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503507Arthur Allen
Navy HMS Dasher
(d.27th March 1943)
My husbands' uncle was one of the crew on board the HMS Dasher, his name was Arthur Allen, and he was a telegrapher. He was lost when the HMS Dasher exploded mysteriously on 27th March 1943. A very sad note to his death is that his wife, my husband's Aunt Catherine, was so devastated by his death, going into such a deep depression during her then pregnancy, that she did not want to live. She just gave up and she and her baby died during childbirth. Two more victims of that terrible war. I am very curious, did they ever find out what really happened, about this mysterious explosion?. When my mother-in-law was alive, she said they were told it was sunk by a German U-Boat. Can anyone give me any information?
Additional Information:
My aunt was an onshore telegrapher and she got the final message from the Dasher telegraphers that night which said in plain text “We’ve been hit”. It was a FLASH message so not coded. She was so shocked she asked them to repeat the message but they never did. The ship sank so quickly. They wouldn’t have known the cause of the explosion but that’s the message they sent. The telegraphers were all friends and had their own coded nicknames. I’ve got a photo of two of the ship telegraphers and on the back one has written “Best wishes from Roll” or Goll or something like that. Can’t quite read it.EE
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