Tribute and commemoration:

[Admin]

Tribute and commemoration:

A zero tolerance to adverse remarks etc will be fully implemented.

Please do not be put of by this, but the intention is to be purely remembrance orientated:

Admin / Kieran.

[Admin]

A TRIBUTE:

During the Second World War 30,248 British merchant seamen and women were killed, 4654 were considered missing, 4707 were wounded and 5720 became prisoners of war. 2524 ships were sunk and 912 damaged as a result of enemy action. 1359 were sunk by U-boats, 118 by surface raiders, 477 by enemy aircraft and 76 by E-boats. 291 were sunk by mines, 29 floundered from other causes and 89 were lost through other enemy action.

LINK

[Admin]

NEVER FORGET:

RBL LINK

[Admin]

Combined Operations Prayer:

O LORD GOD, our Father, our Saviour, our Might, we pray Thee take into Thy keeping us who are joined together in a trinity of arms on sea, on land, and in the air in this our special service for King and Country. We pledge ourselves to do, to dare, to die that others might live, believing in Him who said; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Grant us faith, courage, and determination that we fail not in whatever duty may lie before us, and may we be enabled by Thy Divine Grace to bear our part in establishing peace on earth and goodwill amongst men. This we ask for Jesus Christ, His sake.

Amen.

[Admin]

The Combined Operations Command was set up by Churchill in the spring of 1940. From 17/07/40 to 27/10/41 Admiral of the Fleet, Roger Keyes held the post of Director of Combined Operations. He was succeeded by Lord Louis Mountbatten who held the redefined post from 27/10/41 until he moved to Burma in October 1943. Major General Robert Laycock then held the post until 1947.

Combined Operations made a huge contribution to the successful outcome of the Second World War by planning, equipping and training for offensive amphibious operations after the evacuation at Dunkirk in June 1940. In the ensuing years there were many raids and landings mostly against the Axis forces from Norway in the north to Madagascar in the south and from the Mediterranean in the west to the Far East, culminating in the D-Day Invasion on the beaches of Normandy on the 6th of June 1944.

Those who served the Allied cause in Combined Operations deserve to be recognised and remembered. After all they trained together, they served together and they died together. It is time to remember them. together.

[Admin]

Looking further in to at the moment: Combined Merchant Navy Operations (COMNO)

Will report further, when we know more.

[Admin]

When my pal Ron Wood and myself had decided to go to Glasgow to look for a job on a deep sea ship in December 1943 we were asked by the shipping master at Tilbury Pool office if we would volunteer for 'Special Duties'- no details were given. We both agreed and a large V was marked on the cover of our ID Cards and embossed. Arriving at Glasgow we signed on Neritina and made a voyage, paying off on 1st May 1944 at Liverpool.

As we were paying off, the crew were asked by a Royal Navy officer for volunteers for 'Special Duties'. Some crew members volunteered and them, Ron and I were told to report to our local shipping office as soon as our leave had expired.

During my leave I saw scores of strange types of ships and craft all heavily armed at anchor in the Thames, and Tilbury Docks was full of ships loading army equipment. So I knew that soon there would be a big operation.

Following our leave and reporting to Tilbury Pool we went to Sheerness and had an intensive gunnery course of four days and were then given travel vouchers for Glasgow and told to report to the COMNO office there - we were now on 'V' Articles.

LINK