Ordinary Telegraphist D/JX 614642 Stanley Binnington

BMD details:
Birth registered 2nd Qtr 1926 at Prescot Lancashire. Vol 8b - Page 1357. Mother's Maiden Surname: Floater.

Family details:
Son of Mary J. Binnington, of St. Helens, Lancashire.

Census details:
1939 Register. Unfortunately Stanley and one other member of the household are redacted. Widowed mother Mary Binnington born 22/03/1884 an Unpaid Domestic, brother Robert Binnington born 23/03/1914 a Warehouse Man Unemployed and sister Audrey Bridge (Binnington) born 09/02/1924 a Domestic Servant are living at Saint Agnes Lodge, Nutgrove Road, St Helens

[center][pic2]imgs/S1PWHYAOTV/HMS_KITE_BADGE_zpsba7cbe4e.jpg[/pic2][/center][caption]H.M.S. Kite Badge[/caption] [pic]imgs/S1PWHYAOTV/HMS_Kite_zps80f16305.jpg[/pic][caption]H.M.S. Kite[/caption] [b]HMS KITE[/b] A war-built sloop of 1,735 tons, H.M.S. Kite was senior officer's ship of the celebrated Second Escort Group, commanded by Captain F. J. Walker, C.B., D.S.O and [b]THREE BARS[/b], R.N., during part of 1943 and early 1944. In June 1943 the Kite, in company with four other sloops, sank two enemy submarines. During August the group, acting in conjunction with aircraft, was responsible for the destruction of seven U-boats in the Bay of Biscay. It was in the course of these operations that Captain Walker made to the ships under his -General Chase-. Two more enemy submarines were sunk by the Kite and her consorts off the Azores in December; and on March 19, 1944, it was announced that in operations covering twenty days the Second Escort Group had accounted for six U-boats in the Atlantic, 300 miles south-west of Ireland. This brought the group's total bag up to 17. Captain Walker died on July 10, 1944, and his ship did not long survive him. Three months later she was lost while escorting a convoy to North Russia; though it is satisfactory to know that with other ships of the escort she was concerned in the sinking of three more U-boats. She was built at Cammell Laird Shipyard, Birkenhead, on the banks of the river Mersey (she was to later to be based across the river in Gladstone Dock, Bootle). She was launched on 13 October 1942 and commissioned on 1 March 1943. These are some of U-boats she sunk together with several sister ships:- On 24 June 1943 U-449. On 30 July 1943 U-462 On 30 July 1943 U-504 On 6 November 1943 U-226 On 9 February 1944 U-238 [b]The Sinking:-[/b] On 20 August 1944 [i]Kite[/i] was escorting the aircraft carriers HMS Vindex and HMS Striker, which in turn were escorting convoy JW-59 to Northern Russia when the convoy was sighted in the Barents Sea by German aircraft. Soon a pack of U-boats attacked the convoy and one U-boat was sunk by Fairey Swordfish aircraft from one of the carriers. Two more were sunk by other destroyers. At 06:30 on 21 August, [i]Kite[/i] slowed to 6 knots (10 km/h) to untangle her foxers (anti acoustic torpedo noise makers, towed astern). The decision to do so, rather than severing the foxers' cables and abandoning them, was made by her temporary commander, Lt Comdr Campbell, a submariner. At that speed [i]Kite[/i] was a sitting duck, and she was hit by two torpedoes from U-344 and sank. Of [i]Kite's[/i] crew of 10 officers and 207 ratings, 60 survived the attack, but from the freezing Arctic water only 14 sailors were picked up alive by HMS Keppel. Five of the rescued died on board [i]HMS Keppel[/i] leaving only nine to make it to shore. [i]U-344[/i] was sunk the next day by depth charges from a single Swordfish plane, piloted by Gordon Bennett, from [i]Vindex[/i]. [br] [center][pic2]imgs/S1PWHYAOTV/Binnington_zps6d7943b9.jpg[/pic2][/center][caption]The panel on the Plymouth Naval Memorial bearing the name of Ordinary Telegraphist Stanley Binnington[/caption]