Baker, Charles Nelson, S2c

TBD ???

Corry cleared Norfolk on 20 April 1944 for Great Britain, and the staging of the Normandy invasion. Getting underway from Plymouth, England, she was the lead destroyer of the Normandy Invasion task force, escorting ships and transports across the English Channel. Upon arriving off the coast of Normandy, France, she headed for Iles Saint-Marcouf, her station for fire support on the front lines at Utah Beach. On D-Day morning 6 June 1944 she fired several hundred rounds of 5-inch ammunition at numerous Nazi targets.

As H-Hour (06:30) neared, when troops would begin fighting their way onto the beaches, the plane assigned to lay smoke for Corry to conceal her from enemy fire suddenly got shot down, leaving Corry fully exposed to German gunners who were now firing at her in full fury. At approximately H-Hour, during a duel with a shore battery, Corry suffered direct heavy-caliber artillery hits in her engineering spaces amidships. With her rudder jammed, she went around in a circle before all steam was lost. Still under heavy fire, Corry began sinking rapidly with her keel broken and a foot-wide crack across her main deck amidships. After the order to abandon ship, crewmembers fought to survive in bone-chilling 54 °F water for more than two hours as they awaited rescue under constant enemy fire from German shore gunners. One crewmember raised the American flag up Corry's main mast, which remained above the surface of the shallow 30-foot-deep  water when the ship settle on the bottom at 49°30'50"N 1°11'30"WCoordinates: 49°30'50"N 1°11'30"W. Corry survivors were rescued by Fitch, Hobson, Butler, and PT-199. Of her crew, 24 were killed and 60 were wounded.

Service number: 8370341