"On 31 December 1942 off North Cape, Norway, in the Barents Sea, Captain Sherbrooke in HMS Onslow was senior officer in command of destroyers escorting an important convoy for North Russia, when he made contact with a vastly superior enemy force—the heavy cruiser Hipper and the pocket battleship Lutzow.
Four times the enemy tried to attack the convoy but was forced back
each time. Early in the action Captain Sherbrooke was seriously wounded
in the face and temporarily blinded. Nevertheless, he continued to
direct the ships under his command and even when the next senior officer
had assumed control, he insisted on receiving all reports of the action
until the convoy was out of danger. His actions—and the German ships'
failure to neutralize the convoy despite its superior force—were pivotal
in Hitler's order to end the use of surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine at the beginning of 1943."
From Captain Sherbrooke's Victoria Cross citation, awarded on 8 January 1943.
Another honored ally,
Brian
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