D-Day Remembered: Through a Sailor’s Eyes.

Landing Ship Tanks, better known as LSTs, revolutionized amphibious warfare.  Not only could they carry over 2,000 tons of virtually anything needed at the front, they possessed the uncanny ability to wash ashore, drop ramp and deposit this precious cargo onto an unimproved beachhead.  No port had to be secured.  No dock need be built.  With LSTs, critical equipment could now follow a landing force by hours instead of days.  They would prove critical to the D-Day landing at Normandy.

U.S. Navy Sailor, Dalles King - USS LST 133

U.S. Navy sailor, Dalles King, just 20-years-old, served aboard LST 133.   Good ship and crew practiced dry-runs off the southern coast of England throughout the spring and early summer of 1944.  But in the end, no amount of training could prepare a sailor or soldier for what lay ahead.  June 1944 saw LST 133 steam for France.  D-Day had arrived.

Chaos surrounded Normandy’s Omaha Beach.  Floating mines cluttered the waters.  Planes and artillery fire crowded the skies. Fortified gun emplacements guarded the shoreline.

Allied regiments waded headlong into an almost impregnable line of German defenses.  Within minutes, burned-out landing crafts smoldered between waves, while the dead and mangled bodies of fallen American invaders littered the sands.

On D + 1, June 7, 1944, King’s transport dashed for shore.  LST 133 set the mark, the first Landing Ship Tank on bloody Omaha Beach.  “We had a priority load—tanks and guns for the First Army,” King said.  “We hit the beach.  We were on it alone.  …Seabees cleared the mines out in front of the ramp.  The equipment rolled from our boat right onto land.”

In addition to delivering its much-needed cargo, LST 133 gathered wounded soldiers for the return voyage to England.  But when it came time to depart, the ship couldn’t free herself.  “Yeah, we were beached, but we were in too far,” King continued.  “We were there all night, until the next high tide.  …Yeah, they shelled us!  We shot three enemy planes down—two Junker 88s and a Messerschmitt.”

Once back into the bay, LST 133 began hauling infantrymen to the beach.  “We went out and dropped our little boats,” King said.  “We had six on a side.  …I was the signalman on one of them.  We took the small boats over to the Liberty ships.  They had troops to take into shore. The men would climb down the rope ladders and we’d take 40 in at a time, then we’d have to go back and get another load.”

King, like most witnesses to the landing, has never fully escaped the nightmare. “Yeah, it was bloody.  When we took the wounded, the dead were just stacked on the beach.

“…Back out in the water, there was a smaller boat beside us.  We called them flak boats.  They had these rocket launchers on them, multiple rows stacked on top of each other, shooting those things up on shore.  Well, the Germans hit one next to us and it exploded.  It just pulverized those poor people.  …We’d slide stretchers in the water underneath them to pick them up, but they were just mush.  …That whole area was just saturated with blood.”

LST 133 returned to Plymouth, England, unloaded its wounded, took on new equipment and hurried back to Normandy.  The infantry needed the armor and artillery she carried.  As with the first roundtrip, she pulled off the second without a hitch.  But was she living on borrowed time?

Dalles King served on LST 133 during the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach - Normandy, France.

On June 15, 1944, deep into her third journey, LST 133 met with disaster.  Off the coast of Omaha Beach, she struck an underwater mine.  Hit directly in the stern, she suffered extensive damage.  The blast killed 10 and wounded 28, with another 33 missing.

King numbered among the casualties.  “I was a trainer on the 40mm in the gun tub right directly over where it hit.  The explosion blew me into the water.  I remember twisting through the air.  I was still conscious.  I could still see the ship.

“When I hit that water, I didn’t think I’d ever make it back up.  …When I first came up, I was picking the splinters out of my fingers.  We stored wooden crates of potatoes under that gun tub.  Then I thought, ‘Heck, I can’t swim!’  I had one of those inflatable rings around my waist.  I hit that thing and there was just a bunch of air bubbles.  I had a life jacket on too, but the explosion had cut that thing in two.  …I just dog paddled to beat hell!

“An English minesweeper saw me and threw me a ring.  They pulled me over, but I couldn’t lift myself out of the water.  …Two guys came down that rope ladder and just pinched me between them and up we went.  They stripped all my clothes off because they were covered in oil.  They put me on the deck over the engine room where it was warm.  …The explosion cracked the fifth vertebrae in my back, put a little scar under my eye and knocked a couple of my bottom teeth out.  But, I was alive.”

Read Dalles King’s full story and those of over 80 other war veterans, from the American Revolution to the War in Iraq, in EVERYTOWN, USA.

8 Responses to “D-Day Remembered: Through a Sailor’s Eyes”

  1. david speaker says:

    wondering if theres any information on my uncle clarence d speaker fireman 1st. class usnr lst 133 killed in action on june 15th. 1944 he was born on january 15th. 1911

  2. Karen Eldevick (Scheunemann) says:

    My Dad William I Scheunemann was on the LST 133, during the invasion of Normandy. He told us many stories, but never wrote them down. Now I wish he had. My Dad passed away in 2009. He would have LOVED to know that I found this site and read words from Dalles King.

    • Peter Jean says:

      My Dad was Gerard Noel Jean, 3rd class radio man on the LST 133 during the Normandy Invasion. He is currently 93, Also has lots of memories of comradeship and experiences during D Day. He has spoken at area high schools on Veteran’s Day. Would very much like to connect with old shipmates…

    • Peter Jean says:

      My dad says that your dad and he were the only two survivors from the crews quarters in the fantail of the ship.

      • Diane Gammonley says:

        My dad Alfred (AL) Ringhofer also survived and received the Purple Heart…he is no longer with us, but was sure proud of serving in the U.S.Navy!

  3. Kevin Knafel says:

    Dalles King was my grandfather. He was a very soft spoken man who never spoke ill of anyone. I never heard him speak of any of these things. My grandma mom, or uncles did either. We all knew he seen some things but never brought it up. My grandpa passed away one week after telling his story 2-18-2004. It was like he knew something and had to get it off his mind for his family to know. Thanks for fighting for our freedom grandpa. I love you and miss you everyday.

  4. Katherine Keimig says:

    Hi all, Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Katherine and I am a freshman at the George Washington University. I have posted here hoping I could find someone who knew Coxwain Anthony A. Oliver from Bristol, Rhode Island in any capacity; he served on LST-133 during D-Day Operation. I am in a class this semester on the Normandy Campaign, and our capstone project is to research & write a short biography about a soldier from our state (I am from Rhode Island) who is buried at the Normandy American cemetery. In a few weeks my class will travel to Normandy where each of us will present a eulogy at the grave site of our respective soldiers, and I will present a eulogy for COX Oliver. My email address is [email protected] if you would like to contact me. Thank you all for your service and/or the service of your family members.

  5. robert willett says:

    my great uncle Robert Heatherly served on LST 133 in both Europe and Pacific. He did not speak much about his time in the war but it impacted him greatly for the rest of his life. If anyone is still with us that knew him please let me know

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