大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez and Chris Comer of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Thomas Jackson and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Sixty years ago on August 27th 1944, I was 22 years of age, on board His Majesty's Royal Navy Ship "HMS Jason" of the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla. The flotilla, having swept with other minesweeping flotilla the whole area for the invasion forces on D-Day, was now moving up the French coast sweeping the areas to open up the French ports for the 8th Army. Unknown to me at this point the flotilla was heading for what we now call "friendly fire". It started when our lead ship "HMS Halcyon" had to go back home for a boiler clean, which meant "HMS Jason" taking over the flotilla of five ships and two trawlers. We anchored up for a day for ships to carry out repairs to equipment and to allow ships' companies to clean up the decks.

The day after, we set sail at dawn for the coastal area, a glorious Sunday sunny day sea calm. I had the forenoon watch on the bridge. At noon Ted relieved me, I went below for my lunch. Suddenly there were explosions and action stations sounded. My action station was the flag deck below the bridge. When I came on deck, I saw one ship listing badly, the crew abandoning ship. As I approached the ladder to the bridge, I saw two spitfires heading for the ship at sea level. The first one opened fire on the ship. I dived behind a locker, then as I got to the ladder, the Chief P.O. shouted from the bridge.

I had volunteered for the ship's whaler which was being lowered on the port side. Now I'm in the whaler, rowed by a team of 8 men with me as the signalman, and my ship is sailing away. Then for the first time I witnessed the scene, vast areas of the sea on fire, bodies floating, cries for help. Then the leading seaman of the whaler told us to get overboard and swim out to the Carly Floats, which had been released from the ships. We pulled them in and tied them up to the whaler, pulled them around the area so men could clamber on board, then myself and the other lads on the whaler went overboard to anyone shouting for help to bring them to the floats.

Eventually we could do no more as we ourselves were full of the oil, the smell was overpowering. Eventually as we sat there it was quiet except for the cries of those burnt.

Suddenly on the horizon a high speed launch was heading for us. Cheers went up. But then I remembered a signal about the area being open to German E Boats. As the launch got nearer we got over the side of the whaler and hung on to the side. The boys on the Carly Floats played dead. Then there were cheers as we spotted on its bows, the bulls-eye insignia of the RAF. It was an RAF rescue launch. The launch then took us on tow. Then an hour later one of our new frigates "HMS Calypso" came on the scene. Once on board the frigate I got a shower, a double rum and change of clothes. The clothes were quite smart - a pinstriped pair of trousers and a tailed coat. I looked just like a bank manager which caused some humour.

Eventually I got back to the "Jason" and on April 10th 1946 I was back on Civvy Street. To this day I have no idea how may ships were lost and the casualties suffered.

This is the end of Thomas Jackson's story, but he would like to contact any shipmates that he served with during World War Two.

Chris Comer did some research on the Internet and came across an article written by George Duncan called "More maritime disasters of WWII". This article stated that the minesweeper flotilla was in the area clearing it of mines to enable the Battleship Warspite to get closer to the French port of Le Havre to bombard the Germans who were still holding out there. The flotilla was attacked by 16 RAF rocket-firing Typhoons, of 263 and 266 Squadrons, accompanied by a Polish squadron of Spitfires. They attacked the Britomart, the Salamander and the Hussar. In just over 2 minutes two ships were burning and sinking and a third badly damaged and on fire. Men swimming in the water also came under fire from German shore batteries. A total of 78 officers and ratings were killed and 149 wounded on these two ships (The Britomart and the Hussar). Counting the dead on the other ships attacked the toll amounted to 117 Royal navy men killed. Survivors were told to keep quiet about the whole affair. A court of enquiry held 2 days later at Arromanches found that this incident was the result of 'an error in communications' from shore based naval staff. The RAF was exonerated.

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