210785 AB Horace Henry George "Lofty" Butler Royal Navy HMS Penelope from:Gravesend, Kent My father Horace Butler was a H.O. rating - joining HMS Penelope in New York 9th August 1942. He was wounded in action on 7th October 1943, in the Mediterranean. He was subsequently hospitalised in Alexandria, Egypt. Failing to recover in time to rejoin his ship, which was sunk in 1944. My father's action station was in a gun turret (presumed 6" turret). Whilst under attack he left a small wooden seat within the turret, when a shell penetrated the turret and hit the wooden seat which my father had been sitting on moments earlier, the shell failed to explode, but flying shrapnel wounded my father, resulting in his hospitalization. My father saw no further action prior to being discharged in 1946.
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