D-Day Support Ships, 1944

D-Day Support ships

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(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4233774)

British Everard cased petrol carrier MV Signality, off the French coast on 6 June 1944.

British Everard cargo vessel SIGNALITY 487/37 provided support for the Allied forces going ashore during the Normandy landings. After loading her cargo, she left London from the King George V dock on 19 May 1944. On 31 May she sailed down the Thames River to her staging base in the Solen Anchorage 3N/e9. The Signality arrived off Juno beach on 6 June in a follow-up Convoy and discharged her cargo of cased petrol and stores between 2100 hrs on the 6th and 1500 hrs on the 7th. She then returned to London, Purfeet B.

The Everard cased petrol carrier MV Signality and her sister ship MV Sedulity joined a group of 33 coasters deployed in the Solent. In addition to their cargo of fuel, they had loaded Royal Engineer equipment and Bailey bridging. They were part of a fleet of at least 128 coasters which had been waiting in the 20-mile stretch of the Thames between Blackwall and Tilbury. They were among more than 500 ships in a vast anchorage, extending from Hurst Castle in the west to Benbridge in the east, in which every suitable space had been allocated for vessels assembling in the run-up to D-Day.

Although these ships were initially directed to sail directly to the French coast on 5 June, bad weather caused a 24-hour delay.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 423377)

British Everard cased petrol carrier MV Signality, off the French coast on 6 June 1944.  

(Everard Photo)

British Everard cased petrol carrier MV Signality, post-war.

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