I recently read an account of D-Day as follows from Major C Giddings 629th Field Squadron RE: ‘On going on deck as we approached the Normandy coast the first thing I saw was a destroyer which had been mined going down by the stern and at that moment a Sten gun was let off accidently on the mess desk and three men were unfortunately killed. Not an auspicious beginning.’ I did a trawl of men from this unit on the CWGC website who were killed between 05 and 07 June 1944 and buried or commemorated in the UK or France and they were as follows: BROWN H A COPELAND W CRISP G R CROWCROFT S DICK F GORDON W HALL J LIDDLE B R McCOWAT W McDOUGAL G N PIKE J G PLURIGHT J D POTTER H D PUGH A W WALKER A O WALLBANK W H WALLIS C E WALTERS E Digging into each name on the CWGC website I could not work out which three men might have been the ones who suffered as a result of this ND. So I have a question does anyone know who these men were? Also five of those mentioned above have NKG and are therefore commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial..Is it possible the three were ‘buried’ at sea perhaps on the way back and therefore ended up on the Bayeux Memorial? No one from this unit appears to have been buried in the UK who died between these dates.....
629 Field Squadron were landed by LCA from four different LSI(L). Any casualties on the LSI(L) should have returned to the UK with it. I dont think they would have time for burial at sea anyway. Mike
I would agree with your 'theory' but..there are no men from this unit recorded on the CWGC website with a date of death between 5 and 7 June 1944 who are buried or commemorated in the UK so your suggestion regretfully doesn't agree with the records.....
I was really only showing an interest in this. I am interested in all the byways etc of Sword Beach. I have recently read through the huge volumes of orders and instructions and have most of the War Diaries but not this one. I have some tentative theories which I will try and test. Perhaps the War Diary can help if anyone has a copy. Such an incident should be recorded. Perhaps the writer misremembers the details. Perhaps the casualties were not from this unit, 629 had some 40 men on each LSI out of perhaps 800. But I am only musing at the moment. Mike
I also have a passing interest as I found this comment when doing some notes for a tour in June on D-Day and wanted to see if the story could be followed through....
