Narrative by: Lieutenant Commander Alvin H. Tutt
LST 314 in Normandy Invasion
 
  Lieutenant Commander Tutt described the part of LST 314, which he commanded, in the Invasion of Normandy. The ship was one of the ships unloaded by Rhino off Omaha beach and carried casualties back to England. On the second trip to France, the LST 314 was torpedoed and sunk by German E-boats. Commander Tutt also describes some of his experiences aboard the same LST in the Sicily and Salerno operations.

Commander Tutt, a former enlisted man, has served in the Navy as a diver and as a crewman on submarines. He was a Chief Gunner's Mate at the start of the war. At the time he gave his recording, he said he expected to be made Division Commander of LSTs.


This is Lieutenant Porter, we are in the office of Naval Records and Library on 24 July 1944. Captain Tutt has consented to talk to us today about his experiences in the Normandy Operation. Captain, will you please give us your full name and the name of your ship?

Commander Tutt:
Alvin H. Tutt, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, I was Commanding Officer of LST 314 and Division Commander of LST Division 68, Flotilla 12.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right, prior to D day you were engaged in some extensive rehearsals in England. Could you give us very briefly what they consisted of?

Commander Tutt:
Why yes, on these operations we would load the Army vehicles and material that we were actually going to use in the operation. We would sortie down the swept channel exactly as we expected to do on the invasion. It would be the same length of time and the same time of landing to this beach. When we would anchor off the beach, we would send our waves in under fire, under air attack and thereby giving the same conditions of actual landings. We would unload our vehicles, our ducks, by various methods, some by rhino, some by LCTs, some by actual beaching and drying out. By drying out I mean running the LST on the beach and let the tide go out thereby leaving your LST high and dry. As the beach graduation wasn't enough to actually hit the beach that required to land directly on the beach.

Unloading by rhino you would make rhino fast to the bow of an LST, run in your tank deck load onto the rhino and run in your top side load to the tank deck, then unloading onto rhino. This operation complete would take something over an hour, good conditions, although running from tank deck to the rhino we have done it in approximately 9 minutes. That's taken from actual log sheets, reports we had to take in.

Lieutenant Porter:
Sir, was this beach fairly similar to Omaha beach as far as you know?

Commander Tutt:
This beach was picked as near as possible to be exactly the same type as we were going to find on the far shore. It was similar, the graduation even to the cliffs and the land back of the beach was very similar to the ones we hit at Omaha.

Lieutenant Porter:
As an approximation, can you tell us how much time you spent in such training, approximately, and how many rehearsals, approximately you had.

Commander Tutt:
We had several small rehearsals, we had three large full-scale rehearsals. These small rehearsals we had were for the training of Army personnel and rhino personnel.

Lieutenant Porter:
During these training operations did you see any evidence of German reconnaissance overhead or otherwise?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, sometimes a plane very high leaving a vapor of smoke would come over.

Lieutenant Porter:
Just before D day did you notice any step up in German reconnaissance or just before D day did you hear anything on the radio to indicate that the Germans were aware of when D day was?

Commander Tutt:
No, I heard nothing over the radio but it did appear reconnaissance planes came over more frequently, usually at about 11:00 to 3:00 o'clock.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you run into any effort by the Germans to drop mines just before D day?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, just before D day, the Germans came over Weymouth Harbor, dropped several mines in the harbor where the ships were.

Lieutenant Porter:
Captain, were there any appreciable casualties in this training period?

Commander Tutt:
Only a very few. They were mostly after the men were ashore going over the rough places, although a few casualties were in landing.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right sir, now when did you get your final briefing, when did they seal the ship?

Commander Tutt:
Just before the operation, I don't remember just exactly the day without looking it up, but just before the invasion, three or four days we got our final briefing.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you go out at all on the ----. We'll put it another way. Were you involved at all in any operations on the 5th which subsequently were called off and postponed for the sixth?

Commander Tutt:
Oh, yes, we were headed across the channel for the invasion of the 5th, with all the ships, landing craft, sweeps and every type of ship that was in the invasion were under way and a good ways out in the channel when we were turned back because, apparently, rough weather which was blowing wind and the seas were pretty strong.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did that have any noticeable effect on the morale of the personnel?

