A pre-war Palestine Arab Revolt, Second World War Atlantic and Mediterranean service and Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal group awarded to Stoker Petty Officer P.J.M. McErlane, Royal Navy who saw service during the Arab Rebellion in Palestine before receiving his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in June 1939 whilst serving aboard the battleship H.M.S. Nelson which during the Second World War would be involved in Operation Pedestal, the August 1942 convoy to resupply Malta, protecting the landings in North Africa as part of Operation Torch, protecting the landings on Sicily as part of Operation Husky and using her main guns as anti-aircraft weapons during the landings at Salerno as part of Operation Avalanche.
Group of 7: Naval General Service Medal 1909-1962, GVI 1st type bust, 1 Clasp: Palestine 1936-39; (K.64052 P.J.M. MC ERLANE. S.P.O. R.N.) 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star bar North Africa 1942-43, Defence Medal; War Medal; Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVI 1st type bust; (K.64052 P.J.M. MC ERLANE. S.P.O. H.M.S. NELSON.) Mounted loose for wear.
Condition: Mounted loose for wear, silver medals dark toned, Nearly Extremely Fine
Along with:
Ribbon bars
Medal forwarding slip
Patrick James Michael McErlane saw service as a Stoker Petty Officer (No. K.64052) and was present aboard her during the operations on and off the coast of Palestine during the Arab Rebellion, he would then receive his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 1st June 1939 whilst serving aboard H.M.S. Nelson, and is believed to have served on the battleship throughout the Second World War.
When Great Britain declared war on Germany, on 3 September 1939, Nelson and the bulk of the Home Fleet were unsuccessfully patrolling the waters between Iceland, Norway and Scotland for German blockade runners and then did much the same off the Norwegian coast from 6–10 September. On 25–26 September, she helped to cover the salvage and rescue operations of the damaged submarine HMS Spearfish. A month later, the ship covered an iron ore convoy from Narvik, Norway. On 30 October, Nelson was unsuccessfully attacked by the German submarine U-56 near the Orkney Islands and was hit by two of the three torpedoes fired at a range of 870 yards (800 m), none of which exploded. After the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi off the coast of Iceland on 23 November by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Nelson and her sister participated in the futile pursuit of them. On 4 December 1939, she detonated a magnetic mine (laid by U-31) at the entrance to Loch Ewe on the Scottish coast and was under repair in HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, until August 1940. The mine blew a 10-by-6-foot (3.0 by 1.8 m) hole in the hull forward of 'A' turret which flooded the torpedo compartment and some adjacent compartments. The flooding caused a small list and caused the ship to trim down by the bow. No one was killed, but 74 sailors were wounded.
After returning to service in August, Nelson, Rodney and the battlecruiser Hood were transferred from Scapa Flow to Rosyth, Scotland, in case of invasion. When the signal from the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay that she was being attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer on 5 November was received by the Admiralty, Nelson and Rodney were deployed to block the gap between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, although Admiral Scheer headed for the South Atlantic afterwards. When the Admiralty learned that Gneisenau and Scharnhorst were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to resume commerce raiding operations, Nelson, Rodney and the battlecruiser Renown were ordered on 25 January 1941 to assume a position south of Iceland where they could intercept them. After spotting a pair of British cruisers on 28 January, the German ships turned away and were not pursued.
Nelson became a private ship on 1 April and she was detached to escort Convoy WS.7 from the UK to South Africa, visiting Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the 4th. On the return voyage, she and the aircraft carrier Eagle passed the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis at a range of 7,700 yards (7,000 m) during the night of 18 May in the South Atlantic without spotting the German ship. After the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May, the German battleship Bismarck was spotted two days later heading for France and Nelson and Eagle were ordered to join the pursuit from their position north of Freetown. Bismarck was sunk the following day well before Nelson and her consort could reach her. On 1 June, the battleship was assigned to escort Convoy SL.75 to the UK. After the German supply ship Gonzenheim was able to evade the armed merchant cruiser Esperance Bay on 4 June, Nelson was detached to intercept the German ship, which was scuttled by her crew when they spotted Nelson approaching later that day. After arriving in the UK, the ship rejoined the Home Fleet.
