Naval Force 'L'

Is this a document you'll be publishing soon?

 

That'll be up to the National Museum of the Royal Navy who I'm preparing it for. I hope to finish it soon though.

Also, slight amendment to my last – of the 2924 warships, ancillary and merchant ships, the 423 ancillary and 1,260 merchant were not all part of the assault waves.

 

From the War Diary it is very likely my uncle sailed on serial 3018 as part of B Coy 1st Gordons landing at Mike on Juno later on the 6th. I m trying to ascertain the pennant number for this LCI(L). If I am following the green list correctly 3018 falls to ‘A’ LCI(L) Squadron: 252 LCI(L) Flotilla & 253 LCI(L) Flotilla comprising pennants 109, 122, 123, 127, 129, 172, 176, 242, 243, 256 & 103, 104, 105, 106, 110, 178, 182, 268, 307. Is there any way to narrow this down further?

 

A highly commendable and extremely useful reference work on Force ‘L’. Thanks for sharing it all.

In my quest to possibly find out what part my Father played on the Normandy beaches as a Leading Radio Mechanic, I note some interesting entries.

1) VHF Advanced Signal Maintenance Section RN.
2) Beach Commando.

In addition, from my research so far there were also Combined Operations Communication Officers (COCOs) and Naval Parties (NP).
NP1659, 1658, and 1660 also departed from the Thames (info from Admiralty Battle Summary 39)
Naval Parties and Beach Commandos may be different names for the same groups?
'Thames' departures are of interest because Dad's S459 states HMS Lynx from May to December 1944 with no ships in brackets but perhaps he was transferred to a ship waiting in the Thames for his journey to the Normandy beaches?

Therefore, all those leads may be of interest but my question to those far more experienced in this WW2 research is, would names of personnel in all the above groups be recorded somewhere and if so how do I go about finding / researching that info?

Many thanks.

Best regards,

Steve

 

Steve,

Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but if your father was not listed as on board a ship or belonging to a specific unit, and unless you have evidence that he actually landed on the Continent, his service record would indicate he did not go overseas but instead remained at HMS Lynx, where there was certainly lots of maintenance and repair work to be done by a qualified Leading Radio Mechanic.

Michel

 

Hi Michel,
Thanks for your reply. Nothing dampened as it's all part of the research.

Yes, HMS Lynx for the entire posting could be the case.

I have photographs taken by my Father that prove he was involved in Minelaying whilst at HMS Lynx, Dover, which would have been aboard HMS Plover that was based at Dover for the Minelaying Operation ‘Maple’ leading up to D-2.

Another Minelayer, HMS Apollo, based on Portsmouth, was also involved in Operation 'Maple' and early on D+1 she embarked the Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, along with Admiral Ramsey and other staff officers from Portsmouth to visit the assault areas begining with OMAHA. She damaged a propellor in shallow water and the visiters returned on HMS Undaunted.

The P&V search results received from the RN earlier this year did not reveal any further detail about HMS Lynx to what is shown on his original S459 I have.
The ‘Guide to Understanding Service Records’ the RN sends with their search results does state that personnel involved with Combined Operations would not have ships shown in brackets.
My Father was at HMS Woolverstone (Combined Ops base) in Suffolk for 2 months shortly before D-Day and by then was a Leading Radio Mechanic.
That additional training is what makes me think he could have gone overseas for the Normandy landings in some Combined Ops role as a Radio Mechanic?

Like many he didn’t speak of his experiences but his last few passing words to our Mother before ‘crossing the bar’ were recollections of seeing bodies on the beaches, possibly OMAHA.
Therefore those facts wet my curiosity about being overseas. Of course I could be entirely wrong and he did spend all his time at HMS Lynx as you kindly summise.

If he was transferred between many ships during this period does anyone know if that might also account for no ships in brackets?

Many thanks.

Steve

 

Mike
I am interested in the details of Force L you have compiled.
My father remembered camping near Grays. I presume this to be location S1.
His army record states his embarkation on the 2nd of June. I assume this does not necessarily mean he was onboard from this date but when he came under the control of the Force L.
He stated that he boarded an American LST and spent the crossing on deck.
Their LST tried to land but was told to reverse back out by the beach master.
They landed the next day and the beach was still being cleared of mines by flail tanks
He reached his objective on the 11th of June with 13 others according to his commanding officers war diary.
The location was the Divisional Maintenance Area just over the Orne bridge just north of Ranville.
His unit was the 6th Airborne Divisional Ordnance Field Park.

 

John,

An interesting story, and one worth enlarging upon. I will see what I have on the seaborne tail of the airborne division. the following spring to mind:

The LST was comparatively comfortable, certainly compared with LCT and LCI. I imagine that he would remain on the LST once aboard. The original intention was that D Day would be 5th June. Photographs show that troops made themselves comfortable in or under their vehicles or attached canvas.

There were problems for some airborne vehicles. They landed on Juno but could not then reach the Orne since the area between was not clear of the enemy.

Although your post is addressed to me I am sure others will wish to contribute.

Mike

 

Thanks for the reply Mike.
I forgot to mention that my father said he landed at Sword beach. He had to carry a bicycle off the LST that was immediately dumped once clear of the beach. I expect this would be Queen section. They had difficulty digging in due to hard ground. Dead bodies had not been cleared from the bridges when they crossed but the British artillery was in action close by.

Regards John

 

Hello John,

Do you have the 1944 War Diary for 6 Airborne Div Ord Fd Pk RAOC? If so, is there any mention of Det 3's ship or craft? Some War Diaries still include as appendices the nominal loading tables or similar docs...

Michel

 

Michel

Yes I do have a copy of the War Diary via the Pegasus Archive website. It is written by Captain F.A.Lowe who does give details of the the vessel that Det 2 used. This is LCI/J30. They landed at Juno beach in the Nan Star area at 11:45 on the 6th of June. LCI/J30 had offloaded some Canadian troops first at 06:30. They did not reach their objective until the 8th of June after passing through code worded areas called ARCHIE and HOMER.
Unfortunately Captain Lowe does not mention what vessel Det 3 arrived on, only that the party of 14 other ranks arrived on the 11th of June.

John