elsie item issue 67 - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

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stern anchor had not held and therefore could notbe used to winch her off the beach. A sand barwas behind them and the tide was falling. WhileLCI 408 backed off the sandbar and landed tothe right of LCI 553, the 553 was desperatelytrying to retreat to deep waters.At 11:00 AM, the time Henry’s first wave of LCIsstarted hitting the beach, Benjamin VanBlake,Skipper of LCI 540 established contact with controlvessel – USS Sub Chaser 1354, followed himtowards Easy Red beach and then receivedbeaching orders. Behind the 540 were LCIs 541,555 and 557 respectively, carrying the 3rdBattalion 115th RCT. It was the moment of truthfor VanBlake who had promised Company L a drylanding. At the helm of the 540 wasQuartermaster 3rd Class Robert Klug, a mereseventeen year old sailor. At #4 Gun – 20MM,port side stood my father, Coxswain FrankFrance, the oldest enlisted man onboard. Francea 25 year old from West Middletown,Pennsylvania had a wife and two small sons waitingfor him back home. He painted on his 20MMgun shields “Little Rita” in honor of his wife.VanBlake drove LCI 540 to the beach at fullspeed. At 11:50, he let go his stern anchor androde over a series of beach obstacles consistingof stakes, ramps and tetrahedra. Two of thestakes carried a mine on top. At 11:51, LCI 540road onto the beach and dropped her ramps. Thefirst off the starboard ramp was 2nd Lt. AlUngerleider who “stepped onto dry sand”.Incredibly, VanBlake had fulfilled his promise of adry landing – the second dry landing for Group34. However, under the intense German fire,there was little time to reflect on dry feet.Private Andrew Crockett carried his mortarrounds down the port ramp as another soldierwas killed going down the starboard ramp.Crockett hit the beach “scared to death”. By11:56, all troops were off LCI 540.Lieutenant (jg) Jack Flinn, Skipper of LCI 555, followedLCI 540 towards the beach. On the run tothe shore, Gunners Mate 3rd Class “Woody”Moyle saw his first casualty in the water. It wasa “Buck” Sergeant with a bald spot on the backof his head who was face down in a “dead man’sfloat” position. Moyle then saw a half-submergedDUKW amphibious vehicle with a large black soldiercheering on LCI 555, “Go!” During the dashto the beach, LCI 555 glanced off so many obstaclesthat Moyle later compared it to a “pinballmachine”. To the left (east) front of LCI 555 wasLCI 540. The 540 had just taken on three armywounded and began retracting at 11:57 AM.Coxswain Frank France at #4 Gun saw LCI 555bearing down on them from his right (west) andbraced as the 555 collided with the 540 and spunher 45 degrees towards the beach. Full breachingwas avoided by quick actions of Skipper and crewand two minutes later, the 540 was clear of theshore with one last near miss astern of a mortarround that violently shook the vessel.As LCI 555 dropped its ramps, heavy weaponsCompany M, began shuffling forward. Moylemarveled at one very short soldier burdened witha heavy load of mortar rounds. The first into thewater was Major Victory R.Gillespie, the commanderof 3rd Battalion. As the troops descendedthe ramps they lowered themselves into waterapproximately 5 feet deep. They were assistedby the man rope which had been dragged toshore and anchored by Seaman 1st ClassLawrence D. Olin. The ramps were battered bythe surf and finally the starboard ramp was twistedoff and it fell into the sea with four soldiersand equipment tumbling in after it. They struggledto reach the man rope as they bobbed inand out of sight in the waves. Seaman 1st ClassRobert Starkey manning the starboard ramp loweredhimself into the water and while holdingonto the man rope, he reached out and pulled thesoldiers to safety. (Source: Balkoski) As LCI 555retracted from the beach, Starkey, soaked andexhausted, barely reached the 555 in time andclung to a cargo net for dear life. “Woody”Moyle reached down and with great effort pulledStarkey back on deck.Landing near LCI 555 was LCI 557 commandedby Lt (jg) Charles Edman. Manning the telephoneon the Conn was eighteen year old Boatswains18