Commander Tutt:
The morale of the personnel appeared that they wanted to get over there, they knew that they had to do it, and they wanted to do it and they hated to turn back. They wanted to go ahead.

Lieutenant Porter:
In the operation you were the guide boat?

Commander Tutt:
I was the lead ship of LST's on Omaha beach of course, proceeding down swept channels that had been marked by minesweepers and other craft.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right, Sir, could you go on from there and tell us a little detail, what happened to you in the trip across?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, I will start with the loading in Weymouth Harbor. We loaded a few days before D day. The ship was sealed, no one was allowed off the ship except by express permission of the commanding officers, no enlisted man was allowed off the ship without being in the custody of an officer and every precaution was taken that any leakage of information that might be useful to the enemy were prevented. On the sortie we sortied to the outer harbor at night and day before the invasion. The next day the weather was increasing, the wind was stronger, we were turned back, the whole Army returned to port and anchored. The 6th, we got underway the same as the night before, proceeded to France. We proceeded down swept channels which I might say here were perfect. A very good job of laying the lanes for the ships to proceed down. They were wide and well marked, very few markers that we could not find. Had no trouble at all, the air coverage was 100%. At any time you could look into the air and you could always see numerous amount of planes of various types.

We arrived at the transport area on schedule, very shortly thereafter the large amphibious transports arrived and anchored. Immediately upon anchoring we put the assault troops into the assault boats, then we put the DUKWs into the water. After the DUKWs were in the water we tied the rhino (my ship unloaded by rhino) and each one of the ten ships in the assault unloaded by rhino and we also towed the rhino to the transport area. After the DUKWs were in the water we unloaded our topside and remainder of the tank docks onto the rhino and we were ready to return. This operation took an hour and forty minutes for my ship.

Lieutenant Porter:
Captain, when did you first notice activity ashore?

Commander Tutt:
Long before H hour there was heavy firing ashore and large flashes and large fires started ashore, we knew that our bombers were over there, knocking out gun emplacements and installations ashore as they were scheduled to do so. Very heavy anti-aircraft fire was seen ashore.

Lieutenant Porter:
Then you completed your unloading long before H hour?

Commander Tutt:
I completed my unloading of the troops long before H hour, all my DUKWs were in the water long before H hour but some of my vehicles were not unloaded before H hour as they were supposed to hit the beach one hour and a half after H hour.

Lieutenant Porter:
How was the sea during this unloading?

Commander Tutt:
The sea was comparatively rough. A little too rough in my opinion for the DUKWs to proceed safely toward the beach loaded as heavy as they were.

Lieutenant Porter:
As far as you could tell, most of them made it?

Commander Tutt:
No, I personally saw several DUKWs sink. I understand that the majority of them did not make it on this particular beach of Omaha.

Lieutenant Porter:
When H hour came were you in a position to see the start of naval gunfire?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, there was a very heavy barrage a few minutes prior to H hour from our battleships, cruisers, destroyers and rocket ships.

Lieutenant Porter:
How about the reply from the beach?

Commander Tutt:
I couldn't tell, it was too far away, all I could see was large flashes.

Lieutenant Porter:
Captain, do you mind telling us how long you waited there in the transport area and what you were waiting for after you unloaded?

Commander Tutt:
After we unloaded we waited in the area until afternoon. Some of the ships had different type materials to unload. It took them a little longer. They were supposed to go back with us. We were also waiting for casualties which were put aboard. On my ship I only had 42 casualties on my first trip, most of them wounded, some of them survivors.

Lieutenant Porter:

Do you have any idea how they decided what casualties to put on a ship and what casualties to fly back?

Commander Tutt:
At that time we were not flying casualties back, no place to land on the beach, all casualties were taken aboard ships and taken back to the port of entry in England.

Lieutenant Porter:
What sort of medical unit did you have aboard, sir?

Commander Tutt:
I had a medical staff of four officers, two Army, two Navy, 22 hospital corpsmen Navy and 2 hospital corpsman Army.

