11/12/2025
🌺🇨🇦🎗🇬🇧 Lest We Forget 🇬🇧🎗🇨🇦🌺
On the 11th Hour
of the 11th Day
of the 11th Month
We will
Remember You
WE REMEMBER THE GREATEST GENERATION
OPERATION OVERLORD
D-Day June 6, 1944. LT/JX Dennis Perry Wireless Operator. Aboard Royal Navy Minesweeper #8 HMS Alafoss (Sunk by a Pressure Mine - 4 Survivors) Operation Overlord. The first to cross the English Channel on D-Day, mine-sweepers cleared the way for the invasion of France. Cracking the defenses of the Atlantic Wall had to begin with safe passage to the coast of France. This would not have been possible without the often-overlooked mine-sweeping force. The nature of their mission meant they had to be the first to go in, but also the nature of mine-sweeping did not guarantee they would completely clear a path in one go. Losses to mines were expected, and happened. Over a dozen landing craft, two destroyers, a destroyer es**rt, two troop ships, and three mine-sweepers of Mine Squadron 7, were lost to naval mines in the western beaches on June 6 and the days following. Many of these losses were the result of new and difficult to sweep German pressure & magnetic mines. However, without the work of the minesweepers these losses could have started off the coast of England and not France.
(The true story and in his own words - H.J. Jones, the cook from the crew aboard Mine-sweeper No 8. Tuesday D-Day June 6 1944. ) { He became ill with appendicitis the morning of the invasion. } So his fate was sealed as being the only other seaman from Mine-sweeper # 8 that survived other then the four survivors from the mine explosion and sinking of the HMS Alafoss. LT/JX Dennis Perry was below deck, manning the wireless at the moment of the mine explosion. He suffered a broken arm & leg from the mine going off and water quickly engulfed him below deck as he struggled to make his way to the surface.
H.J. Jones
My Shipmates on Minesweeper No 8
We were young and lively shipmates
we served side by side at sea
We swept the Channel waters
and kept the sea-lanes free.
Twas said our boats were made of wood
The men were made of steel
We dealt in high explosive mines
The dangers were for real.
We shared the traumas and the fears
With witty words of jest.
We were a shipboard family
I was serving with the best.
A major ' op ' kept me on shore
A lucky break no less
I still hear them shouting ' Good Luck Jim '
See you back at Sheerness.
They sailed across to Normandy
To join a coastal sweep
Were blown up in the Channel
And sank beneath the deep.
Of those brave and valiant matelots
Only four survived
All victims of a tragic war
Where thousands more had died.
It happened so long ago
For me a quirk of fate
But I'll never forget my shipmates
On Minesweeper No 8.
D-Day June 6,1944 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇫🇷🎗🌺
{ I am a retired Canadian Armed Forces Veteran
I es**rted D Day Veterans to the 50th D Day Anniversary in Normandy France }
