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Lieutenant-Commander John Russell, who has died aged 88, lost a leg while acting as beach master during the Allied landings in Italy; more than 40 years later, he displayed notable dash in disarming a knifeman in an Exeter traffic jam.
Russell commanded an elite Royal Naval Commando unit, "Nan", from September 1943 until he was blown up in February 1944. The RN Commandos were specialist officers and seamen deputed to plan and control landings before directing ships and speeding troops into battle.
During the Sicily landings, the crossing of the Messina Strait and the Allies' arrival at Sapri and Salerno, he had seen how sandbars could form on the tideless Mediterranean coasts and soldiers were drowned when their landing craft became stranded in deep water. So he volunteered to reconnoitre the beaches of Anzio, flying a Seafire at low level.
Russell expected to spend weeks at Anzio, but this turned into months as Kesselring's armies counter-attacked. He kept the beachhead functioning under intense German shelling, and became more involved in fighting than intended. His men probed the shingle with their bayonets for wood-encased mines and defused German booby-traps. Russell himself surveyed the shallow water in a rubber boat while under fire, and his seamen drove new Bren-gun carriers to the front line.
When German fighters strafed the beach and set alight a supply ship, he called for help to rescue the wounded and put out the fire. The only available British troops were guarding German prisoners of war, and American troops refused to leave their shelter. Nevertheless, the prisoners volunteered, a German officer telling Russell: "We will rescue your wounded but will not fight your fire." When the American Major-General Lucas saw this, he mistook the situation and promised the Germans a citation, only to be told by a Wehrmacht officer in perfect English language where to put his medals.
Eventually Russell was caught by "Anzio Annie", a long-range gun which was bombarding the beaches. He was blown several feet into the air, and landed with a badly shattered leg and multiple shrapnel wounds.
He made his own tourniquet but denied that he had amputated his own leg using his commando dagger, instead claiming to have used "a couple of sizeable bits of tibia or femur that I seemed to have spare" to attract the attention of some scurrying Americans. He arrived at the operating table fully conscious and still with his boots on. His leg was amputated close to the groin.
For his courage, leadership and determination Russell was awarded his second DSC of the war. After several months in hospital he was repatriated to England, where he saw his three-year-old daughter for the first time.
John Blakeley Russell was born on March 11 1917 at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire, where his father, a veteran of Lord Wolseley's expedition to relieve Khartoum in 1884, was military commandant. He was educated at Taunton School and Pangbourne from where he followed his brother Vincent into the Royal Navy.
After service before the Second World War in battleships and cruisers, Russell joined the Fleet Air Arm and flew Walrus amphibian aircraft, only to be grounded after 170 hours flying because he experienced chest pains at 15,000ft without oxygen (then a compulsory test for Fleet Air Arm pilots).
He returned to general service as first lieutenant of the Hunt class destroyer Exmoor, and was escorting convoy HG76 off Madeira in December 1941 when two U-boats were sunk in two days. U-131 was depth-charged repeatedly during December 17 and was attempting to escape at speed on the surface when Russell saw it on the horizon.
As Exmoor gave chase, Russell opened fire, scoring several hits with his first salvoes at extreme range and sinking the U-boat. Next day Exmoor took part in the destruction of U-434. Russell, whose captain noted that he had controlled the guns with skill and coolness, was awarded his first DSC. He trained as a commando in Scotland in 1942.
Despite 40 years' phantom pain from his missing leg, Russell was undaunted. He kept a smallholding with pigs and vegetables near Battle, Sussex, and later managed a feed mill for North Devon Farmers. As commodore of the North Devon Yacht club he used to stow his tin leg in the forepeak "as it got in the way" and in the 1950s he sailed with the legless station commander of RAF Chivenor. Despite having only one good leg between them, they used to win many races.
In 1986, Russell was sitting in his car in an Exeter traffic jam, when a robber with a knife backed against the driver's window. As the man lashed out at several policemen advancing behind a shopping trolley, Russell reached out to grab the thug's shirt, and squeezed his arm in a way to make him open his hand and drop the 10in blade. The policemen were commended for their bravery, and Russell was given a good citizen's award. He said: "I didn't do very much."
