The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-15


Wireless)-On our way to the in
vasion I rode an LST-the water
workhorse of this war. We carried
armored reconnaissance troops.
We felt good about our position
in the convoy, for we were about
third of the way back in the
column. That meant we had ships
on all sides of us and we wouldn't
be on the outside in case of attack.
Our convoy was made up entire
ly of LISTS. Each of us lowed a
big steel pontoon section. These to
be used as barges and docks in
the shallow waters along the beach.
And behind each pontoon We also
lowed a smaller pontoon with two
huge cupboard motors on it - a
thing called a "Rhino'.
| Several ships broke cables and
lost their pontoons during the jour-
ney. Special coast guard tugs were
assigned to pick them up. We Loot
our own Rhino on the last night
out, and I don't know whether it
was picked up or not.
| We were told that if the ship
sank our chances of being picked
up would be slight. The water was
so cold we would lose conscious
ness in Is minutes, and die within
four hours.
So we all conjectured about the
possibility Of clambering out onto
the trailing pontoon if the ship went
down. That brought up the question
whether the pontoon would be cut
loose if the ship sank, or be
dragged under the water by its
huge steel cable.
To show how rumors get around,
one soldier said he had learned
that the ship had a sailor standing
aft with an ak, for the sole purpose
of hacking the cable in two if the
ship were torpedoed. Later asked
the captain, IN d he said there
I wasn't any such man at all.
Funny little things happen in a
convoy. The steering gear on one
ship broke in midafternoon and the
ship came slowly careening around
like a skidding automobile until it
was crosswise of the convoy and
the h ips behind had to steer
around it.
You see, we were lined UP in
straight columns, extending ac far
ahead and behind as we could sac.
On both sides of us ran destroyers
and corvettes for escort, but as
I've said before it never seems to
the participants in a convoy that
the escort is adequate.
Our only scare came late in the
night before we hit the invasion
area. / was in my bunk, and the
Colonel with whom was rooming
came down from the bridge.
''How are things going?" I ask
ed.
Terrible" he i d. Another
convoy came along and pushed us
out of the swept channel. One en-
CINE has broken clear down, and
the other can only run at third
speed. The wind and tide are drift
ing us toward the Belgian coast.
We're steering straight west but
barely holding our direction.
thought how ironic it would be
to wind up this war by drifting
alone onto a hostile beach d
spending the rest of the war in a
prison camp-if we didn't hit a
mine first. But fortunately 1 was
too sleepy to worry about it. When
awakened at dawn we had both
engines going and were back il,
line again in the swept channel.
Moral: Always be too sleepy to
give a damn.
| My own devastating sense of fear
and depression, of which I have
spoken before, disappeared the mo-
ment we were under way. AS |
write this, the old familiar crack
: and roar of big guns is all around
us, and the beach is a great brown
!. haze of smoke and dust, and we
know that bombers will be over
us tonight. Yet all that haunting