Training and First Posting To Landing Craft
Heroes Remember
Training and First Posting To Landing Craft
In the fall we were notified that Detroit was ready for us.
We were going to go for a two month course in the Detroit,
Michigan in the US Naval Armoury and we would be studying
Grey Marine engines, which is what there were on the...
Like, there were four Grey Marine engines on each one of the
landing craft, and so we had a really high pressure, two
month study in Detroit on the economics and the, well not the
economics, was dealing with parts, you know, be careful how you
handle the parts sort of thing, but the running of the engines.
In the meantime,when we're on the course, the United States
shipyards were busy building landing craft. And from Detroit
we went to Asbury Park, New Jersey and they had taken over, the
navy had taken over a hotel there and we were assigned different
rooms. They were just small rooms, and we waited there for
probably ten days until we were notified at different times
different guys, that theirl anding craft was ready. So we picked
up our landing craft in Orange, New Jersey and we took her out
for sea trials for about two or three days. Went up to Brooklyn
Navy Yards, into New York, just got in. We had a look around
New York for a day and then the fleet all gathered and we
sailed down to Norfolk, Virginia, where we joined a convoy.
Interviewer: Before you leave continental North America
Mr. McLean, can you describe the vessel that you were now
crewman on?
Yeah. Well, they were, they were a landing craft with two ramps
that went down port and starboard, three Oerli guns just for
light fire, they were only good for aircraft really. Had a, had a
beam of about twenty-eight feet, and about a hundred and twenty
feet long. It would house twenty-eight crew members and it
had a galley. Officers quarters and crews quarters, there were
just two, and there were two forward holds for the military.
When we took the army aboard, they were in the forward holds.
And we could take on about a hundred and fifty soldiers at
any one time.
Related Videos
- Date modified: