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PLYMOUTH

I worked mostly below deck as a ships radio operator. One time we came into Plymouth for a mail run. We tied up the dingy collected the mail and went for a few beers. When we went back to the dingy - tide was out — no water — so back to the pub. There was plenty of trouble when we finally arrived on board.

NORTH AFRICA

During the North African campaign I was on a LST306 (Landing Ship Tank) supporting the war effort in Tunisia. In particular the port of Bazarti.

We were preparing for the landings in Sicily, the harbour was full of invasion craft and a certain young man by the name of Bob Hope and a lady by the name of Francis Langford came out to do a show for the G I’s.

For the previous few weeks it had become routine for German Bombers to fly over at sunset, and this night was no exception, Bob Hope had just walked out on stage when Jerry came over sealing the end of the show, and caused 100’s of small boats to rush their crews to their ships thus ended the USO show.

Bob Hope later wrote that this event was the reason he never left the old U.S. again.

SICILY

The landings in 1943 in Sicily were actually our first amphibious invasion which we learned what can happen in bad weather and high seas. It was very nearly a disaster but we did prevail. The sea was full of capsized small craft and dead bodies.

This was also our first time of misjudging the length of our retracting stern anchor and the distance to the beach from our drop off point. Consequently we beached high and dry had to wait for help to get off the beach.

Some of the crew had never seen the ship out of the water before and got off and walked around it. We did get successfully off the beach after several hours.

SALERNO ITALY

Following the landing in1943 in Sicily we returned to Bazarti and refitted our ship for Salerno. On this trip we carried British troops.

When we arrived most of the beaches were under very heavy fire most of the time. In my confined radio room I could hear the bombardments and feel the vibration of the bombing. We were in a fortunate position that the Germans could not fire directly at us. We completed our landings.

Much to our surprise we found ourselves acting as a field hospital receiving British casualties in great numbers. It was a sad situation because we only had two first aid medics on board and no doctor. Every man on board who could be spared came to give a hand to do what we could to help the wounded troops. To this day I still feel bad that the guy I tried to help died. I was 21 and most of the casualties were in their 20’s.

FRANCE

On ‘D’ Day my ship LST 306 which was a large slow target. I was in the first wave that went in at low tide. Approaching the beach we released our stern anchor too soon and lost our only means of retraction from the beach. We unloaded our cargo of tanks and landing stock and spent a long time attempting to get off the beach, which was under heavy fire. We were successful and had no casualties.

PRISONERS OF WAR

We were transporting German Prisoners of War one time, and although we weren’t supposed to talk to them at all, I asked one why the Germans supported someone like Hitler. He replied that Hitler to the Germans was just like Roosevelt was to us Americans.

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