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Auction: 24003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 137

Sold by Order of the Recipient

The remarkable and historically fascinating campaign group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel D. Dunn, Durham Light Infantry, later Light Infantry, who is quite possibly the only soldier to have served in both the Korea and Falklands campaigns

Korea 1950-53 (2Lt D Dunn DLI), an official replacement marked 'R'; U.N. Korea 1950-54; General Service 1918-62, 3 clasps, Canal Zone, Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, with M.I.D. oak leaf (2Lt D Dunn DLI); General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (Maj D Dunn DLI); South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (Lt Col D Dunn LI); South Korea, Republic, Korea Veteran's Ambassador for Peace medal, first five mounted court-style as worn, good very fine (6)

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 July 1959.

David Dunn was born on 23 March 1950, the son of Arthur and Catherine Dunn. Attending the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 1 August 1952 and was very quickly posted to Korea. Joining the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry in 1953 he landed at Pusan, entrained for Seoul and was driven the rest of the way to the British lines.

Platoon Commander

His arrival was a matter of some consternation for Major Oscar Newman, the second-in-command of the Regiment, who had recently waved goodbye to an officer named Geoffrey Dunn. This led to David being known as 'Geoffrey' to his 2IC going forward, although his Company Commander was scrupulously careful to correctly call him 'David' as a result of this.

Despite this mixed arrival he was soon given command of his unit, 9 Platoon, 'C' Company; Dunn recalls his time in Korea in his own words:

