Narrative by: Lieutenant William E. Becker, USN
LCI(L) 219
Normandy, Sicily, Salerno and Anzio
 
  Lieutenant Becker, engineering officer, aboard the LCI(L) 219, tells of that ship's good luck in five invasions before being sunk June 11, 1944 by a near miss from a bomb dropped by a Nazi plane off the OMAHA beachhead. He considers Salerno his most difficult war experience. Lieutenant Becker is a Navy veteran, having served many years as an enlisted man.


Lieutenant Porter:

This is Lieutenant Porter. We are in the Office of Naval Records And Library on 5 August 1944. Lieutenant Becker has kindly consented to talk to us this morning about some of his experiences in the amphibious forces. Lieutenant, will you kindly give us your full name, and the position that you occupied on the ship, and identify the ship, please.

Lieutenant Becker:

My name is William E. Becker. I was Engineering Officer aboard the LCI(L) 219. We went into commission on November the 20th 1942, with a green crew. Most of them were reserve men that just came in the Navy. We formed this crew at Solomons, Maryland, in October, 1942, when the base was first put into commission. At that time, there were few men who had any experience at sea. Most of the men came from positions and jobs from the outside world into the Navy to fight for their country. At Solomons, we had very few activities that we could enjoy, due to the fact that it was a new base and the place was not built to the proper extent as it is today. After a short training period, we went up to Boston to take over our new ship. During the ceremony, we had a few incidents that most of the men will remember to their last days.

Well, we made our trip from Boston; these men were really ignorant of the jobs they had to take over, but I must say that the Engineering force of which I was in charge of, did a man-size job. Most of them were enthusiastic to put in practice what they had learned at the diesel school.

From Boston, we went to Norfolk to get in a few weeks of training before we left the States for Africa. The training wasn't much, due to the fact that time was limited. When we left the States for Bermuda, our first stop across to Africa, most of the men were broke in, due to the storm and the snow storms that we had for the three-day period, but like all other Americans, they came through with flying colors. Our Flotilla Commander was very proud of all hands and the condition of the ship; and I might say that I for one, was scared that the ship wouldn't make it. It was a new-type ship and we didn't know whether it would take the sea or not.

After recuperating in Bermuda for a couple of weeks, we made our trip to Africa, which was 21 days. Twenty-one days of rough sea which properly broke in all men, the officers, and, I might say, the ships. Some of them became leaky. We came into good weather in Africa and, therefore, we were able to do some training in conjunction with the Army. We trained with the LCR, the rubber boats, making landings for General Patton and the Infantry force of the Fifth Army.

I must state in the report that we entered Mostagnan on March the 25th, 1943. We had extensive repairs to make on our ship before we could perform these operations. In operating between Mostagnon and Arzew, the Gulf of Arzew, we encountered some rough weather which proved that these rubber boats were not as good as we first thought, which later proved that they were abandoned. When they took the Port of Bizerte, we moved up there in May of 1943, which became a hot spot. We had [air] raids nightly for a period of about two weeks, which indoctrinated us to the war.

While at Bizerte, we continued our operations with the Army for the invasion of Sicily that was to come at a later date. We made dummy invasions on the land surrounding Bizerte and also on Lake Bizerte. While there, we also made extensive repairs on the ships, and on the engines, so that the ships would be in first-rate fighting style when we would make this invasion.

On July the 5th, 1943, the morning that we left Bizerte for the invasion of Sicily, we had one of the most extensive air raids that we have ever witnessed. Later I learned there were a hundred German planes that participated in this invasion, of which only half of them got to Bizerte and about 15 or 20 of them left Bizerte. Due to the extensive gun power of the Army and the Navy, we were able to get most of these planes with no damage to the Navy whatever. The ships were all loaded with the Army personnel a couple of days before this invasion, so you can tell the job we had on an LCI when we went out to fight the planes with very little room.

About 8 o'clock, July the 5th, 1943, we left Bizerte for Sicily. We had wonderful weather until the morning of the invasion date, when we had that terrible storm. We didn't know whether we were going to pull through or not. Most of the time our engines were stopped due to slow convoy. Sometimes the sea would throw us around into an LCT or into an ammunition barge, but we managed to keep in our position. About 4 o'clock in the morning, the sea began to calm, then we heard the gun fire on the beach. We saw the planes bombing the town and also some of our planes with the paratroopers coming in. We had orders not to fire on any plane until a larger ship fired first.

About 9 o'clock in the morning, we made our first landing. We landed at Gela where the gunfire at the time we landed was well under control. We didn't encounter any trouble with our troops or with the Germans. Our troops landed in grand style and we proceeded to shift from the beach out to our rendezvous so that we could go back after more troops. We made trips between Sicily and Bizerte with troops for about two days, then we went back to our base at Bizerte where we rested for the next operation.

