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Diary of a Number One.


The following text is an account of the brief wartime career of HM Landing Craft Mark 3 (Tank) 7074 (Clubship Landfall)  as  recorded in the war-diary of her second-in-command Sub Lieut. Philip Stephens.


March 20, 1944.
7074, as I first saw her, was a hulk consisting of steel plates and girders, perched on the stocks at the yard of Hawthorne Leslie, Hebburn on Tyne.


April 4 1944.
Without ceremony, the ship was launched, looking a little clumsy, even ugly, but proudly afloat in the Tyne.


April 6. 1944.
Final inspection and Commissioning, carried out by an old seadog named Commander Lewis, RN. From now on the C. O., Sub.-Lieut. John Baggott, and I set about the task of welding the ship and her crew of 12 into an efficient fighting team. In the next month or so, while still in the Tyne, 7074 showed a peculiar reluctance to go to sea. Several times we were due to sail to Great Yarmouth, but each time the ship developed engine trouble. Eventually a new port engine was fitted.


May 9. 1944.
At last, on our fourth attempt, we sailed down the east coast to Yarmouth. There we joined the 17th LCT Flotilla which, with the 6th Flotilla, formed H Squadron of Group 'L. 2.' It now became evident that we were soon to take part in the Second Front - the invasion of France. The next two weeks comprised feverish beaching and invasion training.


May 22. 1944.
We sailed with the rest of the Squadron to Harwich, and the preparations grew more and more intense as we realised that the great invasion was drawing near.


June 2. 1944.
Sailed from the river Oriel to a 'hard' (concrete slipway)at Felixstowe, and here we knew that this was it. We embarked a load of ten tanks - seven Stuarts, two Shermans and a Cromwell. The Second Front at last! The C. O. and I spent a hectic weekend coping with an avalanche of secret operational orders and charts, and settling on board the crews of the tanks, men of Montgomery's famous 'Desert Rats'.


June 4. 1944.
This morning we were due to sail and to open our last secret sealed orders, but half an hour before we were due to slip from our buoy the sailing was cancelled without explanation.


June 5. 1944.
At last, early this morning, we set sail for France, and as we opened our orders we learned exactly when, where and how the greatest invasion in history was to take place. All day we sailed down the East Coast and into the Channel, past the Thames, North Forehand, Dover, Folkestone...


June 6 1944.
Off the Isle of Wight and heading south across the Channel, a huge armada of landing craft and ships of all types. Near midnight we arrived off the coast of Normandy, and the first assault of  'D' Day itself was well under way. All night we lay just off the coast, watching the flashing and rumble of heavy guns, the tracer curling inter-the night sky as enemy aircraft bombed the fleet, the burning ships around us...

June 7. 1944.
With the daylight we saw the Bay of the Seine packed with ships as densely as traffic in Piccadilly Circus. Cruisers, destroyers, troopships, LST's, LCT's, MGB's, every "type of' ship in the navy was there - at least 4,000 of them.
On the bridge we had the nightmare task of steering 7074 through this mass of shipping, colliding only with one, which ripped away our port guardrails. At 0930 we went in to beach on 'Jig Green' in Gold Sector, opposite the village of Asnelles-sur-Mer, northeast of Bayeux which was the objective of' our Desert Rats. Down went the ramp and out drove our tanks into six feet of water. Only one came to grief, stalling on the sea bed with the waves breaking over it,until a 'Duck' (amphibious vehicle) arrived to rescue the half-drowned crew.  No sooner had the tanks got clear than the heavy seas and strong tide swept us and two other craft together, and we proceeded to chew each other to pieces.
At last we disentangled ourselves and drove hard on to the beach, where we dried out. The craft alongside was a wreck having received three direct hits as she went in.
In a pool left by the receding tide, beside an underwater steel obstruction loaded with live mines, there floated the body  of a soldier - mute witness to the battle which had raged to secure the beachhead.
We examined our damage, and found we could not raise the ramp because the port wire was broken and the starboard winch smashed. The door wire we replaced, and eventually got the ramp up on one wire.
All day we were stuck on the beach, and some of the went ashore to Asnelles-sur-Mer and were toasted in champagne in the village restaurant.  We took on board 200 German prisoners and were told to take them back to England.  But when we pointed out that we had no guards they were transferred to an LST.

June 8th 1944.

Having kedged off the beach and anchored overnight, we joined a convoy and threaded our way back through the minefields back towards England. In the middle of the night we lost the convoy in a mix-up with inward bound ships, and the starboard engine broke down.

June 9th 1944.
Limped into Southampton, and slept for the first time in four days.


June 12. 1944.
Back to France, to land American paratroopers on the Cherbourg peninsula. The port engine gave up on the way, and the beach on which we landed, 'Sugar Red' in Utah  was under enemy shellfire all day and constant bombing  by night - and land mines were constantly exploding in the sand.

June 15. 1944.
Back to Southampton. More engine trouble. Loaded more Americans for Cherbourg.

June 22. 1944.
Sailed after repairs and delays due to bad weather, then had a fire in the engine room. Three seamen and leading stoker badly burned and taken to hospital. Sailed again, and the port engine failed once more.

July 1944 to February 1945.
Constant trips across the Channel from Southampton or Dover to all parts of Northern France with reinforcements and supplies.

February 28. 1945.
Sailed with LCT 7058 for Tilbury having been detailed for a 'special, important task'. Troops were held up at the Rhine for lack of big enough mobile cranes for bridge building. We were told to get them there at all costs.

March 1. 1945
Loaded two huge mobile cranes, and sailed next in a merchant ship convoy for Antwerp. Rough seas but it kept E-boats away. Three ships in convoy ahead of us sunk but we got through safely and delivered cranes to Antwerp.

March 21. 1945

After three weeks in Holland, stranded with more engine trouble, sailed back to England. Resumed trips to France.

April 7. 1945
After a year's hard work, we were told LCT 7074 was 4 to be converted to an LCT (E) (engineering repair ship).

April 8. 1945
Sailed from Dover for the last time, in convoy for for Portsmouth.

4 April 11. 1945
Berthed 7074 inside the dockship 'Eastway' together with LCT 7069 which was also to be converted, and sailed the next day for Liverpool.

April 14. 1945
Arrived at Liverpool, floated out of the 'Eastway' and berthed in Collingwood Dock.

April 15 to April 19, 1945.
We paid off the ship, the crew dispersed for leave and other appointments, and LCT 7074 ended her life as an active landing craft.