848 Squadron, Fleet Air Arms Two 848 Sqd, Sea King HC4, "Junglies" say goodbye after their display and
F-16XL #849 Sea King from 849 NAS Japanese escort carrier Kaiyo crippled by 849 sqdn aircraft from HMS Victorious, 1945. Beached in Beppu Bay, Kyushu, Japan, while being scrapped, 1946-47.
US ARMY tug ST-850 Inchon, Korea. There is up to a 30 foot tide there, so the larger ships had to anchor far out in the harbor, thus most all of the material was moved by barge. (Circa 1954) And the inevitable: USS Joseph Kennedy Jr., DD-850. See here for more on the man.
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/tserver.php?f=sqn3_20080924141927.jpg&w=177&tran=1 Sea King Mk 7s from 854 Naval Air Sqn
The Regulus II missile launcher being installed aboard USS King County (LST-857). YD-33 is doing the lifting
Lt Eric Crees' Account ~ H.M. LANDING CRAFT TANK 861 - HMLCT 861 ~ H.M. Landing Craft Tank (HMLCT) 861 was a unit of the 38th Flotilla of Assault Group S3 Support Squadron. Their task on D-Day was to support the first assault wave by providing withering fire onto enemy targets on or near to the landing beaches and thereafter to discharge their cargo of tanks and men onto the beaches. Lt Eric Crees ~ After two years as a sea-going radar operator I was a Temporary Sub. Lieutenant RNVR and the commanding officer of the Mk4 HMLCT 861 which I commissioned in Alloa, Scotland, during August 1943. Second in command was Midshipman Eddie Burton and there were twelve crew members. For most it was their first sea-going draft and all, with the exception of the officers and Motor Mechanic Lickess, were under twenty years of age. The craft was 187 feet long and close to 40 feet across the bows and had two Paxman-Ricardo diesel engines each of 500-hp. The draft was variable by flooding or pumping watertight compartments. [Opposite; water colour of HMLCT 861 by J Adams of Portsmouth. Photograph copyright Martyn Cox 2008. This image must not to be reproduced.] We sailed up the east coast of Scotland and down the west coast to Troon in Ayrshire where there was a Combined Operations base. We worked-up in and around the Firth of Clyde for several months before going to Inverness to meet a section of the 76th Field Regiment Royal Artillery, under the command of Lieutenant Turnbull whom we would be carrying to France. There we worked long and hard in the Moray and Cromarty Firths through a cold and rough winter undertaking beaching exercises and repeated night landings on Culbin Sands and other isolated beaches. We were sometimes accompanied by our sister craft of the 38th LCT Flotilla to practice working together in formation and landings. The Flotilla Officer, Lieutenant Commander Tom Unite, was a genial and well liked South African. The crews were well motivated and worked with a will and determination. We became well acquainted with our army guests who reciprocated by entertaining us at their base at Fort George. In the late spring of 1944 we sailed south and through the Dover Straits to Portsmouth and in early June we were re-joined by our detachment of the 76th Field Regiment. We embarked four self-propelled Priest 105mm howitzers mounted on a Churchill tank chassis and two half-track reconnaissance vehicles at Gosport hard (the name given to a concrete area on the shore line) and then joined many other fully loaded craft at anchor in Fareham Creek. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation in the air which was heightened when cheering broke out in Portsmouth Harbour. It increased as a motor torpedo boat came into view carrying King George VI and Winston Churchill. They waving and cheering along with the rest. What a morale booster it was and the signal quickly spread…."Winnie wants to come with us but George won’t let him!" On the afternoon of June 5th, the day after the false start owing to bad weather, our contribution of six craft set sail to Nab Tower to join up with our part of the fleet, which, in turn, was part of the greatest armada the world had ever seen. Minesweepers had laid lit buoys to provide a mile wide corridor and we sailed down this discretely illuminated sea-way in rough conditions. When it became dark we kept station on the dimly lit stern light of the craft ahead. Throughout the night streams of aircraft flew overhead, squadron after squadron. We were all going the same way, it was a long, long night with very dark heavy cloud overhead. We approached Sword beach between Ouistreham and Hermanville on a pre-determined line of bearing. We opened bombardment at a distance of 11,000 yards from the beach. Our fire was reported by Forward Observation Officers in a small craft well inshore and before long we received a new target our original target having been obliterated. The fire-power of the 24 guns carried by our six LCT was quite awesome in itself but we were small in comparison to the totality. 16 inch shells were roaring overhead from a nearby battleship, hundreds of shells were being released by rocket firing LCTs, the guns of close support Royal Navy ships were firing in rapid sequence, swimming tanks and LCAs full of troops were making for the beach. The area was alive with activity and noise and it became almost too much to take in and witness. At 2000 yards from the beach we ceased fire, it was just H-Hour, 0725 hours on the morning of June 6th 1944. Through binoculars the beach appeared within touching distance, the flail tanks were trundling up the beach exploding mines as they went, closely followed by the Sherman swimming tanks and wave after wave of soldiers. HMLCT 861 turned away and sailed on a reciprocal bearing and the gun crews changed from bombardment to combat ammunition. At the appropriate distance we turned once again to go in with the fifth wave and we beached under the direction of a beach-master at H-Hour+1 hour…that being at 0825 hours. It was a case of ‘down ramps’ and our army friends left with all speed and our blessing. Then, it was up ramp and away, but our kedge anchor was fast against some underwater obstruction and the capstan could not shift it, I had to order the cable to be chopped. [Photo; Mk6 USLCT 776 found on June 8th by the crew of LCT 861. Richard Fawcett recalls that she was towed to Portsmouth by LCT 861. See 1 below]. As we approached the assembly area some three miles off-shore Petty Officer Motor Mechanic Lickess reported that 861 was making water below. Beach obstructions had penetrated a number of water-tight compartments but with continuous pumping 861 was holding her own. On reporting to our HQ ship I optimistically expressed the view that we could make it back to England under our own power which we did. On arrival back in England 861 went straight into dry-dock. There were over twenty holes in the bottom of the craft but because the hull was a series of water-tight sections welded together she retained enough buoyancy to keep afloat. The dock engineers reported that the damage would take some ten days to repair so I requested four days leave for each watch. We had spent many months without that luxury. The flag officer’s office was agreeable so, on the toss of a coin to determine who went ashore first, I found myself back home in West Bromwich two days after D-Day. On D-Day our flotilla lost one landing craft, sunk by gunfire on the beach but with no casualties. The commanding officer of another LCT won the DSO for his rescue work on the beach. HMLCT 861 of the 38th Flotilla made seventeen more crossings to different areas such as Gold beach, Utah beach and Cherboug and later Dieppe and Le Treport. We carried American soldiers, tanks, reapers for forward airfields, a detachment of the Grenadier Guards, Bailey Bridge pontoons. The 861 followed up behind the army until she developed an alarming crack amidships and her task was at an end. By Easter of 1945 she was paid-off.
St. Swithun died on 2 July, 862... He's not very interesting, but... Saint Swithun was Bishop of Winchester from 30 October 852 to his death on 2 July 862.However, he is scarcely mentioned in any document of his own time. His death is entered in the Canterbury manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS F) under the year 861.His signature is appended to the witness lists of several Anglo-Saxon charters. Of these charters three belong to 833, 838, 860-862. In the first the saint signs as Swithunus presbyter regis Egberti, in the second as Swithunus diaconus, and in the third as Swithunus episcopus. This means that if the second charter is genuine, the first must be wrong, and it is so marked in Kemble.
