February 24, 2024
The first posting regarding John G. Roberts III will begin with a little bit of background. John was the second child born of John G. Roberts II and Mary Helen Unger on August 29, 1920 at home, delivered by a mid-wife in St. Paul, MN. His only older sibling was Arthur John (1919-1969), and he was followed in turn by Jane Mary (1921-1998), my father Paul Stanley (1924-2012) and finally by youngest sister Irene Marie (1926-1997).
John’s family moved to Faribault, MN sometime before 1930 when his dad took a job as a metal smith or tin smith for what was then known as the Minnesota School for the Feeble Minded. The family rented part of a home that was located on the school’s campus. John grew through the years as all children did in the 20s and 30s, and eventually graduated from Faribault high school in 1938. He met his future wife Marian Flinn and began dating her in 1940. John registered for the draft in February of 1942 at the age of 21 and later enlisted in the Navy in September 1942 with a guarantee of a beginning rank of third class petty officer electrician’s mate. Such an initial promotion would indicate that John had begun some kind of electrician training in advance of his enlistment. Following basic training John reported aboard LST-325 for duty on February 1, 1943 just three months after the ship was launched in the Navy shipyard in Philadelphia. At this point John was a 22 year old apprentice electrician who likely knew very little about what to expect of shipboard life. Beyond that, he most certainly did not have any idea that he would soon become an integral part of the two most effective, pivotal and deadly military operations to end World War II. They were the invasion of Italy and D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, France.
But before recounting John’s adventures and life altering experiences during the war we must first visit why it was that the invasions were so effective and pivotal. Some would believe it points right back to the very existence of the kind of ship that John has now become a crewmember of.
Prior to 1940 there was no such thing as an LST but the faint concept of such ships did exist. The acronym in military parlance stood for “Landing Ship, Tank” arguably for filing purposes. It would be otherwise known to the normal population as a tank landing ship. In other words, a ship that could supply huge amounts of heavy military equipment, amphibious crafts, assault vehicles and troops, delivering them under the most extreme conditions on open beaches.
The LST’s historical origin can be attributed to none other than Winston Churchill. Their story begins with the Battle of Dunkirk, also known as the Evacuation of Dunkirk. The operation, then known as Dynamo, was to rescue as many of the British Expeditionary Forces and French and Belgian troops as possible. Germany had invaded France and forced those troops back, cornering them at the beach of Dunkirk. The very best of leadership hopes was to possibly evacuate 20 to 30,000 out of a total of approximately 430,000 soldiers. If you’ve ever read a story or watched a film on the subject you know that 338,000 troops were miraculously evacuated from the beach.
In spite of the fact that historically the operation at Dunkirk not only boosted British morale immeasurably but was painted as a resounding success, Churchill always considered it a dismal failure. In a speech delivered in June of 1940 Churchill stated: “We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory,” and “Wars are not won by evacuations.” These reflections arose from the fact that along with 90,000 troops, a massive amount of equipment including tanks, Jeeps, motorcycles, anti-aircraft artillery and an incredible number of ammunitions were left behind. As a result, Churchill fervently began efforts to have his Admiralty design some kind of ship that could not only cross oceans but could brazenly advance right up onto an open and undeveloped beach to unload or load whatever was necessary with the immediacy necessary.
The Admiralty, knowing of course what they needed would require the best of ship building efforts, ventured to the United States and met in November of 1941 with the US Navy Bureau of Ships. There they began discussions for the development and building of something they referred to as an “Atlantic Tank Landing Craft.” Literally within a few days of that meeting a 48 year old naval architect by the name of John C. Niedermair had drawn up rough plans of what would be considered an elegant design for exactly what the British Admiralty was looking for.
The concept for what would eventually become the workhorse ships of World War II was quickly accepted and the hull work for LST-325 was laid down on August 10, 1942. As a testament for the immediate need for such ships their building took absolute precedence over any other developmental military operations. It has even been referred to as “the second largest shipbuilding initiative in the history of mankind.” Amazingly enough, LST-325 was launched preeminently ready for service on October 27, 1942, just two months from its first weld.
