Beschreibung:

(x) Six: Petty Officer E. Westnutt, Royal Navy British War and Victory Medals (J.13937 E. Westnutt. L.S. R.N.), the VM with re-impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R. (J.13937. Dev. B.12133) E. Westnutt. P.O. R.F.R.), very fine, together with 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, War Medal 1939-45 attributed to his son Able Seaman E. Westnutt (P/SSX 21440) who was lost on the Royal Oak (Lot) Ernest Westnutt was born at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire on 17 September 1894. He was originally a shoe hand by trade and on 2 September 1911 enlisted in the Royal Navy at Devonport. In November 1911 he was posted to the armoured cruiser Antrim, and subsequently served in the battleships Prince George (4 May - 3 June 1912) and Thunderer (June 1912 - March 1915). Revenge In February 1916 Westnutt joined the battleship Revenge, in which he served at the Battle of Jutland. Revenge gave her name to a class of five battleships laid down in the winter of 1913-14. She was built by Vickers and completed in March 1916. She displaced 28,000 tons, had a speed of twenty-two knots and her main armament consisted of eight 15-inch guns and fourteen 6-inch guns. She was commanded by Captain Kiddle and had a wartime complement of 997. On completion she was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. At Jutland she was in the 6th Division commanded by Rear Admiral Burney, consisting of ships of miscellaneous classes. As the ship went to action stations a mysterious drumming sound was heard throughout the ship and the more romantically inclined referred to the legend of Drake's drum, which would be heard when England was in danger. (Revenge was the ninth ship to carry the name of Drake's old ship). When the twenty-four battleships of Jellicoe's fleet deployed into a single line at 19.00 hrs, Revenge was twenty-second in line. The fleet succeeded in 'crossing the T' - that is, most of the British ships could fire on the German ships with their full broadside, while the latter could return fire with their forward guns only. Revenge began an intermittent fire for about seventeen minutes, but visibility was poor and no hits were claimed. Her secondary armament fired on the disabled cruiser Wiesbaden. At 18.36hrs Scheer, the German commander, ordered his ships to disengage and each ship simultaneously executed a turn of 180 degrees. At the same time, a large number of torpedoes were launched at the rear of the British line. Revenge felt a heavy shock from a torpedo which struck her but didn't explode; next ahead, the Marlborough was struck by a torpedo which ripped a hole measuring thirty feet long in her hull below the waterline. Having skilfully extricated his fleet from Jellicoe's trap, only a quarter hour later Scheer led his ships right back into it; at 18.36 hrs he ordered his ships to reverse course a second time. The British fleet still stretched out before them in a great arc from north to south; as they came under increasingly intense fire, the German ships bunched up and began to lose their formation. German gunners saw nothing but smoke and mist and, in the words of historian John Irving, 'an almost continuous flickering orange light right round the horizon ahead, from port to starboard.' After only a few minutes Scheer realized that his fleet was faced with imminent destruction and, for the third time, ordered a 180 degree turn-away. However, in order to cover the retreat of the battleships, at 19.13hrs he issued a dramatic order to the much-battered battle-cruisers; 'Battle-cruisers at the enemy! Give it everything!' The charge of the German battle-cruisers towards the British line was later referred to as a death-ride. Derfflinger, which led the charge, came under fire from the Revenge's 15-inch guns with devastating effect. Derfflinger's Gunnery Officer recalled: 'The range fell from 12,000 to 8,000 … Salvo after salvo fell around us, hit after hit struck our ship … A 15-inc