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[*Navy*]

Desmond Courtenay Frederik Lloyd was a Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R. and was
25 on D-Day. His parents had been killed by bombs in February 1944; his
house had been burned down a month before. He was Liaison Officer in
charge of signals and was on the bridge.

Over the voicepipe came the signal "Torpedo Babood" (Norwegian port side).
Instantly everybody on the bridge swung around with binoculars but they
were not necessary, the torpedo tracks could be clearly seen. They were
coming directly for the section of the ship beneath the bridge which was
the forward ammunition section. "How high will I fly" thought Lloyd.
He had been on many convoys and had seen many ships sunk but this looked
like the end. " Svenner" is stopped waiting for the minesweepers to go
ahead and move along the coast so that ships could take up bombarding
positions - 1 1/2 miles off shore. The Captain yelled "Hard a port -
full ahead starboard - full astern port". To make ship swing to port
in order to "count" the tracks - turn so that torpedoes passed parallel
with side. Slowly - too slowly - the head turned to port. Thus
presenting the boiler room as the target. But the manoeuvre was not
fast enough. The torpedoes hit the boiler room, breaking Svenner's back.
It was obvious that Svenner couldn't stay afloat, so the Captain gave the
order to abandon ship. There were about 30 casualties. Svenner had
only been commissioned for six short months. They went down doing a V
sign - bow and aft pointing upwards.

They stayed in the water for about half an hour and were picked up by the
destroyer "Swift.

Lloyd swam about for about twenty minutes with a broken leg. Every time
he kicked [crossed out]he yelled like hell[end crossed out] the sailor yelled like hell.

Afterwards Lloyd apologised to the sailor "Sorry about the kicking, but
it was either that or we'd both drown!"

It was the only time throughout the war that Lloyd wore his lifejacket.
The CO insisted on that day. He lost his wallet and gold pencil.

Lloyd will drop a line with the address of others aboard Svenner.