DAVID WARNOCK BAXTER
SERVICE NO. P/JX 520187
Royal Navy: Ordinary Seaman
Royal Navy
HMS Halsted
DIED: 11 June 1944
AGE: 19
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
He was a crew member on board the frigate HMS Halsted which had been involved in the Normandy landings since D-Day, screening the ships carrying the troops to the British landing beaches.
She was off the French coast, near Cherbourg when she and her sister ship HMS Stayner were attacked by 11 German torpedo boats (E-boats).
A series of actions ensued but HMS Halsted was eventually hit by a torpedo which exploded in the bows which blew off the forward part of the hull, killing and injuring a number of the crew.
She remained afloat and was towed back to Portsmouth. The dead were buried at sea but the injured were taken back to the Haslar Royal Naval Hospital, Gosport, Hampshire.
He has no known place of burial so he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial to the Missing, Hampshire.
MEMORIAL LOCATION: Column 39
