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Auction: 1006 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 31

The Second War 1941 Middle East ´Sidi Saleh´ M.M. Group of Six to Sergeant J. O´Brien, Rifle Brigade; For Attacking Two Enemy Tanks Armed Only With a Rifle - Firing Through the Slits He Wounded the Crews and Forced There Surrender. O´Brien Was Killed in Action During Operations Outside Caen, August 1944 a) Military Medal, G.VI.R. (6915010 Rfmn. J. O´Brien. Rif. Brig.), last part of surname and unit partially officially corrected b) 1939-1945 Star c) Africa Star d) Italy Star e) France and Germany Star f) War Medal, extremely fine, together with the following related items &c.: - London Rifle Brigade Badge, silver (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1939) - Recipient´s Desert Rat cloth insignia - Recipient´s Wallet, inscribed with details of his African service - Letter to the Recipient´s sister from the Imperial War Graves Commission, dated 2.5.1957 - Three photographs, one of the recipient, and two of the recipient´s grave (6) Estimate £ 1,200-1,500 M.M. London Gazette 9.5.1941 No. 6915010 Rifleman James O´Brien, The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort´s Own). ´In recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the Middle East.´ The Recommendation, dated 10.2.1941, states: ´For conspicuous gallantry. At Sidi Saleh during the night of 6th-7th February he accompanied Platoon Sergeant-Major Jarvis when attacked by two enemy tanks. He ran up to the tanks on the move and fired through the slits with his rifle, wounding the crews who thereupon surrendered.´ 6915010 Sergeant James O´Brien, M.M., born 1913, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick O´Brien, of Castlecomer, Kilkenny, Ireland; enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade, and served with the Battalion in the Middle East with "S" Company, where he was awarded the Military Medal for his actions against the Italians at Sidi Saleh, February 1941; Advanced Sergeant, in December 1941 he sailed with the Battalion to Bone. During the voyage two ships collided at Gibraltar, resulting in the loss of all of "D" Company´s carriers. O´Brien, who was with them, fortunately survived, drifting ashore on a raft. From Gibraltar he went to Bone on H.M.S. Dido, but by the time he arrived in late December the Battalion had moved on and, as he had no equipment, he was sent back to Gibraltar in a minesweeper. Undeterred, he stowed away, and after hiding during the voyage he landed in Algiers, whence he hitch-hiked five hundred miles to rejoin the Battalion near Bou Arada! O´Brien served with the Brigade in North Africa throughout 1942 and into 1943, in Egypt, Lybia, and Tunisia, and present at the actions at Tunis, Alamein, Tobruk, Alexandria, Mersa Matruh (Recipient´s wallet refers); and in Normandy 1944; Killed in Action outside Caen, 21.8.1944, and is buried in St. Desir War Cemetery, Normandy, France.

Sold for
£1,900