LCI (542) - Naval Cruise Book

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15 Weymouth High among the thousands o-f troops jammed on deck, After the 8th we had LCM 102 all to ourselves as duty boat, except when someone else wanted it. Johnson was delighted and soon learned how to run it 5 in fact he practically relieved the coxswain. Finally on September 18 the 489 relieved us, and the next day we returned to Lymington with Group 35, led by 420, departure being delayed some- what because 421 brought up a truck with her ancho-r. There followed 'a week of relaxation, except perhaps for the black gang, who overhauled the engines. On the 24th Major General Sir Dfonald Banks, Chief of British Petroleum Warfare, came- aboard for Sunday breakfast and his first p-ancakes, which he pro-nounced excellent. It was the only time a Hag officer trod the decks of 542. Two days later Colonel Mears, Britis-h Army Retired, came abo-ard in British Home Guard uniform to make a trip across the Channel at the invitation, off Com. Henry. After picking up 160 Canadian ordnance troops at .Royal Pier, we sailed from Gilkicker Sailing Area in a group of 7 LCIS, with 500 as SOP, on our first trip to the British artilicial harbor at Arromanches. We m-oored to the 420 at a floating pier at 0953 the next morning, and by 1005 all troops had disembarked. Departure was delayed for another hour though, due to clogged fuel lines and injectors. Nevertheless, by 2100 we were mo-o-red to 539' at Lymington anchorage, having made the round trip in less than 24 hours. October 2 was notable on two counts: First, while painting the bow at the p-ier Cseripko took a neat tumble into Lymingto-n River 5 second, Mary Moss, the local American Red Cross representative, was our guest for lunch. 201 mo-re s-oldiers were loaded at Royal Pier on the afternoon o-f 6 October, and there we stayed all the next day due to bad weather. We s-ailed, leading three other ships, on the morning of the 8th and by night- fall were anchored inside Omaha mulberry. The 505 was not, how- ever, and in the process of anchoring collided with us and fouled our cable, finally she moored to us, bow to stern. This made it difficult to unload her passengers into- the LCT along our side-it was far into the early morning before all were off and we could sleep. The follow- ing afternoon found us back o-nce more in Lymington anchorage. Two days later, having scarcely rested and with wet paint on the compartment decks and a near hurricane blowing, the ship was o-rdered to Royal Pier. The Captain refused, Operations insisted? SQ Off We s-ailed, andsailed was the word for it that day, when the W111d ll00k us off Calshot Castle and even hard right rudder could not keep the ship from edging into the wind o-n the port beam. The .same wind slammed her into the 408 while coming alongside at the pier, denting her sponson and plucking some of 408's stanchions. 176 troops boarded

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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

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16 and bedded do-wn, followed later by 4 Frenchmen. After waiting all the next day for the weather to subside Cthese waits on the weather were becoming too commonb, we set off, leading three ships to Utah, where we beached after dark and unloaded. Upon our return we stayed in Lymingto-n for an unprecedented nine days, there was plenty of room, since most of the Flotilla was at Southampton, fully loaded and waiting, some for a week, until the storms subsided. Shifting from pier to anchorage and back again, we remained idle for sixteen days- our longest period of leisure since the Invasion. Gctober 25 was elec- tion day aboard, between 0900 and 1100 all hands who were of age had an opportunity to sit alone in the sacred wardroom and vote. A few days later our new Group Commander, Lt. Reed, held another materiel inspection-to his dismay he found the hand whistle in the conn inoperative, because it was full -of water. Then o-n October 31 to- our dismay we were told to load up with supplies for another tour of duty off the beaches, which were supposed to be closed by then. Commanders Patrick and Henry came aboard that evening for haircuts, their conver- sation cheered those who happened to hear. November 1 we departed for Utah with the 537 and upon arrival moored to the RoBE.RTsoN so that Lt. Qjgj Scanlon and his gear could be transferred to us. The waves were running high during the fifty minutes alongside, causing four of our lines to part as well as some bad dents o-n the port edge of the gundeck. Finally we cast off and anchored, only to be disturbed at an early hour the next morning by Lt. Newman, Commander of LCT Group 11, who boarded us with instructions to escort 15 LCTs to Le Havre. The voyage across the Bay of the Seine at 6 knots took nine hours, so we anchored off Le Havre for the night. When we sailed the following morning, we were chased and turned back by a PT boat, for no reason that we could see, but after a co-uple of hours they let us go. Back at Utah mooring to the 537 inside the gooseberry proved difficult, since she and her stern anchor cable took up most of the distance between block ships and shore. Consequently we lost a few stanchions. We gained Lt. Cjgj Casey and six more or less ragged fugitives from abandoned beach signal posts, part of the Utah Port Director Party, the rest of which was remaining on the 537. We also received a large pile of rusted and useless firefighting gear to weigh down the gun- deck. We could not do much about that, but Mr. Littlejohn told the ex-beach-dwellers that they would have to shave and clean up now that they were back in civilization 5 at Beloin's insistence they did. When they came out from behind their whiskers, they proved to be a line group of men who added a great deal to the ship in the ten days they