Beschreibung:

A rare Second War “D” Day, Normandy Beaches Naval Frogman’s D.S.M. group of four awarded to Petty Officer S. C. Eagles, Royal Navy, who was one of the first men ashore, 6 June 1944, and who attempted, unarmed, to clear underwater obstructions from the beach under mortar and systematic sniper fire, whilst in rough sea subject to rising tides Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (P.O. S. C. Eagles. R/JX. 180766.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; War Medal 1939-45, generally good very fine (4) £4000-5000 Footnote D.S.M. London Gazette 14 November 1944: ‘For gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy.’ The Recommendation (upgraded from an M.I.D.), dated 11 June 1944, states: ‘For devotion to duty and for setting a good example in the initial assault period whilst subjected to steady mortar fire and accurate sniping. Remarks of Intermediate Authority: Forwarded, fully concurring. Petty Officer Eagles showed conspicuous devotion to duty under fire as a member of L.C.O.C.U. No. 1 whilst attempting, unarmed, to clear underwater obstructions from the beach under hazardous conditions due to the rough sea and rising tide.’ Sydney Chadwick Eagles served during the Second War as a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy (Boom Defence). He was a Frogman, who was one of the first men ashore on “D” Day, 6 June 1944. He swam ashore as a member of No. 1 Landing Craft Obstruction Clearance Unit, and the latter unit, ‘whose job was both vital and unenviable, had to have a truly amphibious outfit because the chances were that they would have to fight it out on the beaches after they had completed their dangerous diving and the clearance of beach obstacles.... The first men ashore on “D” Day were frogmen. This time they were called Landing Craft Obstruction Clearance Units, there were a hundred and twenty of them, and their object was to clear away the underwater obstructions and mines so that the assault craft could get on to the beach. The frogmen who blasted a hole in the Nazis’ Atlantic Wall and enabled invasion craft to reach the Normandy beaches on “D” Day were nearly all ‘hostilities only’ men. The men who led the units were Lieutenant R. E. Billington, DSC and Bar, RNVR, aged 28, of Purley; Lieutenant H. Hargreaves, DSC, aged 21, a cotton salesman from Burnley; Lieutenant J. B. Taylor DSC, RNVR, aged 22, a Middlesex bank clerk; Lieutenant W. Brewster, DSC, RNVR, aged 28, an Edinburgh bank clerk; Captain A. B. Jackson Royal Marines, a Dumfries bank cashier; CSM D. J. R. Morss, RM, a carpenter’s mate from Herne Hill; Lieutenant D. J. Cogger, MC, RM, an engineering apprentice from Canterbury; Sergeant P. H. Jones, DSM, RM, a carpenter from Bournemouth; Lieutenant D. J. Smith, RM, an assistant engineer from Purley, and Sergeant K. Briggs, DSM, RM, from Dorking. Hargreaves, Billington, Taylor, Briggs, and Jones received their decorations for the Normandy invasion operation. Four others who were decorated were PO S. C. Eagles, DSM, a costing clerk from Manchester; PO F. Livingstone, DSM, a Hull carpenter; Corporal E. Deans, DSM, a motor-driver from Barrow-in-Furness, and Corporal R. Headley a Newcastle-on-Tyne apprentice engineer. So there you have them - bank clerks, engineers, carpenters, clerks, and students. Some of them had previously served in midget submarines and human torpedoes. All of these bank clerks, engineers, carpenters, clerks, and students acquitted themselves nobly on “D” Day.’ (The Frogmen, by Waldron & Gleeson refers) Lieutenant H. Hargreaves later described what he, and the other frogmen like Eagles, faced on “D” Day: ‘The invasion of Normandy to the average person was the greatest combined operation that had ever taken place, and in fact that was the truth. However, few people know of the work carried out by small, special units, both before the operation, and during the initial assaults. We were one of the small units which