The Ron Penhall Collection

The Second World War Commando operations M.C. and Bar group of six awarded to Major G. G. H. Webb, Royal Artillery, attached No. 4 Commando, one of Lord Lovat’s right hand men who won his first M.C. for the raid on Boulogne in April 1942 and his second for Dieppe, in which latter operation, though wounded, he led a bayonet charge: on reaching a London station to catch a train home that evening, arm in sling, he was recognised from pictures of himself splashed all over the Evening News - and accordingly got ‘a little tight’ because he was plied with free drinks before being allowed to catch his train

Military Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverses of the Cross and the Bar both officially dated ‘1942’; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; French Croix de Guerre 1939, good very fine or better (6) £8000-10,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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M.C. London Gazette 7 July 1942:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the successful Combined Operations on the enemy occupied coast in the Boulogne area.’

The original recommendation - submitted by Major the Lord Lovat - states:

‘I have pleasure in recommending Captain Webb for a Military Cross or other suitable award, for his fine leadership when in command of a fighting patrol on the French coast between Hardelot village and Boulogne on the night of 21-22 April 1942. He led his patrol inland for a distance of half-a-mile despite heavy machine-gun fire from various strong points on the coast. He reached his objective - a searchlight battery - and having cut the wire and destroyed all the lateral telephone communications round it, was about to deliver a final assault when the Recall Signal from the beach compelled him to return. The information gained on this patrol was of great importance, and the enemy defences which encountered it were all driven out and forced to retire. He brought his patrol back without suffering any casualties, and I attribute the success of this patrol entirely to his good leadership.’

Bar to M.C. London Gazette 2 October 1942:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the combined attack on Dieppe.’

The original recommendation states:

‘Captain Webb was wounded by mortar fire on the beaches [at Dieppe] during the initial landing. His right arm became useless but he insisted in going forward and led the whole of his force across country to the concentration area in the rear of the German battery. In the final assault Captain Webb led a bayonet charge, using a revolver and grenades with his left hand. His troops accounted for many of the enemy, including several officers.’

Mention in despatches London Gazette 20 December 1940.

Gordon Geoffrey Henry Webb was born in April 1920 and was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, where he passed his O.T.C. course in November 1936. After school he worked for the family fruit-importing business in Glasgow, but in August 1939, on the eve of hostilities, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery.

Quickly despatched to an Officer Training Unit at Filey, he emerged as a 2nd Lieutenant and was posted to 30 Field Regiment, R.A. out in France, where he won a “mention” for his services in the lead up to the evacuation from Dunkirk. Soon after his return to the U.K., however, he was pleased to hear of a call for volunteers to join the Commandos, and in July 1940 he was duly selected for training in North-West Scotland. Here, among other activities, which included field craft under Lord Lovat, he was given demolition instruction by David Niven - the latter was particularly popular for his generosity to the Commandos by way of laying on extra fare at a local hotel, but equally unpopular with his seniors for his periodic visits to his girlfriend in London.

We catch glimpses of Webb at play, too, amidst the ups and downs of the challenging training schedule, such as the occasion he was disqualified from the ‘Singing on the March Competition’ after a gramaphone was discovered in his rucksack; later on, he gained a reputation for organising some memorable fund-raising parties and outings, one such occasion being an E.N.S.A. show at which he booked two rows in the concert hall for his fellow Commandos - Lovat later recalled that the leading lady was ‘fair, fat and well over forty’ and appeared dressed as the Queen of the Fairies. Mercifully, the timely intervention of the Sergeant-Major saved her honour, when she asked the gathered rows of khaki, “What shall I do with my fairy wand?”

The Lofoten Islands

Before too long, but not before further rigorous training for combined operations, Webb became a fully fledged member of No. 4 Commando, and was selected to join the force bound for an attack on the Lofoten Islands. Code-named “Operation Claymore”, and launched in March 1941, the raid proved a great success, the combined attacking force, which also included No. 3 Commando, destroying 18 cod-liver oil factories (capable of producing nitro-glycerine) and taking around 215 prisoners, in addition to embarking over 300 Norwegians. And whilst Lord Lovat had noted at a pre-raid party that Webb ‘proved it possible to dive over three sofas without castrating himself’, his overall C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel D. S. Lister, M.C., felt bound to note an altogether different set of accomplishments on the force’s return to the U.K.:

‘Lieutenant Webb had been detailed to seize the Post Office and the only hotel in Svolvaer. This he did with incredible speed and thoroughness, thus stopping all communications to the mainland from the former, and taking a number of important enemy personnel prisoner in the latter. Had it not been for this quick action, news of the raid would undoubtedly have reached Narvik before it did, with consequences which might have been fatal to our forces. I recommend this officer for the Military Cross or other recognition of his valuable services during this operation.’

