Location
In the walkway out of the exhibition area before reaching the shop area of the D-Day Museum.
 
Description
Ship's Bell and plaque.
 

Memorial
HMS Cassandra Bell
 
Plaque
HMS Cassandra PlaqueClick image to enlarge
Inscription (Plaque)
FURIOSIOR UNDIS
IN MEMORY OF
THE MEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE ARCTIC
IN
H.M.S.CASSANDRA
11th DECEMBER 1944
 

BAKER, Alfred
BARNARD, Harry George
BARR, James Henry
BARRETT, John Desmond
BAUER, George
BERRY, Donald Gordon
BLACKWELL, Douglas William
BRITTAIN, Louis James
BROCKSOPP, George
BROWN, William Henry
CANNING, Lawrence Alfred Joseph
CASEY, James
CASSEY, Frederick Sydney
CAUSEY, David
CLARK, Edward Charles
CLARKE, Charles Edward Arthur
CLEGG, William Gordon
COUNSEL, Albert
DOWNIE, Peter John
FORDHAM, George Alfred
GILL, Norman
GOODMAN, Jack Lionel
GURR, George Albert
HAWKINS, James Thomas
HENSBY, Gordon Daniel
HOLLOWAY, Cyril Henry James
HOPKINS, Clifford
HORNSEY, Ernest Edward
HUCKLESBY, William
JONES, James
KILEY, Terence Richard

KISH, John George
MANNING, Harry Wallace
MIALL, Cyril James
MONROE, George Muirhead
MURRAY, Richard Robert
NEAME, Brian Lewis
NEWMAN, Thomas John
NICHOLLS, Samuel Thomas
NIXON, John
OWEN, William
PATON, Geoffrey William
PEARCE, Henry Frederick
PEARSON, Lawrence
REID, Joseph
REUS, Paul William
ROBERTS, Henry
ROBSON, James William
RODGERS, James Joseph
ROCHELL, William John
SAYER, John Malcolm
SHILLAKER, William Edward
SMITH, Kenneth John
SMITH, Robert Arthur Garden
SMITH, Stanley William
STOVELL, Roy William Arthur
WAKE, Jack Sydney
WAKEFIELD, Geoffrey William
WARNER, William Edward
WATERWORTH, William Frederick Jones
WATSON, John Charles
WEBB, Richard William Arthur


 
MARK WELL THIS TIME IN PASSING YEARS
WHEN MEN OF COURAGE GAVE THEIR LIVES
SO LOST TO US THAT GREY DECEMBER.
MARK THIS DAY THAT BROUGHT US TEARS
STILL RESTING QUIETLY 'NEATH THE WAVES
BRAVE HEARTS, FOREVER THEN REMENBER
 
JOHN E.BARNARD
H.M.S.CASSANDRA.

 

Further information (on explanatory board next to the plaque):
 
H.M.S.CASSANDRA AND THE ARCTIC CONVOYS.
 
H.M.S.Cassandra was a 'C' class destroyer, completed in July 1944. She was allocated to Arctic convoy duties with the 6th Destroyer Flotilla. On 10 December 1944 she left Murmansk, escorting twenty eight ships on the return leg from Russia. Just before six o'clock next morning she was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and 62 crewmen, whose names are recorded on this plaque, lost their lives. Despite her bow being completely blown away, H.M.S.Cassandra was towed back to KOLA Inlet. She returned to home waters in 1945 and continued in service until 1967, at which time she was based here in Portsmouth. Service in the Arctic convoys carrying military supplies to Russia was probably the most arduous and unpleasant task given to any ship during the Second World War. In appalling weather conditions, the convoys were within range of German Aircraft, surface ships and U-boats, and long hours of daylight meant there was no respite from attack. Nevertheless the convoys provided vital support to sustain the Soviet struggle against Germany on the Eastern Front, which made possible the successful Allied invasion in the West in June 1944.
 
The names of those lost are commemorated on the CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL, Kent.
 
Details of those lost can be found at www.cwgc.org search against the name of the individual.
 
The ages and ranks of the above can be found at David Axford's site along with further details of the action.
 

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