Edward Sidney Palmer in the Foyle Bank
Well on June 4th I was proceeding down the inside harbour at about 08.30 in the morning, a lovely day, a normal day. I noticed the guard ship was flying the yellow flag, but did not take much notice, for she had been flying that on a number of days lately. When out of the sum they came, enemy dive bombers. Diving straight down onto the guard ship, machine gunning and bombing. Hell let loose, about 20 planes, they appeared to have caught us napping. I immediately told my crew that we were going in to pick up the hands and ratings who were jumping and being blown into the water alongside
of her. There was a barge with work people alongside of Foyle
Bank, a bomb dropped alongside the barge turning it upside down. We got in alongside started to pick up the survivors and dive bombers kept coming machine gunning and bombing, lifting the launch almost out of the water. Well we loaded the hands on
board until we could not carry any more and made for the nearest jetty. Some of the poor fellows were in a sad mess. We landed as quickly as we could and went back for more. By this time the enemy dive bombers had done what they had come to do, the Foyle Bank was on fire and sinking. She went down later in the day. The Lord looked after us that day |
