Pre-War Years

Sterling Funck was born on June 18^th, 1924 in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. He was the only son of George and Tillie Funck. Eleanor, Fern, and Marlene were his younger sisters. Sterling’s father worked as a blacksmith. His mother ran a general store attached to the family’s home.

While Sterling was still young his father befell a serious back injury. During his father’s recovery in a Philadelphia hospital Sterling’s mother sold the general store and the blacksmith shop. The family moved to Ono where Sterling’s grandfather, Elmer Shuey, owned a general store. Money was tight. Sterling was put to work in his Grandfather’s store. His typical day started at 6 A.M. He helped out at the store until it was time for him to leave for the start of school. After school he returned to the store and typically worked until 9 P.M. On Saturdays he worked from 6 A.M. until late in the afternoon.

Upon his father’s return home the family decided to move to Florida with the intent of buying a hotel. However, President Roosevelt closed the banks just a few days prior to their planned departure[1]. The family canceled their move and chose to remain in Pennsylvania. Sterling’s father found work delivering bread as an independent driver for Ruhl’s bakery. His father made twelve cents profit on his first day of business.[2]

Sterling entered seventh grade in August of 1937. Not far into the school year he passed the exam for entrance into the Jonestown High School. He was looking forward to moving into high school and he had plans to try out for baseball team the following spring. His father had different plans: “My parents never believed in high school. My dad only went through third grade. As soon as he found I had passed my exam for high school, I attended a one-room school house near Fort Indiantown Gap at the time, I had to quit.” The family was feeling the years of economic hardship. The Great Depression was in full effect. Sterling’s father removed him from school and sent him to work full time for his Grandfather to help earn money for the support of the family.

In 1938 Sterling’s father purchased a dairy farm in Grantville, PA.[3] Sterling continued to support his family by assisting in the day-to-day work on the farm. Hardship struck in the summer of 1941 when an outbreak of Bangs disease infected the family’s entire herd of milking cows. The only option was to sell the cows as beef cattle for slaughter and let the stalls stand empty for a calendar year. With all prospects of farm income eliminated, Sterling’s father found work outside the farm. His father worked for a brief time at Ft. Indiantown Gap. He then returned to driving a bread truck for Ruhl’s bakery.

Sterling was also expected to find a job to help support the family. He and his friend Clarence Winters[4] had many opportunities to observe the Pennsylvania National Guard hold exercises and drills on neighboring farms given the close proximity of Fort Indiantown Gap. With limited employment prospects to be found locally, Sterling and Clarence decided that their best option would be to join the Army. They both had dreams of joining the Calvary.

When it finally came time to enlist, Clarence reconsidered and chose to not go through with idea. Even though Sterling was only 17 at the time, and he would have to lie about his age, he remained committed on enlisting in the Army. However, during his first meeting with the Army recruiter his true age was found out and he was promptly sent home. Sterling gave little further thought of military service and he found work at the A.S. Kreider Shoe Factory in Palmyra.

The War Begins

Sterling was with his family visiting the Copenhaver family in downtown Harrisburg on Sunday, December 7^th, 1941.[5] During dinner news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor came over the radio. On the drive home Sterling informed his parents that he was going to enlist in the Marines the next day. Interestingly, the thought of joining the Marines hadn’t crossed Sterling’s mind until the events of that evening. Although he was still only 17, the Marines and the Navy accepted recruits his age as long as parental permission was granted. Had he been of legal age, he likely would have given the Army another try. Like many of his generation, Sterling just felt it was the right thing to do: “I really can't say why I joined. I guess just by enlisting the day after Pearl Harbor pretty much illustrates my sentiments as anything. I felt that they needed everyone they could get.”

On Monday morning Sterling rose early and hitchhiked to Harrisburg.[6] The armed services recruiting office was located downtown in the old Federal building. When Sterling arrived at the recruiting office and was met by a Navy officer. Sterling inquired about joining the Marines, but the Navy officer promptly told him that the Marine recruiting officer wouldn’t be in that day and that he might as well sign up for the Navy. Sterling said that he wasn’t at all interested in joining the Navy, that he would wait until the Marine recruiting officer arrived. The Navy officer continued to give Sterling a hard time about not wanting to join the Navy. Eventually Sterling agreed to enlist with the Navy if the Marine officer failed to show up that day.