Surprisingly, his C.O’s efforts to gain him official recognition on this occasion fell on deaf ears.

Boulogne

Webb’s next raid was on Hardelot, near Boulogne in April 1942, where No. 4 was instructed to make a thorough reconnaissance of the beaches, to inflict as much damage as possible in the vicinity and, if possible, return with some prisoners. Some Canadians, too, from the Fusiliers Mont Royal, in preparation for the forthcoming Dieppe operation, also accompanied Lovat’s force, but they were put down on a sandbank where they remained stuck until the tide turned.

For his own part, Webb commanded ‘B’ Troop, which unit was set independent tasks to pursue once a path had been cleared for it off the beaches by ‘C’ Troop, not least the destruction of a searchlight battery. As it transpired, the operation was not a great success, but nonetheless it had its moments, Webb telling one newspaper on his return to Dover that enemy Verey lights were going up “right and left ... one fell six inches from my Sergeant ... we ought to have been cleaned up.” There was also the matter of an enemy searchlight to contend with - Charles Dunning takes up the story in his The Fighting Fourth, No. 4 Commando at War 1940-45:

‘At our selected landing point, flat sandy beaches extended for some 400 yards and as we waded ashore there was a phosphorescent glow around our legs, which was most uncanny and we all thought it would warn the enemy. However, we got to the wire defences undetected and started to cut a way though for ‘B’ Troop. Hardly had they reached us when all hell broke loose: the enemy machine-guns covering the beaches, opened up. Not only was there tracer fire, but also illuminated flares and coloured light signals. The searchlight tried to light up the beach, but it couldn’t depress sufficiently to succeed. However, it did manage to illuminate one of the L.C.As lying off-shore. It was quite a spectacle. Fortunately, all the enemy machine-guns were on fixed lines and the fire whistled harmlessly overhead.

‘B’ Troop went through on their various missions, reconnaissances were carried out and an attempt made to attack the searchlight, but it was found to be protected by two perimeter belts of wire, about 250 and 450 yards respectively from the searchlight post. The raiders had insufficient time to deal with this unexpected defensive layout, so abandoned the attempt’.

Eventually, after further adventures, including a brush with an enemy patrol, all were re-embarked, although Webb recalled too late, as they approached their boat party back on the beach, that his leading Commando had a stutter - indeed he could not articulate the password and the boat party opened fire, but luckily most of their weapons were so clogged with sand that no one was hurt.

Webb was awarded the M.C.

Dieppe

It was fortunate that the men of No. 4 Commando had benefitted from months of Lovat’s ‘Train hard, fight easy’ philosophy before hitting the beaches near Dieppe, a philosophy that required his men to shamble around their training ground at Achnacarry ‘like Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame under a hail of live ammunition’. For their reception on this occasion was a very hot one indeed, Webb being hit before he even cleared his landing craft. A witness to the event was 2nd Lieutenant Donald Gilchrist:

‘A mortar thumped as the L.C.A. grated on the shingle. Webb cursed and clutched his shoulder, hit by a mortar fragment. The ramp clattered down and we swept up the beach, Webb still with us ... we ran shoulder to shoulder as a solid stream of German machine-gun tracer bullets whizzed past at head height. We ran like half-shut knives, our bodies bent forward, as if we were forcing our way against a strong wind. The private panted, “Jesus Christ, sir, this is as bad as Achnacarry!” ... This was as bad as Achnacarry.’

Notwithstanding his wounds, Webb did indeed continue to lead ‘B’ Troop to the objective, the enemy “Hess” battery at Varengeville. Gilchrist continues:

‘We were ready to go in. With fixed bayonets ‘F’ Troop attacked, yelling like banshees. In too came ‘B’ Troop, led by Gordon Webb. His right hand was dangling, useless - but he had a revolver in his left. Razor-sharp, Sheffield steel tore the guts out of the Varengeville battery. Screams, smoke, the smell of burning cordite. Mad moments soon over. A rifle shot from the buildings behind the hedge. Laying in a yard was a wounded commando soldier. From the gloom of a barn emerged the German who had cut him down. He jumped up and crashed his boots on the prone face. Our weapons came up. A Corporal raised his hand. We held our fire. The Corporal took aim and squeezed the trigger. The German clutched the pit of his stomach as if trying to claw the bullet out. He tried to scream, but couldn’t. Four pairs of eyes in faces blackened for action stared at his suffering. They were eyes of stone. No gloating, no pity for an enemy who knew no code and had no compassion. We doubled across the yard to where the two wounded lay side by side. For our comrade - morphine. For the beast - a bayonet thrust.’

Webb would later say of this charge that his men ‘were asphyxiated by our own bloody smoke and couldn’t see a thing. Fifty of us lined up abreast and went forward, disposing of Germans as we came across them ... we came across a dozen or fifteen Germans all lying in firing positions, all facing the other way. Several of them hadn’t even had time to put their trousers on’.

