New tribute to navy’s coastal heroes of war
Veterans left emotional by ceremony to rededicate memorial in Gosport
A D-DAY hero who narrowly dodged death when his motor torpedo boat was destroyed by a German mine has told of his pride attending a ceremony to honour his fallen comrades.
George Chandler was a gunner on MTB 710 in the Adriatic when she set off an acoustic mine and sank on April 10, 1945.
The explosion ripped the boat in half, killing 17 sailors. Miraculously, George managed to escape unharmed.
Speaking to The News, the 94-year-old – who was part of a torpedo boat flotilla on D-Day – said: ‘It was a case of “third time unlucky” for us; three weeks before, we passed over an acoustic mine that blew up about 30 yards behind us.
‘A week later we passed over another one that exploded 10 yards behind us, bending our shafts. We were sailing back to Italy for repairs when we hit the last mine. It blew us in half. It was devastating.’
George, of Hassocks, Sussex, was speaking about his escape after a service to rededicate the Coastal Forces Memorial at Gosport’s old HMS Hornet site.
The facility, now home to the Hornet Services Sailing Club, was a key base for George’s unit, whose job was to fend off Nazi attack boats in the Channel.
The newly-restored monument features the names of boats destroyed during the war.
Mr Chandler felt it was a fitting tribute to his fallen comrades and said: ‘This means everything to me because I lost 19 good shipmates during the war – 17 when my boat sank and two in the Channel during action against a German E-boat.’
Dozens of people attended the ceremony. Among them was Coastal Forces veteran, Peter Bickmore. The 94-year-old, of Romford, was a radar operator and was involved in the invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1943.
He said: ‘This means an awful lot to me. I’m deeply proud to be able to see the rededication and the names of those boats we lost.’
Two P2000 patrol boats, staffed by university naval cadets and serving sailors, also attended the event, alongside the Band of the Royal Marines Collingwood, D-Day survivor HMS Medusa and the venerable Martyn Gough, the navy's chaplain of the fleet.
Unveiling the new memorial was Tamsin Clive, 53, the granddaughter of legendary RNVR officer Lieutenant Commander Robert Paverell Hichens who died during a mission with the Coastal Forces in 1943.
She said it was a ‘great honour’ to take part in the ceremony yesterday and added: ‘I cannot imagine the bravery of going out night after night in these highlydangerous fast, little boats to go and engage in close-quarters with the enemy.’
Vice Admiral Sir Paul Haddacks, chairman of the Coastal Heritage Forces Trust – which funded the memorial alongside the family of Lt Cdr Hichens – said the event was ‘tremendously important’.
He said: ‘This is a memorial to more than 30,000 people who served in Coastal Forces in the Second World War – that’s the size in manpower terms of today’s Royal Navy.
‘It was a very big deal: 30,000 people, 2,000 boats, 500 actions all over the world.’