'I joined 1 D.L.I. in 1953 mid-way through its tour. We landed by troopship in Pusan and were greeted by the Eighth United States Army in Korea (EUSAK) Band and got on the train (the 'EUSAK Flyer') going north. The train journey ended in Seoul and we were collected by a D.L.I. vehicle for the rest of the journey. At the 'B' Echelon of 1 D.L.I. I was greeted by Noel Hodgson with cries of: "get to the front boy, it's a gong hunter's paradise!"; a reference to a recently issued list of gallantry awards. Next day I went up to Battalion H.Q. in the line and while sitting in the rudimentary officers' mess heard the Mess Sergeant going ballistic over the telephone. I assumed that a Chinese assault was under way and that my stay would be short. In the end it turned out that the cause for concern was the failure of the Echelon to send up the silver skin onions for Oscar Norman's gin! Oscar was Second in Command (2IC) and a patrician figure who greeted me with the news that he would call me "Geoffrey" as a NS [National Service] officer called Geoffrey Dunn had recently left the battalion and Oscar could not be bothered to learn a new name (he had done the same to Peter de la Billiere; as there were already five Peters in the Battalion, he asked the newly joined Second Lieutenant for his middle name. On learning that it was Edgar, he announced that "Eddie de la Billiere' would be his name henceforward. The DLI alone called him Eddie for the rest of his service except for the soldiers who referred to him as "Mr Smith"). I went forward and took over 9 Platoon in 'C' Company under command of Major Guy Griffiths, a Shropshire Light Infantryman. Guy derided Oscar's decision and called me David; that pleased me and I was never called Geoffrey again. The platoon was full strength, mostly Geordies but with some KATCOMS (Koreans attached to the Commonwealth Division). It was a baptism by fire in its most literal sense: my only experience as a Platoon Commander had been three months in 2 D.L.I. with eight men, all of whom had other day jobs as batmen, learning to drive, on guard or coming off guard.
My Platoon Sergeant in 1 D.L.I. was Sergeant Ryder, of the Yorkshire Light Infantry, who resented me. I was 21 years old while he had WWII and six months Korean experience. He had been in command for the previous month after my predecessor had left and he felt that he did not need me. I realised later that on my first patrol he had assigned to me a group of soldiers that he felt were expendable - all of us! I like to think that I gradually earned his respect or at least a grudging regard that I was a quick learner.
From our forward trenches we could see the searchlight shining straight into the sky that denoted that the armistice talks at Panmunjom were in progress. About eight weeks later they achieved success but not before I had done my share of patrols to help dominate the valley floor and 'C' Company had been called on to provide support for an Australian battalion on the HOOK feature that was under threat from a Chinese assault.
We were shelled each day by the Chinese artillery who tried to hit all known forward positions during the day. As they used a timetable that was as predictable as the tide, it was fairly easy to take shelter as shells fell on an adjacent position, but it was an unpleasant experience.
It was of interest that in the 24 hours between the announcement of a ceasefire and its implementation, at midnight there was a phenomenal exchange of fire between the Chinese and the R.O.K. and U.S. forces (the U.S.A.F. were dropping napalm on Chinese positions up to 4.00pm) but not one shell fell on the Commonwealth Division. Once a ceasefire was agreed at Panmunjom, we pulled back from the existing front line and created a new defence position along the heights over the Imjin River. On our last day before moving south, I was given a working party to search the valley below the Point 355 feature for the remains of Lieutenant Edmund Lyons Willoughby Ratcliffe and his signaller who had been lost, believed killed on patrol. I could not find him but 50 years later I attended Eton College chapel where a memorial plaque in his memory was unveiled. I might add here that although a ceasefire was agreed in July 1953 no peace treaty has ever been signed and the talks at Panmunjom are still in session.
1 D.L.I. took the Korean Communications Zone train (KCOMZ Comet) to Pusan in anticipation of the troopship to Egypt. On a high spirited evening in the Mess my eyeball was skimmed by a cardboard Frisbee and I was admitted to the U.S. Army hospital in Pusan. American hospitals do not have Officers wards and patients are segregated by their condition. I was in a ward of Cyclops with black orderlies. I listened to the memorial service being held at the U.N. Cemetery in Pusan, for our casualties buried there, over the hospital radio and heard the unsolicited praise for the D.L.I. buglers from the American staff. When Peter Jeffreys, the C.O., visited, I pleaded to be allowed to return with the Battalion. He agreed and forced the hospital staff to release me even if it involved being taken to the troopship by ambulance.
I got my revenge on Sergeant Ryder, although it was not deliberate or planned. While with 2 D.L.I. Stephen Thorpe-Tracey had sold me his golf clubs as he was short of cash. The deal was that I would buy his clubs and he would teach me to play. Within a week of completing the deal, Stephen was posted to the Depot in Durham and I was posted to 1 D.L.I. in Korea. I insured the clubs for twice the price paid and tied one luggage label on the case, marked it to "1 DLI Rear Party", and sent the clubs with my baggage from Liverpool. They were transhipped in Hong Kong when we changed troopship and went on to Kure in Japan as I got off in Pusan. Nobody stole them, the label did not come off, and they eventually joined the battalion heavy baggage in Pusan. As I was absent in hospital, Sergeant Ryder was required to carry them up the gangway onto the ship with them on one shoulder and his rifle on the other. The reception that he received from the soldiers lining the rails was toe curling and he never forgave me and was pleased that he was due to stay on the ship when it reached Egypt and go on to rejoin his own regiment.
Had I not joined my unit, I would have gone from the hospital in Korea to Japan and, as an individual, would have been a low priority for a passage to Egypt. I often wonder what a difference to my life it would have made if I had not insisted on being with 'my men' and gone to the fleshpots of Japan. The voyage to Egypt was interesting. On board with us were all the U.K. P.O.W's who had been released as the ceasefire was signed. Principle among them was the 'Glorious Glosters' with Colonel Carne V.C., their C.O., and Tony Farrar-Hockley, their Adjutant. The latter was the only one of their officers to show any interest in the men. I achieved the unenviable and unwanted distinction of being the first officer to put ex-P.O.W's back into close arrest (they had been undisciplined during ships rounds). We also had on board 17 soldiers who were believed to have been collaborators with their North Korean captors: for fear of reprisal they had to live on deck, and were guarded by 17 military policemen. Even then the risk to their safety was such that the Captain demanded that they be put ashore in Hong Kong. The Geordies misbehaved in Hong Kong in a 'letting off steam' way and, on reaching Singapore, we were told to organise patrols in the brothels of Lavender Street and the Mountbatten Soldiers Club to get the troops back to the ship. David Roper-Lowe and I were nominated as patrol leaders and tossed for the sector. I lost and had to help clear the Club!'

The Canal Zone and Aden

Arriving in Egypt they were posted to Fanara in the Canal Zone in October 1953. As they prepared to return to Britain a call arrived from Brigadier Lister commanding the Aden Protectorate Levies asking for help in an operation against Yemeni insurgents. Dunn was placed in command of the Mortar Platoon, which was sent out along with a Company-sized formation commanded by Major David Fenner and consequently named 'Fenner Force'.

