Portland Bill

Heading off to Portland Bill from the Tank Museum to see where Dad debarked in their assigned LCT on the eve of D-Day. Well the 467th AAA Battery A was actually stationed here for several days before and left and sailed for the D-Day landings on the eve of June 5th a day before and had to do it all over again when it was called off.

Again we have rough clues of where are going and exactly what we are looking for but this part of England is really beautiful and we enjoy the drive to Portland Bill which juts out from the South English coastline like a teardrop of land. Its a wonderful piece of land and is fairly rugged so we can’t see very far once we get into town making old-fashioned pre-GPS navigating difficult. Dad only partially remembered the location since so many things changed in 50 years. We first head towards the front of the Bill towards the lighthouse and get out of the car and begin walking down the slopes. Lots of sandy, grassy slope leading to pristine beaches where families are picnicking and vacationing. Beautiful but we are after the traces of another history and trying to find some evidence of debarkation and this side of the landmass isn’t it. Our difficulty in finding the location sounds ridiculous in the post 2000 era of instant information and geopositioning but this was 1994 and paper maps with scant information where still king so we are hunting around using our eyes and ears and talking with a few locals.

We drive down many streets and as I mentioned the hilliness makes navigating difficult once on the island even though its small. Again we stumble upon a street winding down the back side of the Bill and this leads down to the docks and port areas that are still in use today. We get lucky again in our searching as Dad begins to recognize the surroundings and we will also spy several partially sunken remnants of Mulberry harbors and we see a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) perhaps put there for the 50th anniversary a month earlier. We aren’t sure about why its there. Mulberry harbors are large cement rectangular shaped artificial harbor pieces that can float and were towed to France during the invasion to establish an artificial supply harbor which aided in quickly unloaded troops and supplies once the beach areas were secured to support the push inland. The initial landing is challenging but the sustainment of a large invasion force requires equipment and supplies and this was critical to later successes in sustaining the liberation forces. So we were initially surprised to see direct evidence of D-Day equipment and massive construction efforts 50 years later.

Dad is feeling positive that these are the dock areas they assembled and left from and the historical documentation backs it up. He is happy we have gotten this far and found another step along his path from 50 years earlier.

While we are in the dock area he recalls a story regarding their assembly for debarkation. He remembers that they were all lined up in rows and columns extending from the waterfront and it was announced that “those closest to the water will be landing first”. He looks down and the waterline is right in front of his unit.

That evening I get a chill when thinking about what waiting for the word to go must of been like for so many young men. When we ask Dad what it felt like he offered some words of reflection. “It wasn’t so bad for me because I didn’t know what I was getting into just out of high school, through training, and suddenly in Europe. It was probably much worse for the older veterans who had an idea of what was ahead”.

Transcript of Ike’s Message to Troops:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

British divers still explore to this day the leftover remnants and wrecks of LCTs and Mulberry harbors around Portland Bill.

See this website for more info.

http://www.britishdiver.co.uk/2012/01/d-day-landing-craft-and-bombardon-unit/

 

 

Next: The Ferry to Cherbourg

Tank Museum

Ok so if you haven’t read the introductory articles Dad was (TEC-5) in a halftrack in Battery A of the 467th AAA throughout his European campaigns. I have some earlier articles and referred google maps in this series about the specifics of the 467th AAAW campaigns and attachments throughout the war.

Dad’s unit #4 of Platoon A had two vehicles an M-15 and and M-16 halftrack.

The M15 mounted one 37mm automatic cannon and two .50 cal machine guns with all three bores being parallel. Dad was in the M15 and the other track in their unit was the M16. The M16 used a quad-mount of four .50 cal machine guns. There was a place to sit in the back the gunner (sighter) would sit to control firing with two foot pedals left and right. Hand cranks were used to control horizontal and vertical rotations. We were discussing this during the trip and Dad told me as a gunner in the crew he had relatively short legs and the firing pedals were a little far away creating a problem! His buddies solved the problem by taping wood blocks to the pedals so he could reach to more easily fire. No problem, expensive equipment with limitations .. innovate in the field..

Here is a top view of the M15 with the firing foot pedals that follows (minus wood blocks).

Below is a modern restoration demonstration of a quad .50 halftrack on youtube in case you want to see one on the move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qig25332VOA

Back to our story, we are hoping to find a restored AAA halftrack during our trip and we were lucky enough to be near the world’s largest tank museum which is in Southern England.

http://www.tankmuseum.org/

Ok, remember these halftracks are extremely rare today there are perhaps a few around the world that have been restored and we are not sure they have one. We got up early and our plan was to hit the tank museum in the morning and then Portland Bill, Dorset in the afternoon then return to Portsmouth. We got in the rental car and drove to the tank museum, no problems. Parked and walked inside and the first impression was that it was huge. The first part of the museum was really nice:

Old tanks from World War I: one called the “Little Willie”. Dad loved that since it was his nickname. Oops that was a secret! Really he’s a short basketball player and his name is William. We all had a good laugh.

Also Tigers, Panzers, Shermans all in rows and rows that seemed to go on forever in several warehouse like buildings. But after 40 minutes or so a tank is a tank right? Its getting a little repetitive and still no AAA halftracks..we want halftracks! We are getting towards the back of the museum and starting to lose hope.

Then a sign appears pointing to a non-inviting, semi-closed hangar area

“ EXPERIMENTAL VEHICLES -> THIS WAY”

The proprietor tells us its for strange vehicles and things that did not quite make it to deployment but as he recalled there just might be a halftrack back there you could look and see. What did he say he doesn’t really know whats back there but theres a chance? We proceed to check it out.

Weird stuff appears as we made our way through the cluttered hanger area. Its the Island of Misfit Toys.

(1) First thing I see is stand-up tank that fits one standing man like a small jiffy john with small set of motorized treads on the bottom and a little tiny gun hole to shoot out.

        - The sign should read “HUMAN DEATH TRAP!”

        - I see why that one didn’t make it.

(2) Passing other early robotic tanks and other weird collectables that could easily be from an H.G. Wells novel. Captain Nemo rejects!

Getting ready to give up on the AAA halftrack and leave but we look around one more corner. And there she is dressed up in her .50 caliber quad turret splendor. Its not the M15 configuration that Dad rode on but its one of the M16s used in their close-knit unit as the companion vehicle and its cleaned up, restored, and looking new. Truly unbelievable, because we never expected to really find one. We poke around it and take some pictures with Dad. He’s happy, we’re happy its a good day because we came a long, long way and we got dealt a fullhouse. Nice!

 

 

Next: Portland Bill