大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of John Evered and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In May of 1944 as a recently commissioned Lieutenant of the Royal Marines, I joined the Assault Landing Ship SS Empire Halberd, the crew being from the Merchant Navy. Our job was to man the 19 landing craft slung aboard. The Ship was one of a Flotilla of 7 Weapon Class Landing Ships lying in The Solent off Cowes. On board I found one of the fellow offices was H, who had been in the same form as me at school (Dunstable Grammar School). A few weeks later, a couple of days before D Day we loaded troops. One of the Officers was a Lieutenant O who was 2 years ahead of us at school. We landed him on D Day with the other troops. Many years later I saw him at a parent鈥檚 evening at St Albans Grammar School.

Although our Flotilla of 7 Landing Ships made several trips over to the French coast in the following weeks, we were fortunate not to lose a man. Some 6 weeks later the 7 ships were sent to Glasgow for overhaul before going to the Far East via America. On the way to Glasgow, off Land鈥檚 End, the SS Empire Halberd took a hit from a mine under the stern, damaging the rudder. After an inspection by a diver at Falmouth, we made our way slowly to Glasgow. There, after embarkation leave I transferred to another Assault Landing Ship, the HMS Empire Spearhead. All the Landing Ships were now crewed by the Royal Navy, instead of the Merchant Navy as previously. Also all the Naval Officers were replaced by Royal Marines to man the Landing Craft, so H left the ship in Glasgow.

I proceeded with the Flotilla to New York, where we picked up US troops to Charleston to avoid a hurricane and through the Panama Canal to New Guinea. After dropping the US troops in New Guinea we spent the next twelve months doing practice landings with Australian troops on the coast of Queensland, in dry dock in Brisbane after going aground in Cairns and a night landing of US troops on the West Coast of Mindinoa in the Philippines. As our heavy armoured plated landing craft proved not to be powerful enough to deal with the heavy swells of the Pacific Ocean, we spent the rest of our time ferrying troops and supplies between Sydney, Townsville to New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands and the Philippines. Just before VE Day a decision was made that we should return to England for refit in preparation for going to Japan. However, shortly after arriving in England in July 1945, VJ Day was announced and the war was over.

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