They arrived in Aden in January 1957 with Dunn's mortar platoon, the M.M.G. platoon and two L6 (Wombat) anti-tank guns arriving at Behan by air. They were swiftly under fire - being shot at most nights - and eventually a unit of the Aden Protectorate Levies was assembled to attack a fort occupied by Yemeni troops. Dunn takes up the story:

'We advanced as infantry to cover the deployment of the Wombats. Once in range and so far unopposed, we loosed off several anti tank shells. These knocked corners off the fort but did not damage it materially. This was followed up by an airstrike by Meteors from RAF Khormaksar on the fort with not much more effect on the masonry. There was no response from inside the fort although we did intercept some Yemenis moving towards the fort and deterred them with mortar fire.'

Unfortunately it soon became clear that the fort had been targeted incorrectly and the British had attacked a Yemeni fort within Yemen. Not long afterwards the bulk of 'Fenner Force' was recalled - but as Dunn prepared to leave Brigadier Lister again requested support. The support elements of the Durhams were sent to aid them, with Dunn being given command of the Aden Protectorate mortars.

They advanced upon another fort with tribesmen taking pot shots at them during the advance. At this time the range-finder for the Wombats was wounded in the shoulder, making him their only casualty of the Operation. After two operations Dunn took the remainder of the D.L.I. back to Britain.

Cyprus

The unit was deployed again to Cyprus with the Support Company, including the mortar platoon, being specifically stationed in one area and called upon to conduct operations as needed. Dunn provides truly detailed and personal account of the campaign here:

'I was the only regular full Lieutenant in the battalion in command of a platoon. My Mortar Platoon was part of Support Company and while the rifle companies had each been given a geographical area of responsibility, Support Company was the battalion reserve and thus called on to conduct specific operations. Five in particular come to mind. On the road north from St Barbara's Camp a pipe bomb had been exploded and I was tasked on the follow-up which involved a cordon & search. During the search, I uncovered a well hidden series of school notebooks that looked like diaries. I passed them to our civilian Greek speaking intelligence officer and in translating them he discovered the network for importing small arms and pistols through the port of Paphos. It was quite a coup, several arrests followed, some weapons were seized and a supply chain was uncovered and closed.
The second operations was an attempt to bring the EOKA gunmen to battle. A heavily armoured 3 ton truck using flexible bullet-proof material inside the canopy was filled with my heavily armed platoon and driven down vulnerable roads in the hope that an ambush would be attempted. We repeated the exercise five or six times but no reaction occurred. However it was a nerve wracking business as the protection provided for the driver and me in the cab was of a lower order than in the rear.
The third operation was an attempt to catch arsonists and slogan writers who were vandalising empty properties. We entered an empty house in the dark and sat for 72 hours wating, ready to shoot intruders, but nobody came. The operation was ended with a very noisy cordon & search operation so that we would be in no doubt that they were friendly forces outside and not shoot them and so that we could be extricated without our original occupation being noticed.
Fourth, was a cordon & search operation with an unhappy ending. An informer had told the Special Branch that a wanted terrorist was at a house in a village on the road from Ktima to Coral Bay and was always considered a dangerous place. A cordon was set up in a large area around the house. My platoon took over at dawn and searched the house. We found a hiding place under the tile floor but it was unoccupied and come mid-day, I requested permission to tighten the cordon. Permission was given but as I pulled the troops nearer to the target property someone ran from the cover of an outhouse, now outside the cordon, and disappeared into the village. I gave chase but to no avail and the wanted man's girlfriend, later christened as "Kisonerga Kate" had a smile on her face. She had sat on the veranda of the house and was obviously his warning system.
The fifth operation was a stake out at a suspected terrorist base. We surround the isolated farm in the dark and waited for signs of movement which if nothing else, were in violation of a curfew. Some movement occurred and I gave the order to open fire. The only casualty was a pig!'
In addition to specific operations there were tasks like occupying minority Turkish Cypriot villages to prevent attack from the Greek Cypriot villages. Not only attacks on the village itself but on donkey convoys to market and interdiction of the communal water supply to stop any getting to the Turks. Peter Arnot and I conducted a long range patrol into the Akamas peninsula (close to Aphrodite's well) where air reconnaissance showed possible terrorist hides. There were few tracks in the area and if it had been an EOKA base, it would have to have been a final refuge rather than an operating base. We could not find any trace of recent occupation. EOKA had the support of the Greek Cypriot population and had no shortage of hiding places in populated areas. They had no need to hide in the bush.
In August 1958, I was promoted to Captain and appointed Operations Officer for 1 D.L.I. It was my first employment as a staff officer and was an enjoyable and rewarding experience. It involved liaison with the District Commissioner, the Cypriot Police (mainly Turks) and the Special Branch. At some time later the London/Zurich agreement was signed and operations became very low key and being at the centre of communications, I acquired all sorts of odd jobs from Messing Officer, Entertainments Officer, Wines Member, Postal Officer, Unit Press Officer, Sub-Editor of regimental magazine etc, etc. I was later Mentioned in Dispatches for "gallant and distinguished service" during the emergency. My tour ended as it had begun on the Advance Party to the next posting this time in Honiton, Devon in April 1959.'