Lieutenant Porter:
Quite a sizable corps. Now, while you were in the transport area did any of our ships hit floating mines?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, I saw two ships hit floating mines in near the beach.

Lieutenant Porter:
Landing craft?

Commander Tutt:
No, AMs and maybe a destroyer, I am not sure.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you see any ships hit by shore shell fire?

Commander Tutt:
No, I didn't see any ships hit by shell fire, I was too far away.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you see any damage or casualties caused by underwater obstructions near the beach?

Commander Tutt:
No, I did not.

Lieutenant Porter:
Too far away again?

Commander Tutt:
Too far away, I was anchored about seven miles out.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right sir, after you got these casualties on board, presumably you were ready to go back, what happened then, sir?

Commander Tutt:
Got underway with escorts and returned to Weymouth Harbor, unloaded our casualties and loaded again to return to Normandy beach.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right sir, on this trip you were again the flagship of LST's?

Commander Tutt:
No, sir, the LST 316 our group commander aboard that ship then was the flag ship, I was column leader of the 2nd column.

Lieutenant Porter:
How many ships were in this unit?

Commander Tutt:
Five LSTs and one escort British destroyer.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you have a lot of troops on board this time similar to the first trip?

Commander Tutt:
This time we carried heavy ordnance gear. Only the drivers aboard. Not many troops.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right sir, did you get word of any contact, or prospective contact with the enemy on the way over?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, going over the channel was congested, you might say, with returning convoys. About 11:00 o'clock at night on June 8th we had a report that two enemy destroyers were heading our way. For some reason they never got to us. At about 12:00 o'clock our escort commenced firing star shells, I didn't know why but presumed some enemy contact made, and everything was quiet, we were nearing our beach 18 to 20 miles away, when we had enemy action. The ship I was in was torpedoed by E-boats. The stern ship also being torpedoed by E-boats. Two torpedoes hit me, one about 30 seconds before the other. The ship started to sink very rapidly and after abandoning ship, only a very few left aboard, a third torpedo hit the ship, fourth torpedo missing the ship some 50 feet. The ship sank very rapidly, in about 26 minutes the ship sank completely, maybe 15 or 20 seconds later came to the surface. That is the bow came to the surface, stayed afloat for approximately seven more minutes before sinking, this time staying down.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did these convoy escorts leave you to pursue these E-boats?

Commander Tutt:
No, convoy escort shot flares, tried to pick them up, but could not, he turned around and picked up as many survivors as he possibly could up from the two ships that were sunk.

Lieutenant Porter:
Captain, did you personally see, or any of your men ever see any E-boats?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, after we were in the water, one E-boat, possibly wo, one E-boat came close by in among the survivors and turned one searchlight on the survivors and then went away.

>Lieutenant Parter:
I suppose he turned it on and off pretty quick?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, although one raft that he turned it on, I would say 10 seconds.

Lieutenant Porter:
That wasn't long enough for the destroyer to get a set-up on him?

Commander Tutt:
The destroyer at this time was well on the other side of the fire and on the move trying to locate these E-boats. By the move I mean going in a circle around us, which, incidentally, at this place was heavily mined.

Lieutenant Porter:
This E-boat that was seen or the E-boats that were seen and looked at these survivors, did they slacken their speed at all for that or did they keep on going on their usual fast speed?

Commander Tutt:
They did not slacken speed, at one time they slowed down close to a raft and I thought they were going to either machine gun the men on the raft or pick up survivors, but I don't believe they picked up survivors and I know they did not machine gun anybody.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did they use any smoke in the retirement, as far as you could see?

Commander Tutt:
None whatsoever, that I saw.

Lieutenant Porter:
During the nights that you were crossing the channel, two nights or two and a half nights, did you see any enemy air activity on those nights?

Commander Tutt:
None whatsoever. I never saw a German plane in the whole Normandy Invasion.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you see or hear anything or evidence of enemy submarine activity there?

Commander Tutt:
No, I did not see any.

Lieutenant Porter:
The subs were keeping clear. All right, sir, this water that you and your men got into, it was pretty cold I take it?

