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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 202

Pair: Marine Engineer Artificer First Class J. B. F. Avery, Royal Navy

South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (MEA1(P) J B F Avery D063340X HMS Fearless); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (D063340X J B F Avery MEA1(P) HMS Nelson), mounted as worn, very fine (2)

H.M.S. Fearless sailed from Portsmouth on 6 April 1982, she was a 12,000 ton landing platform dock which was the first purpose-built ship of her kind in the Royal Navy. She was built by Harland and Wolff at Belfast and commissioned in late 1965, she had an internal dock which was accessed through a stern door, vehicles could be loaded by ramps to the vehicle deck in port while landing craft could be guided in at sea. Along with her sister ship Intrepid the ships could partially submerge and flood their docks to allow access by small vessels.

Fearless had a relatively spacious flight deck which made her an ideal HQ ship to host the staff of both Commodore M. Clapp (Commodore Amphibious Warfare) and the Commanding Officer of 3 Commando Brigade and head of the Landing Forces Task Group Brigadier Julian Thompson as well as an element of the designated landing forces of Operation Corporate.

The assault ship was the venue for a strategy meeting including Task Force commander Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward at Ascension Island on 16 April 1982 before the Carrier Battle Group pressed on south, leaving the amphibious group to carry out training amongst other important tasks for the forthcoming landings.

Fearless and the rest of the Amphibious Group left Ascension on 7 May 1982, joining the carriers of the Task Group off the Falklands around 11 days later. She was quickly in the thick of the action in San Carlos Water, successfully landing her embarked forces on 21 May 1982 and subsequently involved in tasks such as ferrying the Welsh Guards around the coast.

One of her landing craft, LCU F4, was lost to Argentine bombers while on a dangerous mission, transferring Army vehicles from Goose Green to Fitzroy, killing six of her crew.

F4's coxswain C.Sgt B. Johnston was one of the victims and just two weeks earlier he had won the Queen's Gallantry Medal for taking his vessel alongside the stricken frigate Antelope and rescuing more than 100 sailors, despite raging fires and an unexploded bomb on the warship. The surrender of the Argentine forces took place on 14 June 1982 and Fearless returned to the U.K. approximately a week and a half later. She was eventually decommissioned in 2002 and broken up in Ghent in 2007; sold with various information about the warship.

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Estimate
£500 to £700

Starting price
£400