Ireland

Promoted Major on 1 August 1965 into the newly-formed Light Infantry, Dunn was not to see operational service again until July 1972 when, as 2-I-C of 1 Light Infantry, he was posted to Belfast. They were part of the British forces assembled for Operation Motorman, an intense series of clashes which was intended to eliminate the 'no-go areas'. The result of this Operation was five men of the Regiment dead and a poisonous atmosphere in Belfast. The men of the Regiment found themselves regularly under sniper fire and the subject of a great deal of abuse. Dunn recalls:

'It was another 13 years (a marriage and four children later) before I was involved in operations again. It was July 1972 when as a Major and 2IC of 1 L.I. that I found myself in Belfast. It was exactly a year since the battalion had been in the same area although I had not been with them. The situation had deteriorated in that year and the shooting war by the IRA was now at its height. We were responsible for the Ardoyne (Republican) and Old Park (Mixed) areas plus Ligoniel (isolated) and our HQ was in the Shankill (Unionist) district. In August the situation had become so bad that William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State, decided that the Republican "No-Go Areas" had to be eliminated. He built up the troop levels and introduced armoured personnel carriers in such haste that they were still painted in desert livery. 1 L.I. were concentrated into Flax Street Mill in the Ardoyne and supplemented with a company of Para. Royal Marines (RM) took over Old Park. Codenamed "Operation Motorman" it was an intense and rapid operation, barricades were removed under fire, hostile areas were patrolled as a matter of principle and IRA ringleaders were sought and captured. We lost five soldiers which was sad in itself. Even sadder was the fact that we killed two of them ourselves. First of those was an accidental discharge in an empty house that went through an inside wall and hit a soldier resting in the next room. He died from his wounds a week later having given up the will to live. The second was a mistaken identity when one of our patrols was fired on by a RM sniper from Old Park, killing one member. He had married a Roman Catholic girl from Downpatrick, near to 1 L.I. base at Ballykinlar, long before the troubles. She confided to my wife back in Lemgo that distraught as she was at his death, at least he had not been killed by 'her people'. Third death was Private Rudman. His death was a double tragedy; his brother had been killed with 2 L.I. during an earlier tour and his death came from a freak accident. An IRA bullet hit him in the shoulder but instead of passing on it ricocheted inside his armoured vest and into his chest. Without a vest he might have survived. The third Rudman brother was immediately withdrawn and his records marked to indicate that he should never go back to the Province. A unit driver was shot while driving his Company Commander to the Victoria Hospital to visit a wounded soldier. The hospital was in a Republican area and a sniper had occupied a house at a 'T' junction where vehicles had to stop. The fifth was one of several R.C.T. soldiers attached to us for infantry duties. Following 'Op Motorman' the situation was still tense and the inter-communal atmosphere was poisonous. I had to take a force of over sixty soldiers each afternoon during term time to the Ardoyne shop fronts where children from the two Roman Catholic schools met children from the two Protestant schools on their way home. Parents of each group were there too, to shout abuse at each other and ensure that their children were not forced by the military or police to use routes that might be safer, but were not those that had been used for years past. As a predictable operation, the IRA saw it as an easy target and tried sniping on many occasions. Our task was not only to prevent civil disorder but protect ourselves from becoming IRA victims. Escorting Protestant (Tartan) bands, observing IRA funerals, preventing riots, keeping unruly children in check, patrolling with RUC policemen and responding to bomb notifications were all part of a day's work. When not out on the streets I spent time in the Operations Room to make command decisions on events as they happened and keep the C.O. abreast of affairs. He was busy on the ground visiting the soldiers, attending meetings convened by 39 Brigade H.Q., liaison with local R.U.C. and adjacent units. It was an operation "in aid of the civil power" and ostensibly the police had the lead. We had an Intelligence Corps Warrant Officer attached to the battalion. He was on a two year posting and as well as his links to the police Special Branch, he was an institutional memory on our patch. His information allowed us to set up operations that resulted in the capture of at least three IRA leaders. Like Reggie Maudling, a previous Home Secretary, I was happy to see Belfast below and behind me as I flew back to B.A.O.R. from the Province in mid November 1972.'

