Orders, Decorations and Medals

Eight: Stoker Petty Officer A. Jennings, Royal Navy, a survivor of the sinking of the Dorsetshire and subsequent machine-gunning by Japanese aircraft whilst in the water

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (K.62035 L. Sto., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (K.620356 L. Sto., H.M.S. Caledonia) good very fine and better (lot) £200-240

Stoker Petty Officer Jennings served aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Viscount between August 1939 and May 1941. He later served on the heavy cruiser H.M.S. Dorsetshire. The ship had been part of the force that had sunk the Bismarck, 27 May 1941 and on 2 December 1941 she had found and sunk the German auxiliary cruiser Python in the South Atlantic. On 5 April 1942, the heavy cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall were both attacked and sunk by Japanese dive bombers in the Bay of Bengal. Jennings on the Dorsetshire was fortunate to survive the sinking and subsequent machine-gun attacks by the Japanese aircraft. In the latter part of the war he served aboard H.M.S. Obdurate.

Sold with 16 of the recipient’s sports medals, for football, swimming, water polo and boxing, variously in silver and bronze, 11 cased, 7 named.

Together with a letter of recommendation re. Stoker Jennings from the commanding officer of H.M.S. Viscount, dated 27 September 1944; and another from the commanding officer of H.M.S. Obdurate, dated 10 August 1945; damaged and repaired medal forwarding box; medal forwarding slip; riband bar; a letter re. the recipient’s pension, dated 10 January 1947; a note re. Naval Pensions, dated 8 December 1948; a letter removing the recipient from the Mobilisation Roster, dated 6 July 1960; papers from the Discharge Guide Book; a ‘Waltz Time Contest Programme’ (1946) listing Mr and Mrs Jennings ( who came 3rd); a copy of the book Pursuit, The Sinking of the Bismarck, by Ludovic Kennedy, some copied research and postcard of H.M.S. Dorsetshire.

Together with an unsigned typed letter from the recipient refering to his experiences during and after the sinking of H.M.S. Dorsetshire:

‘.... Not content with sinking the two warships, ..... the Japs machine-gunned us whilst swimming for our lives. Being a pretty strong swimmer and water polo player ... I considered myself lucky and shortly after the ship was sunk, I came across a small denton raft ... and I used this a shield against the machine gunning, filling my lungs with fresh air and going underneath the raft occasionally. This went on for more minutes than I had time to count but eventually, these bombers went. ...’