Page 1 of 1

FNFL Poulmic, 7 November 1940

Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2024 10:16 pm
by Laurent Rizzotti
Hello, on this date, the patrol boat FNFL Poulmic sank off Plymouth after hitting a mine. All sources I have found agree that 11 of her 18 crew were killed.

Problem is that I have only been able to identify 8 French crew members lost this day (see for example https://www.francaislibres.net/liste/li ... d=11&jod=7 for their names, all listed under "FNFL / marine de guerre") and one Royal Navy liason officer, Ty/Lt Hugh Marston (https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1940-11NOV.htm).

A detailed story of the sinking (https://www.france-libre.net/la-fin-du- ... r-poulmic/) said that one of the survivors, a British sailor, sank after the sinking to confort other survivors. Another source (https://shipsproject.org/Wrecks/Wk_Poulmic.html) list 8 French dead and 4 French survivors.

My guess is that the numbers listed eveywhere (11 dead and 7 survivors) are probably right, but the two missing dead were probably not French, and probably British. The problem is that I see no evident candidate in the British casulaties.

Does anyone have a document listing the casualties of this sinking ? Thanks in advance

Re: FNFL Poulmic, 7 November 1940

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2024 7:40 pm
by crolick
Happy Wed Laurent,

RN had 32 casualties on that day:
HMS REED 15
HMS WILLIAM WESNEY 6
HMS NIMROD 3
HMS EGRET 2
HMS VALIANT 1
HMS GIRL HELEN, HMS GREENFLY, HMS BRADFORD, HMS POULMIC, HMS ROYAL ARTHUR 1 each

I would research the 2 from HMS EGRET as she was not conducting any specific action at the time of the sinking for POULMIC so perhaps they were onboard the ship when it went down?!

Hope that helps!
Andrzej