大象传媒

R L Hutton
D of B 16.11.25

History
Boy Scouts Troop Leader
Fire Brigade Messenger 15, 16, 17
Air Cadets 鈥� no sea scouts near home

(Commissioned Warrant) CW Candidate. Y Scheme
路 Passed Admiralty Board 1943 white band.
路 Went to Ganges for a few months.
路 Passed to go to King Alfred Divisional Officer asked for Volunteers for midget subs or combined operation
路 Advised by Father not to volunteer for anything 鈥� but I was young and wanted to get into action to defend my country
路 Midget subs didn鈥檛 seem my seen so volunteered for Combined Operations
路 Went to Lochalort to be trained and commando training
路 It was the middle of winter, thick snow and the course was very demanding but I passed and was made a midshipman
路 Went to Troon for sea training and then joined LCT 651 and went to Portland 鈥� at this time we did not know what we were being trained for but when we arrived in Portland we realised as we were one of hundreds of craft anchored in Weymouth Bay.
路 We were allowed ashore but no telephone calls or letters home
路 We became friends with many Americans who by this time we realised we were taking to Normandy
路 The Captain of the LCT 651 was a Kiwi Lieutenant and the Coxswain a L/Seaman name Donkin 鈥� I was the lst Lieutenant and Navigator
路 We loaded 3 personnel carriers and 30 troops
路 D day arrived and we left for France only to be recalled because of bad weather and the thought was it would be too risky to land the troops
路 Later we left Weymouth Bay again and arrived off the Beach head 鈥淥maha 鈥� at H 鈥� 6
路 We dropped an anchor 1 cable before landing to help winching off.
路 We beached with empty ballot tanks and lowered our bow ramp 鈥� the p.c. went off except the last one which jammed on the ramp everything else went smoothly except we had to stay for 2 tides
路 Many p/carriers were hit by 88 type guns on the Beach head as the enemy had the range of the beach and were only 陆 mile away
路 I went on to the beach head and looked into a pillbox and found a soldier slouched over a gun and it looked as if a flame thrower had been put through a gap in the pill box
路 We winched off on the 2nd tide and we were about 1 mile off the beach when another wave of landing craft were coming in 鈥� we waved to one about 陆 cable away when it suddenly hit a mine 鈥� we went alongside and took off the soldiers and crew still alive 鈥� we disengaged and it sank 鈥� being the only one aboard with lst Aid training I gave the injured morphine and put a note on their labels saying what I had done 鈥� we then transferred them to a supply ship who had a doctor on board 鈥� by this time it was dark and we were without lights on our way back to Portland when we were hit amidships by a supply ship going to Mulberry harbour
路 The captain was on watch and I had my head down. I jumped up and went amidships and shouted to the bow lookout out on the ship to keep coming forward slowly until we could adjust the ballast which we did and the merchant ship backed off and we limped into Portland
路 We then went round the coast to Appledore where we beached at Instow outside the Instow Hotel (very convenient) waiting to go to the Appledore shipyard and we were repaired and went to the Thames Esturary for another crossing 鈥� unfortunately we developed a fault in the main shaft of the propeller and had to go into Dry Dock at the East India Dock for a month during the time the Doodle Bugs and Rockets were falling on London. The nearest was a mile away so we were lucky
路 VE Day arrived and we then went to Den Helder to show a presence at the Naval Dockyard.
路 I then came home and joined HMS Newcastle and went to the Far East, but when we arrived in Sri Lanka VJ had passed and the whole crew disembarked and a new crew brought her back to the UK. I stayed in Sri Lanka for a year helping to bring the troops back home from the Far East and then came home and transferred to the RN.

End of War

It was 60 years ago so my memory is not as good as it used to be.

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