Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Second World War anti-U-boat operations D.S.C. group of eight awarded to Commander C. G. Cuthbertson, Royal Naval Reserve, whose meeting with Nicholas Monsarrat immediately following the disastrous Gibraltar convoy OG. 71 inspired the latter to write his best selling novel, “The Cruel Sea”: Cuthbertson was one of only 15 survivors from his torpedoed ship, and was fortunate to be picked up by a dinghy from H.M.S. Campion after clinging to the trunk of a body to stay afloat - ‘with blood and oil fuel coming out of me both ends’ Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1940’ and privately engraved, ‘C.G. Cuthbertson, Lieut. Commr., R.N.R.’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star, clasp, Pacific; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1941’; U.S.S.R. 40th Anniversary 1945-85 Commemorative Medal, together with a set of related dress miniature medals (including the Defence Medal but excluding the Soviet award), mounted court-style as worn (excepting the Soviet award), very fine and better (16) £4000-5000 Footnote D.S.C. London Gazette 1 January 1941. Mention in despatches London Gazette 25 August 1941 and 1 January 1946. Charles George Cuthbertson was born in Gillingham, Kent in September 1906, the son of an Engineer Captain, R.N. Destined to follow in his father’s footsteps from an early age, he attended the training ship Worcester, lying at Greenhithe on the Thames, and was appointed a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve in the new year of 1923. But as a result of the cutbacks being imposed on the strength of the Senior Service, in a pacifist influenced post-Great War era, he opted instead to join the Merchant Navy, in which he was accepted as a Cadet-Apprentice by the Union Castle Mail Steamship Co. at the end of 1923. A diligent and competent student, he passed the relevant examinations without difficulty and obtained his full Master’s Certificate in 1930 at the unusually early age of 24. Thereafter he served in various capacities aboard a number of Union Castle vessels around the globe, all the while attending his annual naval training with the R.N.R. Early Wartime Career and a D.S.C. The outbreak of hostilities in 1939, in which year Cuthbertson had attained advancement to Lieutenant-Commander, R.N.R., found him serving as 2nd Officer of the Union Castle Line’s prestigious Cape Town mail route ship, Carnarvon Castle, shortly thereafter destined to be converted into an Armed Merchant Cruiser. But the Admiralty already had plans for such qualified and experienced officers as Cuthbertson, and for his own part he was immediately attached to the Royal Navy for service as O.C. of an ad hoc flotilla of 70 anti-submarine trawlers, their task to patrol the east coast of Scotland, particularly in the Fleet’s main anchorage at Scapa Flow, in addition to the vital dockyard at Rosyth. But in the course of this appointment, that lasted until October 1940, Cuthbertson also volunteered to participate in a number of daring missions for “Gubbins’ Flotilla” in the Norwegian campaign, the latter comprising an irregular force of small ships and fishing vessels - including some of the renowned Scottish “puffers” - that carried out clandestine operations in and out of Norway’s fjords supplying Gubbins (later of S.O.E. fame) and his men behind-the-lines with vital equipment, personnel and ammunition. Supporting these ‘independent’ troop companies - out of which soon emerged the formidable Royal Marine Commandos - was a hazardous business, and Cuthbertson twice had ships sunk under him by enemy air attack. On 10 October 1940, he was appointed to his first command, H.M.S. Hibiscus, a Flower-class corvette which had been specifically built for convoy escort duties, but, which, nonetheless, lacked speed and armament. Notwithstanding these shortcomings, he commanded her with distinction over the coming months, not least on