Annual memorial parade and service today

Sunday 30 September 2018

75 years after HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne sank, the victims and survivors will be remembered and commemorated through a parade and memorial service today.

The commemorative events have been staged every year since 1947 when the then Chairman of the Guernsey Association of Royal Navy and Royal Marines Association asked the then Bailiff if Guernsey could hold a memorial service at Le Foulon where many of the victims are buried.

The memorial service has been held every year since, usually over the first weekend of October. A number of survivors and their relatives and relatives of the victims have travelled to the island annually for the commemorative events and have done so this year, the 75th anniversary.

Pictured: HMS Charybdis, which sunk alongside HMS Limbourne, with the loss of more than 460 lives.

Both HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne sank on October 23 1943 after being dispatched as part of a night action operation in the Channel. They were spotted on German radars and were hit by torpedoes some five miles off the French coast. 

Within days, more than 20 bodies had washed up on the Guernsey coast.

The German occupying forces allowed them to be buried at Le Foulon with full military honours, but said there could only be a 'low key ceremony'. Occupied Guernsey residents showed defiance though and 5,000 are said to have turned up to show loyalty to the British forces lost and still fighting.

That loyalty remains on display during the annual commemorative and memorial events which take place every year.

Pictured: The Royal Marine Band will perform in a Concert of Remembrance tonight. 

Among the commemorative events being held today are the parade, which is due to start at Ladies College at 14:30 before the remembrance service at Le Foulon from 15:00.

The Royal Marine Band Concert of Remembrance is being held at St James from 20:00.

Pictured: Some of the victims of HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne are buried at Le Foulon.