29 January 1944 Part 2

29 January 1944 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 225°, 5 metres per second. The inflatable dinghy sighted and watched on 28 January was again reported by various bearing stations. During the day it drifted from BF 2691, upper centre, via BF 2668, upper centre, to BF 2667, centre. Since no occupants could be established despite continuous observation, recovery was abandoned.

16:00 — Three enemy aircraft attacked the pair FK 24/31 returning from the Écréhous, off Jersey. FK 24 caught fire and had to be abandoned. Its commanding boatman and two crew members were fatally wounded. FK 31, only slightly damaged, took aboard two dead from FK 24 and entered Jersey with them and two lightly wounded of its own crew.

At 17:57 FK 24 sank after an explosion south of St Clement's Bay. One dead man remained aboard. [The contemporary report's three attacking aircraft differs from the four to six reported in the Admiral Channel Coast account.]

Roll 2422, scan 0783, original page 7.