An excessively rare Second War 'Cockleshell' operations D.S.M. group of seven awarded to...

An excessively rare Second War ‘Cockleshell’ operations D.S.M. group of seven awarded to Quarter-Master Sergeant J. M. King, Royal Marines, a member of the elite Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment (R.M.B.P.D.)

Just two wartime raids were carried out by the hand-picked operatives of the R.M.B.P.D., most famously Operation ‘Frankton’, the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ strike against enemy shipping at Bordeaux in December 1942, and Operation ‘Sunbeam’, a similar canoe launched attack against targets in Leros in June 1944

Sergeant King was well-known to the likes of ‘Blondie’ Hasler and Bill Sparks, having trained beside them in the lead-up to the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ raid, but it was for his part in ‘Sunbeam’ - described as one of the most brilliant sabotage operations of the war - that he was awarded his immediate D.S.M., one of only three such awards to the R.M.B.P.D.

On that memorable occasion, in a damaged canoe ‘with water up to their knees’, and in the face of several challenges from enemy sentries, he and his comrade nonetheless placed six limpet mines on an Italian destroyer: they duly detonated with the desired result

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (Sergt. J. M. King, PLY/X. 1457); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue (PL.X 1457 J. M. King, D.S.M. Sgt. R.M.) minor edge bruise to DSM, light contact marks, good very fine (7) £30,000-£36,000
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D.S.M. London Gazette 28 November 1944:
‘For gallantry in a hazardous operation in the Aegean.’

The recommendation for his immediate award states: ‘Sgt. King was in charge of one of the canoes during operation SUNBEAM. This operation was undertaken to damage shipping in the defended port of LEROS. Sgt. King’s canoe was holed before entering the harbour, he however showing great determination continued with his task using a sponge to plug the hole, and entered the harbour. Here, although challenged he avoided detection and managed to place six limpets on the hull of an enemy destroyer. On the deck of the destroyer were several armed men and there was a sentry on the jetty. By this time the water in the canoe was around his knees. He however with the help of his crew, Marine RUFF, successfully left the harbour undetected and made the R.V. on the Island of CALINO some 8 miles distant.

Sgt. King showed great skill and resolution in continuing with this already hazardous task in a badly damaged canoe. The destroyer was badly damaged and had to be sent to PIRAEUS for repairs.’

James Malcolm King was born in Glasgow on 9 June 1918 and joined the Royal Marines in November 1935. His pre-war appointments having included tours of duty in H.M.S. Rodney and H.M.S. Gloucester, he volunteered for ‘special service’ in the newly established Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment in July 1942.

Under the watchful eye of his new C.O., Major H. ‘Blondie’ Hasler, King was quickly promoted to Acting Temporary Sergeant and took up appointment as the unit’s Physical Training Instructor, a fact referred to by Bill Sparks in The Last of The Cockleshell Heroes, who credits King with establishing the unit’s haphazard assault course. Sparks adds:

‘To build our assault course we used old tyres, ropes and anything else we could think of, but often with disastrous results. Our improvised equipment sometimes collapsed just as a man leapt on to it, or through it or under it, and the injuries were sometimes severe enough to have the victim rushed to hospital. Eventually the hospital complained that they were getting to many casualties from the R.M.B.P.D. To Blondie this was all water off a duck’s back. He didn’t take any notice and nobody was going to make him deviate from that …’

For the duration of their arduous and intensive training, which of course involved many hours at sea in their Cockle canoes, the 34-strong rank and file of the R.M.B.P.D. were divided into two sections. When, at length, it was time for Hasler to select the Operation ‘Frankton’ team for the raid on Bordeaux harbour in December 1942, King was not in the chosen section, a decision that likely saved his life.

The story of his comrades – who became known as the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ - needs no elaboration here, although it is not without interest that Bill Sparks, one of the two survivors, was a member of King’s section in the Aegean at the time of Operation ‘Sunbeam’.

Operation Sunbeam

Overall command of the R.M.B.P.D.’s ‘Earthworm’ detachment, as the Operation ‘Sunbeam’ men were known, fell to Captain W. Pritchard-Gordon, R.M., whilst Lieutenant J. F. ‘Jasper’ Richards, R.M. led the operation on the night.

As had been the case in Operation ‘Frankton’ the participating cockle canoes were all given names. Thus, Richards and Marine Stevens manned Shark; King and Marine Richard Ruff Salmon and Corporal Horner and Marine Fisher Shrimp. The marines and their canoes were embarked in M.L. 360, in readiness for the planned raid on enemy shipping in Portolaga harbour, Leros, the motor launch hugging anchorages on the Turkish coastline as it awaited the signal to launch the raid. That signal arrived in the afternoon of 16 June 1944, when confirmation was received that potential targets had arrived in convoy at Portolaga.

Cecil A. Hampshire’s The Secret Navies takes up the story:

‘Soon afterwards the motor launch left the anchorage on silent engines and headed seawards, increasing speed to 16 knots as soon as she was clear of the land. The marines blackened their faces and hands and made a final check of their stores and weapons. In addition to eight limpet mines, each cockle was to carry a walkie-talkie radio, silent Sten gun, grenades, fighting knives, camouflage nets for canoe and crew, spare paddles, a baling sponge and canoe repair outfit, first aid box, 24-hour food pack, cigarettes and matches in watertight compartments, chart, compass and compensator and, not least, a bird call. All limpets were armed with four-and-a-half-hour delay fuses.

The weather was ideal, dark and moonless but with plenty of starlight, a gentle swell and a slight mist over the land. After rounding the southern tip of Kalymnos and turning northwards, the motor launch reduced speed to 12 knots fore the final run-up to the dropping zone. During this last leg of the voyage the marines, clad in their cockle suits, squatted silently around their gear on the upper deck, each man engrossed in his own thought.’

And of subsequent events in respect of Sergeant King and Marine Ruff in Salmon, Cecil A. Hampshire continues:

‘A few minutes later the semi-waterlogged Salmon appeared out of the darkness, with King paddling and the weary Ruff stoically bailing out.

That they had managed to complete the operation at all was nothing less than remarkable, for they had been bedevilled by a leaking canoe throughout. On entering the harbour they were almost immediately challenged by the bomb patrol vessel. But as she made no move to follow this up, the hails were ignored and Salmon pressed on towards her first objective. Half an hour later they were again challenged, this time from the shore, the shout being heard also by Richards and Stevens in Shark ahead of them.

For a few moments the raiders remained perfectly still, then moved off again le...