Photograph of LCT 1238 leaving Cochin

Silver gelatin print by W. E. Williams, January 1945. "SS Dramatist January 1945 towed a tank landing craft from Adabiya Gulf of Suez to Aden, but her bottom was damaged with the pounding she had in the Abu Ail Channel, so she was left at Aden to be repaired. She was replaced by tank landing craft LCT 1238 and the same officers from the first one came with her. I remember that her senior officer was Sub Lt Baldwin RNVR and was from London but I have no recollection of hearing the names of the other two. We towed her to Cochin [Kochi]. When we sailed with the first stores for the army in the operation model D + 5 we picke dup the Beach Command Party 214 at Ramree with Major Parrott (a Yank who had fled from Malaya and joined the British Army) and they discharged us at Rangoon. Captain Dunn sent me ashore with the ships lifeboat to sound the berth and see it was all clear for us to go alongside. You can see by the photos of Rangoon what a mess the place was in. When sailing up the river Irrawaddy we saw the LCT 1238 half submerged on a sandbank. I was told she had been sunk by a magnetic mine and all aboard lost, including some very high ranking army officers".