大象传媒

Two Days To Remember

Going on deck of the Cap Tourane on the morning of June 24th 1944, to the east the destroyer H.M.S.Swift was sinking, having hit a mine, and to the west the merchant ship 鈥淒errycunihy鈥� was on fire, also having hit a mine and subsequently beached.

The casualties from both ships were brought aboard the Cap Tourane. The ship acted as accommodation for minor landing craft crews operating on Sword Beach. After forty-eight hours without protection, they needed two days on board the ship to recuperate. Sword beach was still under shell fire from the Germans, and during the afternoon a Landing Craft, Gun, which had been hit, came alongside and passed over its wounded. In the evening my three cabin mates Sub.Lieutenant R.Sturgess R.N., Sub.Lieutenant G.Findlay R.N.V.R., and Captain D.G.Thomas R.M., spent time talking to the wounded, something I couldn鈥檛 do.

The next day, Sunday, transfer of the wounded to a Hospital Ship began. The four of us were in our cabin writing letters. Sub.Lieutenant Findlay and Captain Thomas finished theirs and decided to go on deck to see how things were going, Dick Sturgess and I to join them when we had finished ours. A short while later we heard that we had been hit, and then that we were on fire. We were not. On our way to the upper deck Dick and I learned that the Commander鈥檚 cabin had been hit, so we went to see if he had been injured. As we moved along the passageway, the Commander appeared at the other end, and beckoned us to join him.

He took us out on to the main deck and asked us to attend to two bodies that were there. We checked their identities. One was a Royal Marine Private, the other our cabin mate, Captain Thomas. When we had dealt with the bodies, we made enquiries about Sub.Lieutenant Findlay. We were told that he had lost an arm, but had given himself a shot of morphia, and walked aboard the Hospital Ship. Unfortunately he died on the way back to England. I have always regretted that I did not write a letter of condolence to my colleagues next of kin.

Later, while we were having dinner, the conversation was very subdued. Suddenly, over the Tannoy came a record we had heard nearly every day since May 24th when we joined the ship at Tilbury, 鈥淧istol Packing Momma鈥�, by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. The mood changed instantly. Though we were never to forget, it brought us back to the job in hand. Similar records had been played to keep up our spirits and morale.

Captain Thomas was buried in France, Sub.Lieutenant Findlay鈥檚 name appears on the Naval Memorial on Southsea Common as he was buried at sea.

Geoff Ensor.
Sub.Lieutenant R.N.V.R. 602 L.C.M Flotilla.

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