He then called up a crack team from the Southsea Sub Aqua Club to make the tricky dive in choppy waters onto the rusting, starfish-encrusted wreck.įinally, John persuaded the mayor of Lion-sur-Mer to build a coastal memorial to those who perished on the LCH185. He drew on the expertise of historians, maritime archaeologists and hydrographic consultants, using vintage maps and sonar to pinpoint the likely location of the sunken vessel, three miles off the coast of Lion-sur-Mer in Normandy. Locating a landing craft that has been severely degraded after so many years underwater in strong currents was inevitably a highly challenging undertaking. Because if we don’t, we’re just going to walk right into the same trap again, and be surprised that it’s happened.”
“We have to try and double down on telling these stories. As Oron stresses: “It’s important to honour those people and thank them because, although I wasn’t even born in the Second World War, my life could be completely different. And so the idea that the story would die with him and that his shipmates would not just be forgotten, but also the whole story would be gone, weighed on him his entire life.”Īcross this story, there is a very strong echo of the poignant phrase we utter on Remembrance Day: “Lest We Forget”. “Patrick was completely convinced he was the only survivor of LCH185. John’s quest is now captured in an affecting new documentary, No Roses On A Sailor’s Grave, which goes out on PBS America this Friday and Sunday.ĭaniel Oron, the producer and director of the documentary, explains why John’s mission was so vital to the veteran. Hearing Patrick’s story, John vowed to use his skills to find LCH185 and build a memorial to its lost sailors. In 2015, quite by chance, he became friends with a 25-year-old archaeologist and historian, John Henry Phillips. No one was sure exactly how many died or where it went down.įor decades afterwards, Patrick, the only known survivor still alive today, felt helpless and guilty, sensing there was nothing he could do to commemorate lost shipmates. In that one appalling moment, at least 35 of the 40 crew members on the ship lost their lives.
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