Wounded and dead sailors from the cablelayer, HMTS Monarch are disembarked from HMCS TRENTONIAN in Portsmouth on 13 June 1944.

TRENTONIAN and Monarch had been involved in a deadly friendly fire incident when an American destroyer, USS PLUNKETT opened fire on the two allied ships, mistaking them for enemy e-boats off the Normandy coast. TRENTONIAN was providing close escort for the cablelayer, while she was laying a communications cable from England to the beachhead.

Monarch bore the brunt of the attack, incurring severe damage from over eighty, 5 inch shells being fired at the two ships, three of her crew were killed and many more wounded. The body of her master, Captain Arthur Troops is in the centre ambulance. Fortunately, TRENTONIAN was unscathed from the attack, but did report that several of the incoming shells passed between her mast and bridge.

Roger Litwiller Collection, Allen E. Singleton, RCNVR photo, courtesy Bruce Keir, RCNVR. (RTL-BK099)

This photo and collection have been gathered from the crew of HMCS TRENTONIAN and have been used by Roger Litwiller to create the book, White Ensign Flying, The Story of HMCS TRENTONIAN, published by Dundurn Publishing in 2014.