LCT 413 and tug Empire Folk D-Day

I see that the tug Empire Folk was ordered to take the disabled LCT 413 to Normandy. She arrived with her tow on D-Day (time unknown), probably making her the first tug to do so. Where could I find the log of LCT 413, please?

Roy

 

Not that I want to sound too discouraging, but LCT logs are very hard to find. There are very few at the National Archives, the closest to what you seek being that of LCT 412, but most seem to have disappeared. Some, or a copy of them, might have been kept by their skipper though.

You might want to contact Tony Chapman, archivist of the defunct LST & Landing Craft Association, who might just have some info on LCT 413?

Michel

 

Hello Roy,
Very few HM ship logs have survived after 1940. Ship movements are held in ADM 199 not sure if that information is of use
Regards
Hugh.

 

Roy,

The RN Green List will tell you where 413 was immediately prior to D-Day and give you a flotilla number (don't know if you already have this).

In the probably absence of a log you could try looking for the diary of the unit she was transporting if known.

 

Thank you gentlemen,

I will follow the leads.

Roy

 

LCT(3) 413 of 4 LCT Flotilla, K LCT Squadron (location Southampton as per Green List 5 Jun 44) was LTIN 1141, together with LCT(3) 302 LTIN 1140), the two of them forming Group 331(e) planned for loading at Hard S.1 at 1800 (Time Zone minus 2 thus add 2 1/2 hours for local time) D-2, was scheduled to land on MIKE Sector at H+4 hrs on D Day.

Here's the load she was planned to carry (Unit Serial Number between brackets) - "Pty" means Party i.e. Personnel:
85 Fd Coy RE (30695) - 2x 3 Ton GS with Veh Pty of 4
19 Wks Stores Sec RE (37519) - Marching Pty of 1
8 Kings S Coy (A Tk Pl) (24843) - 3x Guns 6 Pr A Tk with Marching Pty of 15
190 Coy Pnr Corps (24214) - Marching Pty of 37 (Unit Detailing O.C. Troops)
51 RAF Balloon Unit - 1 Balloon with Marching Pty of 2
190 Tons Priority Stores

Michel

 

Great knowledge Michel. Gives a perfect answer.

 

Michel,

Many thanks. I assume she must have been disabled somewhere in the eastern Solent, where the Empire Folk was on station. I have sent an e-mail to Tony Chapman.

Roy

 

Michel and Roy,

While typing up some notes on Force 'J' taken from 'Report of Naval Commander Force 'J' ', I came across the following.

At 2125 hours LCT 413 of Group 313 broke down near the Nab Tower and was towed back to the Solent.
At 2140 hours LCT 2428 of Group 314 broke down and anchored. It sank while being towed back to the Solent.
.
Mike.

Edited to correct error.

 

Found the report. Here is the verbatim text.

'At 2125, LCT 413 of Group 313, loaded with priority ammunition, broke down near the Nab Tower. She was eventually towed back to the Solent and so far as is known did not cross the Channel.'

'At 2140, LCT 2428 of Group 314 broke down and anchored near the Nab Tower. She eventually sank while in tow, without casualties.'

'At 2220, MTB 328 of Group 301 had engine failure and returned to Portsmouth under tow.'

Clearly there were tugs standing by in case of breakdown.

Mike

 

I suppose this begs the question - if the ammunition was a priority cargo was 413 repaired and crossed to Sword or was the cargo transferred to another vessel?

 

Roy,
Would it not be worthwile looking at the logbook of EMPIRE FOLK. At least that would give you accurate times and dates
regards
Roger

 

It must be either a typing error in the Report (not uncommon), or that LCT 413 changed groups (unlikely), because in the Loading Programme no LCT(3) was planned in Group 313, and LCT 413 is clearly stated as part of Group 331(e), as is LCT 2428 as part of Group 312(b ). There's no mention of MTB 328, probably because it did not load anyone/anything.

Michel

 

Trux, Mike, Roger,

Thanks all. I found the story on Mike Kemble's site whilst looking for newspaper cuttings about merchant ships at D-Day, I will try to attach it. I am still looking for the Daily Sketch report, their man was on the ss Sampep in ETM1. It appears that the Empire Folk (MOWT, managers Rowbothams) was instructed to tow the LCT 413, with her cargo of ammunition, to Normandy. Winser and the Thames Tug site both record that she was the first tug to arrive off the beachhead on the 6 June (probably a single source). After delivering her tow she continued to work there, presumably until she was sent back to Selsey on the 28th.

Re the log book, I think that the best I am likely to find is her Official Log with the Articles and that won't tell me much, if anything. Looking through the Official Log of the LSI(L) Empire Spearhead last week there seemed to be a gap from about 5 June. I didn't look at the other twelve Empire LSIs as I got weary, as I often do now!

Roy

 

Trux, Mike, Roger,

Just noticed my mistake, The Daily Sketch man was on the Empire Spearhead; the man from the Telegraph was on the Sampep.

