LST (530) - Naval Cruise Book

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sult, but 530 conservatively held her place through all kinds of weather, and for me it was con- stantly gratifying to observe most hands iinding themselves and be- coming increasingly effective at duties to which they'd had little time to accustom themselves. At 1300 on April 25th Ensign Glenn nGorgeousl Geiger, USNR, and S 1 C Feets Allen stood first in line to buy sea stamps from BM 1 C Daniels and Gunner Palm back on the fantail. Ou Huy Sth the hook wus drop- ped in Milford Haven, Wvales, Eng- land, and three boat loads of liberty hounds made port and all the local pubs, etc. Six days later found us in Plymouth where the ship's first gala boxing exhi- bition was staged by cigar-smoker Ensign Roy Black whose sterling performers, Ben Pieczinzki and Freddie Mastroianni, stole the show. Tegeder, Schluter, Camillo, Swales and Peters came aboard from liberty to report Plymouth Harbor as being a fine liberty place indeed. Next day all hands tumed to and launched LCT 667, Whose Skipper, Banson, and crew bid 530 adieu until later on in Normandy when they readily found their way back aboard. . x - 5 P f f I I ts 7 FIRINC 1 ALERTED 1 A SISTER SHIP l CUVSE STRAWIV seats-

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tmgsg I 1 .les ,z ire W-.QE f,, O! 1 -Mwqps T LONDON FROM THE CON J, LOADING UP T SECURING LCT ABOARD 1 INSPECTION AT WEYMOKTH In New York, Ensign Geoffrey Bromfield, USNR, and Ensign Cliff fWMackl Sinnett, USSR, reported aboard with the six small boat crews, immediately looting 909 of First Lt. Ed. Mahoney's deck equipment for the fighting YP's. After loading cargo, ammunition- personnel, and saying goodbye to America, the 530 got underway to rendezvous off the coast with IO6 ships including destroyers and British CYE's. Meatballs DeNora was the last man to make the boat. having commandeered a Navy tug to hoist him aboard as his ship gathered speed to clear New York harbor. Several ranking supply Admirals at the Bayonne. New Jersey Depot frenziedly beat their breasts and threatened our trailing wake with air-flailing fists as they cursed Ensign Bob Brown for mak- ing off with some of their person- ally treasured stout hawser. which he had iinagled from under their I'lIIll'l't'fltI9Il6ti snouts while en- deavoring to equip the ship for come-what-may. The Statue of Liberty even winked at us as she came abeam. The voyage across included sev- eral subinarine contacts and a col- lision between two other ships, in the fog. one going down as a re-

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X T ST. L0 J, LOWER AWAY T H.M.S. RODNEY 1 UNLOADING WOUNDED PORTSMOUTH Z , 1 T 9 K x xx sky, X Y, ,l 5. 3 wav' -1' U--' On May 19, 1944, the 530 moored alongside the repair dock at Dept- ford on the Thames several miles south of London, after a hazardous trip through S'E', and Uv boat- infested Channel waters. Slipping through Dover Straits under cover of the sleeting night, well within within range of the German bat- teries at Calais made for a general state of nervous anticipation of what was to come, but London Lib- erty eased it off. Took on eight barrage balloons to keep the Luft- waffe from getting into excessive trouble with the vicious gunnery of Ensign Gorgeous Geiger, GM's Palm, Denney and Pop Willis. The 22nd of May saw the 530 joining the British Amphibious Command at Harwich, England, and immediately any doubt but that 'we were headed for German- held France in the near future vanished as voluminous medical supplies, hundreds of British 3th Army Qformer Desert-Ratsl men and oiiicers, giant Churchill tanks. guns, ammunition, trucks, and other combat equipment C018- menced to pour aboard during the practice beachings on the typical Fclixtown Hard . a concrete rul- way leading down from shore N water. 5 is