GEORGE CROSS AWARD
AMMUNITION SHIP ABLAZE
RUGBY. November 17.
The George Cross has been awarded to Lieutenant Dennis Copperwheat, a naval officer whose act of gallantry averted a disaster at Malta. Enemy bombs had set lire to an ammunition ship in the Grand Harbour at Valetta. Flames threatened to detonate the cargo of explosives and damage Valetta. Lieutenant Copperwheat, while the air raid continued, led a party which put a launch alongside the burning ship, the plates of which were red hot. Some of the ammunition was exploding. The party slung scuttling charges over the sides of the ship and then Lieutenant Copperwheat, singlehanded, set them off with an electric cable from an exposed firing position on the beach. Although he was lying face downwards, the explosion blew him head over heels, but he escaped injury. Much of the ammunition from the ship was saved, and was soon afterwards dropped on Italy.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GEST19421120.2.30
Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1942, Page 5
Word Count
152GEORGE CROSS AWARD Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1942, Page 5
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Greymouth Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in