A WW1 Royal Navy & Fleet Reserve L.S.&.G.C., 'Ostend Raids, Shelling during the 5th Battle of Ypres & Courtrai & Zeppelin Patrols' Medal Group awarded to K.14146 Leading Stoker W.C. Hyde.

William Charles Hyde was born at Bromley, Middlesex, on the 2nd of February 1990. He joined the ranks of the Royal Navy on the 23rd March, 1912, with his first posting being at H.M.S. Pembroke II. He then served aboard H.M.S. Intrepid, and then back to Pembroke. From the 19th of August 1915, through to the 15th November 1918, he served aboard the Lord Clive-class monitor, H.M.S. General Craufurd -

She participated in a bombardment of the German naval base at Ostend, Belgium on 7 September, but Vice Admiral Reginald Bacon had to order a withdrawal after his flagship, General Craufurd's sister ship, Lord Clive, was hit four times in quick succession by a previously unknown artillery battery. General Craufurd and her three sisters had only managed to shoot 14 rounds before they had to retire, which only started a fire in the dockyard. On the 25th General Craufurd and her sister Prince Eugene bombarded German positions at Zeebrugge, Belgium, as part of a deception operation to suggest that the Allies were launching an attack in that sector. During the remainder of September and October, she occasionally fired on German coastal batteries. On 15 November General Craufurd and the seaplane carrier Riviera were sent to the The Thames Estuary where they could develop techniques to allow aircraft to correct the shooting of multiple monitors via wire-less in an area that had been laid out to replicate some of the features of the Belgian coast.

1916

Lord Clive leading the six 12-inch monitors of the Dover Patrol, possibly in September 1916. Taken from Prince Rupert, showing (from left to right) Sir John Moore, Prince Eugen, General Craufurd, and General Wolfe.

During December 1915 and January 1916, General Craufurd was stationed in the Thames Estuary as a propaganda exercise to shoot down approaching German Zeppelins with shrapnel shells fired by her main guns, but the Zeppelins never came within range. The monitors bombarded German batteries at Westende, Belgium, on 26 January to evaluate the newly developed air-spotting techniques, but each ship only fired about eleven rounds during the half-hour bombardment. This was the last bombardment for the next seven months as the monitors were used to support British light forces and the Dover Barrage, the complex of minefields and nets in the Channel.

The uncluttered forecastle deck of the Lord Clives allowed Bacon to use General Craufurd to ferry three 50-long-ton (51 t) BL 12-inch Mk X gun barrels and three 28-long-ton (28 t) BL 9.2-inch Mk X barrels to Dunkirk, France, to be used to bombard the German coastal artillery. The barrels were loaded by crane onto chocks positioned on General Craufurd's portside deck and were then rolled off the deck via a thick wooden ramp onto the stone jetty in Dunkirk. The first barrel was difficult to unload because it was thinner at the muzzle than at the breech and wanted to curve as it rolled. Subsequent barrels were encased in wood to make them easier to roll. General Craufurd delivered the first gun in April and then the rest beginning in July.

One of the second batch of 12-inch guns being unloaded in July; note the wooden jacket around the middle of the barrel

In August the monitor began trials to develop procedures for engaging targets at night while using a gyroscope hooked up to her fire-control system to help maintain the turret on the target while manoeuvring. She fired 38 round at Middlekerk on 16 August as part of these trials. Four days later a Short Type 184 floatplane was hoisted aboard to spot the ship's shells and transmit corrections; low cloud cover that prevented the observer aboard the aircraft from seeing any targets. This infuriated Bacon and he prohibited Commander Edward Altham from conducting any more experiments. To add insult to injury, Bacon limited General Craufurd's participation in the diversionary bombardment conducted in support of the Battle of the Somme in early September to only seven rounds spread over the seven days of the operation. This was the last bombardment of 1916 as the monitors reverted to their role of supporting the Dover Barrage and patrolling between Calais and The Downs.

1917–1921

General Craufurd was intended to be used during the Great Landings, a plan to land troops between Westende and Middelkerke to exploit the anticipated Allied gains made during the Battle of Passchendaele in July and pocket German troops between the landing and the advancing troops. The troops were to be landed via three enormous 2,500-long-ton (2,500 t) pontoons, each of which could carry a brigade of infantry, an artillery battery and three tanks. Each of the pontoons was lashed in position between two monitors and General Craufurd, together with General Wolfe, was modified in early 1917 to handle one of them. The ship and her sisters rehearsed their role up until mid-July when the battle began, but the Allies could not make the ten-mile (16 km) advance necessary to launch the operation. Field Marshal Haig refused to support Bacon's proposal for a more modest landing in the Nieuport-Middelkerke area in September, so the operation was cancelled on 2 October. General Craufurd was then docked at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, for maintenance and repairs. Beginning in November, the monitors returned to their normal wintertime role of defending the barrage.

Four of the 12-inch monitors, including General Craufurd, were tasked to support the attempt to block the entrance to the Ostend-Bruges Canal that led to the naval base at Bruges by bombarding the coastal artillery defending the port. Before the first attempt on 11 April had to be called off because the wind shifted and the required smoke screen couldn't be laid properly, the monitors had already fired 50 rounds between them. A second attempt was cancelled because of bad weather. During the third attempt of 23 April, which failed when the blockships ran aground, General Craufurd fired about fifty rounds of 12-inch and some 6-inch shells and was near missed in return by the German guns. The monitor played a minor role in another attempt on 9/10 May when she buoyed the approach channel, but the blockship was blinded by smoke and failed to arrive at her intended position at the canal entrance.

The night before the 5th Battle of Ypres began on 28 September, the monitors bombarded targets along the coast to simulate preparations for an amphibious landing and then switched to other targets after dawn. General Craufurd and the other monitors were tasked to bombard the German lines of communication, firing slowly to keep up a steady pressure. During the day each ship fired about one hundred 12-inch shells and had fired sixty rounds from their secondary armament during the previous night. The bombardment continued at a slower pace for the next five days but ceased when the Allied advance stopped. When it resumed on 14 October in the Battle of Courtrai, the monitors resumed their task until the Germans evacuated the coast a few days later.

With the war over on 11 November, the monitors were no longer needed and were soon decommissioned. General Craufurd was the first to go and was paid off on the 15th. She was recommissioned as a gunnery training ship in January 1919 and was offered for sale to the Kingdom of Romania. Nothing came of the offer and the monitor was paid off again in early 1920. General Craufurd was sold for scrap toThos. W. Ward on 9 May 1921 for approximately £11,035, although she did not arrive at the ship breakers until 10 September 1923.

The medals are mounted for display, sold with copied research, and are as follows -

1914/15 Star, K.14146. W.C. HYDE.ACT. L. STO. . R.N.; British War & Victory Medals, K.14146 W.C. HYDE. L. STO. R.N.; Royal Fleet Reserve L.S.&.G.C. Medal, K.14146 (CH, B, 14836) W.C. HYDE. L. STO. R.F.R.

Condition, Very Fine