A Royal Navy veteran who survived the sinking of a freighter off France during the Second World War has died just a few days before the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Able Seaman Lewis Curl, a member of the Bognor Regis branch of the Royal Naval Association, died at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester on May 22. A Royal Navy spokeswoman said the 98-year-old was a D-Day veteran who served with the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1946.
She said that after he had been deployed as a cypher coder on HMS Belfast, he returned on leave to Portsmouth. But a telegram awaited him and he was recalled to join HMS Dacres off Le Havre. He travelled on a freighter carrying a load of army lorries, transport and fuel which was bombed and sunk off the French coast.
Read more: D-Day veteran, 100, dies just before 80th anniversary of landings Describing his survival, the Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “AB Curl jumped into an amphibious vehicle but that was quickly overloaded and started to sink. “As AB Curl swam away, a launch appeared and he was landed ashore. “After wading ashore and drying out, he proceeded along the coast in the dark, walking and obtaining lifts on an army vehicle, finally arriving at the naval base where he was taken by launch to HMS Dacres, who lay at anchor just offshore.
“Able seamen do not get piped aboard ship, but 19-year-old Able Seaman Lewis Curl did. “An officer took him to one side and told him the ship’s company had bets on if he was going to make it. The odds wer.