The latter part of July we were sent to northern Sicily, to Palermo to make end runs so that we could get our Army to Messina. We operated close to the lines. We could see the artillery firing about 10 miles from us. In the morning, we had airplanes making runs on us. We only had about six LCIs, two LSTs and few LCTs, so our gun power wasn't much. They eventually got these two LSTs, so that left the bulk of the firing for the LCIs. We did get six German planes. We made our runs up to Milazzo, where the day before, the Army advanced so fast that we were too late. The following morning we heard that Messina was accounted for.

After our operations in northern Sicily, we returned to Bizerte, where we had some recreation around Tunis before proceeding on the operations of Salerno. We did not get in on the opening of Salerno, we didn't arrive until about September the 12th, which was D plus three days. At that time, we escorted the LCTs to Salerno for their operations. When we pulled into Salerno, the first thing that struck my eyes was ships that were burning. We found out later that we just missed a good air raid.

We stayed at Salerno for a period of about 14 days. At that time, we were mother ship to LCMs who were unloading the Liberty Ships and other ships that had equipment of war aboard. Our activity at Salerno was mostly tending to these LCMs and firing at any planes that were close, also evading the German 88s if possible. Up to this time, we were very fortunate. The ship pulled through without a scratch and none of the men were injured.

After our stay in Salerno, we proceeded back to Bizerte to bring some troops up to Naples, which they took a few days later. That was one of the worst harbors that I have ever encountered. The ships were lying on their sides and scuttled throughout the harbor, which made poor navigation. We managed to get to the docks to discharge our troops, and from then on, we worked with the Army unloading transports that were able to come in. At Thanksgiving, the Army provided us with a feast of turkeys and all the trimmings that went with it. So therefore, we did not miss out on anything that the folks at home didn't have.

About the latter part of November, we returned to Bizerte for some extensive operations with the Army. During this time, we trained and made landings and remedied the faults we had before, so that by this time, we became a unit that was practically without faults.

Along about the first part of January, there were rumors that we were going to have another operation. We proceeded to Naples and, sure enough, we had an operation at Anzio. At that time, we worked with the British forces. We carried the naval observers from London and also the Colonel of the British Army who is credited with the invention of the rocket ship. Their job was to find out how the American LCIs were working and, also, for whatever date that they could get from the beaches.

On January the 22nd, 1944, we made our first landing at Anzio. Our job was to lead the LCVPs and LCMs into the beach. There wasn't much activity from the air, but there was plenty from land. The 88s were following us every place we went, but so far no hits. After January the 24th, we went over to the American beach, where we stayed for a period of 10 days, and in that period is where we made history which will be told on a summary. After our twelfth day in that area, we were sent back to Pozzouli for a short rest. From then on, we made regular trips to Anzio with supplies, due to the shortage of ships. We carried everything that could be carried by a ship, including ammunition.

Along about March, we were sent back to Bizerte for further orders, which proved to be to go to the United Kingdom. After about eight days of repair work on both ship, engines, and men, we left Africa for the United Kingdom. It took us twelve days to get to England, but this time the sea was good to us.

Upon our arrival in Cardiff, we had our first sight of deep docks due to the high tide that they have there. We could not tie up to the dock. We stayed in Cardiff about two weeks, then we went to Plymouth, where we made ready for the big invasion of Normandy. Of course, we knew it was coming off, but we didn't know when. We were very jittery. We wanted it to come off and get it over with. But that wouldn't help us to think about it.

On June the fifth, we left Plymouth for invasion of Normandy. We landed there on June the sixth, and went in on the seventeenth wave, about 10 o'clock in the morning. The beaches there were not as good as the beaches we had run across, so therefore, we had to unload our troops on LCMs. After unloading our troops, we took aboard the Flotilla Commander of the LST Flotilla Ten. Our job was to take care of the barges and the Rhino ferries, which was supposed to take one day. It turned out we kept the commander aboard for a period of five days.

During that time, we ran over more mine fields than I have ever encountered. After we ran over one, a ship would come along later and be blown. We went to the rescue of an LST, and about a hundred yards from where we had just passed, a coastal steamer went by and in three minutes flat he was at the bottom from these mines we ran over. So you can see how fortunate we were up to this period. Five actual invasions and not a scratch, not a man injured.

But on the morning of D plus five, June the 11th, we were over at OMAHA Beach, which was out of our territory, to pick up some men to bring over to the UTAH, which was our territory. About 3:45 in the morning, we had an air raid. It was one of those surprise jobs. It did not give the men on watch time to ring the alarm. The bomb that hit us landed about ten feet from the side of the ship, about one point abaft the beam. It knocked me out of my bunk. At the moment, I didn't know what happened, but through instinct I grabbed my helmet and my life preserver, but forgot my shoes.

I went out to my battle station, and the men I saw coming out of the crew's quarters were all injured, so I made a dash to the engine room, and the engineer said that the generators were out and there was fire. When I looked, the engine room was full of smoke. There was nothing that we could do as all our pumps were powerless. We needed assistance. I reported to the commanding officer at that time, and he asked me to look throughout the ship to see what else was wrong. I counted four fires.

