A potentially interesting and rare to ship Second World War Operation Neptune Normandy Landings June 1944 Destroyer Escort Operations Distinguished Service Medal and Battle of the Atlantic group awarded to Able Seaman R.N. West, D.S.M., Royal Navy. From Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and later Blackwell and Combs, in the High Peaks area of the Peak District in Derbyshire, he worked in the local colliery. During the war, he distinguished himself aboard the destroyer H.M.S Melbreak when she provided naval gunfire support close to Assault Beach Heads in the Western Task Force Assault area, the Omaha Beach area, when anchored off the seaside town of Port-en-Bassin, where it was known a large number of German soldiers were stationed. Later that same day she deployed for defensive patrols to prevent interference with landings by surface craft or submarines. His award of the Distinguished Service Medal, one of eight announced for Operation Neptune in the London Gazette for 26 December 1944, is rare to this ship.
Group of 4: Distinguished Service Medal, GVI 1st type, engraved naming on rim; (A.B., R.N. WEST. P/JX. 370939), on original ribbon with wearing pin as issued; 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star with France and Germany Star; War Medal.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Together with the following:
A wartime picture postcard of the Type 3 Hunt Class Destroyer H.M.S Melbreak, aboard which West won his Distinguished Service Medal during Operation Neptune, the invasion of Normandy. The reverse inscribed in ink: ‘From you’re Sailor Boy Darling, with all my love. xxxxxxx’.
The recipient tunic medal ribbon bar, comprising the ribbons of the first three awards, and including the silver rosette denoting his France and Germany clasp.
Robert Noel West was born on 19 July 1922 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the son of Leslie Noel West and Adelaide Mary Shelton. By 1939, his father was a ripper in a colliery and residing in Blackwell, Derbyshire, where he was also working in the local colliery as a junior clerk. He was the eldest of three children. However owing to the outbreak of the Second World War, he then joined the Royal Navy.
Serving as an Able Seaman (No.P/JX.370939), he fought in the Battle of the Atlantic and was aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Melbreak, when she was part of the escort force for the assault and landings in Normandy, as part of the D-Day operations. Prior to this, Melbreak had been based at Plymouth since February 1944, and did nightly patrols near the French Channel Ports. On 2 June, the vessel was in harbour at Portland Bill in readiness for D-Day, but due to gale force winds and adverse weather conditions, sailing was delayed until 10pm on 5th June. Melbreak then escorted the United States cruisers USS Tuscaloosa and USS Quincey down the channel which was being swept by minesweepers. She arrived about three miles off the French coast at 7am on 6th June and shelled the seaside town of Port-en-Bassin, where it was known a large number of German soldiers were stationed. This was near to the Omaha Beachhead, and the two US cruisers were tasked with shelling further inland. The troops went ashore at 7.25 am. Melbreak then provided naval gunfire support close to Assault Beach Heads in the Western Task Force Assault area, and later that day deployed for defensive patrols to prevent interference with landings by surface craft or submarines. At 5 pm that day Melbreak sailed back to Plymouth.
On 11th June, Melbreak was one of the vessels which intercepted E-Boats and was involved in a brief unresolved action off Cap d'Antifer. She then remained in the Channel area until Operation Neptune came to an end on 27 June 1944.
West was one of eight men to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal ‘for gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy,’ in the list of names published in the London Gazette for 26 December 1944. His home town was then given as Derby. His is a rare award to this warship.
On 28 August 1944, H.M.S Melbreak was attacked in the English Channel by an unknown aircraft, causing 20 casualties including five killed. Melbreak was subsequently repaired in Barry, South Wales.
West latterly lived in the village of Combs near to Chapel-en-le-Frith in High Peaks area of the Peak District in Derbyshire, where he died on 13 August 1978.
