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The 1939-1945 War 鈥� A Personal Experience (Part 2)

The camp was situated on open moor, and as you entered from the main Exmouth road, there was the usual guardroom, the admin block, parade ground, shower room, mess room, and cookhouse, and all this was at road level on high ground. The wooden barrack room accommodations were scattered well apart from each other, and all at the bottom of a hill. The washrooms, made from corrugated metal sheets, with no roof or hot water, were half way up the hill. We soon realised why this camp was laid out this way, when we read camp standing orders, which were that you will at all times within the camp, 鈥渞un鈥� this meant that at no time, once you left your hut, could you be seen to walk. For three mornings a week we had to run in our boots, to Budleigh Salterton, and then it was off boots, and a run along the pebble beach. This, they said, was to harden our feet; all I remember is that it hurt. Another event we did several times a week was to run the firing range. We would split into two grounds; the first group would fire from the 500 yard point, and then run to a gulley in front of the 400 yard point. The second group would then fire over our heads, then you would get up and fire from the 400, yard point, we would do this every 100 yards. Just to make life more difficult from the two hundred yard point we would have to run with our gas mask on, and fire our last five rounds. This was all to get us used to hearing bullets as they went over our heads. The groups would change places on the next run. Another live firing exercise was to have a gun set to fire at a gateway set in a hedge. We would then have to walk along the hedgerow on the guns鈥� blind side. When we got to the gate we had to, one at a time, dash across the gateway, the gunner would fire when he saw you, but by the time he saw you and fired, you would be safely over. This exercise was to demonstrate, how hard is to hit a target that is moving across the line of fire, so that if you found yourself facing a gun you would need to zigzag. Our Kit had to be laid out for inspecting every day, and life was generally pretty tough, so much so that the camp was getting known as the camp of suicide and self inflicted wounds, without going into detail there were some of these occasions during my time at the camp. We did not know how long we would be at the camp, but two month's later, and a big sigh of relief, we were given seven day; leave and told to report to a holding camp in Merionethshire South Wales. I was in this camp for a month, during which time we did lot's of climbing, crossing ravines by rope, and general exercises. After four week's, we were given our orders for the units which we would be serving. I was told that I would be joining a command called H.M.S. Cobra, combined operations squadron of landing craft now at last I knew which section of the marines, I would be serving in, and what my further training would be for. My next move was to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, where we were taught signals,
Morse code, semaphore, and general seamanship, spending lots of time on the River Dart, we were at this time training to do silent landings, and using mostly American troops who we found did not like getting their feet wet and so used to bribe us to put them ashore dry. The daily routine at the college was very much like a being on a ship, everyone had to do one hours work before you had breakfast, and because I was given fourteen day's punishment was doing two hour's work before breakfast and one hour in the evening, I was pleased to complete this just in time for Xmas leave. I must explain why I had received punishment, I was on guard duty, and posted to guard the defaulters. A defaulter requested to use the toilet, the toilets being outside the compound and across the passageway. It was normal procedure to phone the guard room and have an escort sent to take the defaulter to the toilet, but because you could see the toilet from the compound we would, rather than bother the guard room, just keep our eye on the toilet door. On this occasion the defaulter escaped through the toilet window. The same thing would have happened with the escort, but I was still at fault for not asking for an escort. I was told that, Naval Ruling was, that once sentence had been passed it had to be carried out, and that if the defaulter was not caught, I might have to do his time which was, nine months detention. Lucky for me they caught him, and he did say he was sorry for the bother he had got me into.
