Horsley, Terence "The Man Who Wasn't Decorated"

One in the Collier’s series "A short, short story complete on this page." The setting: France, just after its fall to Germany in 1940. A small ship, anchored just off the coast of an undisclosed French location, swarms with refugees and British military hoping to make it across the Channel to England. German bombers attack the vessel, with many of its passengers trapped below decks as the ship slowly sinks. A quick-thinking British major manages to batter open a closed porthole, allowing nearly all to escape. Ironically, though, he remains trapped and doomed to death by drowning, for he is a large man, far too large himself to escape with his men through the narrow porthole. The story’s author is listed as “Lieutenant Commander Terence Horsley, R.N.V.R.” Was the story based on a real incident?