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208089 Lt. David Brand DSC Royal Navy HMS Nigeria from:Glasgow, Scotland My father, Lieutenant David Brand, served in the Royal Navy during WWII on HMS Nigeria and was in Combined Operations Pilotage Party COPP's Middle East (ME) 1. He did not speak about his time during the war but as usual stories leaked out about some of his adventures. In March 1943 he was part of a 15 man team doing sea reconnaissance. While on a "Sicily" mission David and Lieutenant Robert Smith, the expedition leader surveyed the Gela area on the south west coast. Due to a storm on completion of their mission, they missed the rendezvous with their carrier, the Royal Navy submarine P44 United. To avoid risk of capture they made an epic 75 mile trip back from Gela to their Malta base at Valetta in heavy seas and with just one paddle. After 40 hours of paddling and bailing water every few minutes from their open canoe they eventually made it back, exhausted. Brand and Smith were awarded the DSC for their courage but overall the operation was not a success. Of the 15 men that set out, 5 were captured, 5 were lost and only 5 returned to base. Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please type the first part our your email in the first box (eg. john.smith) the @ sign is added automaticallly, please type the second part in the second box (eg. gmail.com). Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.** Please type in the code shown here:    If you are unable to read the code please click here. If you have received an error message for incorrect code, please click to refresh the code before resending. This should overcome the error message.