On the night of June 9, PC-1225 changed position on the Dixie Line, moving a little to the southwest, which put her close to the destroyer USS Nelson. Like PC-1225, that ship had previously fouled her port screw and was operating only with its starboard screw. Hyde’s craft and Nelson were separated by about 1,500 yards.

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Early on the morning of June 12, the German E-boats came back. Nelson reported three enemy craft; other reports mention as many as six E-boats. In fact, there were four, and one of them scored a torpedo hit on Nelson that blew off the ship’s stern all the way to her No. 4 gun mount. PC-1225 was ordered to move alongside to take off the seriously wounded. Five wounded men were then transferred to LST-283.

Later that day, PC-1225 returned to Falmouth, England, and went into dry dock. While her port screw was being repaired, the rest of the crew was kept busy with maintenance duties. The respite was short, lasting only a week.

On June 21, PC-1225 returned to the Normandy assault area, this time to perform a different job. ‘From sunrise to sunset we escorted different types of ships to their respective beaches. There were still many minefields off the beachhead; the patrol craft guided the incoming, laden ships down the proper channel,’ said Hyde.

From sunset to sunrise, PC-1225 resumed her duties on the Dixie Line. The threat of German attack was still real. A week after the patrol craft’s return, a German U-boat attacked an Omaha-bound convoy in the English Channel. One freighter was lightly damaged and another three merchantmen were sunk. Fortunately, few lives were lost.

Several days later, PC-1225 participated in a rescue operation off Normandy. ‘In the early evening the British troopship SS Empire Broadsword hit a mine only 800 yards from PC-1225,’ Hyde recalled. ‘The patrol craft pulled directly alongside the ship to take off survivors. There was the constant danger of the ship going down and dragging the patrol craft with it. After taking off 70 men, PC-1225 transferred them to another troopship and resumed its duties.’ The entire episode lasted about an hour.

These duties continued until mid-July, when the patrol craft returned to Plymouth for a two-week stay. On the last day of the month, PC-1225 headed to Cherbourg to support Allied operations there.

Although it was a different location, the ship performed the same job. ‘We were assigned an area outside the harbor area to patrol by moving back and forth,’ said Hyde. ‘It was our job to challenge any ship arriving. We either identified it as friendly, or we opened fire.’ One day they made a radar contact and proceeded to investigate. By the time they identified the ship as friendly, they were within five miles of Aldernay Island. Although the German garrison on the Channel Islands was still occupied by the enemy at that point, PC-1225 was not fired on.

Christmas 1944 saw PC-1225 involved in another rescue operation, this time the result of an unfortunate accident. SS Leopoldville had a crew from the Belgian Congo, a British skipper and two regiments of American infantry. When she was torpedoed by a U-boat on Christmas Eve off Cherbourg, everything that could go wrong did. The crew abandoned ship–apparently without telling the passengers anything. The soldiers were left to fend for themselves and more than 800 died in the frigid waters. ‘We picked up some survivors; then, along with other patrol craft, we commenced an anti-submarine search, but did not make contact,’ said Hyde.

There was no New Year’s Eve party for the crew of PC-1225. Instead, they spent the night escorting 10 LCTs from France back to Dartmouth, England. While they were not at General Quarters during the trip, they were at their underway stations, which kept most of the crew occupied.

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