Colonel Johnny Coke
Royal Marine who directed the guns of Mauritius in rapid fire against German batteries on D-Day
COLONEL JOHNNY COKE, who has died aged 98, was gunnery control officer of the cruiser Mauritius on D-Day 1944 and later helped to pioneer amphibious warfare in the Royal Marines. In April 1944 Coke joined the light cruiser Mauritius as her Officer Commanding Royal Marines as she prepared to take part in the D-Day landings. Coke was the gunnery control officer who sat high in the control tower over the ship to direct Mauritius’s dozen 6 in guns (like those which can be seen today on HMS Belfast in the Pool of London). Much of the ship’s practice work-up in rapid fire of her guns was directed by Coke off the Isle of Arran.
Mauritius sailed from the Clyde on June 4 1944. Coke recalled that, as she passed along the west and south coasts, small flotillas of ships and landing craft came out of each port until the sea seemed full and it did not seem possible that they would remain undetected by the Germans.
After a 24-hour delay, on the morning of June 6, and as part of Bombarding Force D consisting of British and Free Norwegian ships, Mauritius covered the landings off Sword Beach in Normandy, firing on German batteries at Houlgate and Merville. For the next 10 days the ship remained off the beaches and Coke was “closed-up” – in a state of permanent alert – at his action station from dawn until dusk. Even during the short June nights he kept watches in the control tower four hours on and four hours off.
After re-ammunitioning at Portsmouth, Mauritius returned on July 17 and 18 to bombard enemy positions around Caen to help break the stalemate there. Then in August the ship carried out offensive patrols along the Brittany coast to prevent German troops from fleeing by sea, and to mop up German shipping in the area.
There, on the night of August 14/15, in company with British and Canadian destroyers of Force 27, Coke’s guns sank a minesweeper and drove a merchant ship ashore. Finally, on August 22/23, Mauritius took part in the Battle of Audierne Bay, when Force 27 sank five German patrol boats.
Mauritius had received minor damage in this fighting and required repairs in September, but by October she was part of a British fleet which entered Norwegian waters. In the New Year of 1945 she covered raids by carrier-borne aircraft along the Norwegian coast. On the night of January 27/28, in company with the cruiser Diadem, she fought an action in which the German ship Z31 was badly damaged.
Coke was awarded a DSC for his courage and determination.
John Cuthbert d’Ewes Coke was born on November 18 1916 in Exeter at the home of his grandfather, Admiral Sir Charles Coke. He was educated at Downside, and was commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1935.
As a young officer Coke served in 1936 in the First World War battleship Iron Duke. In 1939 he served in an RM anti-aircraft battery in Alexandria, and in 1940 in the RM Fortress Unit in Norway and Iceland. In 1942 he took part in the Allied landings on Sicily as part of the Second Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation, a forerunner of today’s RM commando units. Post-war, Coke served in the cruiser Superb (1945-46) and in the battleship Vanguard (1948-50). Vanguard had been refitted to carry King George VI on a tour of the Commonwealth, but when the King’s health broke down, she became the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet, and then of the Home Fleet Training Squadron.
Coke next held increasingly responsible appointments, helping to develop the Royal Marines’ expertise in amphibious warfare, and he was the Chief of Joint Warfare’s representative in Washington from 1960 to 1962. His last appointment in uniform was in command of the Depot, Royal Marines (1962-65), when he was awarded the CBE.
In retirement he settled first in Salisbury, where he worked for the accountants Fletcher & Partners, before moving to London. There he was involved in youth projects in the East End, including the London Federation of Boys’ Clubs, in addition to various naval charities.
Although in his words he was “an indifferent skier”, he was secretary of the Ski Club of Great Britain and treasurer of the Kandahar Ski Club in Switzerland.
Coke married Jill Paterson in 1971. She survives him with their two sons.