LCI (542) - Naval Cruise Book

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-13 afternoon of July 22 we were -drying out o-nce more on the mudflat, with the 4018 and some British LC1s as companions. It took three days to rep-air pitch and screws and disentangle the cable. Then on the way back to Lymington one of the engines broke down, so most of us rested for three days longer, while the black gang repaired the engine. On july 29 168 soldiers were loaded at Royal Pier, and 'the ship sailed at dusk with eight LCIS, 'led by 408. That night, off NAB Tower, HM heavy cruiser FRoB1s1-1'R tried to cut through the convoy from the port hand g Mr. Hillman, who had the conn, did not dispute her, but it was close. At Utah the morning beaching was too far offshore t-o disembark the passengers dryshodg so we had to beach again on the evening tide. F og ,settled in on the return trip- the next day, and the 542, at the tail end of the processio-n as usual, followed Mr. Solomon in 539 on a new and different route to Lymington. Upon arrival the RN base commander's two small boys' assisted Taffy in pilot- ing us in. The next day was devoted to a brief annual materiel inspec- tion by Lt. Com. Henry, which we passed. On 5 August the ship sailed with six others for mysteri-o-us operations near NAB Tower. After a rendezvous with 8 British LCIS, we beached twice in the morning near Portsmouth with all hands at general quarters, sent false radio- mes- sages, and held drills-apparently a deceptive maneuvre to fool the Nazis. Nothing further happened until 12 August, when after taking aboard 157 army we sailed after dark in the midst of a lot of wayward RN LCTs. Following an easy unloading by LCVPS at Gmaha the next day, the ship anchored for the night in a new position off Cher- bourg Peninsula and then returned to England by the newly opened Cherb-ourg-N-eedles channel, acting as SOP for the first time. August 19 brought another load of 153 troops, fo-llowed by an eight-hour trip to Gmaha, leading the 415 and 418. The following evening, while anchored in a strong tide at the new anchorage, along came the 418, anchor out and dragging, from a position half a mile away and smacked us in the fantail, puncturing the starboard corner and tearing a large hole in her own engine room bulkhead. She moored to us while get- ting organized, and her extra weight tore our anchor loose .from the botto-m, straining the cable so that it snapped the next morning when getting under way in a high sea. Thus we lost our original anchor- a good record, since most of the ships had gone fh1'0Ugh SCVCT-31 bl' that time. The able deck gang quickly fitted a new one before we went in to Lymingto-n alongside the repair LCT 564 to have the fallfall welded. 1 ,

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12 filled the bunks and slept o-n the decks and even the mess tables. Early in the morning pilot Sublieutenant Taffy Constance C Elank j guided us out of the harbor to anchor in the Solent till daylight. The follow- ing trip- to Omaha to-ok the usual twelve hours, but this time the return trip began the same night, as soon as unloading was comp-leted. We returned to Calshot, where the compasses were compensated. Then on July 9 the Flotilla moved to its new base at Lymington. This time Sublieutenant Poot C Full j piloted us in at a more conservative speed. During the next two days everyone had an opportunity to become acquainted with Lymington, a hospitable, quiet town, almost untouched by the war, although it was there that we experienced our first flying bomb alert on 11 July. Shortly afterwards Pilot 'Taffy flanked us out through the low tide mud, causing us to hit bo-ttom, which p-roduced a heavy vibration in the fantailg so we anchored off Lymington and then Calshot, instead of making the scheduled trip to France. It was off Calsho-t at 0100 July 12 that our first flying bomb was sighted. Three came over, one to s-tarboard, one to port, and one directly overhead, each one trailed by a curtain of anti-aircraft fire from the shore bat- teries-a very upsetting experience, they were landing around South- ampton, and the ship had been ordered to Millbrook, just beyond the city. Millbrook proved to be a pier on a mud flat, where: we moored to the 411 and dried out. While some painted the ship- and helped install the new screw, others to-ok advantage of the first over-night liberties since April and went to London. July 14 brought the second encounter with the 4183 backing onto the mud flat, she contrived to scrape- all along our port side, marring our new coat of rich blue, chalky English paint. Upon leaving the next day the vibration proved as bad as ever, necessitating a return for more repairs. On the 18th Ensign Nave, a survivor of the lost 416, reported aboard as the new Engineering Officer, and the following day we go-t away from Millbrook at last, returning to Lymington. Having been out of operation for eight days, we were quickly put to work, 1-o-ading 162 troops at 0300 the next morning. The convoy this time consisted of 5 -LCIS, led by 408 and trailed, as usual, by 542. It was blowing as was customary on the far shore, even at the anchor- age inside the cr-owded mulberry. In the middle of the night our anchor dragged, followed by forty minutes of hectic activity. We nudged other ships, got caught on an LCT's anchor cable, drifted and steamed, and finally found a place to light in the blackness-not too good a place, since the ebbing tide left the ship half stranded by morn- ing. We tinally pulled off the beach, with a length of electric cable entwined in the screws. That meant a return to Millbrook, and by the

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14 24 August we loaded 187 soldiers at Royal Pier, setting forth the next dawn for Utah leading 502 and 508. We beached on the evening tide, unloaded, and then took aboard 36 seamen and 4 officers, all Royal Navy, together with a great deal of liquor both in and with them, for furloughs in England. After an independent voyage through the fog the following day they were safely depo-sited at Southampton. Upon returning to Lymington, many of us took welcome 48-hour liberties, including the Cap-tain and Mr. Hillman, who went to Bournemouth. Thus it was that Mr. Littlej-ohn, as per custom, had to take the ship to an obscure pier in Southampton for deperming on August 28, he was forced to borrow men from the Flotilla to man her, and of course the usual difficulties of deperming days were encountered. August 30 found the 542 back at Royal Pier, where she loaded a wild assortment of French troops, 134 in number and commanded by a Spahi with ,burnoose and Howing cape. Billeting of oflicers was fur- ther complicated by the arrival of several higher-ranking French mili- tary government officers, with many boxes of documents and one Scottie dog on a plaid leash. We were under way the following dawn, leading four other ships, but were turned back by NAB Tower because of high seas, so we settled down for the rest of the day in St. I-I-elen's Anchor- age, Isle of Wight. Great joke among the French officers, who con- vinced one of their number that we had reached France but could not land them. These soldiers enjoyed themselves even when seasickg for instance they had some sort of game involving batting each other over the head when drinking from the scuttlebutt, apparently to see how many teeth could be knocked out. Petit revealed himself to be a linguist and was kept busy as interpreter. The next day we sailed to Utah Beach, arriving in late afternoon. By midnight the last of the French had departed on LCMS 5 aside from the fact that they all wanted to get into the first boat and had to be coaxed into the next- Les Arabes, ils ont peur des vagues et da la nuit! -the debarking was smooth enough. The ship now entered upon her first t-our of duty on the far shore, relieving the 401 on September 2 as control vessel of S Red and Yellow Beaches at an anchorage close inshore from which LSTS- were directed to the beach. It was a lazy, mono-tonous time, most of the beach was restricted, as was Paris, recently liberated. A few of us made a truck excursion to Bayeux one day, and occasionally we went out to the Port Director ship, T. B. ROBERTSON, for the evening movies or for supp-lies. On the 7th we escorted an army transport fresh from the States to her anchorage. Roberts, as usual, did not need any loud- hailer to shout across a hundred yards of water and find a friend from