Commander Tutt:
Fifty-two degrees, the water temperature was, and we stayed in the water from two to four hours. Several men were lost from exposure.

Lieutenant Porter:
Everybody was pretty numb by the time they were picked up then?

Commander Tutt:
All men were treated for exposure and were in a pretty bad way before they were picked up.

Lieutenant Porter:
You were picked up by this British destroyer?

Commander Tutt:
I was picked up by the British destroyer.

Lieutenant Porter:
What was its name, sir?

Commander Tutt:
HMS Beagle.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did they take you on to the Normandy beach then?

Commander Tutt:
No, they returned us to Portsmouth, there we were given survivor's clothes by the British and treated very, very nicely.

Lieutenant Porter:
Were there intelligence officers there to talk to you?

Commander Tutt:
Not at this place. If we had been landed at one of our ports, where we were operating from there would have been, but not here, although one British Intelligence officer did talk to me a little.

Lieutenant Porter:
Where did you go from Portsmouth?

Commander Tutt:
From Portsmouth we went to Plymouth to the survivors camp set up especially for survivors.

Lieutenant Porter:
Were there any arrangements there for you to organize your men or talk to naval operating people?

Commander Tutt:
Oh yes, this camp was set up a few weeks before invasion for survivors, getting clothes, records straightened out and so forth.

Lieutenant Porter:
Operating pretty efficiently by that time?

Commander Tutt:
Very efficient.

Lieutenant Porter:
Was that where you made your sinking report or did you make that later?

Commander Tutt:
I wrote my sinking report from there and when I returned to the States I completed it.

Lieutenant Porter:
From there did you go to Rasneath or London or any place?

Commander Tutt:
From there I went to a place calle Fowey, Cornwall and from Fowey I went to Scotland for transportation back to the States.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you see any of the buzz bombs while you were in England?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, coming through London, had a layover on the train, I saw about 15 bombs pass over. These bombs passed over, only one exploding near, I would say, a thousand yards away.

Lieutenant Porter:
The station going on as usual pretty much?

Commander Tutt:
People carried on their routine work as usual but when the bombs would go over there seemed to be a hush. Everything would just stop, no one would talk, semed to be getting on their nerves pretty much.

Lieutenant Porter:
Was this daytime or night?

Commander Tutt:
This was daytime.

Lieutenant Porter:
All right sir, to sum things up, you've been in amphibious forces since they started, I understand, have you seen much progress made in the two years or longer that you were with them?

Commander Tutt:
Yes sir, when I first went in the amphibious force the largest craft we had that I know of, of course, the others were in the process of making was a 36-foot landing boat. I saw the LCT 105 footers, LCIs 150 footers, then of course, the LSTs, the 327 footers. They have grown from the auxiliary to be one of the most important crafts for invasion that the Unites States Navy have at this time.

Lieutenant Porter:
In other words the invasions that we have made definitely could not have succeeded unless we had used our inventive genius to develop some sort of craft of this type?

Commander Tutt:
In my opinion it could not have taken place unless we did have some craft of this type, quick to unload, get personnel off and vehicles and material ashore. In my opinion amphibious fleet, LSTs, LCIs, LCTs right down to the LCVPs is the success of our invasions.

Lieutenant Porter:
The British have something pretty comparable to ours, do they?

Commander Tutt:
The British do have LSTs, thy are American built, British manned. They have also landing boats similar to ours for commandos and assualt personnel.

Lieutenant Porter:
Do you mind telling us briefly the other operations that you've been in in the amphibious force?

Commander Tutt:
I was in the Sicilian campaign and also in the Italy campaign. In the Sicilian campaign I landed at Licata. We were the assault ship. I might explain that, Assault ships are the six-davit ships and I was assault ship on the Sicilian, also on the Italian at Salerno and the follow-up to different points in the Mediterranean.

Lieutenant Porter:
You mean like Palermo and the northern ports of Sicily and Messina and that sort of stuff?