After Dartmouth I went to Poole in Dorset. We did some harbour training, and then to Ramsgate in Kent, to Southend - on - Sea, then to Towyn North Wales, all the time training in various type's of landing craft, we were then given fourteen day; leave because the next camp was not finished. Having enjoyed an unexpected leave I reported back to a camp on the River Keet, not far from Morecambe Bay, and Lancaster. The camp was still not completed, and we found ourselves sleeping in huts that had no roofs, you may think that was not so hard but this was mid-winter, and even the river was Icing over near the banks. We went to bed with our duffle coat on and the hood over our headgear. For extra warmth we put our greatcoats over the blankets, and in the mornings we had to shake the frost off the greatcoat. The cookhouse was not working, so we had to prepare and cook our own meals. It was about a week before the builders got the roofs on the huts, and soon after the cookhouse was in full working order, we were at this camp most of the winter, out on the river most days practicing landings. I must tell you of an Incident which I remember. We were out on the river, all wrapped up in our duffle coats and sea boots, and at this time we had a new officer on the craft. I should at this point explain, that we had always been trained to keep our head's down, and that when the craft was about fifty feet from the bank or beach to push the anchor off the stern, this helped by using the anchor winch, to pull the craft off the beach. On the next run onto the beach, the anchor man did exactly as he was taught but the officer did not like the way it was done and said' ''Go back out and come in again and I will show you how I want it done. So out we went, and as we approached the beach again he stood up on the stern of the craft and threw the anchor off the stern, unfortunately the back bar of the anchor, caught in his duffle coat, and he went in the river with it. We dragged him back into the craft, but by the time we got him back to camp, he was frozen stiff as a board, it took us quite come time to get him thawed out, I can鈥檛 remember him ever being on our craft again. April arrived so I was now nineteen year's of age, when we received orders to go to our 'Operational Base', a land based naval ship called HMS Cricket, situated on the river Hamble, the river opened out into Southampton waters. It was here that we were formed into an operational flotilla known as No. 301 our twelve landing craft were delivered and moored up on the river. They were Landing Craft Mechanical, L.C.M. for short. They had two, thirty-two horse power Chrysler marine engines, a very high bow door and a steel built wheelhouse at the stern. They were capable of taking two Jeeps, or two Bren gun carriers or one 14 cwt truck on the all steel deck area that was about 16鈥� x 10鈥� wide. The crew was made up of a corporal as coxswain, a winch man, a signaller, the engine room man, and two deck hands, but we were all trained to do any of these jobs. I was what was known as No, 1, after the coxswain. We had not been in the camp long when we were sent back to Harlech in North Wales for two week's training on anti-aircraft gunnery. We were taught to fire Aulicons, Pom-poms, and Lewis guns, then finally getting back to our craft, where we spent most of our time getting used to the craft. About the 25th of May we were confined to camp so we knew that we were getting close to the big day. That day came on the third of June, when we were called to be briefed we were told that, we were to form part of the invasion force that will land somewhere in France. Our exact destination will be revealed to us when we reach mid-channel. As there are not enough carrier ships to take us across the channel we will make our own way across and rendezvous: with a larger force when we are closer to France. Furthermore we have been told that, it has been found that the fighting efficiency of troops is greatly improved, when they are put ashore 鈥渄ry鈥� and that our craft are ideally suited to do this, so our first task will be to take troops from the deep water L.C.I. landing craft. It is estimated that 40 troops can be taken on our craft. We were also told 鈥測ou will hit the beach as hard as you can, and as the troops clear the craft: you should be light enough to get back off the beach鈥�. 鈥漎ou will not stop to help any craft; that may be in difficulty, and you will take on an extra fifty gallons of fuel鈥�. 