Beschreibung:

Four: Gunner H. G. Marshall, Royal Navy, awarded the French Medaille Militaire for services in the destroyer Moorsom at the battle of Jutland 1914-15 Star (Gnr. H. G. Marshall. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Gnr. H. G. Marshall. R.N.); Medaille Militaire, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, mounted for wear, good very fine (4) £800-£1,000 Footnote Henry George Marshall was born at Tiverton, Devon, on 17 September 1881, and joined the Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 14 June 1897, completing his training in Impregnable, the training ship at Devonport. Over the coming years Marshall trained as a torpedo specialist and regularly returned to Defiance, the torpedo training establishment at Devonport, between his sea-going drafts. He advanced in his non-substantive rate from Seaman Gunner and Seaman Torpedoman to Leading Torpedoman in 1902, and to Torpedo Gunner’s Mate in 1911. In 1912 he was passed for promotion to Gunner (Torpedo), a Warrant Officer rank, and in May 1913 was appointed to the destroyer Foxhound. In January 1915 he transferred to the destroyer Moorsom which formed part of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, deployed with the Harwich Force. In May 1916, Moorsom, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander J. C. Hodgson, was one of eight destroyers from the Harwich Force (four each from the 9th and 10th Flotillas) temporarily detached for duty with the Grand Fleet and assigned to escort the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. At Jutland, when the enemy was sighted, Beatty ordered them to take station five miles ahead of the fleet. Moorsom, Morris, Turbulent, and Termagant complied and joined the light cruiser Champion and eight destroyers from the 13th Flotilla. The other four, being of an older, slower class, remained with the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. After Beatty’s flagship Lion had been hit and nearly destroyed, Indefatigable sunk, and his other ships being hard hit, he ordered the 13th Destroyer Flotilla to attack the enemy battlecruisers, led by Bingham in the Nestor. Moorsom and the other three destroyers from the 9th/10th Flotilla followed. The Germans responded by sending eleven destroyers to meet the British threat and mount their own torpedo attack on the British battlecruisers. One British sub-lieutenant recalled: ‘By sheer coincidence the hounds on both sides had been unleashed simultaneously to steam at full speed into a fierce melee between the lines. The opposing forces were evenly matched and their combat was spectacular, highly exciting and chaotic - 30 ships at 30 knots weaving about in a restricted area striving to find a way through to a torpedo-firing position and hotly engaged in frustrating enemy craft. The approaching German torpedo-boats with gushing funnels, high bow waves and sterns tucked down in foaming waves looked sinister and menacing.’ Sub-Lieutenant Owen of the Moorsom later recalled: ‘It was a very confused affair with everybody getting in each other’s way at great speed and no chance of following on one of the enemy but a boat of one’s own side would come surging past, or else Hodgson would have to put his helm hard over and we had to hold on to anything to avoid going overboard, because the guard rails were down. But we got off about thirty rounds in local control, but due to interference, I cannot honestly say we got any hits.’ Just at the point that Hodgson in Moorsom found himself in a favourable position to attack the German battleships, Beatty ordered his ships to reverse course towards the north, having observed the main German battle fleet approaching from the south. At this point, Owen recalled, ‘...Hodgson altered course 16 points to the south and I saw the south horizon filled with ships. These were 20 battleships of the High Seas Fleet in sub-divisions in line ahead disposed quarterly to port. The sun was shining on them and they looked almost white. At the moment they were not engaged and the secondary armament of the enemy battlecruisers was firing chiefly at Nestor, Nomad and Nicator. For