English Channel
Orchis was then assigned to patrol the English Channel, and sank German submarine U-741 on 15 August 1944. U-741 torpedoed LST-404 of convoy FTM-69 while Orchis was escorting nearby convoy FTC-68. Orchis gained and held SONAR contact on U-741 and flooded the forward part of the U-boat with two Hedgehog attacks and two Depth charge attacks. Leo Leuwer escaped from the aft torpedo-room hatch of the sunken U-boat, and was rescued by Orchis.
On 21 August 1944, Orchis struck a mine destroying the bow back to the 4-inch gun. The damaged ship was beached on Juno Beach and declared a total loss.
Read more about this topic: HMS Orchis (K76)
Famous quotes containing the words english and/or channel:
“Bourbon’s the only drink. You can take all that champagne stuff and pour it down the English Channel. Well, why wait 80 years before you can drink the stuff? Great vineyards, huge barrels aging forever, poor little old monks running around testing it, just so some woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma can say it tickles her nose.”
—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)
“The Xanthus or Scamander is not a mere dry channel and bed of a mountain torrent, but fed by the ever-flowing springs of fame ... and I trust that I may be allowed to associate our muddy but much abused Concord River with the most famous in history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)