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Scheuing,Jrompage 23 get a report of an 88, they would rush in like the dickens. They had good gunnery-they could pretty much pinpoint the gun and knock it out. Our guns ashore were arranged all around and they were firing continuously, trying to pulverize everything in sight. The dukws * would come out to our ship and we'd load a rope net full of shells for that gun. We'd load it onto a crane and drop it into the dukw and the dukw would head for shore. It would drive right up to the gun, unload its net, and come right back. On a later trip, we had the first field hospital to go ashore. There were 100 people in the unit, 50 nurses, and 50 doctors and aides. The nurses were dressed just like soldiers except they didn ' t have weapons . They were nice girls, nice people. I gave them a lecture back by the number 4 hatch. I got all the girls out and I said: 'Tm the second mate on board the ship, navigation officer, and you can call me Mr. Scheuing. My nickname's Dick. I'm doing away with all rank. I have some serious things to discuss and I don't want you to think that I'm overstepping my bounds." They said: "Fine." So I said: "When we land you on the beach, don ' t ever wait till all your people are there and then line up and march away as if you ' re on a parade. If you do that you ' re going to get knocked right off. Somebody will see itand they ' ll hit you with something. So the minute they drop that ramp in the boat, you run as fast as you can run up into those dunes. You get into those dunes and then you wait and fonn up with your people, but none of this marching." I just wanted to tell them the basic things that keep you alive. Finally, one of the older gals said: "Dick, I have something to say to you." I said: "Fine, what do you think?" She said: "Well, what you ' re saying is a very good idea, and thank you for sharing it, but I want you to know we ' ve all been through two invasions before this one. "I said: "No kidding." She said: "I wouldn't kid on something like that." She said: "We were all in Africa and we were all in Sicily and we know how to land, though we appreciate your saying what you did." This unit was top notch. They set up a hospital that could handle almost anything within reason. The very worst wounded got sent out to a hospital ship.
* Amphibious trucks.
So we got them ashore in one piece. I was very pleased. A lot of people today talk about how terrible it is having women in action, and why they shouldn ' t be flying airplanes. But at Nonnandy they were right in the middle of the whole damn thing from the beginning. They carried two canteens each--on either side. One was filled with water and the other with scotch. If a guy was hit real bad, they 'd give him water. If he wasn ' thittoo bad, they 'd give him scotch to make him feel a little bit better. I don ' t know how many trips we made altogether. We just kept traveling back and forth. It took about half a day to load, and probably two days to unload, and a half a day maybe to go overabout three or four days round trip. We ran from June to September.
USS Nevada-a Bone in her Teeth On one of the trips over we saw the battleship Nevada heading back. She had four destroyers with her, one on each quarter. She had her battle flag flying- a huge battle flag . She had a bone in her teeth, running full ahead. She was out of ammunition , heading back to England to restock so she could get back to the beaches where they needed her. She was beautiful, built in 1914, and she could only do about 20 knots, but that was an awful lot for such a bulky ship. The bow was coming down and rising, and then coming down again in a flurry of spray. She was coming upon us , so I ran down to dip our flag , but I knew damn well they wouldn ' tdip that big flag of theirs. It takes six guys to get it back up again . I've told this story to a few people. One time a fellow said: "You know, I was on that ship at the time. " His name is Joe Miller. He's originally from Connecticut. He 's in the Navy League and he presently lives out in Colorado. He said to me: "We flew that flag very proudly, but there weren ' t too many people ever mentioned it to me." I said: "Well, that was the only time I ever saw such a big flag. It was a hell of a big flag and you were flying it very proudly." I liked that ship. We had been lying underneath her guns when we were hit by the bomber off Normandy. l. Mr. Scheuing, president of the Empire Region of the Navy League , is a trustee of NMHS. This article is from a longer memoir of his experiences at sea in World War II , available from NMHS. SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994