The Flight P Convoy Disaster – the largest loss of Landing Craft [Tanks] before D-Day
The Flight P Convoy Disaster – the largest loss of LCTs before D-Day LCT 354 on Newford Rocks, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly The Convoy Departs On 5 th November 1943 the corvette, HMS Bluebell [1], the trawler ‘Man of War’ [2] and tug ‘Empire Rupert' [3] left Gibraltar. Their objective was to escort twenty-five Landing Craft [Tank] and one Landing Craft [Gun] to Milford Haven. Ten days later only one of those craft would have arrived undamaged and then not in Wales, but Cornwall. 20% of the LCTs would have been lost. It was the single largest loss of landing craft to that point – and would only be outdone by D-Day itself. The story of the Flight P Convoy is the story of the where the abundance of the Allies would meet the overstretch of commitments in the late 1943. The extension of the Allied War effort to the invasion of Sicily and then Italy itself had drawn resources to the Mediterranean – where many of the members of Flight P had been transferred in April of that...