Roy

 

Roy, it would be interesting to see the cuttings if you can find and post them.

 

Mike,

I only have copies of two articles in the Daily Mirror (part of one below), one from The Times and a little bit from Edmund Townshend's obituary, also below. The Mirror copies are almost unreadable, but I will do my best to copy them. In the meantime this will give you some idea. I have e-mailed Colindale to see if I can get copies of the other papers at a reasonable price.

Roy


Edmund Townshend, the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, was attached to the Merchant Navy and given blue battledress, with a war correspondent's shoulder tabs and a big MN on the chest. ‘I don't envy you, old man,’ said the news editor. When he sailed aboard the British Liberty Sampep on D-Day, he wrote: ‘I have been given an insight into the comradeship, courage and unfailing good humour of this brotherhood of the sea. I shared with them the hazards of war. As for grit - well, everyone of the 50,000 men now ferrying a thousand Merchant Navy ships with war supplies to France, is doing the job of his own free will.’
On the morning of D-Day in the Strait of Dover, he watched the ship astern (Sambut) take a direct hit which cost twenty lives. Later, in another ship, which was loaded with 800 tons of high-explosive ammunition, the chief officer observed: ‘One enemy shell into this lot and you won't know where to look for your typewriter.’
Peter Duffield, the 'Evening Standard Merchant Navy Reporter' joined what must have been the trooper Neuralia in the London Docks. Duffield also said that there were 1,000 merchant ships manned by 50,000 Merchant Navy men, all volunteers. This must have been from a Ministry of Information hand-out, as The Times 'Special Correspondent with the Merchant Navy' quotes the same figure. The Times man gives an outline of the service's involvement from Norway in 1940 to Italy in 1944. He also correctly describes the thirteen Empire LSI(L)s as 'designed by the Sea Transport Division of the Ministry of War Transport and built in California under the Lend Lease Agreement.'

Their battle dress: vests and grey flannels The Daily Mirror Monday 12 June 1944
By John Hogan, with the Merchant Navy
The men I sailed with to a Normandy beachhead are back in port again – enjoying a brief spell of shore leave before weighing anchor once more – washed and shaved for the first time in a week. In the little town where we celebrated our return and toasted the boys we left on the sandy beach, no one noticed the Merchant Navy men … the men who worked in flannels and vests under dive- bombing attacks and snipers' bullets.
They drank their beer unheeded in a bar crowded with civilians who talked of only one thing – the invasion. And when the evening ended they returned to their ship – to find her already loaded with hundreds of tons of bombs, shells and ammunition and awaiting orders to sail.
This is the life of the Merchant Navy in this huge Combined Operation. Protected only by light anti-aircraft guns, they are the most cheerful crowd in danger. They up their tin hats and swear steadily at the Me 109s and Ju 88s, and then grin as the bombs explode harmlessly in the 'suds' (?). That happened twenty five times one night while I was with them, and in the morning they had forgotten that ordeal to the extent that they never mentioned it. Such coolness is typical of the Merchant Navy.
On the way over, in between the watches they played Nine-Card brag on the mess-room table, oblivious to the roar of fighters and bombers above. Only when the kitty of 25s – won by the Major who landed on the beach next morning – was cleared did the think of the picnic ahead. And then, when we did drop anchor among the dozens of other vessels, they were disappointed by the lack of 'excitement.'
While we lay offshore a big landing-barge passed us, packed with about two to three hundred squatting Germans, including three generals with their suitcases already packed.
On the beach French women were helping with the wounded. They had put on white frocks with red crosses.
Two newcomers joined us during that first afternoon – two glider-pilots who obeyed orders to return to the beach immediately after landing. …..
He notes that the youngest member of the ship's crew was seventeen year old Charlie Brooker, who had hitch-hiked from Barnsley to Hull with only x shillings in his pocket, and had a 'rare do' explaining things to his mother. Charlie joined the Merchant Navy just in time for D-Day. …
Now the men I lived with for a week – eating, sleeping and bomb-ducking on hundreds of tons of petrol and ammunition – are sailing for the beachhead again, with their neat pin-stripped suits with the silver M.N. Badges stowed away. They are wearing their patched flannels again – the battle dress of the Merchant Navy.


Empire Spearhead correspondent from The Daily Sketch

 

Here are the press cuttungs I have so far

View attachment Mirror.tif

View attachment Mirror2.tif
View attachment Times.tif

 

Roy,

Thanks for posting those, the Times piece gives some good stats but I can't make out the text in the Mirror2 file.

I like Arthur Hall and Francis West's comments in the first Mirror piece, "We didn't know she was carrying ammunition", "If we did we would have given her a longer tow-line".

 

Mike,

The most importatnt parts of Mirror2 are in my previous message John Hogan. In all there are four articles - the first is Mirror, then the Empire Folk. Yes I like the one about the longer towline. I tried Tony Chapman, but the e-mail address I got is no longer in use.

Roy