The Falklands

Undoubtedly, Dunn's most unusual and varied role of his long military career came with his deployment to the Falkland Islands for the campaign - 30 years since he had first donned uniform as a subaltern in Korea. By now, he was Staff Officer Grade II (Public Relations) with the South East District, Aldershot, and takes up the story:

'As the SO2 PR at H.Q. South East District in Aldershot my job description included the innocuous phrase: "to accompany 5 Brigade on training and operations overseas". In my involvement with the B.B.C. 'Para' programme I had accompanied 5 Brigade on its training exercises but in April 1982 the events in the South Atlantic took front stage. Argentina occupied South Georgia and then invaded the Falkland Islands.
The British Government assembled a Task Force and it set sail for the South Atlantic. The land element was 3 Commando Brigade RM. It was reinforced by two battalions (2 & 3 Para) taken from 5 Brigade which left them with just the Gurkha battalion and an artillery regiment. The Task Force was predominantly Naval and Navy PR took the lead in press coverage. Many Fleet Street editors did not believe the M.O.D. when told to be patient and wait for their reporters to be flown to Ascension Island later and join the Task Force there. They insisted on joining then and there so some were given berths on H.M.S. Illustrious as she sailed from Portsmouth. They re-emerge later in my story. 2 Para sailed on the North Sea Ferry 'Norland' from Hull but the bulk of 3 Brigade were to sail on the luxury liner S.S. 'Canberra' from Southampton. Navy PR then took a back seat and I was given the task of providing the Press facility at the port. Canberra was due to sail on Maundy Thursday 1982 but mechanical trouble delayed the sailing and I had to return to Southampton on Good Friday and cope with the media again. A second wave of reporters and cameramen were allocated space on Canberra and this satisfied the media's demands.
Canberra sailed at 8.00pm on Good Friday and I went home. A battalion of Welsh Guards and one of Scots Guards were allocated to replace the two Para battalions taken from 5 Brigade. To give Brigadier Tony Wilson a chance to mould his newly-formed 5 Brigade they went on an exercise at Sennybridge in Wales and I accompanied them. The training had a secondary aim which was to convince General Galtieri that the U.K. was serious and had further forces ready to come and dislodge his troops from the islands. I organized a press facility to allow the world's media to support this secondary aim and when that was over Julia joined me for a short break in Wales. While in Aberystwyth I heard a pub landlord tell a customer that "they've requisitioned the Q.E.II for the Gurkhas". I immediately telephoned my office and was told to return and ready myself to join 5 Brigade for the journey south. I sailed on the Q.E.II on 13th May 1982. By coincidence Julia and Captain Jack's son's wife were together on a quilting bee so I persuaded the SOLDIER magazine photographer to record our sailing. Captain Johnson was conscious that the P&O ship Canberra had had to delay its sailing and he was determined that his Cunard ship should leave on time. At 4.00pm he sounded the hooter and we pulled away. We sailed into the mist at Spithead and stopped! Under cover of the mist then darkness repairs were made out of sight and by dawn we were on our way. The Gurkhas from landlocked Nepal were marvellous. They spent every free moment practising their boat drills even to the extent of blindfolding each other and crawling on their hands and knees from their cabins to their boat station in case they had to do it in the dark in smoke. I toyed with ideas that the bluff might work, the fact that more forces were on their way might bring Galtieri to the peace table and we would simply circle Ascension Island and come home. In the event we did circle Ascension while a helicopter brought Major General Moore and his staff out to the ship then we set off for South Georgia. The bluff had not worked.