Sterling waited all day for the Marine officer to arrive. He even skipped lunch to make sure that he would not accidentally miss him. At around 3:45pm the Navy officer asked Sterling if he would keep to his word: “At that time I had never even seen a sailor or a ship. But anyhow about a quarter of four he came up to me and asked if I'd be good to my word. I said yep.” It was only after he had signed his enlistment paperwork that he learned that the Navy and Marine recruiters were the same person. It just so happened that the officer’s job that day was to fill his quota for recruits for the Navy. Sterling was sworn in and passed his physical that same day.

The Navy needed to obtain Sterling’s parents’ signatures to finalize the enlistment process given that he was still only 17. The Navy would only travel to obtain these signatures on Sundays. However, Sunday was the day that the family typically spent visiting friends and relatives. The Navy visited the farm twice without success. On the Sunday before Christmas the officers finally ran into his parents in Ono and collected their signatures that were necessary for the completion of Sterling’s enlistment paperwork.

Sterling had quit the shoe factory two weeks before Christmas. During those last few weeks he continued to help out on the farm. For Christmas Sterling received his first long-pants suit. Up until that day, he had always worn knickers for special occasions.

On December 27^th Sterling’s parents and sister Marlene accompanied him to the Harrisburg Train Station. As a recruit, Sterling was only permitted to take only minimal personal belongings and only enough money to pay for his first month’s insurance. Prior to his departure he had to empty his wallet of all but six dollars.

Sterling departed on an empty reserve train and arrived in Philadelphia mid-morning. He reported to a Merchant Marines Base and from there he was bused to the Philadelphia Naval Recruiting Station. Sterling spent the next two days waiting for orders to report to boot camp. During his brief stay in Philadelphia he was sworn in for the second time and was given a second physical. Sterling will never forget the second physical. All the recruits were told to stand in a big circle and to strip. Then the nurses and doctors made the rounds. At the end of his second day in Philadelphia Sterling boarded a train bound for Newport, RI.

Boot Camp

Sterling reported to the Newport Naval Training Station (NTS) on December 30^th. He was assigned to Company 4, the fourth company to enter the newly established training facility on Coasters Harbor Island. The remainder of the base was undergoing heavy construction and build-up in preparation for the many recruits that would pass through boot camp in the coming months and years.

Boot camp lasted three weeks, the minimum length of time for quarantine. Company 4 spent each day drilling (i.e., marching). The recruits’ few moments of rest each day were spent in the barracks, the mess hall, or the infirmary. Chow was served in metal Quonset huts. Evenings were spent in wooden barracks. What little ‘free time’ that Sterling had was spent preparing for the next day’s routine, polishing his boots, tidying up his few belongings, and learning to live out of a sea bag. Although the barracks were close quarters, Sterling made very few acquaintances. That’s not to say that he kept to himself. In one case he nearly got into a fight when he exchanged some words regarding the quality of the chow with a recruit from New York City. On another occasion he made the mistake of making a smart remark to a Chief:

With my big mouth I could even get in trouble in boot camp. One day while we were in formation the Chief Petty Officer in charge of our company made a remark to one of the guys ahead of me who couldn't keep in-step, "If I had a bucket of crud I would throw it in your face." So I said "Well you probably couldn't hit anyone anyhow." Of course I was back further in the ranks and didn't think he would hear me, or he wouldn't known who had said it. But he marched back, took my watch cap off. Now remember, this is in January, it is cold, and it is snowing and sleeting. Well, he stuck it in my mouth and he made me march and stand for two hours with a wool watch cap in my mouth. Now you want something stuck in your mouth, I can tell you it isn't a wool watch cap. Just try it sometime, if only for a few minutes, and see what happens.

The day we graduated I asked him "How did you know that I was the one who made the wisecrack at you that day." He said "I didn't, but I figured that you could take it as much as anyone else, so I gave it to you."

Everyone that I ever knew who went through boot camp always had one or two guys that they would pick on, whether they deserved it or not, because they thought, and some could and some couldn't cut it. I guess I was that guy that day. Honestly, out of the entire experience of boot camp, the hardest part for me was learning to live out of a sea bag and sleeping in a hammock.

