EXCLUSIVE: Seventy years after she was sunk off the French coast in the wake of D-Day, a chance encounter launched an extraordinary project to locate the wreck of a British ship… and commemorate those who went down with her.
The 158-foot-long headquarters ship, one of thousands that set forth across the Channel, was part of the first wave heading for Sword Beach in Normandy.
“I had certain qualms in my stomach, but you very quickly dismissed that because you’re busy,” Patrick Thomas, now 98, recalls.
“When we arrived there initially, we didn’t get a very friendly welcome.
“The Germans were rattling machine gun bullets on the hull. I saw the infantry running up the beach and sometimes they’d get shot and go down.”
For the next two weeks, in the heat of battle, LCH185 played a key role in defending the landing beaches and saving survivors from other Allied vessels, which were taking a fearful pounding from relentless German attacks.
Then, on June 25, Patrick’s world changed forever when LCH185 was hit by an acoustic mine. The veteran recollects that cataclysmic moment.
“I didn’t hear the explosion, but it must have lifted the stern up and driven the bow under. The next thing I knew, we were underwater.”
Read the full article on Express.co.uk.