Typically, the beginning of construction of any type of seagoing craft is noted as to when exactly the “keel” was laid down. However, in the case of LST ships, there was no keel, which realistically is a cardinal sin in true shipbuilding since it inherently led to a lack of seaworthiness and stability. In order to be able for a ship to navigate all the way into shore without bottoming out and tipping over, it had to be designed entirely with a flat bottom and of course no keel. As long as mankind has sailed the seas it has been understood that the keel is literally the backbone of the ship. It functions essentially as a counter balance to keep the ship upright; it diminishes drag and keeps the vessel from being blown from side to side. In order then to make a keelless ship functional it had to be designed with something that acts as material compensation for the lack of a keel. John Niedermair’s design did just that. The hold deck, or the lowest level aboard was constructed with ballast tanks, a concept borrowed from the design of submarines. While underway the tanks would be filled with seawater to increase the draft allowing the flat bottom to be used as a broad keel in a sense.
But that is not the end of the design genius additions to make this ship such an integral part of the war especially in beach invasions. When the ship was fully loaded with tanks, equipment, troops and just about whatever else you might be able to think about it would sit as low as it could in the water. Between this and the ballast tanks being full it allowed these 300 ft long and 50 ft wide vessels to move doggedly across the oceans at a top speed of 10 knots. Although ship stability was enhanced when fully loaded, it was still prone to rolling even under the best of conditions. Acquiring “sea legs” onboard something the likes of an LST was an accomplishment to be exceedingly proud of and fairly rare even for the most seasoned seaman.
Then when called upon to move to the beach, LSTs were designed with a special rear winching system. Procedures were in place during such operations that required the dropping of a rear anchor as the ship progressed which would be used later for retraction. Although the rear anchor was held by 900 ft of cable, there was never more than 600 ft that was let out. At that same time the ballast tanks were emptied to reduce the draft as much as possible. This allowed for as much forward motion in the shallowest of landings even at full speed of 10 knots, which was common practice. Upon beaching, the bow of the ship was also equipped with ballast tanks that would be filled as necessary to keep the ship in place as it lightened its load onto shore. The rear anchor cable also acted as a means of keeping the ship taught and held in place in high cross winds to keep the ship from shifting from side to side. Quite frequently the tide would go out leaving the LST sitting “high and dry” and as stable and level as could be with the flat bottom allowing for continuous unloading to take place. As the operation was completed and the tide began to return the rear winching system was started with all ballast tanks empty, retracting the ship to a point where the diesel engines could be used to move the ship to a safe distance or to return to a designated port for reloading.
Then we certainly can’t let a discussion about the versatility and unfaltering reliability of LSTs go without visiting the Tank Deck. The third deck of each LST was entirely dedicated to the storage and delivery of everything imaginable in terms of military equipment. A wide open space volume of nearly 93,000 cubic feet could hold up to 17 amphibious tractors or 20 Sherman tanks, but typically held a mix of tanks, trucks, amphibious landing crafts and a wide range of supplies and armaments. All of this was secured to the decking to hold tight through rough seas. Whatever couldn’t fit within the tank deck was stowed and tightly secured on the main deck in the open air. Prior to landing and offloading through two massive bow doors and a retractable ramp, all of the exhaust intensive vehicles required starting and at least 10 minutes of warm up. To accommodate this without asphyxiating the crew a highly specialized fan and ventilation system was developed with warning lights to alert the crew when carbon monoxide levels were too high.
These, along with many other unique equipment, mechanical and structural adaptations made the LST perfect for the job for which it had been designed. Over the period of approximately three years more than 1,000 LSTs were constructed and put into service. In spite of the concept being originally British, only 113 of the ships were actually transferred to their military. In view of the fact that they only had a top speed of 10 knots, they constantly moved perilously unto beaches frequently under enemy fire and bombing runs, the LST acronym was often referred to as a “Large Slow Target.” The military brass was so concerned for their vulnerability that they had decided if one could just complete a single mission they would be worth the cost and effort. Regardless of such pessimism only 26 LSTs were actually lost out of a total of 1,051 that went into service.
In the next posting we will follow LST-325 with John G. Roberts, EM3 aboard performing duties on its first major military operation, the invasion of Italy.
Much of this information was obtained from a variety of online sources including: Defense Technical Information Center.mil, Britanica.com, navsource.org/archives, uslst.org/history and navytimes.com, iwm.org.uk/history and The Naval History and Heritage Command/history.navy.mil. The remaining postings will have a primary source of Mosier’s Raiders the Story of LST-325 1942-1946, by David Bronson, ©2004 iUniverse, Inc. Gracious permission to quote from Mosier’s Raiders was received from the current copyright holder The USS LST Ship Memorial,Inc., Evansville, IN.
Comments