History of the British Army postal service bawling through a megaphone at each ship "Are you carrying mail?". This system remained in place until the Mulberry Harbours at Arromanches were established to allow mails to be docked more formally. The 6 Airborne Division Postal Unit RE (commanded by Captain JCG Hine RE and as a unit accompanied the Division on its airborne drops during the night of 5/6 June 1944), and the Beach Group APO S698 made the first despatch from Normandy on D+2 (8 June 1944). The main Base Army Post Office (No 8) arrived in theatre on D+10 (16 June 1944) and established itself in
HMS Hydra (J275) naval part of the D-Day landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944. She was mined in the approaches to Ostend on 10 November 1944. She was towed to Sheerness but declared a constructive total loss and not repaired. She was sold for scrap and arrived at the yard of Thos W Ward in Grays, Essex to be broken up in 1947. HMS Hydra (J275) HMS "Hydra" was a reciprocating engine-powered built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was badly damaged during the war and was scrapped in 1947. The reciprocating group displaced at standard load and