the actions around Caen, he was thence attached to the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. A newspaper report from the time also states he was lucky to escape an action in which a German soldier infiltrated his Section and fired on him from point-blank range and missed, later that day also came out from having been '...hit by three Spandau bullets. One glanced off his Sten gun, the other burrowed through his pack and a third came across his tunic and grazed his tie. On another occasion, a piece of shrapnel sliced the toorie from his beret.'

His luck was sadly to run out, for Hands was killed in action on 24 March 1945 and rests in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery; sold together with two original photographs and newspaper cuttings.

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Sold for
£1,600

Starting price
£1300