An official communique summarised the action in the following terms:

‘At daybreak, No. 4 Commando, consisting of 252 all ranks, including Allied personnel, assaulted the six gun battery covering the west approaches to the port of Dieppe. The position was defended by an approximately equal number of Germans with all the advantages of concrete, wire and land mines, concealed machine-gun posts, mortars, dual purpose flak guns mounted in a high tower and full knowledge of the ground. They had had two years to perfect these defences and when the time came they fought with the greatest determination. Yet within a hundred minutes of the landings, the position was overrun, the battery and all its works totally destroyed and at least 150 Germans left dead or wounded in the path of the raiders and the scene of the fighting. Prisoners were also taken. British casualties numbered 45 all ranks, of whom twelve were back on duty within two months. Operation Cauldron is a classic example of the use of well trained infantry soldiers, bold leadership and the thoroughness of the plan of attack and its swift execution.’

Another wounded officer who participated in this charge was Captain P. A. “Pat” Porteous, R.A., who was attached to ‘F’ Troop. He was awarded the V.C.

Webb received an immediate Bar to his M.C.

D-Day

The Commando’s M.O., Captain J. H. Patterson, R.A.M.C., travelled in the same landing craft as Webb, and recalled seeing him in the bows, ‘peering forward, alert and tense’. Tense, no doubt, because in addition to his usual duties he also appears to have been given responsibility for the Commando’s mortars - all of which could be called into support at anytime.

Nor was the run-in to Sword beach, or the actual landing, an uneventful one, Patterson recalling that ‘bullets rattled against the craft and splinters whined overhead ... There was thick smoke over the beach, and the tide low but flooding. There were many bodies in the water; one was hanging round one of the tripod obstacles. The shoals were churned with bursting shells. I saw wounded men among the dead, pinned down by the weight of their equipment’. Another witness recalled seeing ‘bodies lay sprawled all over the beach, some with legs, arms and heads missing, the blood clotting the wet sand’.

These harrowing first scenes were largely the result of the reception afforded the men of the East Yorkshires, who had been sent ahead to clear the beaches of mines and other obstacles before the arrival of Commandos. Nonetheless, at least one enemy pill-box was still very much in action as Webb and his comrades made their way up to the enemy’s wire, and before too long No. 4 Commando had its own mounting casualties, estimated by this stage to be to the tune of 40 men. Their first task had been to storm the enemy’s battery at Ouistreham, but in the event that “honour” fell to the French Commandos, or certainly the spearhead of the attack, which ended in victory after a ferocious hand-to-hand encounter. Thereafter, the survivors from No. 4 commenced fighting their way inland, in order to link up with the Airborne on the River Orne, an objective achieved after further casualties, that evening, the latter including their C.O.

Originally it had been intended that the Commando would be withdrawn from the frontline after a few days, but such was the ferocity of the enemy’s resistance that Webb and his comrades in No. 4 remained on active service in France until early September - by D-Day + 4 alone, the Commando’s strength had been reduced from 455 officers and men to 160.

Flushing

In the assault on Walcheren on 1 November 1944, No. 4 Commando was assigned the task of capturing Flushing, Webb going into action as C.O. of No. 3 Troop, with the redoubtable R.S.M. “Taffy” Edwards at his side, their unit among those to land in the third wave of assault craft, by which stage the enemy garrison was fully alert. As a result, their L.C.As were subjected to heavy machine-gun fire in addition to a 20mm. cannon, one witness describing the run-in as ‘very noisy indeed ... our landing craft took God knows how many small arms hits as it was approaching touch-down point’.

Be that as it may, first through the enemy’s beach defences was Webb with No. 3 Troop, but they quickly ran into severe opposition and ‘bitter street fighting ensued’. For the moment, then, until reinforcements arrived, all they could do was to hold their ground, but Webb was ever conscious of the fact he had been assigned the task of clearing an enemy barracks. Later that afternoon, when No. 1 Troop arrived at the scene, he was able to proceed as planned, and by nightfall much of the barracks had been “cleared” - it was, however, a slow and arduous task, carried out under the gaze of enemy snipers.

Following further fighting on D-Day +1, the old port town was more or less in No. 4 Commando’s hands, and the weary men were re-embarked. But the island of Walcheren still had a strong enemy garrison on its northern coastal strip and a plan was made for No. 4 to advance in the hours of darkness on D-Day + 6 to clear it. James Dunning’s The Fighting Fourth, No. 4 Commando at War 1940-45, takes up the story:

‘Leaving Domburg at 0345 hours, with No. 3 Troop [Webb] in the lead, the Commando made their way towards the enemy positions. By 0445 hours they had reached the start line to begin their mopping-up operations. At this time the artillery barrage began to bombard the area where the main numbers of the enemy were thought to be dug-in. Only one solitary enemy gun fired in reply.