The formal training that Sterling received while at boot camp was limited to how to properly roll his uniforms and his few possessions in his hammock and sea bag. Surprisingly, Sterling did not receive training on the use of firearms. In fact, his only encounter with a firearm during boot camp was when he had his picture taken at graduation.

Upon graduation Sterling had earned the rate[7] of Apprentice Seaman. Although his monthly pay was twenty-one dollars, Sterling would not receive his first pay until early February. He departed with an empty wallet after paying his insurance bill using the six dollars he was allowed to carry with him to boot camp. His possessions were limited to what would fit in his sea bag, which contained his hammock, a set of basic dress and undress uniforms, and his working clothes, called dungarees.

The men of the Company 4 were transferred to an armory in Boston. There they were separated into groups for direct transfer to ship, additional training, or other assignments. Sterling was assigned to the USS Harry Lee. Fifteen other men from the Newport NTS 4^th Company were also assigned to the Harry Lee. One of the recruits with whom Sterling had gone through boot camp had spent a previous stint in the Navy Reserves. He had heard that the Harry Lee was a destroyer. The men assigned to the Harry Lee were excited and they were looking forward to serving on a Destroyer.

The Amphibious Navy

Sterling remembers his first sight of the Harry Lee. It was clearly not a Destroyer. Instead, it was a severely rusted passenger ship in need of much work. However, looks were deceiving. Sterling quickly learned that he was aboard one of the most active and exciting classes of ships in the Navy. The Attack Transport class of ships, and the crews that manned these ships, would be a key element in the Navy’s amphibious program.

The Harry Lee represented, in some respects, the state of the U.S. Navy’s amphibious program at the beginning of the war. In early 1942 the Navy was working diligently to organize an amphibious program that would meet the demands that would be placed on it for offensive action in the African, European, and Pacific theatres. The Navy was short of properly equipped amphibious ships, trained crews, and skilled boat coxswains. Fortunately, groundwork for a robust and capable amphibious program had taken place in the years prior to the start of the war.

The origins of the US Navy’s wartime amphibious program actually began to take shape in the Nineteen Thirties. The Marines, whose specialty at that time was to conduct amphibious landings, experimented with amphibious techniques in conjunction with the Navy.[8] In 1934 the Marines and the Navy issued the Tentative Landing Operations Manual. This manual outlined the organization and doctrine for amphibious warfare[9] and it served as the basis for amphibious strategy and tactics for the entire course of World War II.[10] It provided a framework that proved to be scalable as well as flexible to accommodate improvements based on wartime experience.

Formal organization of the Navy’s amphibious program took place in March of 1942 with the formation of the Amphibious Force Atlantic Fleet (AFAF). The AFAF was originally under command of the Marines. In April 1942 the Navy assumed command.[11] Headquarters was initially located at the Naval Operating Base in Norfolk Virginia.[12] Then in early September 1942 AFAF headquarters was moved to the Nansemond Hotel in Ocean View Virginia, located a few miles north of Norfolk.

The AFAF faced formidable challenges. First, ships and supplies were in short supply. Second, there were very few trained officers and sailors who understood the tactical details of how to prepare for, and execute, amphibious operations. Third, large-scale amphibious training programs had not yet been developed.

A critical element of the program was the availability of a properly equipped fleet of transports. The Navy needed a large number of transport and cargo vessels. However, in early 1942 there very few commissioned naval ships available to fill the role as amphibious troop transports and cargo vessels. The Navy took action and acquired a number of passenger ships and freighters as a stopgap to alleviate shortage while new transport-purposed ships were being built. These civilian ships were converted to transports, AP hull[13] designation, or cargo vessels, AK hull designation.[14]

The Harry Lee, a transport, was one such ship. It had been built in 1931 and had served as the passenger ship Exochorda.[15] In the fall of 1941 the Navy acquired the Harry Lee and converted it to fulfill a role as a Transport.[16] In late December the ship was designated AP-17 and was renamed Harry Lee.[17] Conversion from commercial service to wartime role was a major effort. The ships had to be properly outfitted to accommodate their intended function as transports. In addition to a full crew each transport needed the capacity to embark a fully equipped battalion of troops (i.e., 1200 to 1400 soldiers) along with supplies and equipment. Another key task was to alter and outfit the ship to support combat loading. Although combat loading required some reduction in cargo storage efficiency, there was considerable improvement of assault capabilities.[18] Morison explains:[19]

In ordinary transport loading as much cargo and as many troops as the ship will carry are placed on board in the expectation of disembarking on a friendly dock or shore where everything can be sorted out. Combat loading, to facilitate an immediate assault on a hostile shore, is a very different and highly complicated art. The principal of it is this: essential equipment, vehicles, and supplies must be loaded in the same ship with the assault troops that are to use them, and stowed in such a manner that all may be unloaded in the order that it is likely to be wanted to meet tactical situations immediately upon landing.