鈥淲e shall be leaving our base at seven A.M. on the 4th of June, and our first rendezvous will be in the Solent off the Isle of Wight. At seven A.M. on the 4th June we left the river Hamble and sailed into Southampton Water, and then out into the Solent. At this point I must admit to a feeling of apprehension and foreboding; as we got further into the Solent the sea began to get very rough, by the time we reached our rendezvous the sea was really tossing us around, some of the crew were now beginning to feel sick. It was at this time that the 'Coxswain unsaid to me that he was feeling ill and would I take over the craft. We moored the craft up to a larger ship to our surprise we were told that, due to extreme weather in the Channel the operation had been called off until further notice, so we had to stay in the Solent for the rest of the day and night. Although we were tied up to the lee side of the ship the stormy sea was still bouncing us about. We had terrible a night being tossed around and we now began to realise that our craft: was not designed for anything other than ship to shore operations So after a sleepless night, we were very pleased to see the dawn arrive, at about ten or eleven A.M. a message came over the ships loudspeaker that, a message from the supreme commander has said that they expected the weather to break at the time of the landing so we were to get under way immediately. The coxswain was still not well and with after thought we probably should have tried to get him aboard a ship but as we could not get him to tell us what the problem was, we assumed he was seasick, or in a very nervous state. The flotilla lined up behind a Corvette escort ship and we set off to enter the channel via the Needles; but as we approached the Needles we met with very heavy seas, and two of our craft turned over. A signal came back telling us to turn around and try to get into the channel using the Portsmouth end of the Solent. This we did, but the Major got concerned that we were losing time, so he signalled us to tie up to larger ships. I tied up to a ship, but when it got under way, we were nearly sunk by its wash, I shouted to the crew to cut the line. We lost another craft as a result of this action, the crew scrambled onto a steel platform called a rhino that was being towed by the ship. The rhino was to be used for ship to beach supply platform; I was told that the crew went across the channel on this rhino. We wrapped the coxswain up in a blanket and strapped him into a corner of the canopy. We finally reached the channel and once again ran into very heavy seas. It is difficult to find word's that can best explain the sea, and how we were all feeling at this time, the words that spring to mind are, horrendous, terrifying and frightening. Nothing had prepared us for being in a craft with a flat bottom, and a flat front, and being in such a sea as this, at this point we really felt that we would be lucky to make it. As we met each swell the craft would be lifted up like a cork, and as it got to the top of the swell the stern would come out of the water and the propellers would scream. The flat bottom would crash down on the water making the bottom plates shudder and boom. I did my best to keep the craft heading into the swell for fear of being caught broadside and turned over. We were still in sight of the Isle of Wight when the craft in front broke down, and against standing orders, I did try to help by tying his craft along side ours using chains around the bollards. It was soon evident that with the sea as it was, this was a bad idea, the side of our craft started to rip apart, so we had to let them go and hope that they would get picked up, We kept going, but because of the propellers coming out of the water, one of the drive shaft couplings, broke and one rudders dropped off, so now we had only the one rudder and one engine, but I still managed to keep up with the flotilla.
It was now late afternoon and the sea, as was predicted, started to flatten out a bit, which we were all very pleased about, it was about this time that one of the crew spotted a mine about 50O yards away, some of the crew started taking shots at it. The Corvette sent a message in very rude word's, to leave the So and So thing alone, the Corvette then turned back to deal with it, some time later we heard a loud bang. It was now beginning to get dark, and as there were no lights, the only way I could see, was to follow the wake of the craft in front, the sea was getting calmer and the night blacker, as we kept going through the night with only the wake of craft in front. It was about this time that the crew suggested that I should take a break, and try to get some sleep, I handed the wheel over to Marine Watkins, and I sat behind the engine man. Feeling very tired, I fell off to sleep, and the crew in what seemed to me to be quite a panic awakened me. Shouting that we were lost, I went to the wheel and sure enough we were in total darkness. Watkins had found it very hard to keep the craft straight having only one engine and only one rudder even though the sea had calmed considerably. The crew were in a high state of concern, and making all sorts of suggestions such as ''let's turn back and 鈥渨e could be heading for the wrong part of France鈥� also 鈥渋f we land in the wrong place we would be taken prisoner鈥� 鈥淲ell at least we would be out of this ruddy sea鈥� I felt that the crew were expecting me to decide so I said I think we should stay on this course until we see something that will tell us where we are, like the dawn or a ship. They all agreed, and this was my first feeling that I had some leadership quality, but the thought did cross my mind that somewhere in this channel there was an armada of ships.

(Continued in part 3)

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