When the barrage lifted, No. 3 Troop [Webb] moved off down the line of the light railway, with one French troop on its left to deal with any enemy in the dunes, and the other French troop and Captain Wilson’s No. 2 Troop clearing the woods on the right flank of the advance.

Then events took place with dramatic rapidity. All the troops became involved in minor skirmishes, which were invariably overcome by small sub-section rushes and attacks, once or twice with the bayonet. The Germans simply gave in. Prisoners were being brought back to Commando H.Q., which was close at hand, with the main body.

At 0815 hours, while a batch of prisoners was being searched in the Headquarters area, four Germans were seen walking through the undergrowth nearby. They were challenged by R.S.M. Edwards, who thought they were a new batch of P.O.Ws, although they were armed. On being interrogated, however, they stated that they had been sent forward by their officer with a view to making a formal surrender of all the remaining troops in the area.’

So ended the capture of Walcheren, No. 4’s casualties amounting to one officer and 12 other ranks killed, and one officer and 20 other ranks wounded. In return, the enemy had suffered losses of around 200 men, in addition to some 1200 prisoners. It had, indeed, been the ‘perfect little campaign’ alluded to by No. 4’s C.O., and the way had been cleared to Antwerp.

Webb was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

After the end of the War, he was put in charge of a rehabilitation camp on Anglesey for ex-P.O.Ws of the Japanese. Demobbed in 1946, he returned to his family’s fruit importing business in Glasgow, but finally settled in Brighton where he worked as an insurance broker. The Major, who was ‘highly intelligent and extremely brave, and endowed with a sense of humour which no amount of danger could extinguish’, died in February 1991.

Sold with the recipient’s original “fighting knife”, the blade and hilt bearing official marks, in metal-tipped, leather scabbard stamped ‘JAJ’ and ‘P. 22230’.

Also sold with a superb album of wartime memorabilia, the contents including:

(i) The recipient’s O.T.C. (Trinity College, Glenalmond) ‘Certificate A’, dated 17 November 1936; ‘Calling Out Notice’ as a Gunner, R.A., dated 8 September 1939; Certificate of Transfer [to a commission].

(ii) Mention in despatches certificate, dated 20 December 1940, and a related copy of No. 4 Commando orders reporting that Webb had won a “mention” ‘for outstanding work in the B.E.F.’; together with an original typed recommendation for an M.C. or M.I.D. for “Operation Claymore”, as quoted above and signed by Lieutenant-Colonel D. S. Lister, Troon, 5 April 1941; Buckingham Palace investiture letter, dated 14 October 1942; and signed French decree from Admiral Lemonnier regarding Webb’s Croix de Guerre, with specific mention of his courage and leadership at Flushing on 1 November 1944.

(iii) Congratulatory letters from Mountbatten for both of his M.Cs, dated at Combined Operations H.Q., 7 July and 2 October 1942, the latter erroneously crediting him with an M.M.!

(iv) Commando Service Certificate in the name of ‘Major G. G. H. Webb, M.C., R.A.’ for the period ‘July 1940 to January 1946’; Combined Operations and War Office “retirement” letters, the latter dated 28 June 1946.

(v) Assorted No. 4 Commando orders (of the top secret variety), including 5pp. ‘Intelligence Summary’ of Hardelot, near Boulogne, issued on 11 April 1942 and copied demolition instructions for enemy 150mm. guns, issued shortly before the Dieppe raid.

(vi) A map of the enemy’s “Hess” battery at Varengeville, near Dieppe, clearly as issued to Webb as C.O. of ‘B’ Troop on the eve of the operation - and most probably carried by him throughout it; together with a map of Flushing, with overprinted enemy defences - ‘Air Photo. Information as at 24 Oct. 1944; Ground Information as at 21 Oct. 44.’

(vii) An excellent selection of photographs (approximately 30 images), including studio portraits, training days in Scotland and official press shots taken before and after such raids as Boulogne, Dieppe and D-Day, some of these latter also including images of said raids in progress.

(viii) Watercolour drawings of H.M. Ships Queen Emma and Prince Albert, aboard which elements of No. 4 Commando were transported to the Lofoten Islands and Dieppe.

(ix) Promotional posters for two of Webb’s famous fund-raising events, one for a ‘Commando Dance’ on ‘Thursday 20th May’ - ‘Be on Parade with No. 4 Sharp at 8’, and the other a ‘Grand Commando Dance (By permission of Capt. Webb, O.C.)’ at the Public Hall, Cockermouth, on ‘June 4’; together with evidence of further “high jinks” in the form of several nightclub membership / admission cards, mainly for West End establishments in 1943-45.

(x) A quantity of newspaper articles, features and cuttings, the whole appertaining to No. 4 Commando’s assorted wartime raids.