大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by (Helen Smith) on behalf of (H. Bernard Spencer) and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Curiouser & Curiouser
On Friday 20th June 2003, I was 鈥渟urfing the net鈥� as they say, and I came across some interesting information. I downloaded the UK LST TABLE which lists the brief history of all the LSTs from the day they were launched to the year they were scrapped. To my surprise it states that LSTs 3010, 3020, & 3502 were transferred to the Royal Dutch Navy. LST 3010 from 1945 to 1947, 3502 from 1945 to1946 and 3020 as late as 1947. All were later transferred back to RN.

Now I served on 3010 from late 1945 to mid 1947 when I was demobbed. No-one told any of us that we had been transferred to the Dutch Navy. During the landings we were flying the white ensign at the stern and the union flag on the bow, as my photo clearly shows. When we returned to our base in Singapore, we revictualled for a trip to Chittagong in Bengal carrying railway rolling stock. Track had been welded to the tank deck. I cannot remember whether we did one or two trips there. What I do remember is that we sailed home around July 1946 at around a steady 8 knots calling at Colombo, Aden, Port Said, Valletta, Naples and Gibraltar. At Naples, we embarked lorries previously used by Popski鈥檚 Private Army during the Italian Campaign. These were placed in the tank deck as we already had Lord Louis Mountbatten鈥檚 private launches top side, as shown in one of my photos, entering Grand Harbour in Malta. We were heavily laden, to say the least.

We arrived back at our Devonport base around November 1946 and later went into dry dock at the town of Pembroke Dock for quite some time and then up the Irish Sea to Greenock on the Clyde. At no time were we displaying any other flag than British. It is therefore inconceivable that we belonged to the Royal Dutch Navy. However, there could be possible explanations for this.

1. In view of alleged promises made to Sukarno by our Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia and not implemented, it was possibly made known that the ships had been transferred in order to disguise the fact that we were involved in the reoccupation. The declassified Top Secret documents clearly state that the Dutch had no suitable landing craft of their own, but why on earth did we not complete this deception by changing the flags.

2. Could it be an error on the UK LST Table and that the ships had only been transferred on a temporary basis for this one-off operation, for it doesn鈥檛 make sense that a ship bearing UK flags with a complement of British officers and ratings should continue operating in the then British Empire and UK waters and ports but showing allegiance to Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands.

3. Another explanation is that the transfer was cancelled but not corrected on the records, as was an item on my Certificate of Service S.-459. It shows that on the 29th December 1945 I was drafted to HMS Glengyle but this was cancelled and I joined LST 3010 instead. This resulted in my not receiving mail for quite some time until it caught up with me.

4. I can appreciate the reason why it has taken me so long in acquiring the LST 3010 photo for it now appears obvious that the photographer must have been a Hollander, but I must have seen it to remember it. No such thing as instant prints in those days. It also makes sense why we were all confined to the beachhead but it remains a mystery why no-one on board knew about the transfer- or did they?
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Since writing the above on 20 June 2003, I have made various additions and/or amendments to various paragraphs of my article, due to information coming to light from a former LST 3010 shipmate, S/Lt Eric Simpson RNVR, who wrote to me on the 15 March 2004 and, not only pointed out certain inaccuracies, but has also given me additional information, including such items as, arrival and sailing dates during the operation, plus confirmation that we were never transferred to the Royal Dutch Navy and always sailed under the white ensign, thus finally, once and for all, ending my quest. This is as I had suspected all along as being all part of the tangled web of deception and cover up of this clandestine operation. I am indebted to him for his valuable contribution.

This article is now finally completed.

H. Bernard Spencer Aged 77 years 8months 18 March 2004

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