At this time, the men who weren't injured, I had get the extinguishers to do what we could with the fires, but we only had about eight men aboard ship that weren't injured. We were so busy getting out the injured men and trying to do something with these fires, that the fires got the best of us. The decks began to get hot. At four, a PC came along side to take off our injured men. When this PC cam along side, we were fortunate in getting a fire rescue party aboard.

I forgot to state that every man in the Engineer's force were injured. Two of us were more or less slightly injured, but the rest were badly injured. They were no help whatever, but the fire rescue party from the PC 1291 took our handy billy pumps, which we were able to get at that time, and proceeded to put the fire under control to the extent that we could have a look around.

The side of the ship where the bomb hit, and also fore and aft for a distance of about 25 feet, was full of holes of about eight or nine inches in diameter. At that time, the water was coming in slowly, but the more water coming in, the more we listed to port. In about an hour and a half from the time that we got this near miss, the ship finally turned over. Fortunately, we were able to get every man that was alive off.

About five minutes after the ship turned over, a tug came. We were going to try to pull the ship over to the beach to see if there was anything we could do or any papers we could save, but by the time we got over to the ship, on the tug, the ship was beyond entering. The tug took us to an LST which took us back to England. We entered an emergency hospital the next day, and from then on we were in two other hospitals before we ended up in an Army hospital. I was one of the fortunate ones, I only had about three weeks in the hospital and then they sent me back to the States.

In going over this schedule that we had, there are some highlights that I missed out on. I might say that the operations at both Salerno and Anzio was by far the worst. The first week at Salerno, we had as many as 50 alerts and eight actual raids a day. The was when they first introduced the glider bomb, which was new to us. At the Anzio deal, we had as high as 10 actual raids in one day, and about 40 red alerts. That kept us on our toes day and night, very little sleep, all hands on a small ship have to be at their station at all times in those cases.

The weather at Salerno was fine for about twelve days, then we encountered a storm. During that storm at Salerno, it took all of our LCMs away from us and shoved them up on the beach, and we practically followed afterwards. We lost two anchors. We missed the beach by about a hundred yards, and from then on, we had to run around for two days before we could get ordered back to our base.

I firmly believe that Salerno was the worst that we have ever encountered, and I believe will be encountered in this war. Anzio wasn't far behind due to the small area that it took in, the small harbor facilities and the range the Germans had on us. I believe that the ships lost at Anzio were greater in ratio to the ships that participated at any place else.

We made our history at Anzio when the HMS Spartan was hit by a glider bomb. At the time she was hit, we were tied along side of an LST. Word came over the radio for all small ships to go to the assistance of the British cruiser. We had the distinction of being there first. They had a fire aft by their anti-aircraft gun where we tied up at. We attached a hose across so that they could get some water to fight the fire. Of course, the pressure we had wasn't much, and the sea was too rough to be able to stay along side to do much good, but we were of some assistance until a couple of fighting tugs came along to take our place.

From then on, we stayed until the Spartan capsized. I understand that we picked up about 1/5 of the crew from the water. There must have been about 10 ships around there. We did pick up 95 men, and the crew composed of 550 men. At that time, we didn't know whether we'd get it or not. This ammunition was flying in different directions, most of it coming in our direction and the planes were still overhead.

Then, later, about seven days later, we performed another rescue job on the LST 348. She was hit by two torpedoes either from an E-boat or submarine. This occurred about two o'clock in the morning, and we were five miles astern of her, we saw an explosion. First, we couldn't make out what it was. We put on more speed to get up to it to find out what it was and when about two miles from her, the second explosion occurred. We saw the outline of the after deck house, then we knew it was an LST. By the time we got up there, the men were over the side, most of them burned. They didn't know whether we were a submarine or whether we were an LCI. They weren't taking any chances on hollering to us until they found out definitely what we were.

Finally, one of the men hollered, "That's an LCI", and then we heard plenty of yells. We saw lights. Some were in rubber boats, some were swimming, and some were just waiting. We picked up 78 men. The majority of them needed medical attention from severe burns. Fortunately, their commanding officer, their doctor, and a couple of other offices and some of their men were not injured. Therefore, they assisted us in treating the men who were injured. We were on our way to Anzio with a load at the time. So after we picked these men up, we hung around until about 8 o'clock in the morning. We didn't know whether another E-boat or submarine would be around, but we couldn't leave until we found out for sure that every living man was rescued from the water. At 8 o'clock, we proceeded to Anzio first to discharge the most severely injured men to a hospital ship, and then discharge our load and return the survivors to Pozzuoli.

On those two operations in shows what the Americans can do when they are in a pinch. Most of our men were reservist, and in a short period of about a year and ten months they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can take men from one position and put him in the armed forces and they'll make good soldiers and good sailors, as has been witnessed in the five invasions that I have been in, both the Army and the Navy, and I believe that today through our operations with the Army that we have a better understanding both with the Air Corps and the Infantry. My estimation of the infantry has risen a hundred per cent, and I know that the Navy has gone up a thousand per cent in the eyes of the Army as we have been told often.


Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Patrick Clancey, HyperWar Foundation