大象传媒

Mr L Isaacs of Hanford, Stoke On Trent
Ex Able-Seaman Landing Craft Tank, 954-44 flotilla

I joined the Royal Navy on the 10th December 1942 at HMS Collingwood, Portsmouth. Training for seamanship, gunnery etc at HMS Victory, and then on to Scotland for training at HMS Dinosaur and then HMS Cobra. Under control of the late Lord Mountbatten, I trained for Combined Operations, and drafted to a Landing Craft Tank of 500 tons unladen weight with 954-44 Flotilla.
We convoyed to Falmouth in south Devon with an American Navy and Army force.

After 2 weeks there, on June 4th 1944, Captain D Sealey RM called the ship鈥檚 company on deck and gave orders for us to stand easy and gather round. He stated that if any man present felt he could not cope regarding tomorrow we sailed fo Normandy, that we should collect our kit and return ashore to barracks. Not one of the 15 ship鈥檚 company moved. Early the next morning our cargo of American GI鈥檚 and 4 tanks and crew loaded up, the tanks weighing 50 tons each. After they were shackled up into the well-deck space, our convoy headed out to open sea, and anchored up until darkness, when we made for Normandy with Escorts, Minesweepers and all types of bigger Capital ships, British and American. After around 12 hours of the journey, we could see the Normandy coast at early dawn. The bigger warships began to fire shells at the coastal defences, and then we received orders to go for the beaches.

Utah beach, 6.30am. Upon landing the American tanks, we were shelled by inland guns, which landed very close to our convoy of landing craft. One craft struck a mine and was blown in half. Our captain ordered full steam astern and we moved out half a mile to view the results of the battle ashore. Amongst the explosions, smoke and the cordite fumes, we received orders to return to Portland and await instruction. We were loaded with supplies, big artillery guns and shells, and during the night, we sailed back to Omaha beach. When we arrived, the captain said that we could go ashore, but we were to stay below the bluffs as German snipers were active. Some of the GI鈥檚 were covered up, the rest killed or drowned. We looked inside some of the German gun positions, where we saw parts of human remains, battered by the shelling of the big guns of the US and British ships.

What stands in my memory was of a Frenchman and a little boy walking down the Omaha beach towards us, they were taken offshore to one of the large ships. How they came through that, one wonders. We headed back to Portland for more supplies for the GI鈥檚, and Petrol by the ton for the tanks. On the return to Omaha beach, this time we were intercepted by German patrol boats. But with us firing our 20mm Oerliken cannons, and the GI鈥檚 on our convoy opening up as well towards the source of the incoming tracer rounds, they stopped firing in short order! We were then all quiet on to Omaha. The captain came down to check we were all OK after our funnel had been peppered with bullets.

Les Isaacs, June 4th-August 15th 1944

Born in Hanley,Stoke On Trent, 1925, Mr Isaacs has suffered from arthritis for 2 years. In his own words
鈥淚 could have visited Normandy through a Lottery payment, but there was no use in struggling!鈥�

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