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Auction: 23112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 802

The Efficiency Medal awarded to Private J. Rowe, Border Regiment, who was wounded in France in 1940, likely in the critical 'V.C. action' fought on the banks of the Bergues-Furnes Canal on 31 May-1 June

Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial (3597001 Pte. J. Rowe, Bord. R.), good very fine

J. Rowe was a member of the 5th Battalion, Border Regiment and was wounded in France in 1940; WO 417/12, refers.

The Battalion, a component of 126th Brigade, 42nd East Lancashire Infantry Division, was embarked for France in April 1940, where it established its H.Q. in Fort Lobau at Bondues, near Lille.

But with the rapid advance of the Germans in the following month, Rowe and his comrades took up new defensive positions on both sides of the River Escaut at Tournai.

The town was heavily bombed on the 16 May and, by the 21st, the Battalion was being subjected to heavy artillery attacks, so much so that it withdrew to new positions in Cysoing, south-east of Lille. Having then repelled a determined German attack on the 24th, the Battalion commenced its gradual withdrawal to the Dunkirk perimeter, arriving at Rousbrugge-Harenge on the 28th, where, in imminent danger of being cut off, orders were given to abandon all major equipment.

Subsequently deployed to the defence of the Dunkirk perimeter, the 5th Borders suffered serious casualties on the last day of May and first day of June, particularly in 'A' and 'C' Companies.

On the former date, they had been ordered into the front line on the left flank of the 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, to prevent the Germans crossing the Bergues-Furnes Canal. It was to prove a desperate and costly enterprise, perhaps best summed-up by the award of the Victoria Cross (V.C.) to Captain Ervine-Andrews of the 1st East Lancashires.

Here, then, a likely action in which Rowe received his wounds. But he was not taken prisoner of war and must have been successfully evacuated on the 1st or 2nd of June, when surviving members of the 5th Borders were embarked from the mole at Dunkirk.

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Sold for
£130

Starting price
£60