Can you identify any of these individuals, who belong in the Roll of Honour on this website? Most of the landing craft crewmen known to have died in the Normandy Landings are identified as such. It may seem contradictory to have unidentified names in the Roll of Honour. However there are some mentions in wartime records of crewmen on a particular craft or within a particular unit who died, but whose identities is not recorded (at least, in records I have found to date).
While the relevant war graves organisation – the American Battle Monuments Commission or the Commonwealth War Graves Commission– will record these individuals as war dead. However they may only be identified as a sailor, marine or coastguardsman without naming their specific unit, and are therefore not identified as landing craft crew. Sometimes they will only be listed under the relevant branch of the service, or for British and Commonwealth personnel, under a Royal Navy shore base such as HMS Copra.
In some cases these may prove to be ‘false trails’, for example if an individual was briefly glimpsed in the heat of battle and presumed to be dead, but might actually have survived.
Please let me know if you think you can help. Thank you.
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: LCA 458, 501 Assault Flotilla RN
Place of death: Omaha Beach
Details: Report by Sub Lt Hilaire Benbow states “our coxswain [was] killed”. This appears to mean the coxswain of his own craft. He talks about “the three remaining of my crew” implying that one had died. (Source: The D-Day Story, 2021/82/33, interview with Hilaire Benbow by Martyn Cox).
Date of death: D-Day, soon after 0725
Landing craft or unit: LCS(M) 99, 525 Assault Flotilla RN
Place of death: Off Gold Beach
Details: While supporting 1st Dorsets, LCS(M) 99 was hit astern by a shell and sunk. Three crew were killed outright and two wounded. Two of the dead were Marines Gerald Naylor and John Tully, but the third man’s name is not known. One of the two wounded, Marine Sydney Norman Brownlee Taylor, died while being evacuated on LCA 1147 and was later buried at sea, but is believed not to have been the third man killed – however there is a possibility that he might have been. (Sources: TNA, DEFE 2/416; TNA, ADM 199/1650, Interrogation of survivors).
Date of death: D-Day, soon after 0725
Landing craft or unit: LCS(M) 99, 525 Assault Flotilla RM
Place of death: Off Gold Beach
Details: Marine Norton was stated to be missing from LCS(M) 99 on D-Day, having been lost overboard when the craft was hit. This could be Marine Bernard William Norton, died 8 June 1944, buried at Bayeux War Cemetery? It is unclear why his date of death would not be given as 6 June 1944. (Source: TNA, ADM 199/1650, Interrogation of survivors, LCS(M) 112).
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: LCM 239, 607 Build Up Flotilla RM
Place of death: Gold Beach
Details: Reports mention Marine Norris or Morris who was killed (as well as two other dead who are identified: Marines Jamed Edward Gill and Edward William Durn). (Sources: TNA, ADM 199/1650, Interrogation of survivors). Morris might be: Marine Hugh Morris, PLY/X 105431, died 6 June 1944, HMS Helder, buried at Bayeux War Cemetery.
Date of death: 6-7 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: LCH 275, Group G2
Place of death: Off Gold Beach
Details: During the night of 6-7 June 1944, LCH 275 was hit by splinters from a near miss from a bomb, killing two crewmen. One was Ordinary Telegraphist Richard Henry Wilby, RN, died 7 June 1944, commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. The identity of the other is not known. (Source: TNA, DEFE 2/416, report by DSOAG King Red).
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: 557 Assault Flotilla RM
Place of death: Juno Beach
Details: The report by the Senior Naval Officer (Troops), MV Llangibby Castle, states that one officer and ten Royal Marine ranks from this flotilla were killed “on the beaches” on D-Day. Possibly some were missing. Nine of those individuals have been identified but this leaves two unaccounted for. It is possible that they were missing, and had survived, although the report seems certain that they had died. (Source: TNA, ADM 202/449).
The nine dead Royal Marines who are identified are: Lieutenant Denis St John Batty Atkinson, Marine Edward Charles Brydges, Marine Frank Coulthard, Corporal Wiliam Gregory, Marine William Joseph King, Marine Kenneth Sydney Mew, Corporal Thomas Edward Scott, Marine Sidney Verdun Styles, Marine Eugene Terrell. All are identified as serving with 557 Assault Flotilla or MV Llangibby Castle.
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: LCT(A) 2009, 105 LCT(A) Flotilla RN
Place of death: Juno Beach
Details: The anonymous Flotilla coxswain was killed by a bullet that passed through the slit in the armoured wheel house. (Source: TNA, ADM 179/506-179).
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: LCT(A) 2283, 105 LCT(A) Flotilla RN
Place of death: Juno Beach
Details: Soon after H-Hour, near or on the beach, two anonymous Oerlikon gunners were killed around time that the craft beached. (Source: TNA, ADM 179/506).
Date of death: 6 June 1944
Landing craft or unit: 544 Assault Flotilla RM
Place of death: Juno Beach
Details: One anonymous Royal Marine crewman was swept over the side of his LCA while it was on the beach, and is believed to have died. (Source: TNA, ADM 179/506).
More unidentified names in the Roll of Honour will be added soon.