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Auction: 6017 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 140

An Unusual Second War ´Ammunition Disposal´ George Medal Group of Five to Able Seaman J. Carr, Royal Navy George Medal, G.VI.R., 1st ´Ind: Imp:´ type (A.B. James Carr, P/JX. 695890. R.N.); 1939-1945 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, nearly extremely fine, with letters from recipient´s shipmates and photographs of H.M.T. No. 415 (5) Estimate £ 1,400-1,600G.M. London Gazette 15.6.1945 Able Seaman James Carr, P/JX.695890 (Liverpool), The Recommendation states, ´On 5th February 1945 Carr was unloading ammunition from his ship. He had been detailed to lower boxes over the bows to a ramp below. Two boxes of demolition charges had been placed on the deck ready to be lowered when Carr noticed that smoke was coming from one of them and realised that a fuse had ignited. He called for help, but then, realising from experience in the Army (where he had worked on ammunition and knew when it was in a state of immediate danger) that none could come quickly enough to save an explosion, he went to pick the box up to throw it over the starboard side where there were no working parties. The box burst while he was bending over it, blowing part of the bows of the ship off and killing a man 50 yards away. Carr was critically injured in this act of very great courage. He had had time to think where to throw the box with the least risk to his shipmates, and there is no doubt that his deliberation and lack of thought for himself lessened the effect of the accident. His own wounds were such that he must have sustained much of the force of the explosion. His face and hands were severely burned and he sustained compound fractures of both legs. His survival is little short of miraculous.´ James Carr, G.M., born Liverpool, 1912; served in the Army 18.7.1940-1.12.1943; joined Royal Navy as Ordinary Seaman, H.M.S. Triphibian (Training Establishment), 2.12.1943; served at H.M.S. Collingwood, 23.12.1943-28.3.1944; joined H.M.S. Victory I (Portsmouth), 29.3.1944; served in H.M. Landing Ship (Tank) No. 415, when on D Day (6.6.1944) she landed at "Sword" Beach, loaded with vehicles and troops and then later in the year preceded to make frequent trips to and from the Normandy Coast returning with Prisoners of War and wounded; in January 1945, LST No. 415 en-route to France was torpedoed by an enemy U-boat off the mouth of the river Thames, when it was established that she was not going to sink she was towed by three tugs to be beached between Tilbury and Grays (Essex). A number of the crew, including Carr, were formed into the guard and the de-storing party and were left with the ship. It was as a member of this party that Carr performed his heroic act, 5.2.1945 (see Recommendation), ´The Army removed the abandoned arms and kit and what vehicles that could be recovered and the ship was left with the bow doors open and a light foot bridge out to the beach for access at high water. The Oerlikon 20mm guns were removed as was most of the ammunition by a working party with a lorry either from St. Clements or Chatham. At the time of the explosion the "fireworks locker" on the upper deck was being emptied, the crew carrying the items to the fo´c´sle and lowering by line to the beach, the outside working party carrying it to their lorry about thirty yards away. The demolition charges, mentioned in the London Gazette Citation were probably left from a batch supplied to the ships in the Med to deter Italian Frogmen, prior to the Sicily landings. They were dropped in the water around the loaded ships in Tripoli harbour by patrolling motor boats at intervals during the night. The fuses were set off by pinching with pliers and it was believed that a box was dropped on a protruding fuse. Jim Carr was in the party of two or three carrying and lowering items to the beach. At the time of the explosion Jim was alone on the fo´c´sle and I was below decks aft. At first we thought a V2 rocket had dropped fairly near, the V2´s were operating at that time, but on reaching the upper deck we realised that the blast was on the bow of the ship. Jim Carr had apparently been stooping over the boxes of charges when it went off, blowing him into the starboard 20mm gun pit where he was surrounded by the shattered splinters of wooded steps in the pit. We could instantly see that he was very badly injured, a man standing in the back of the Bedford truck was killed outright by a flying piece of steel. An officer came upon the scene almost immediately and organised an ambulance etc. Jim was taken to Tilbury Hospital and I visited him after a couple of days.´ (letter from D/MX85433 L.S.A. N. Drew refers); Carr was invalided out of the Navy, 19.3.1946.

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