Nic Evans writes > I believe my grandfather, Harry E A Young, was a wireless operator on FDT 217 on D-Day. I can’t see any mention of it in his records but I wondered if there was a list of people on board the tender that day?

Ron Muggleton responds > There are two reasons why you may not find detailed information on an individual:

   a) If the person was not an officer, they often do not get a mention in official records unless they perform an outstanding deed.

   b) Radar was top secret at the time and so no mention was made of it on individual Service Records.

There is an excellent book called “Canadians on Radar 1940 to 1945”,  authored by George K Grande, Sheila M Linden and Horace R McCauley, and published by the Canadian Radar History Project.  The aim of this book is to publicise the part played by over 5,000 Canadian airmen who trained to become radar operators and mechanics, and then served with the Royal Air Force.

In this book, there is a section on the Fighter Direction Tenders (pages XI-4 to XI-19).  It gives an account of the FDTs from the perspective of the Canadians who served on them, including photographs of some of the men who served on FDT 217.  It also gives an account of what the ships were, and how they were converted to FDTs along with personal stories of men who served on them.  On page XI-19 there is a list of men who served on FDT 217 but they are all Canadians – because the book is about the Canadians.  However, they will likely have been comrades of your father and will no doubt have trained with him before serving on FDT 217 off the British / Canadian Normandy beaches (Sword, Juno and Gold).

FDT 217 was positioned off Omaha and Utah beaches, and was sunk a few days after D-Day with some casualties.

The Canadians mentioned as being on FDT 217 are:

C7956 Flight Lieutenant Hugh Tracy

R126395 H Lionel Cook from Quispamsis, NB.

R126905 Clarence Bennet Howe, from Windsor, ON.

R101997, CT (Ted) Parfitt from Winnipeg.

R100444 Charles H Pinnell from Winnipeg.

R106371 Robert M Stalker from Ottawa.

R160415 Karl M Work from Lindsay, ON

Nic replies > I’ve always assumed the operation would be very top secret, and there would be little if any information about who was aboard. My mum told me my grandad Harry was given 5 days leave after the mission for his part. And in this leave he married my grandma!

I’ve attached a picture of the front page of his photo album where he has put where he was, and the dates and the ships he travelled on. I will look again at all his photos, as they have names on the back which may relate to the men on FDT 217.