This product is back-ordered; it is unavailable for ordering at this time please come back or continue shopping.
Prod. Code:
3643
Royal Navy L.S. & G.C. Medal, Edward VII issue to H.M.S. Prometheus
W. J. Johns, A.B., H.M.S. Prometheus.
VF Condition
suspension bar on latter slightly bent, William John Johns was born on 6th August 1896 at Devonport and followed his father's footsteps joined the Royal Navy (straight from school), during WW1 he served aboard HMS Orion (a Dreadnought Battleship) for the whole war and rose to the rank of Petty Officer aboard her. He married Gertrude Nicholls in 1920 and subsequently passed away in 1961 at Cheltenham.
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of sixteen dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts and supporting ships, departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Hipper's five battlecruisers. Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet.
On 31 May, Orion, under the command of Captain Oliver Backhouse, was the lead ship of the 2nd Division of the 2nd BS and was the fifth ship from the head of the battle line after deployment. During the first stage of the general engagement, the ship fired four salvos of armour-piercing, capped (APC) shells from her main guns at the battleship SMS Markgraf at 18:32, scoring one hit that knocked out a 15-centimetre (5.9 in) gun and killed or disabled its crew. About 19:15, she engaged the battlecruiser SMS Lützow at a range of 18,700–19,800 yards (17,100–18,100 m) with six salvos of APC shells and claimed to straddle her with the last two salvos. These last salvos were actually fired at the destroyer SMS G38 which was screening the battlecruiser and laying a smoke screen. Lützow was also fired at by Monarch during this time and was hit five times between the sisters. They knocked out two of her main guns, temporarily knocked out the power to the sternmost turret as well as causing a fair amount of flooding. This was the last time that Orion fired her guns during the battle, having expended a total of fifty-one 13.5-inch APC shells.
