BRAVE NAVAL MEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 5

BRAVE NAVAL MEN

STRIPPING LIVE MINES HAZARDOUS TASK AWARD OF DECORATIONS LONDON, Dec. 20. The King yesterday -decorated five men —three young naval officers, a chief petty officer, and an A.B. —in recognition of their courage and skill in helping to combat the enemy mine menace. The ceremony took place in the presence of 800 naval officers and ratings .of H.M.S. Vernon —the torpedo and mine school of the Portsmouth Command. . Lieutenant-Commanders John Ouvrv and Roger Lewis, two of the officers decorated received the Distinguished Service Order for “courageously and skilfully securing and stripping live mines, regardless of their own safety.’’ The investiture brought to light the quiet gallantry continually going on in ■ the services. Armed with their courage and their spanners, these naval men tramped half a mile through foreshore mud in bitter cold to examine a German mind. An explosives expert, Dr Woods, accompanied them. Gathered round the mine, they methodically dismantled it, piece by piece, not knowing what inadvertent move might blow them up. At one stage they heard a clock ticking, and later there was an ominous hiss, but, throughout, they joked until the detonater was discovered and an officer inserted his hand and unscrewed it. Then they gathered up the pieces for expert examination and laboured homp through the mud The prospective awards were kept secret, even from the recipients, until within a few , hours of the investiture