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Auction: 21003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 228

Five: Sergeant C. G. Smeaton, Army Air Corps, a member of the 13th (Lancashire) Battalion who dropped onto Ranville on D-Day, who was wounded on 13 June 1944 and latterly would have been present for the unit's famous Mutiny in May 1946

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. E. Asia 1945-46 (10675622 ASgt C G Smeaton AAC), good very fine (5)

C. G. Smeaton qualified as a Parachutist on Course No. 92 in late 1943 and served with the 13th (Lancashire) Battalion who dropped on Ranville just after midnight on D-Day, 6 June 1944. their objectives being the area in and around the village of Ranville. There was some hard and bloody fighting throughout D-Day, but by the end of the day the 6th Airborne Division was firmly in control of Ranville and the villages around it; all the objectives had been achieved; the Orne and Caen bridges captured; and the bridge over the Dives destroyed.

Smeaton was himself wounded on 13 June during the Battle of Breville. Three days prior, the Recce Platoon had come face-to-face with the 857th Grenadier Regiment, fighting until the enemy were within 50 yards and the few survivors of the action escaping through the woods.

Assuming Smeaton recovered from his wounds, he would thence have 'jumping' in Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation of the War on 24 March 1945. He subsequently served in the South-East Asia with the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion, September to December 1945, and the Dutch East Indies, December 1945 to May 1946. He would have been posted back to Singapore in June 1946, following the mutiny of the 13th Parachute Battalion.

Mutiny of the 13th Parachute Battalion
The infamous mutiny of the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion in Malaya in 1946 had serious consequences for all members of that unit, both mutineers and those that remained loyal. Military command invoked strict security censorship, and rapidly worked to diffuse and cover-up the shambolic incident, not least by convicting 252 men of the battalion for Mutiny, disbanding the unit, and positing-out former loyal members of the battalion to other army units.

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Sold for
£600

Starting price
£240