Preparing for Italy

Heroes Remember

Preparing for Italy

Transcript

And we then sailed, joined a convoy and we sailed into the Bay of Salerno on the night of September the 8th, which was my eighteenth birthday. And as we're going in the sky is just alive with gunfire and the noise, the shells and the place was just exploding. And as we're getting ready to go anchor the German Air Force hit the ship next to us and of course it blew and it lit up the harbour so we were kind of a sitting duck. So we moved over a little to get away from the glare of the fire, because we had 3600 troops on. And so we dropped anchor, but before we dropped anchor I had gone up to have a look at my landing craft to make sure everything was good. And there was a young soldier standing by the bow looking over and I said to him, "I guess you're a little nervous, eh?" He said "Yeah," he said "it's a little difficult for me." He said " I'm from New York and" he said, "my family's Italian, my grandmother lives in Rome and" he said "here I am going in to kill the Italians." And no more had he said that when there was a roar across the whole ship, the ship just kind of vibrated, they had announced that Italy had surrendered. And just, unfortunately the timing wasn't great because a lot of the guys figured they were just going to walk in and, and set up camp, but that wasn't the case. This was to be the United States' Dieppe. It, you know, we started loading the troops, you know when it was about, oh I guess by this time it's the morning of the 9th. And we're taking these guys in and fortunately the first few in took a lot of gunfire. And then the troops, some of them would get up there and they established a beach head. So by, we were probably about the 5th or 6th one in, it wasn't quite as bad. There was still machine gun fire, you know I can remember it whistle over our craft a couple of times, but we lost five seamen of the Royal Navy in this invasion. And we took some wounded back. Our sick bay, we had a hospital on the ship, and it was absolutely packed. And then we had these five guys, one of them had been a friend, I befriended, he was only eighteen. His name was Able Seaman Small, he was from Yorkshire, and he was killed. And the skipper asked me to pack his gear to ship to his parents and that was a traumatic thing for me because, you know, two days ago he was a good friend of mine and here I am packing his gear and his life is gone, you see. So our commanding officer in the Royal Navy had requested that we, like we had sewn these guys up in hammocks ready for burial at sea. And the skipper, the Dutch skipper refused, he said that they didn't do it that way and so we had to take them, put them in one of the rooms and take them back to Iran, for burial at, on shore, which is against navy tradition. And it was pretty bad when you walked past that room they were in just off the deck there, you know. You just got that terrible sinking feeling, you know, knowing that hey, that could've been you. Yep, because these were all nineteen, eighteen, twenty year olds. Yeah.

Description

Mr. McLean, now in Iran, has spent time becoming familiar with the engine room of his new vessel. He's soon on his way to a new assignment.

George Henry Foster McLean

Mr. McLean's father came to Canada from Scotland. He was a cooper by trade and was a member of the Royal Navy during the First World War. Mr. McLean was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and has two brothers and two sisters. He was second born, with one older sister born in Scotland. He received his education in the Vancouver school system. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy just after his 16th birthday. He then spent five months in militia training before receiving a call-up to active service effective in May, 1942. Mr. McLean served in North Africa, Malta, Italy and was part of the D-Day raid at Omaha Beach.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:57
Person Interviewed:: George Henry Foster McLean
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: North Africa
Branch:: Navy
Rank:: Leading Hand

Related Videos

The War Begins - Too Young To Enlist

Mr. McLean talks about his reaction when Canada declared war on Germany in September, 1939. He goes on to talk about enlisting in the Royal Canadian Navy shortly after his 16th birthday, lying about his age to do so.

Training and First Posting To Landing Craft

After basic training in British Columbia and more advanced instruction in Toronto and Halifax, Mr. McLean, with a group of about 30 others, headed for Detroit, Michigan in the Fall of 1942 for some special training. The training equipped them for their first posting aboard landing craft.

Across the Atlantic and the First Fatality

The convoy of landing craft leaves Norfolk, Virginia. An early fatality awaits the vessels on the other side of the Atlantic.

A Gruesome Job for a Youngster

At anchor at a Tunisian port, a German Air Force bombing run takes a tragic toll on a nearby tank landing craft, killing everyone on board. Mr. McLean led a group of men from his vessel in the clean-up of the bodies and body parts.

The Sicily Landing

It's July, 1943 and the flotilla of landing craft is on the move expecting to see action soon, but not sure where. They were soon on their way to Sicily with each landing craft carrying 150 soldiers to the beach.

A Change of Location

Back in Tunisia, the crews of the landing crafts wait for their next assignment. Mr. McLean is anxious to be doing something constructive and offers his services elsewhere.

D-Day Duty

Through a series of re-locations, by early 1944, Mr. McLean has been reunited with his landing craft, which had been brought from Iran to Scotland where they were refitted and made ready for the D-Day landing, Operation Overload. When crews and crafts were ready, they were moved to Southampton, England to await the order to sail. That order came on the evening of June 5, 1944, for the D-Day landing on the coast of France the following day. The weather was not good as the hundreds of ships crossed the English Channel.

Date modified:: 2019-04-03