Temporary Lieutenant John Godwin,

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

(13 December 1919 – 2 February 1945) was a British naval officer. Born and brought up in Argentina, he took part in a raid named Operation Checkmate on Axis shipping near

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and southern ...

, north of

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. His party managed to sink a minesweeper and a number of steamers using

limpet mines A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver ...

, but he was eventually captured with the rest of his party, a commando sergeant, two Naval Petty Officers and three seamen. Initially they were held in Grini concentration camp. This was the same camp where, in January 1943, the Germans executed five commando survivors of Operation Freshman. However, Godwin and his comrades were not executed at Grini, but instead sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where contrary to the

Geneva Convention upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

, they were forced to march 30 miles a day on cobbles testing army boots. On 2 February 1945 they were led to execution, in accordance with Hitler's

Commando Order The Commando Order () was issued by the OKW, the high command of the German armed forces, on 18 October 1942. This order stated that all Allies of World War II, Allied commandos captured in Europe and Africa should be summary execution, summarily ...

of 1942. Godwin managed to wrestle the pistol of the firing party commander from his belt and shoot him dead before being himself shot. No superior officer witnessed this act so a decoration could not be awarded. However, his bravery was mentioned in dispatches (posthumously). The citation, in ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

'', 9 October 1945, read: "For great gallantry and inspiring example whilst a prisoner of war in German hands in

and afterwards at

Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

, near Oranienburg,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, 1942–1945".

Notes

Sources

Volunteers from Argentina who gave their lives in WWII. Memorial

CWGC entry
*

M. R. D. Foot Michael Richard Daniell Foot, (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and former British Army intelligence officer with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. Biography The ...

& J. M. Langley 1979 ''MI9 – Escape and Evasion 1939–1945'', London, Book Club Associates, London, 1979 pp. 154, 155 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godwin, John 1945 deaths Royal Navy officers People from Buenos Aires People executed by Germany by firearm Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Royal Navy personnel killed in World War II Argentina in World War II Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps Argentine people of English descent Grini concentration camp prisoners People who died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp Royal Navy Commando officers 1919 births Executed Argentine people British people executed in Nazi concentration camps Argentine people executed in Nazi concentration camps Argentine prisoners of war Royal Navy officers of World War II