����ý

The is one of my father’s recollections from the war.

I was a signalman onboard a motor launch - the ML303 - stationed at Portland Harbour and early on the morning of the 28th April we heard a buzz that German “W-boats” had attacked a convoy that night and there were heavy casualties. Now W-boats had featured in reports as the latest German secret weapon to cause mayhem and were supposed to be a glorified E-boat-cum-submarine that was capable of submerging until a convoy passed over, after which they would resurface, fire torpedoes and guns and disappear fast back to France. There was a special signal in the codebook that read “W BOATS ATTACKING”. It transpired that the convoy had been attacked by E-boats.

About an hour after the news of the incident had circulated a flotilla of motor launches, including the ML303, were ordered to proceed west to the Slapton Sands area.

On arrival we found hundreds of dead US soldiers floating and bobbing around. Their body movements were being accentuated by a heavy swell. They were fully clad with steel helmets firmly fastened. A large proportion had badly burnt faces and hands and from a distance we initially mistook them for coloured troops. Having passed through burning oil-covered sea it would seem a fair number had suffocated and in their death throes had drawn their legs up to their May West life jackets, causing them to hunch up with rigor mortis. We pulled them in with boat hooks and set them on the boat sides, along the rails, with their faces facing outboard; we loaded about fifty or so per boat and returned to Portland.

The action of placing the bodies facing outwards was to avoid the crew having to look at the damaged and grotesque faces. However, this served little purpose as the next boat alongside had done the same and we could easily see the awful visage on those boats.

American ambulances manned by coloured GIs were waiting to load the bodies and at first they attempted to carry two on a stretcher but that did not work, as the gangplanks were too narrow and encumbered with safety rails. It was rumoured that they were taken to a local field near Portland and temporarily buried to keep it a secret. The total death toll we later heard was over 700.

We did two trips that day and it was a very subdued crew that evening with the added warning that it was a complete hush-hush affair and under no conditions were the day’s events to be discussed outside the ship, or reported in letters home.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.