Mate Second Class Walter “Buck” Phillps fromNiagara Falls, New York. Nearing the beach, amortar round struck the water in front of thebow. About ten seconds later, a second mortarround struck closer to the bow. Approximatelyten seconds more, a third mortar round struckeven closer to the bow. Clearly, the Germanswere “walking” the rounds into the LCI.Instinctively, Phillips screamed into the telephone“All back full”. The”Black Gang” in the engineroom immediately responded and the forwardmotion of the LCI slowed enough that theinevitable fourth mortar round struck short of itsmark just in front of the bow. The blast shookthe 557 and the bow gunners were knocked offtheir feet. At that time, Phillips realized that hehad reacted independently - at least he thought hehad. He did not remember hearing the commandfrom the Skipper nor did he receive a rebuke fromanyone. The ramps dropped and Phillips watchedSeaman Schneider struggling with the man ropeon the beach. As he attempted to pull a kink outof the rope, a burst of machine gun rounds kickedup in front of him. With, one hard yank, he straightenedthe rope and fell on the anchor. Within minutes,the troops were ashore and LCI 557 retractedfrom the beach.Running to the beach with LCIs 540, 555 and557 was Lt (jg) A.H. Plummer in LCI 541. ThisSkipper would experience even more trouble thanHenry’s Flagship, LCI 408 with getting his troopsto the beach. His soldiers were Company K, 3rdBattalion. Seventeen year old Seaman 1st ClassWalter Berg of Riverside, Rhode Island wasassigned #1 Gun – 20MM on the bow. However,he had additional duties of taking “soundings” tocheck the depth of the water for a safe deploymentof the soldiers. As they neared the beach,the firing was intense. One Company K soldierquipped “A guy could get killed around here!” Hisbuddies broke out in laughter. Berg took severalsoundings and all he found was deep water. TheSkipper could not get through all the obstaclesand sand bars. At one point, Boatswains Mate2nd Class Barker jumped into the cold waterswith anchor and man rope and struggled in sixfeet water towards the beach. Incredibly onelone soldier jumped off the ramp and followedhim, nearly drowning in the process. The soldierwas twenty-one year old Company K 1stLieutenant Richard Quigley who had never practicedgetting off of an LCI. He had been promotedto 1st Lieutenant just the day before D-Day.He stood on the ramp of LCI 541 ready to leadhis platoon into battle. He looked back at theConn to his Company Commander Captain Hillewho shouted and waved him forward. WhenQuigley stepped off the ramp he sank over hishead in water. He quickly inflated his life beltand struggled through the surf to eventuallycrawl onto the beach exhausted and spent. Helooked back, shocked to see that he was allalone and LCI 541 was backing away from theshore. To the soldiers and sailors onboard the541 who watched Quigley’s struggle, it was clearthat any further disembarkation of troops in thedeep water was futile. Quigley moved forwardtowards the bluffs and joined other soldiers dugin on the beach.In the meantime Lt (jg) Plummer on LCI 541made two more unsuccessful attempts to get histroops to the beach. Plummer gave up andrequested smaller boats to transport his troopsto the shore. The Coast Guard transport ship APA26 Samuel Chase responded by sending aLanding Craft Medium (LCM) that took many ofthe troops from LCI 541 but was not able toreturn for another load. Finally, the control vessel,USS Sub Chaser 1354 dispatched three LCVPs totake the remaining soldiers to the beach. Thistask was not completed until approximately 1:00PM. Shortly thereafter, Lt. Quigley watchedCaptain Hille leading Company K towards him onthe beach. Quigley was reunited with friendlyfaces and together they advanced to the bluffs.Lindsay Henry’s assault on Easy Red was completebut the drama was far from over.19
Page 3 and 4: From the Editor/PresidentPortland,
Page 5 and 6: A Special Message to My Fellow Affi
Page 7 and 8: Letters to the EditorJohn,I enjoyed
Page 9 and 10: The Fortunate Redirection:Landing C
Page 11 and 12: Reproduced from D-Day, by Stephen E
Page 13 and 14: VanBlake of LCI 540. VanBlake was a
Page 15 and 16: Signalman Jack Gale stood on the Co
Page 17: The stern anchor let out by LCI 553
Page 21 and 22: The last two sailors to get off LCI
Page 23 and 24: The Rest of the Story!John France T
Page 25 and 26: with a “V” for valor among othe
Page 27 and 28: THE 2009 LCI CALENDAR!A GREAT COLLE
Page 29 and 30: A HEARTENING RESPONSE!LCIers Rally
Page 31 and 32: USS LCI NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONAPPLICA

elsie item issue 67 - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

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