Commander Tutt:
That's right. For instance, one trip we left Salerno, went to Bizerte, loaded up again. This trip we went to Bagdolia just above Naples, from Bagdolia we went through the Straights of Messina to Tripoli, from Tripoli we went to Taranto, from Taranto we went to Palermo, and from Palermo back to Naples, then Naples back to Bizerte. This time taking about three weeks.

Lieutenant Porter:
Starting with Sicily were you on LSTs for all these operations?

Commander Tutt:
Yes, Sicily I was on an LST, the same one that I had carrying assault troops, American assault troops on the Sicilian campaign.

Lieutenant Porter:
Which was your first command?

Commander Tutt:
LST 314 the one that I had that was sunk.

Lieutenant Porter:
In other words you were in command of your own ship at Sicily?

Commmander Tutt:
Yes that's right.

Lieutenant Porter:
At salerno what did you carry?

Commander Tutt:
At Salerno I carried British assault troops and British vehicles.

Lieutenant Porter:
That was in the first wave?

Commander Tutt:
The first wave that went in.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you notice anything notable by way of comparison between the British and American forces?

Commander Tutt:
Yes. In the Sicilian campaign American forces had more equipment, the enthusiam was to get over there and get the job done, and they didn't mind telling you what they were going to do when they got there. The British troops, it appeared to me, did not have as good equipment or as much, they seemed to sit, not say much, some kind of a hatred, although quite a few of my assault boys were Polish men, you could see the determination that these boys had and I would hate to have been the enemy facing them.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did the British have their afternoon tea on board?

Commander Tutt:
Oh yes, they had afternoon tea. Believe it or not, most of them preferred coffee.

Lieutenant Porter:
You were then, I take it, in the units of ships that landed on the British beach at Salerno. British beachhead.

Commander Tutt:
That's right, the British beachhead at Salerno.

Lieutenant Porter:
Were there quite a number of American LST's carrying British troops in there?

Commander Tutt:
Oh yes, practically all, in fact they were all American LSTs because the British LSTs are not made as assault ships, they are only two-davit ships. Therefore, for the assault group, American ships were used.

Lieutenant Porter:
You had a British escort?

Commander Tutt:
I had British escort and American escort, a combination of the two.

Lieutenant Porter:
Any monitors, any British monitors in that?

Commander Tutt:
We had a British monitor.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did you have an opportunity to see that in action?

Commander Tutt:
Yes sir, I saw action several times, in fact there was action right up until around the ninth day, I believe, or maybe longer, from all types of ships on the Salerno beach trying to push men out of those strongholds and mountains.

Lieutenant Porter:
These British men I suppose were part of Montgomery or were they part of Alexander's forces?

Commander Tutt:
I couldn't answer that question.

Lieutenant Porter:
A least they were probably veterans of the African campaign.

Commander Tutt:
Yes, some of them were veterans of the African campaign.

Lieutenant Porter:
That might explain the fact that they weren't quite as enthusiastic as the Americans who hadn't had as much combat experience.

Commander Tutt:
I think so. Maybe that was it.

Lieutenant Porter:
Captain, was there anything unusual about your landing at Salerno?

Commander Tutt:
Yes. I was one of the first ships to hit Salerno beach, in fact on my beach I was the first asssault ship to hit. I received orders to hit beach at utmost speed, which I did, driving my ship 31 feet on the dry land. They had a red marker on the beach, about 8 feet long, about two feet wide. I knocked it down. While we were on the beach we had three diving bombing attacks on the ship, continuous shell fire. One of the bombs passed through one of my small boats hanging at the davit, had five holes below the waterline presumably caused by 88's from the beach.

To get off the beach took two tugs, two LCI's, my stern anchor full power and backing full astern for about seven hours. I was on the beach around nine hours and a half, all told.

Lieutenant Porter:
Did your damage control get those underwater holes fixed before you got off?

Commander Tutt:
I was on the beach so I couldn't sink and the holes were only in the ballast tank. My ballast tanks I mean my salt water ballast to trim the ship to go into the beach, therefore they did not rupture anything in our hull. Only a couple of seams, which were caulked while we were on the beach. Believe it or not, water only came about two-thirds of the way up into the tanks.


Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Bill Anderson for the HyperWar Foundation