While World War II, which ended on this day (September 2) in 1945, is typically defined by massive armies and huge tank battles, some of its most heroic missions were carried out by small, covert forces. Operating deep behind enemy lines, these secretive units executed high-stakes operations ranging from stealthy midget submarine attacks to lightning-fast raiding missions in armed jeeps.
Driven by unprecedented public interest in clandestine military history, Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s will auction one of the most significant collections of World War II secret operations material ever offered on September 16.
Mark Smith, medals and militaria specialist at Stanley Gibbons Baldwin and medals expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, says: “This auction is so extraordinary because we cover 250-odd years worth of military history, from the 1790s to the 1950s. You’ve got an Army Gold Medal for the Peninsular War, 1808 to 1814. And then you come right up to date to the most modern warfare that World War II could come up with. Can you imagine what Wellington would have thought of a midget submarine?”
Among the most prized lots is the Popski’s Private Army’ Medal Group, awarded to Sergeant John Beautyman, a jeep-mounted desert saboteur. His Military Medal was personally recommended by the legendary Major Vladimir “Popski” Peniakoff after a deadly ambush deep behind enemy lines. It’s expected to fetch £10-15k or more.
Mark, author of Medal Man: Dad, Me & the Second World War, says: “Ted had been in the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), which is something that we actually understand now because of that television program, SAS: Rogue Heroes.
“He was recruited by Major Peniakoff, whose nickname was Popski because no one could say his name, from the LRDG, a British Army reconnaissance and raiding unit during World War II that specialised in deep-penetration operations behind enemy lines. It’s an absolutely incredible group of medals. Not because of what the medals are, but because of the unit.”
Then there is the ‘X-Craft’ Midget Submarine Group, medals awarded to Lieutenant Commander Joe Brooks, who served on secret midget sub X9 during Operation Source – the perilous raid to sink the German battleship Tirpitz – and later dived alongside the famous “Buster” Crabb.
Mark says: “1955 film Above Us the Waves, with John Mills, John Gregson, and Donald Sinden, was the story of midget submarines, known as X-craft, that attacked the German battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord. We’ve got a group of medals to Lieutenant Commander Joe Brooks, and he was actually on that mission, called Operation Source.”
Brooks then went on to become crew of a midget submarine called X24. Mark says: “In Operation Guidance they went into Bergen Harbour, and put explosives underneath a ship. They actually put them underneath the wrong ship – a ship carrying ammunition. So, when it blew up, it destroyed the whole of Bergen Harbour.
“For this he was awarded a medal called the Distinguished Service Cross. The problem he had was that because the harbour had been blown up, the German occupiers took 50 of the local men and shot them as retaliation, because they said that the harbour had been blown up by local resistance fighters.
“Joe Brooks’s son said that his dad never wanted to wear the medal because he said it wasn’t worth those 50 people being killed because of him. So while the campaign medals are mounted for wear, the Distinguished Service Cross is still in its box, wrapped in a little envelope, because his dad never never wore it.” It’s expected to fetch between £8 to £10k.
Elsewhere, there is a 1854 Crimea Medal awarded to Private Frederick Melrose of the 17th Lancers, who rode into Tennyson’s “Valley of Death” at Balaklava and was killed in action. Mark says: “Private Frederick Melrose was, according to the history books, a Shakespearean actor who was part of the the most famous cavalry charge probably in the world: the Charge of the Light Brigade, on 25th of October 1854, about which Lord Tennyson wrote the poem, saying ‘Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
“He was one of the 600. Before the charge, it’s noted that he gave the speech from Henry V, We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’. He was killed in that charge. And his medal, which was sent home to his family, is absolutely mint and still in the little cardboard box that it was posted to his family in.”
You can feel the history in these pieces, says Mark. He says: “Medals are time machines. You hold on to one and you’re there. You’re in that valley with them. That’s again the incredible thing about medals, they are not just bits of metal and ribbons. They are people, and they are stories.”
One of the most extraordinary lots is a rare gold medal and presentation sword belonging to Lt Col Colin Campbell, severely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The medals are expected to fetch over £20k and the sword £6-8k. Mark says: “First of all, you’ve got an Army Gold Medal – a medal that was only extant from 1808 to 1814. It’s solid gold, with gold so pure it has to have a glass front on it and a glass back to stop you rubbing the gold away.
“He’s then got his Waterloo medal. He commanded the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots. He commanded the battalion on Friday June 16 1815, at a place called Quatre Bras. And he was there on the Sunday, on June 18, at what we call the Battle of Waterloo. He was very seriously wounded during the action that day.”
The officers of his battalion, as a mark of respect, presented him with a sword. Mark says: “It is dedicated to him on the blade. And on the back of the blade, engraved are the names of all of the officers who paid for the sword to be made for him.”
You can’t fail to be moved when you realise the stories behind the medals. Mark says: “These are real people who had families. They had a dog at home waiting for them. They put their lives on the line for this country.”
There are many collectors globally. “It’s a huge fascination,” says Mark, though he argues that medals do not glorify war. The opposite, in fact. Mark says: “Medals are testimony to people who had to go through it. In no way do they advocate war – they advocate peace. If you talk to people who are wearing these medals, if you listen to stories of soldiers from any war, the one thing they will always tell you is: ‘Don’t do this again.This is appalling.’
“War is a dreadful thing, and that medal represents something awful. And if medals can do anything, and the stories of people who have fought can do anything, it should be to ban war forever.”
*The Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s Clandestine Operations Auction takes place live from London and online, on the 16th of September at 10.30am; Mark’s book, Medal Man, is out now