Russell, who died on April 11, married, in 1941, Mary Wendy "Bimmy" Chichester, who had first captivated him when he saw her playing a minor part in the film Knight Without Armour (1937), which starred Marlene Dietrich. She survives him with two daughters and a son; another daughter predeceased him.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/04/db0401.xml
Russell commanded an elite Royal Naval Commando unit, "Nan", from September 1943 until he was blown up in February 1944. The RN Commandos were specialist officers and seamen deputed to plan and control landings before directing ships and speeding troops into battle.
During the Sicily landings, the crossing of the Messina Strait and the Allies' arrival at Sapri and Salerno, he had seen how sandbars could form on the tideless Mediterranean coasts and soldiers were drowned when their landing craft became stranded in deep water. So he volunteered to reconnoitre the beaches of Anzio, flying a Seafire at low level.
Russell expected to spend weeks at Anzio, but this turned into months as Kesselring's armies counter-attacked. He kept the beachhead functioning under intense German shelling, and became more involved in fighting than intended. His men probed the shingle with their bayonets for wood-encased mines and defused German booby-traps. Russell himself surveyed the shallow water in a rubber boat while under fire, and his seamen drove new Bren-gun carriers to the front line.
When German fighters strafed the beach and set alight a supply ship, he called for help to rescue the wounded and put out the fire. The only available British troops were guarding German prisoners of war, and American troops refused to leave their shelter. Nevertheless, the prisoners volunteered, a German officer telling Russell: "We will rescue your wounded but will not fight your fire." When the American Major-General Lucas saw this, he mistook the situation and promised the Germans a citation, only to be told by a Wehrmacht officer in perfect English language where to put his medals.
Eventually Russell was caught by "Anzio Annie", a long-range gun which was bombarding the beaches. He was blown several feet into the air, and landed with a badly shattered leg and multiple shrapnel wounds.
He made his own tourniquet but denied that he had amputated his own leg using his commando dagger, instead claiming to have used "a couple of sizeable bits of tibia or femur that I seemed to have spare" to attract the attention of some scurrying Americans. He arrived at the operating table fully conscious and still with his boots on. His leg was amputated close to the groin.
For his courage, leadership and determination Russell was awarded his second DSC of the war. After several months in hospital he was repatriated to England, where he saw his three-year-old daughter for the first time.
John Blakeley Russell was born on March 11 1917 at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire, where his father, a veteran of Lord Wolseley's expedition to relieve Khartoum in 1884, was military commandant. He was educated at Taunton School and Pangbourne from where he followed his brother Vincent into the Royal Navy.
After service before the Second World War in battleships and cruisers, Russell joined the Fleet Air Arm and flew Walrus amphibian aircraft, only to be grounded after 170 hours flying because he experienced chest pains at 15,000ft without oxygen (then a compulsory test for Fleet Air Arm pilots).
He returned to general service as first lieutenant of the Hunt class destroyer Exmoor, and was escorting convoy HG76 off Madeira in December 1941 when two U-boats were sunk in two days. U-131 was depth-charged repeatedly during December 17 and was attempting to escape at speed on the surface when Russell saw it on the horizon.
As Exmoor gave chase, Russell opened fire, scoring several hits with his first salvoes at extreme range and sinking the U-boat. Next day Exmoor took part in the destruction of U-434. Russell, whose captain noted that he had controlled the guns with skill and coolness, was awarded his first DSC. He trained as a commando in Scotland in 1942.
Despite 40 years' phantom pain from his missing leg, Russell was undaunted. He kept a smallholding with pigs and vegetables near Battle, Sussex, and later managed a feed mill for North Devon Farmers. As commodore of the North Devon Yacht club he used to stow his tin leg in the forepeak "as it got in the way" and in the 1950s he sailed with the legless station commander of RAF Chivenor. Despite having only one good leg between them, they used to win many races.
In 1986, Russell was sitting in his car in an Exeter traffic jam, when a robber with a knife backed against the driver's window. As the man lashed out at several policemen advancing behind a shopping trolley, Russell reached out to grab the thug's shirt, and squeezed his arm in a way to make him open his hand and drop the 10in blade. The policemen were commended for their bravery, and Russell was given a good citizen's award. He said: "I didn't do very much."
Russell, who died on April 11, married, in 1941, Mary Wendy "Bimmy" Chichester, who had first captivated him when he saw her playing a minor part in the film Knight Without Armour (1937), which starred Marlene Dietrich. She survives him with two daughters and a son; another daughter predeceased him.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/04/db0401.xml