Under cover of a dark spring night, an American patrol craft crept cautiously through the English Channel toward the coast of France. The crew of PC-1225 was unable to see any other ships around them that might be steering in the same direction. But when early daylight came on June 6, 1944, the patrol craft’s crew witnessed a sight never seen before or since–an armada of more than 5,000 vessels. Spread across the Bay of the Seine, a few miles off the beaches of Normandy, this mammoth force included half a dozen battleships and more than 1,000 landing craft.

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That massive flotilla is now legend. But one can imagine the awe on the faces of PC-1225’s dog-tired crew. Since sailing from the southern coast of England, most of the crew had been at General Quarters. Few of the men had gotten any sleep–for the second time in as many days.

My father, Louis S. Hyde, was aboard PC-1225. He was typical of many of his fellow crewmates in that he had graduated from high school in 1941 when the United States was still at peace. Admittedly, Lend-Lease and active convoy protection by the U.S. Navy to safeguard the military hardware made it a tenuous peace at best, but what did all that mean to an 18-year-old eager to get on with life?

‘I had landed a job working at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft company in Baltimore, Md.,’ Hyde remembered. ‘The 50 cents an hour I was paid was like a small fortune in those post-Depression days. The company, which had sent out recruiting teams to local high schools, was producing the B-26, better known as the Marauder medium bomber.’ When the United States ended up at war six months later, workers at defense-related industries were not called up. But Hyde grew tired of building airplanes and wanted to play a more active part in the war effort. It wasn’t hard to get out of a defense industry, provided you joined the service.

He did his two months of Navy boot camp at Sampson, N.Y., and on October 21, 1943, Seaman 2nd Class Hyde joined PC-1225 at its home port at Staten Island, N.Y. Four days later, the ship headed south for the first of several convoy runs from New York to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Commissioned in January 1943, Hyde’s patrol craft was a flush-decked sub-chaser. At only 173 feet long, she felt cramped to the small crew of 65 men. Her main armament included one 3-inch deck gun mounted forward, a 40mm Bofors gun aft of the superstructure and three 20mm anti-aircraft guns mounted on the flying bridge. On the bow were two Mark 20 launchers for throwing eight small depth charges forward of the vessel. On the fantail were two racks for dropping depth charges plus two K-guns for throwing additional depth charges farther out from the craft. More than 300 of these ships, the PC-461 class, were produced during the war.

In January 1944, orders came for the move to England. PC-1225, along with PC-552 and PC-55, escorted a large, slow-moving convoy across the Atlantic. Then PC-1225 went on to Plymouth, escorting 10 LCIs (landing craft, infantry).

PC-1225 participated in practice exercises off Slapton Sands in Start Bay, along the southern coast of England. Similar to the Normandy beaches, Slapton Sands was used by units participating in the invasion to hone their amphibious skills. The patrol craft were part of the escort force to and from the practice area. Once they reached the area, they functioned as control vessels for the successive waves of landing craft. The dual missions kept them busy all the time.

Unfortunately, the Germans also operated in the vicinity. Toward the end of April, German Schnellboote or S-boats–motor torpedo boats called E-boats by the Allies–attacked a U.S. force protected by British ships at Slapton Sands. Two LSTs (landing ships, tank) were sunk and another damaged; worse still, nearly 1,000 men lost their lives. The LSTs were part of Task Force U, which derived its name from Utah Beach, where it was destined to land. Despite the attack, the Allies continued to use Slapton Sands as a training area. Regardless of the threat of German action, the area was too ideal to be abandoned. Following the disaster at Slapton Sands, PC-1225 became part of Task Force O (for Omaha Beach).

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