D-Day Landing Craft serial numbers
 

In numerous War Diaries I've found mention of Landing Craft serial numbers assigned to units for Exercise Fabius III in early May, 1944.

Would these same Landing Craft serial numbers have carried over to Operation Neptune a month later???

I believe they would have, but just want to get some second opinions.

Thanks,
Tony Viste

Re: D-Day Landing Craft serial numbers
 

Hi,

When it comes to the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division taking part in Exercise Fabius -- if you know the LCIS and LCIL numbers from this Exercise you may compare them to the numbers published in the newest Mark Zuehlke's book "Juno Beach: Canada's D-Day Victory, June 6, 1944" (Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 2005, ISBN 1-55365-050-6). The author published all Canadian LCA, LCIS, LCIL, LCT, LSIH, LSIM, LSIL and LST numbers.

Best regards

C. :)

Landing Serials
 

If the landing tables for Sword are anything to go by, then the answer is probably 'yes'.

The landing tables for Sword were issued on 19 March 1944 and used for Fabius IV. Whilst there is evidence of minor changes just before D-Day, the vast majority of the serieals should remain the same.

Photos of the preparations for Fabius IV and the landings on Littlehampton beach show that the numbers were in use and that they seem to correspond with those listed in the tables - the Fabius series of exercises were after all, a dress rehearsal for D-Day and therefore followed the plan as closely as possible - even to the extent of leaving spaces on the LCTs for vehicles that were not available for the exercise.

One thought however (if you weren't already aware of it).

The numbering sequence used in the landing tables is a strictly sequential list of 'loads' and bears no relation to the pennant numbers of the actual landing craft. Most commonly, the landing serial is seen on a temoporary board across the front of the landing craft bridge (on an LCT) and the pennant can be seen on the bows of the vessel.

To give a random example. The landing tables for Sword list LCT 212 as an LCT Mk IV. In practice the loading serial of 212 was actually assigned to LCT 610 (the number seen on the bows).

On a vehicle loaded onto '212', this would be chalked as

1126/212/lct4

1126 was the unit code (in this case 13/18 Hussars), 212 was the loading serial and lct4 denoted the type of vessel being loaded.

Where vehicles from more than one unit were loaded on the same vessel, the first part of the chalk number would vary, but the 212 and lct4 would remain the same.

Cheers,
John