Happy 100th to Arthur Squires, Royal Navy WW II Vet

From April 17, 2021, North Norfolk News  "Happy Birthday, Arthur!  100 up for Second World War naval hero" by Kate Wolstenholme.

At age 19, he was on track to work in the building industry, but then the war broke out.  In 1940, he enlisted in the Royal Navy to be a signalman.

"It was from my scouting days, I always like semaphore ... and I saw a signalman, he was up on the bridge ...and I thought,  it's healthier up there, but it meant reading Morse Code and semaphore at a very fast rate," he said.

Beginning his naval career on the North Atlantic convoys, Arthur went on to win honors  in Minesweepers on operations at Dieppe, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and South France.

He was then promoted to leading signalman and joined C in C Mediterranean in Naples.  Once back in the UK to the Naval Air Station Belfast.

--GreGen

Medal of Honor Recipient Robert Maxwell Dies in 2019-- Part 2: Strung Phone Wire

Maxwell had seen action a long time before the occasion he received the Medal of Honor for.  The onetime Colorado timber worker served as a "wire man," scaling roofs or trees to hang phone lines that enabled his battalion to communicate quickly on the battlefield.  

In North Africa, he had carried an M1 rifle before being classified as a noncombatant.  With his heavy wires and tools, his load was too heavy for a rifle.  Instead he was given a .45-caliber pistol for the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy.

At Anzio, where Allies secured a beachhead for the liberation of Rome, Maxwell too shrapnel in both legs while repairing communications wires.  For several months afterwards, he was hospitalized in 1944 before rejoining his unit, the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division, for the invasion of Southern France dubbed Operation Dragoon.

By September, Maxwell's battalion had reached the city of Besancon, near the Swiss border.  He was stationed with a few GIs at an old pockmarked farmhouse on the outskirts of town, stringing wire on the observation post's when a German platoon suddenly opened fire with machine guns and 20mm antiaircraft weapons.

Next?  --GreGen

Sgt. Stryker Coming Home in 1945

From the September 23, 2020, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1945, 75 Years Ago.

"Mrs. Barbara LaSeur-Stryker of Victor received a telegram from her husband Sgt. Roger Stryker saying that he had arrived in the States and hoped to be home soon.

"Sgt. Stryker  left the States two years ago April and saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, England and the European Theater of war."

--GreGen

10 Odd Jobs of World War II-- Part 3: Field Artillery Sound recorder and Airplane Woodworker

9.  FIELD ARTILLERY SOUND RECORDER

Until the development of radar, sound ranging was one the most effective ways to locate enemy artillery, mortars and rockets.  The process was first developed in World War I, and then continued being used through the Korean War.

From a forward operating post, a field artillery  sound recorder would monitor  an oscillograph and recorder connected to several microphones.  When the sound of an enemy gun would reach a microphone, the information would be recorded on sound film and the data from several microphones could be analyzed to locate an enemy gun.

The technology is still in use today by many countries, which often use  sound ranging in concert with radar.

10.  AIRPLANE WOODWORKER

Although wood was largely phased out and replace by tubular steel in airplane construction by the time World War II started, there was still a need for airplane woodworkers to repair and maintain existing aircraft-- especially gliders and some training aircraft.

Wooden gliders like the Waco CG-41--  the most widely used American troop/cargo glider of the war--  played critical parts in the action.  The CG-4A was first used in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943.  They most commonly flew airborne troops into battle, most famously on the D-Day assault on France on June 6, 1944 and in Operation Market Garden in September  1944.

They were also used  in the China-Burma-India Theater.

--GreGen

 

LST-157

Gerald "Jerry" Barbosa, who just recently died and I wrote about in the last two posts, served on this ship.

One site had the nickname of the ship as the USS Ivory Soap -- It Floats.

It was built by the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company at Evansville, Indiana.  Laid down 25 June 1942, launched 31 October 1942 and commissioned 10 February 1943  It ended service 9 December 1944 and was transferred to the Royal Navy and returned to the Navy 13 April 1946 and sold 5 September 1946.

It served in the European Theater:

Sicilian Occupation July 1943

Salerno Landing  September 1943

Invasion of Normandy  June 1944

During its service, it earned three Battle Stars.

--GreGen

HMS Beryl Was a Second World War Hero Ship

From the Feb. 16, 2013, Hull (England) Daily Mail "Beverly-built HMS Beryl was a true World War hero."

The beryl was a trawler requisitioned by the Royal Navy.  It was sent to defend Malta's capital port of Valletta and endured a two year siege by the Axis.  It is reportedly the only Royal Navy surface warship to stay afloat during the duration.

It earned the nickname "The Flagship of Malta" and became the symbol  of the defiant defense of that important Mediterranean island.  Its enduarance lasted from 1940 to 1942 with the effective end in November 1942.  During that time, the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force conducted some 3000 bombing raids.

It was built in 1934 and named the Lady Adelaide.  The ship was bought by the Royal Navy in 1939 and adopted and sponsored by the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire for 55,000 pounds during warship week.

Two of the streets there have HMS Beryl-related names: Beryl Mews and Sellwood Terrace (named for Commander Harry Sellwood).

After its service at Malta, the Beryl took part in the Allied landings on Sicily.

Postwar,  it went back to being a trawler until it was scrapped in the 1960s  Beverly-built ships served in both World Wars.

--GreGen

Ducks Coming to Chicago?-- Part 2: World War II Service

Combat use.

They were first used in the invasion of Sicily in 1943.  They also played an integral role in the early stages of the D-Day invasion, transporting ammunition and cargo from the ships to the beaches.

Tours and Recreational Use

Some of the locations for Duck tours include:
San Francisco
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Boston
San Diego
Miami
Washington, D.C.
Branson. Mo.
Cincinnati
Stone Mountain, Ga.
Wisconsin Dells

May the Duck Be With You.  --GreGen

LST-325 Visiting Pittsburgh-- Part 3

This is LST-325's first visit to Pittsburgh where many LSTs were made.  On its way up the Ohio River, it will pass Neville Island and Ambridge.  During the war, Dravo Corporation built 146 LSTs at the island and the American Bridge Corporation at Ambridge built another 119.  The ship's home base, at Evansville, Indiana, produced another 167; the reason the museum wnd base were placed there.

A town on the Illinois River, I think Seneca, also produced a lot of LSTs and has an LST celebration every year, but I can't think of the name of it right now.

The LST-325 was built, however, in Philadelphia.  Mr. Barish went there while it was still being painted and welded.  He said his life aboard the ship was pretty good, especially since his quarters were "second-best to the captain's."  He was in charge of 32 men in the "black gang" who kept the diesel engines going.

First military operation for the ship was to practice beach landings in North Africa and then they supported the invasion of Sicily where they delivered supplies and evacuated Italian prisoners of war.  They came under fire for the first time at Tunisia where four men were wounded during a Sept. 6, 1943 air raid.  A little more than a week later, four more crew memebers and four British soldiers were wounded in another air raid off Salerno, Italy.

Seeing the Elephant.  --GreGen