As we approached South Georgia, General Moore and Brigadier Tony Wilson with skeleton staffs left the Q.E.II on to H.M.S. Antrim destined for San Carlos. Mrs. Thatcher was not prepared to risk the Q.E.II so in South Georgia, the Gurkhas transferred to the Norland and the rest of 5 Brigade transferred to the Canberra and we set off for San Carlos Sound on East Falkland. I recall being in my cabin in a luxury liner listening to the Derby on the radio then putting on my equipment, exiting through a hole in the side of the ship into a landing craft and making for the jetty. I arrived on terra-firma and was told to dig in for fear of air attack. Having neither shovel nor inclination to dig, I evicted a dead sheep from a small depression and laid out my sleeping bag. As I lay under the stars in my makeshift hole and a gentle drizzle fell on my face I thought: "What on earth am I doing here?"
Next evening Major Mike Forge, the signal squadron commander said to me casually: "This must be your second or third campaign". I told him that it was my fifth, which impressed him and he gave me a camp bed. The following afternoon I was joined by Brian Barton, an M.O.D. civilian PRO and ten journalists. These were the men that their editors had insisted on getting on the first ships. They were very cross and very frustrated. They had sat on H.M.S. Illustrious at sea while the invasion took place and they had missed it all. The I.T.V. reporter, Jeremy Hands, who had sailed with the Canberra, had been there for the landings but he and his cameraman had jumped into neck deep water and their camera never worked again.
The group that joined me included Brian Hanrahan of the B.B.C. with his cameraman and sound recordist. Also there was Michael Nicholson from I.T.V. who was supposed to share the B.B.C. camera on a pool basis but they never helped him. The newspaper reporters were from The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sun, The Mirror and The Star and one photographer from the Associated Press. Paul Haley, the photographer from SOLDIER magazine, had been with me from Southampton. The journalists had to pass their copy to me before it could be transmitted over the communications controlled by the Task Force. This amounted to a sort of censorship which they resented and they also hated having to send pool reports. It denied them a by-line and denied their paper an "exclusive coup". Brian Hanrahan and Michael Nicholson both had tape recorders and could compile verbal reports. These too had to be vetted by me before I gave them to a passing helicopter pilot to take to a ship in the Sound when they went for refuelling. These were transmitted to both the M.O.D. and B.B.C. Bush House simultaneously and the M.O.D. would confirm what could be used. Brian did add a Post Script to one of his reports asking the B.B.C. to contact Julia and say that "David is well and sends all the usual messages". Once Julia had recovered from the shock of a phone call from a total stranger asking her to confirm her identity, she was pleased with the news.

I took the party, in the one Chinook that had survived the sinking of the Atlantic Conveyor, from San Carlos to Darwin/Goose Green where Brook Hardcastle the Manager accommodated us in his attic. We watched the burial of the Argentine soldiers killed in the battle and learned of the loss of Major Mike Forge, the Signal Squadron Commander. After Tony Wilson had commandeered the Chinook (that was supposed to be taking prisoners to Ajax Bay) and made the great leap forward to Fitzroy and Bluff Cove, I and the press party followed to Fitzroy and set up shop in one of the sheep shearing sheds. The day that the Argentine Air Force hit the logistic ships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram in Port Pleasant off Fitzroy (Not Bluff Cove as the media would have it) and this was the most dramatic episode not only in combat terms but also in PR terms. It was the only action in the ground war to occur in daylight and thus be photographed. The shots of the Galahad on fire, the helicopters rescuing men from the ship, the lifeboats bringing survivors ashore are all repeated by TV stations every time that the Falklands War is mentioned. Bernard Hesketh the B.B.C. cameraman was busy at work but I had to physically defend him from hostile abuse and intimidation. It was an emotional moment, the casualties coming ashore looked quite awful, men with burns, men in shock, clothing torn or burned off them and in the background black smoke, increasing flames and muffled explosions coming from the ships. Being alongside Bernard I have my hand in one shot pulling a rope to bring a boat ashore. I was adamant that this was history and needed to be recorded, the distress and disgust of those involved was understandable but had to be ignored. Mick Seamark of the Daily Star (later Michael Seamark of the Daily Mail) had asked to go to Bluff Cove and I got him a lift on a landing craft going there via the Galahad. He was alongside when the strike came and the craft returned to Fitzroy. He returned with it and was a shaken man. He immediately wrote an 'I was there' piece and gave it to me to vet. It was so full of absolute adjectives that I was moved to ask him to moderate it not only on moral grounds but because it left him nothing to say should we lose! (On his return to U.K. he did write a piece on 'the story that they would not let me tell'.)

