§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will ensure that a memorial service is held for the men killed on HMS Hussar, HMS Britomart, HMS Salamander and HMS Colsay in the friendly fire incident off Normandy on 27 August 1944; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. SoamesIt is for veterans' associations to organise the commemoration of individual actions if they so wish. Official events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the D-day campaign as a whole were held last year. This year will see the commemoration of victory in 1945.
§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if his Department will give all reasonable assistance to those wishing to organise a reunion for those sailors who survived the friendly fire incident of Normandy on 27 August 1944 involving HMS Hussar, HMS Britomart, HMS Salamander, and HMS Colsay.
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§ Mr. SoamesThe editor of "Navy News", the official newspaper of the Royal Navy, will be pleased to publish a request for survivors of this incident to contact the organisers of any reunion.
§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will lift the embargo on the names of those who died in the friendly fire incident off Normandy on 27 August 1944, involving HMS Hussar, HMS Britomart, HMS Salamander and HMS Colsay, and publish the names of those who survived prior to their dispersal to other units of the Royal Navy.
§ Mr. SoamesThere has never been an embargo on the list of casualties from this incident. Indeed, details of those from the Britomart and the Hussar, the two vessels sunk, were published inThe Times in October and November 1944. Any casualty details from the other vessels involved may well have been included in more general casualty lists frequently published in the press at the time, but these could now be checked only at disproportionate cost.
The names of those who survived would be scattered among any number of contemporary records, and these also could now be checked only at disproportionate cost.