Grabbing a Carley float, de la Torre leapt over the side but, weighted down by a pistol in each pocket, he sank. His inflated Mae West brought him back to the surface but, just as he came up, shell fragments tore through the float. Down he went again.
Finally struggling to the surface, he got hold of a raft laden with wounded men, and hung on as it drifted down the river. “It was a desperate scene,” he said later. “Pools of burning fuel were floating on the water and as we tried to steer past them shells and bullets were splashing in on either side. Motor launches were on fire. It was chaos. I thought nobody could live through it. Then, through all this confusion, I could hear a voice singing O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”
Another classic piece of obituarism from the Daily Telegraph.
Plus a classic piece of British understatement by Jeremy Clarkson
You Must Be From Away 
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