The second dramatic occasion was after the 5 Brigade attack towards Stanley which precipitated the Argentine surrender. I had to tell Brian Hanrahan that General Moore had acceded to Gen Menendez request that no photographers should be present at the surrender ceremony. I well remember standing in a field with snow being driven into one ear by a fierce wind while abuse from Hanrahan poured into the other ear. My plea not to shoot the messenger because you did not like the message was wasted on him.
Once the campaign was over the journalists made all speed for the comfort of the Upland Goose Hotel. I remained in Fitzroy for a few days then moved into a billet in Stanley. It was the home of Sidney & Betty Miller who were hospitality itself, refusing to accept our rations but fed us on the contents of the freezer: upland geese, lamb joints, salmon steaks and poultry. Mrs. Miller used to run the Falkland Islands Knitting Shop, selling the products of home industries from her front room as her shop had been taken over by the occupying forces both Argentine and U.K. She had three sons, one was at sea, one ran the farm at San Carlos (where 3 Para had landed) and the third ran a farm on West Falkland that had been occupied by Argentinean troops and an R.A.F. Harrier aircraft had raided it. Some shrapnel from that raid had blinded Tim Miller and once the campaign was over he was brought to Stanley and evacuated to the U.K. One Sunday a young R.A.F. officer came to the Miller's house and asked to see some knitting souvenirs. After a few minutes the officer admitted that he had not really come to purchase knitting but to confess that he had been the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the bomb that had blinded her son. Mrs. Miller put her hand on his shoulder and in a split second said: "I forgive you". It was an emotional moment and compounded as a story in that son Tim married the nurse who cared for him in England and the pilot was Best Man at their wedding. (Tim returned to the Islands and now grows vegetables for visiting cruise liners and fishing ships).
Brigadier David Ramsbotham, the Director of PR (DPR) in the Army, visited with some of his staff and a few journalists. Ostensibly it was to relieve the PR staff who had been on the campaign but in reality he was an emissary from the Chief of the General Staff (they were both ex-Green Jackets) to get Tony Wilson's side of the story. General Moore and Tony Wilson had not got on well (and he received no award after the campaign) and it is my personal belief that Gen. Moore did not make any decision during the campaign that was not already a fait acompli because of the actions of his Brigadiers. At a dinner in the Malvenas Hotel, Geoffrey Levy (at that time principle features writer of the Daily Express but now with the Daily Mail) who came with DPR, said to me "David, I have not known you for long but I get the impression that you are no different now at the end of the campaign than you were at the beginning". I replied that this was possibly true but asked why he had made the remark. He said that having met the journalists (not the T.V. people) in the Upland Goose Hotel they were all changed. They were nervous, shell shocked, had either got religion or were homesick, felt that they had been badly treated and were lucky to be alive! As I was the oldest soldier on the campaign and under Special List rules should not have been there anyway, I took it as a compliment. One of my charges from embarking on Q.E.II up to my departure was to look after Linda Kitson, the Imperial War Museum official war artist. She was related to General Frank Kitson but I realised that she did not know him well when she described what everyone else knew as a curmudgeonly misogynist as a "Sweetie". In her book of campaign sketches she gives a dedication: "to David Dunn for care and education". I flew back in a Hercules aircraft that took 13 hours to reach Ascension Island where we transferred to a VC10 for the flight back to Brize Norton and the "yellow ribbons" of home.

Postscript

It is firmly believed that Dunn was the oldest member of the British Army to actually see service, on land, during the Falklands campaign and, as such, his medal group is unique. He finally retired on 29 March 1985 after no less than 35 years in uniform, having travelled and experienced more than many men of his generation. As a point of interest, it should be noted that the South Atlantic Medal and Rosette awarded to Paul Haley of SOLDIER magazine (whom Dunn references above) was sold in these Rooms in January 2024 (together with a comprehensive archive) for £6,500.

Sold together with London Gazette extracts and two recent booklets produced by the Dunn family as well as an original M.I.D. certificate.

For the Medals of his father, Commissioned Engineer A. Dunn, see Lot 147. Our sincere thanks must go to Lt-Col. (Retd.) David Dunn and his family for providing the information cited above.

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Sold for
£7,000

Starting price
£2400

Sale 24003 Notices
The naming on the General Service Medal 1962-2007 with a clasp for Northern Ireland is named to 'Maj D Dunn LI', rather than 'DLI'.