On Portsmouth Naval Memorial is the name of P/JX 383281 Able Seaman John Wilfred Jopling serving on H.M. Landing Barge Emergency with the Royal Navy who died 07/06/1944.
Dorothy Hall writes:
C113.07 – The new (2014) memorial reads William Jobling; the names on both original altar front C113.02 and the churchyard memorial C113.01 read Wilfred Jobling. I could not find a Wilfred Jobling on CWGC or a William Jobling. But there is a John Wilfred Jopling died 1944 aged 20 who was born Lanchester District in 1924. There is a J.W. Jopling on Consett C101.01 and Blackhill B145.01 has a W. Jopling under Royal Navy.
Derwentside Catholic Family History Society St. Mary’s War Memorial Blackhill reads:-
Wilfred Jopling was the son of Patrick and Edith May Rooney nee Jopling of 34 Dorset Crescent Moorside. (Moorside is in the Parish of Castleside). Before the War he worked at the Consett Iron Company. He served in the Royal Navy and was reported missing presumed dead on Wednesday the 7th June 1944 when H.M. Landing Barge Emergency No. 60* was destroyed as it took part in the D-Day landings. His body was never recovered. His mother and brother Pat attended the unveiling of the Portsmouth Memorial by H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on Wednesday 29 April 1953.
* L.B.E. 60 was destroyed in the great storm between the 19th June and the 22nd June 1944. John Wilfred Jopling was presumed missing on the 7th June 1944, the Omaha beachhead was still being shelled and many ships and vessels were subject to shelling from the German defences.
Landing Barge Emergency, or Emergency Repair, of Engineering, LBE – to provide maintenance and repair facilities for landing craft, including salvage. Equipped with stern ramp and carried workshop lorry (generator, lathe, drills, forge, anvil etc) which could be landed when needed or crawler crane for landing when possible. The LBE also carried its own generator, benches, welding & cutting equipment, forge & anvil, pumps, spare batteries etc and displayed a REPAIRS sign. Carrying capacity – 150t or 200t ; main armament, 20mm Oerlikon; 1+9 deck/engine-room/maintenance crew, plus flotilla specialists up to total of 25. Each barge had an officer in command.
LBE 60 was part of the 32nd LB (S&R) Flotilla which consisted off the following vessels, LBE 26, 31, 57, 58, 59, 60; LBO 10, 16, 18, 37, 46, 56, 57, 84, 97; LBW 7, 8; LBK 5; and 4 fuelling trawlers. The flotilla was stationed off Omaha Beach. It had sailed from Poole and was British manned. Listed in HMSO as written off charge as a result of damage; loss dates given as 19th-25th June.
John Wilfred Jopling is remembered at Consett on C101.01 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.
