- Contributed by听
- onestopshop
- People in story:听
- Alan Boot
- Location of story:听
- Normandy Coast
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A2773668
- Contributed on:听
- 23 June 2004
Alan Boot DDay Normandy Coast
TITLE: THE SINKING OF FDT216
AUTHOR: ALAN BOOT
Typed by Teresa Marsh and entered on the
Peoples War Website with your permission
LOCATION: LEICESTERSHIRE
I was serving on HMS Burdock and17 years old when we left from Portsmouth on D-Day. We went as escort to landing craft tanks until we reached the Normandy coast. We picked up flight direction tender 216, and escorted that within a mile radius, with anti-submarine equipment.
Round about 10 or 12 days after, German aircraft came over looking for the FDT ships and two days later, approximately 12.20 dropped an aerial torpedo and sank the FDT. It turned over and went down at about 1.40 am. They got the signal to abandon ship and went over the side. We went to pick them all up, and put out nets, at the same time we got on radar that there were E boats coming towards us, so we had to leave the survivors and retreat. We told them we come back as soon as we could. We managed to save 250, 5 were lost. Out of the 250, one of them came from Ripon in Yorkshire. As we had saved one of their citizens, Ripon adopted our ship and in return they sent us snakes and ladders and ludo to entertain us at war.
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