On 11 July, the ship was assigned to escort Convoy WS.9C that consisted of merchantmen that were to pass into the Mediterranean to deliver troops and supplies to Malta. Once they passed Gibraltar, the escorts were designated as Force X and they were to be reinforced by Force H while in the Western Mediterranean. The ships entered the Mediterranean on the night of 20/21 July and they were attacked by Italian aircraft beginning on the morning of the 23rd. Nelson was not engaged and joined Force H later that day as the merchantmen and their escort continued onwards to Malta. The cruisers from Force X rejoined them two days later and the combined force arrived back in Gibraltar on 27 July. On 31 July–4 August, Force H provided distant cover to another convoy to Malta (Operation Style). Vice-Admiral James Somerville, commander of Force H, transferred his flag to Nelson on 8 August. Several weeks later, the ship participated in Operation Mincemeat, during which Force H escorted a minelayer to Livorno to lay its mines while Ark Royal's aircraft attacked Northern Sardinia as a diversion. On 13 September, Force H escorted Ark Royal and the aircraft carrier Furious into the Western Mediterranean as they flew off 45 Hawker Hurricane fighters to Malta.
As part of a deception operation when Operation Halberd, another mission to convey troops and supplies to Malta, began on 24 September, Somerville's flag was transferred to Rodney while Nelson and some escorting destroyers departed Gibraltar heading westwards as if the former ship had relieved the latter. Rodney and the rest of Force H headed eastwards with Nelson and her escorts joining the main body during the night. The British were spotted the following morning and attacked by Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) aircraft the next day. A Savoia-Marchetti SM.84 torpedo bomber penetrated the screen and dropped a torpedo at a range of 450 yards (410 m). It blew a 30-by-15-foot (9.1 by 4.6 m) hole in the bow, wrecked the torpedo compartment and caused extensive flooding; there were no casualties amongst the crew. Although she was down at the bow by eight feet (2.4 m) and ultimately limited to a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) to reduce the pressure on her bulkheads, Nelson remained with the fleet to so that the Italians would not know that she had been damaged. After emergency repairs were made in Gibraltar, the ship proceeded to Rosyth where she was under repair until May 1942.
Nelson was assigned to the Eastern Fleet after she finished working up and departed 31 May, escorting Convoy WS.19P from the Clyde to Freetown and its continuation WS.19PF to Durban, South Africa, en route. She was recalled on 26 June to participate in Operation Pedestal, a major effort to resupply Malta. Reaching Scapa Flow exactly a month later, she became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Edward Syfret, commander of the operation, the following day. The convoy departed the Clyde on 3 August and conducted training before passing through the Strait of Gibraltar on the night of 9/10 August. The convoy was spotted later that morning and the Axis attacks began the following day with the sinking of Eagle by a German submarine. Despite repeated attacks by Axis aircraft and submarines, Nelson was not damaged and made no claims to have shot down any aircraft before the convoy's capital ships turned back before reaching the Skerki Banks between Sicily and Tunisia late in the day on the 12th. The ship returned to Scapa Flow afterwards.
She was transferred to Force H in October to support Operation Torch, departing on the 30th and she arrived in Gibraltar on 6 November. Two days later, Force H provided cover against any interference by the Regia Marina for the invading forces in the Mediterranean as they began their landings. Syfret, now commander of Force H, hoisted his flag aboard Nelson on 15 November. Force H covered a troop convoy from Gibraltar to Algiers, French Algeria, in January 1943. Syfret temporarily transferred his flag to the battleship King George V in May as Nelson returned to Scapa Flow to train for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The ship departed Scapa on 17 June and arrived at Gibraltar on the 23rd
On 9 July, Force H, with Nelson, Rodney and the carrier Indomitable, rendezvoused in the Gulf of Sirte with the battleships Warspite, Valiant and the carrier Formidable coming from Alexandria, Egypt to form the covering force for the invasion. The following day, they began patrolling in the Ionian Sea to deter any attempt by the Regia Marina to interfere with the landings in Sicily. On 31 August, Nelson and Rodney bombarded coastal artillery positions between Reggio Calabria and Pessaro in preparation for Operation Baytown, the amphibious invasion of Calabria, Italy. The sisters covered the amphibious landings at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) on 9 September with Nelson using her main guns in "barrage" mode to deter attacking German torpedo bombers. The Italian surrender was signed between General Dwight Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio aboard the ship on 29 September.
Nelson departed Gibraltar on 31 October for England to rejoin the Home Fleet. She provided naval gunfire support during the Normandy landings in June 1944, but was badly damaged after hitting two mines on the 18th. Temporarily repaired in Portsmouth, the ship was sent to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in the United States on 22 June for repairs. She returned to Britain in January 1945 and was then assigned to the Eastern Fleet, arriving in Colombo, Ceylon, on 9 July, but by this time it is unlikely that Nelson was still aboard as he has no entitlement to a Pacific Star.
