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Third V.C. for the Navy

The War Illustrated, Volume 3, No. 55, Page 302, September 20, 1940.

On September 3rd it was announced that the posthumous award of a V.C., the tenth of the present war, had been made to Leading Seaman Jack Foreman Mantle, of H.M.S. Foylebank, a 5,600-ton motor ship of the Bank Line, which was attacked by enemy aircraft on July 4. Mantle, who was in charge of a pom-pom, had his left leg shattered by a bomb early in the action, but nevertheless remained at his gun. The ship's electric power failed, whereupon he continued firing with hand gear only.

He was wounded again in many places, and the official report stated: "Between the bursts of fire he had time to reflect on the grievous injuries of which he was soon to die: but his great courage bore him up till the end of the fight, when he fell by the gun he had so valiantly served."

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