Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Sergeant B. A. Ratcliffe, New Zealand Corps of Signals, who died of wounds at Minqar Qiam, North Africa, 27 June 1942

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; New Zealand War Service Medal; together with the recipient’s New Zealand Memorial Cross, G.VI.R. (5919 Sjt. B. A. Ratcliffe), in case of issue, extremely fine (5) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties.

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Brendan Allen Ratcliffe was born at Kaitangata, Otago, New Zealand, on 17 June 1908, and served during the Second World War in the New Zealand Corps of Signals in Egypt from 13 February 1940. He was promoted Corporal on 27 January 1941, and Sergeant on 7 February 1942.

On 27 June 1942 the New Zealand Division at Minqar Qiam, Alamein, was surrounded by vastly superior German forces, in particular the 21st Panzer Division, and faced with imminent destruction they prepared to break out. The Divisional Signals, by C. A. Borman, gives the following account:
‘Fourth Brigade’s positions were under heavy artillery fire for most of the day but little trouble was experienced in keeping lines of communication intact. J Section, however, sustained heavy casualties, three men being killed and four wounded, two of them seriously The first to fall was a lineman, Signalman Serjeant, who was repairing a line termination at the signal office. At 5:35 p.m. Serjeant, standing only a few feet behind the exchange operator, was killed instantly by a shell which burst close by. The exchange operator escaped unhurt but there was considerable havoc in the signal office shelter.
Only a few minutes later Sergeant Ratcliffe, like Serjeant one of J Section’s original stalwarts, was severely wounded by a shell splinter while working on the open with some of his men repairing line faults in the Headquarters area. As he fell Ratcliffe called out to his companions “take cover you chaps, I’ve got mine”. He had indeed dreadful multiple wounds from which his life ebbed away later that night in a Regimental Aid Post.
Ratcliffe was a pugnacious little man who had been a persistent rebel against authority but for all that was a likeable fellow and a good soldier. Several times that day more than one J Section man had watched his recklessness as he moved about in his jaunty manner in the open and had said “Shorty’s asking for it today!” But most linemen were like that, and Ratcliffe was typical of the breed of men in the unit who faced the daily hazards of their tasks with an unconscious devotion to duty, call what they might in their own rough way.’

Ratcliffe was aged 33 at the time of his death. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial, Egypt.