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Lot Essay
D.S.M. London Gazette 19.1.1943 'For courageous and devoted rescue work and for skill in shooting down two enemy aircraft, during the passage of an important convoy to Archangel through the dangers of ice and heavy seas, and in the face of relentless attacks by the enemy'.
Boatswain James Kelly Thompson, D.S.M., of Govan, Scotland, sailed from the Clyde in the Rescue Ship S.S. Rathlin to rendezvous with Arctic Convoy P.Q. 17 at Seidisfiord, Iceland, on 26.6.1942. In the holds of the ill-fated 38-ship convoy there was enough materiel to substantially re-arm a good portion of the Red Army - 297 aircraft, 594 tanks, 4,246 military vehicles, and over 150,000 tons of military stores and cargo.
By 1 July the convoy was steaming purposefully north-east at eight knots into increasing cold and through calm waters intermittently covered with mist. From the German point of view every Merchantman that could be sunk was equal, in terms of equipment loss to the Reds, to a successful land battle. Consequently the Kriegsmarine's U-Boats and surface units and the Luftwaffe's Norwegian based Torpedo-Bombers were placed on full alert.
On the third day out the convoy's Escorts found themselves occupied with U-Boat alarms and, as the Rathlin's Surgeon remarked, the atmosphere remained tensely expectant 'with the knowledge that the most dangerous part of the voyage is yet to be encountered'. That night as the convoy steered north of Bear Island an exchange of fire was heard as a Walrus Seaplane drove off a prying enemy aircraft. Then at 0453 hours next morning a lone He. 115 torpedoed the Merchantman Christopher Newport. At 1930 hours on the same day, Ju. 88s carried out a high-level bomb attack and 20 He. 111 Torpedo-Bombers sunk the William Hooper and the Navarino and damaged the Azerbaijan. The Rathlin moved in to pick up survivors and plucked 44 men from the William Hooper and 19 from the Navarino. Fatally, the order was then given for the convoy to scatter.
On Sunday morning Rathlin was skirting the ice in a given station five miles off the port beam of the Anti-Aircraft Ship Pozarica, and her Anti-Submarine Escorts, the Corvettes La Malouine and Lotus, but unable to keep up was soon proceeding alone.
On Tuesday the 7th she fell in with the American Bellingham and took on board a sick man for the Surgeon to operate on, and steamed on in company. At 2130 hours, having narrowly escaped the attentions of U-Boat Commander Reche, bleary-eyed look outs on both ships reported the approach of a vast four-engined Focke-Wulf Condor. It circled menacingly, disappeared in to cloud astern, before roaring out again, not for once homing others to a kill, but pressing its own attack. Boatswain Thompson and the others aboard Rathlin and Bellingham threw up a screen of machine-gun fire, setting alight the two outer engines. The Condor, from KG 30 based at Bardfuss, Norway, dropped its bombs - which missed - and replied with cannon exploding a tank of ammonia on Bellingham's deck. A handful of her crew were injured by the blast and fumes, but to the jubilation of both ships the Condor suddenly broke up in mid-air and crashed in to the sea. Rathlin's Master, Captain Augustus Banning, ever mindful of the duty of a Rescue Ship, turned his vessel to close the floating wreckage and save any survivors, but on inspection found the five aircrew dead in the water with their parachutes strapped to their backs.
Two days later, following Thompson's second successful run-in with the Luftwaffe, Rathlin made fast at Archangel, one of only four vessels from P.Q. 17 to do so, the rest having been sunk in one of the great maritime reverses of the War. 'My entire crew throughout the whole voyage, and prolonged stay in port', reported Captain Banning, 'displayed magnificent courage and fortitude'. Thompson was duly awarded the D.S.M.
Boatswain James Kelly Thompson, D.S.M., of Govan, Scotland, sailed from the Clyde in the Rescue Ship S.S. Rathlin to rendezvous with Arctic Convoy P.Q. 17 at Seidisfiord, Iceland, on 26.6.1942. In the holds of the ill-fated 38-ship convoy there was enough materiel to substantially re-arm a good portion of the Red Army - 297 aircraft, 594 tanks, 4,246 military vehicles, and over 150,000 tons of military stores and cargo.
By 1 July the convoy was steaming purposefully north-east at eight knots into increasing cold and through calm waters intermittently covered with mist. From the German point of view every Merchantman that could be sunk was equal, in terms of equipment loss to the Reds, to a successful land battle. Consequently the Kriegsmarine's U-Boats and surface units and the Luftwaffe's Norwegian based Torpedo-Bombers were placed on full alert.
On the third day out the convoy's Escorts found themselves occupied with U-Boat alarms and, as the Rathlin's Surgeon remarked, the atmosphere remained tensely expectant 'with the knowledge that the most dangerous part of the voyage is yet to be encountered'. That night as the convoy steered north of Bear Island an exchange of fire was heard as a Walrus Seaplane drove off a prying enemy aircraft. Then at 0453 hours next morning a lone He. 115 torpedoed the Merchantman Christopher Newport. At 1930 hours on the same day, Ju. 88s carried out a high-level bomb attack and 20 He. 111 Torpedo-Bombers sunk the William Hooper and the Navarino and damaged the Azerbaijan. The Rathlin moved in to pick up survivors and plucked 44 men from the William Hooper and 19 from the Navarino. Fatally, the order was then given for the convoy to scatter.
On Sunday morning Rathlin was skirting the ice in a given station five miles off the port beam of the Anti-Aircraft Ship Pozarica, and her Anti-Submarine Escorts, the Corvettes La Malouine and Lotus, but unable to keep up was soon proceeding alone.
On Tuesday the 7th she fell in with the American Bellingham and took on board a sick man for the Surgeon to operate on, and steamed on in company. At 2130 hours, having narrowly escaped the attentions of U-Boat Commander Reche, bleary-eyed look outs on both ships reported the approach of a vast four-engined Focke-Wulf Condor. It circled menacingly, disappeared in to cloud astern, before roaring out again, not for once homing others to a kill, but pressing its own attack. Boatswain Thompson and the others aboard Rathlin and Bellingham threw up a screen of machine-gun fire, setting alight the two outer engines. The Condor, from KG 30 based at Bardfuss, Norway, dropped its bombs - which missed - and replied with cannon exploding a tank of ammonia on Bellingham's deck. A handful of her crew were injured by the blast and fumes, but to the jubilation of both ships the Condor suddenly broke up in mid-air and crashed in to the sea. Rathlin's Master, Captain Augustus Banning, ever mindful of the duty of a Rescue Ship, turned his vessel to close the floating wreckage and save any survivors, but on inspection found the five aircrew dead in the water with their parachutes strapped to their backs.
Two days later, following Thompson's second successful run-in with the Luftwaffe, Rathlin made fast at Archangel, one of only four vessels from P.Q. 17 to do so, the rest having been sunk in one of the great maritime reverses of the War. 'My entire crew throughout the whole voyage, and prolonged stay in port', reported Captain Banning, 'displayed magnificent courage and fortitude'. Thompson was duly awarded the D.S.M.