I’m just having a drink to the memory of my late father-in-law, Chief Petty Officer Harry James RN, chief engineer of a Royal Navy Landing Craft Flotilla, who 75 years ago tonight was being fished out of Portsmouth Harbour by the crew of a US Navy DUKW…
With the flotilla being held in total security lock-down in Portsmouth Harbour, he and his No.2 decided to row across from Portsmouth to Gosport, to ‘look for spare parts’. Having unsuccessfully searched most of Gosport’s licenced premises for spare parts, they realised that needed to get back to LCT(E) 413 in time to sail for Normandy, so made their way unsteadily back to His Majesty’s Rowing Boat… Only to find that some [insert an appropriate lower-decks naval epithet of your choice here] had nicked it…
Being trained Commandos and bolstered by the Courage bestowed on them by the Dutch, they decided to swim for it…
Had the USN not happened to be passing by, they might have become D-Day’s first casualties…
God Bless you Harry, and thanks for telling me that story… You certainly never told Jean or Sue! 🙂
Above: Harry’s vessel on D-Day – LCT(E) 413. This was a very rare vessel – only four LCT(E) were employed during the Normandy Landings and this (Harry’s photo – taken at Port Said in 1946) is the only photo I’ve ever seen of one. It was the Emergency Repair (E) variant of the Landing Craft Tank (LCT) and instead of the tank-deck it had workshops for the at-seas repair of landing craft. Unlike the standard LCT, there was also an upper deck with offices, cabins and stores, plus stowage and davits for its own motor-launch (and presumably Harry’s rowing-boat).