J nuaSion I undeistand tlie British have crossed over into the toe of Italy — but it won ' t be official until the Lizzie gets there. Dryly, Commodore Dierdorff opened a briefing session for the amphibious operation that was Salerno. And we on the ship had a possibly smug feeling that what he said was true, for the Lizzie was never one to high-tail it in the face of action. Of the five major landings of the African-European war, this ship participated in four: Fedala, North Africa; Gela, Sicily; Salerno, Italy; St. Tropez, France. She missed the Normandy invasion only because she was rather preoccupied with the training of what seemed at the time all the troops in the Mediter- ranean for the forthcoming landings at Southern France. The l)lack-inked letters of newspaper headlines spelled invasion on November 7, 1942; on July 10, 1943; on September 9, 1943; and on August 15, 1944. For the Lizzie and her crew those days meant the culmination of weeks and months of hard work, long practice, careful planning . . . cutting minutes off here, adding a new precision there that meant greater efficiency and perhaps a saving in lives. We smile now remembering the days of 1942 when it took ten to twenty minutes to lower gingerly one LCVP over the side. But the smile is a pioneer ' s smile, for that time was shaved down to: All ship ' s boats loaded with troops and in llie water in thirty minutes. Amphiljious warfare has been called the most hazaidous kind of warfare, requiring the most skillful planning and the most precise execution. There are books on it now. There are books because the Lizzie and her kind wrote them. And what was it really like? Behind all the words that are spoken and words that are written, what did it really feel like to be there? Well, we were tired and we were afraid and we were foolish . . . and some of us were brave. We were, in fact, all tlie things men are in time of war. 21
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