"It Looked Like Every Ship in the World Was Coming" By Richard W. Scheuing
Mr. Scheuing, second mate on the Liberty ship William N. Pendleton at Utah Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944, reports how his ship was hit by a German bomb. And how some young women bound for the embattled beach told him some things he had been unaware of
We came into Liverpool with a war cargo, as usual. When we got there and unloaded, instead of com ing home we were held in England. The British started to make our ship a troop ship with about 100 bunks in a Number 3 hold and 100 bunks in a Number 4 hold-200 bunks altogether. And naturally, when you see preparations for so many soldiers, you know something's about ready to pop. At the time we assumed that we were going to be carrying British troops. Three or four days before we loaded the troops, the captain got back from a meeting ashore andhesaid: "Well,everything's changed." And I said: "What is changed?" He said: "Well, we're not carrying British troops, we're carrying Americans." "That's great," I said. Then he asked: "Why do you say that?" I replied: "Because we'll be more careful." Unfortunately, it's the truth.You wantto make sure you get them ashore, a place where they have a good chance of being able to get from the beach to the sand dunes. As it turned out we landed troops on D-Day itself, at Utah Beach. I told the captain: "I think the best thing to do is to get up as close as we can to the beach without running aground." He said: "Why?" And I said: "Because they're firing, you know they have tanks, mobile guns, the 88s.* But they're up on a bit of a bluff, and they can't really come down to hit us if we're in close." We're getting in closer and closer and I'm looking and looking and finally I said: "Holy cow, we'll go aground and never get off." He said: "Mr. Scheuing, will you take care of the anchor?" I said: "Yes, sir!" So I went up and took one of my men with me. The anchor was all ready to go, but the old man wanted to do his best for the troops. I kept waiting and waiting. Finally he said: "Let go the anchor!"
Thousands of Them When we went in we had what you'd call "torpedo nets" slung out alongside on booms. When we'd get in close to shore we' d have to take the torpedo nets up. There was a big ring and chain hold-
* The dreaded German 88mm gun. 22
ing the net. It went through an eye up at the top of the boom-about 100 feet up. Somebody had to go up there and give that a shot when the pressure got on it, whack it so the ring would go through the eye. The crew had been trained by me and they were good, but I didn't want to send any of them up there. I dido 't want to see them falling down. I felt that I'd been up on booms and masts enough that I knew how to hang on. You've got
of our ships and still hold the beach. There were more ships anchored in harbors all over England, loaded as spares. After seeing all this I knew in my heart that we were going to win.
A Bomb Belowdecks We started to prepare so that we could unload the gear and we had 550 men on board. For all the units, whatever they were, we would unload the men and their equipment at the same time, so when they went ashore they had everything with them. If it took a little bit of time to get that one unit ashore, the others would just wait. We'd getthem so that they had everybody together. Then they could proceed from there. It was a very good way to do things,----------------::--io..
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The Armed Guardsmen aboard the Jeremiah O'Brien shaved their heads for the invasion. Morgan Williams , Gunner's Mate Second Class, pictured above, sports his version of the "Mohawk. "
At top , Seaman First class Helbing at the 20mm going into Omaha. Below, James Jones , Gunner's Mate Third Class, on watch at Omaha Beach.
to have a leg crossed around underneath the boom, because when you finally get this ring through, the boom ramps back and forth and gives you quite a ride. Being 100 feet above the deck, I decided to use the opportunity to look around and see what was happening. I've never seen so many ships in my life, before or since, as there were on D-Day. It looked like every ship in the world was coming. They were all coming from England and there were thousands of them, all loaded with troops. I think that they had figured that we could lose a whole bunch
better than unloading 550 men at once who dido 'tknow where their trucks were. I rode the last boat of every unit in to see what it looked like. And it wasn't too bad. There were casualties but there weren't too many. We got our people ashore without losing a man to enemy fire. The only ones we lost had nervous breakdowns. They were a couple of men who had been around awhile, sergeants. They just choked up and froze up. It took us two days to get rid of all the cargo and everything. We pulled back and anchored near one of the battleships that was out there. They-were shooting SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994