A Confirmed 'Sink the Bismarck' Second World Campaign & Long Service Medal Group of 5, to a Petty Officer confirmed as serving on the Battleship H.M.S. Rodney: Chief Petty Officer Leslie Ewart Thornton Hacker, Royal Navy late H.M.S. Rodney

- The 1939-45 Star. No clasp
- The Atlantic Star. No clasp
- The Africa Star. With original clasp 'North Africa 1942-43'
- War Medal
- Naval LS&GC. GVI 1st issue (Mx. 45119 L. E. T. Hacker. Sy. P.O. H.M.S. Rodney.)

Sold together with a studio (Jerome) portrait photograph of the recipient in Petty Officer's uniform, wearing cap with Petty Officer's cap badge, and with Petty Officer's sleeve insignia with two 'Good Conduct' stripes denoting 8 years service, worn on his left tunic sleeve. This dated on reverse for 1937 (the recipients service sheets confirm that a third '12' years Good Conduct stripe was awarded on 1 December 1938

Medals and clasp verification: The Naval LS&GC Medal confirmed as entitled per the respective referenced Admiralty Medal Roll. Second World War medal rolls are not yet in the public domain, but the basic qualification for all campaign medals can be derived from entries in the recipients 'Service Sheet'. The cited references are:

- The 1939-45 Star. No clasp: Service Sheet shows continuously on H.M.S. Rodney, 5/4/1939, 30/10/39 (note over 3 years) & then from 9/5/1941 no other ship entered until 1947

- The Atlantic Star. No clasp: Service Sheet shows continuously on H.M.S. Rodney, 5/4/1939, 30/10/39 (note over 3 years) & then from 9/5/1941 no other ship entered until 1947

- The Africa Star. With original clasp 'North Africa 1942-43: Service Sheet shows continuously on H.M.S. Rodney, 5/4/1939, 30/10/39 (note over 3 years) & then from 9/5/1941

- War Medal: Awarded for 28 days uniformed service during the Second World War (recipient served throughout, per 'Service Sheet')

- Naval LS&GC. GVI 1st issue: ADM 171/151 & recipients 'Service Sheet' shows 'Traced' Medal 2.11.40 awarded while recipient was serving aboard the Battleship H.M.S. Rodney

The recipients service sheets are extant and are held & accessible at The National Archives

Witness to Destruction and Sinking of the 'Bismarck': Chief Petty Officer is confirmed having bene present serving aboard H.M.S. Rodney, at the time Rodney engaged and destroyed the Bismarck, reference the newspaper 'Gloucestershire Echo' issue of, 5 May 1946, with extract quoted below from a lengthy article pertaining to the recipient's parents Golden Wedding:

Quote,

SON IN SINGAPORE

Mr. and Mrs. Hacker have a married daughter, living at Leckhampton, Mrs. Clarice Sylvestre, who has presented them with a grandson, and a grand-daughter, a son Leslie E. T. Hacker, who is a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, in which service he has served for 19 years. C.P.O. Hacker who was aboard the Rodney at the time of the engagement in which the Bismark was sunk, is at present at Singapore, and naturally very disappointed at not being able to come home to celebrate his father and mother's fiftieth anniversary. C.P.O. Hacker has two sons.

Unquote.

Rodney's Battle with the Bismark: Rodney spotted Bismarck at 08:44 on 27 May, one minute after King George V and was the first to open fire at a range of 23,400 yd (21,400 m) three minutes later with Bismarck replying at 08:49. The initial salvos from both ships were off but Rodney straddled her opponent with her third salvo and hit her twice with her fourth at 09:02, knocking out the forward superfiring turret, disabling the lower turret and severely damaging her bridge. In her turn, Bismarck scored no hits, although she managed to damage Rodney with shell splinters before her forward guns were knocked out. As the British ship manoeuvred to bring 'X' turret to bear while closing the distance, she exposed herself to fire from Bismarck's aft turrets, which only managed to straddle Rodney. As the range diminished, she began to fire torpedoes, although shock waves from near misses caused the door for her starboard tube to jam at 09:23. At 09:31, the ship blew off the left barrel of the Bismarck's lower aft gun turret and started a fire inside the turret that forced its evacuation. Around this time the combined fire from Rodney, King George V and the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire knocked out all of Bismarck's main guns. Rodney closed to point-blank range and continued to engage, starting to fire full broadsides into Bismarck on a virtually flat trajectory, and added three more torpedoes at a range of 3,000 yd (2,700 m) beginning at 09:51; one of these malfunctioned but another may have struck Bismarck. According to the naval historian Ludovic Kennedy, who was present at the battle in Tartar, "if true, this is the only instance in history of one battleship torpedoing another

Rodney fired 378 sixteen-inch shells and 706 six-inch shells during the battle before Dalrymple-Hamilton ordered cease fire around 10:16, while Dorsetshire was then ordered to finish Bismarck off with torpedoes. Ironically, Rodney's own main guns firing at low elevation had damaged her more extensively than had Bismarck. Deck plates around the main-gun turrets had been depressed by the effects of the guns' muzzle blast, and some of the structural members supporting them had cracked or buckled. Piping, urinals and water mains had broken, while the shock of firing had loosened rivets and bolts in the hull plating, flooding various compartments. One gun in 'A' turret permanently broke down during the battle and two others in 'B' turret were temporarily disabled

All of the recipients medals were earned while serving with H.M.S Rodney

The medals mounted in the swing-style, and as-worn by the recipient. The silk ribands suspended from a white-metal mounting bar that retains its long hinged pin and clasp fittings

Condition: GVF

Code: 24079