Other changes were also necessary. Transports had the job of disembarking troops, supplies, and equipment using the ships’ own landing craft. Boat davits[20] were installed for handling the landing craft.[21] Other alterations included reducing the amount of flammable materials within the ship, addition of basic armament, and so on. The transports also had to be equipped to evacuate and care for troops, casualties, and prisoners of war.

The Navy required a way to effectively transport troops and equipment from the transports to the beaches. This capability was formally known as Ship to Shore movement, which in concept utilized small boats to carrying men and equipment to the landing areas. To realize effective ship to shore capabilities the Navy required landing craft that were capable of transporting men and materials to the shoreline while also withstanding the abuse of obstacles, rough surf, rough beaches, and the engagement of enemy fire. Prior to 1941 there were limited options for fulfilling these requirements. Then in 1941 the Higgins “Eureka” landing craft was introduced and it was accepted by the Navy as the standard craft for troop and equipment transport.

Officially designated Landing Craft, Personnel (LCP), the Eureka boat was a shallow-draft[22] craft capable of transporting 36 fully equipped troops, or up to 8,100 pounds of cargo.[23] When fully loaded it had a draft of only 3’6” that allowed it to operate in very shallow water. Most LCPs were powered by a diesel engine, although there were a few that were run with gasoline engines.[24] Diesel was preferred for craft engaged in action given that it was less susceptible to detonation compared to gasoline. When fully loaded the LCP could cruise at 10 knots[25] at full throttle.[26]

Considering that the LCP was constructed primarily of plywood it was a rugged craft. With a solid block of pine at the bow[27] it had considerable bow strength. The craft could move at flank speed[28] over obstacles with little or no damage.[29] The least favorable design element was the method for debarkation. Troops, often times heavily equipped, had to jump over the side of the craft. This method slowed debarkation, which exposed the troops, the craft, and the boat crew a greater chance of receiving enemy fire. The troops also ran a greater risk dropping into water over their heads. The coxswain, who conned the craft from the center near the bow, in front of the troop area, was exposed as well.

The Landing Craft Personnel Ramp (LCPR) was introduced in late 1942. Retrofitted with a bow ramp this craft afforded easier and quicker debarkation for troops and equipment.[30] An early model of the Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) was also introduced around this time. The LCM was built of steel, diesel powered, 50 feet long and capable of carrying one 30-ton tank.[31] Larger sea-going vessels, such as the Landing Craft Tank (LCT) and Landing Ship Infantry (LSI), were also introduced. These larger vessels were capable of landing large numbers of troops and massive quantities of equipment directly onto beaches.

With the supply of properly designed landing craft under production and arriving for use by Navy the shortage of properly trained boat crews was the next challenge. The Navy did not have an adequately sized, or properly trained, supply of landing craft crews. As the war progressed, formal amphibious training programs were set up at Little Creek, Virginia, and Solomons Island, Maryland. However, in early 1942 these schools did not exist. With the war effort underway, and the need to assert force as quickly as possible in the Atlantic theatre, there was relatively little time for the Naval transport crews to train for their first operation. Whenever possible, the Navy employed personnel with some experience, such as pulling reservists who had previous ship and boat handling skills back into active duty. Sterling, along with the recruits from Company 4 that joined the Harry Lee, would learn nearly all of their seamanship skills directly from the more experienced crewmembers already aboard the ship.

Another challenge facing the amphibious group was that of inter-service coordination and agreement on strategy and tactics. The Navy and Marines had made considerable progress in planning and executing joint operations in the few years preceding the war, albeit primarily only in training exercises. However, the Navy and the Army were not prepared to work together in amphibious operations. Up until 1942 collaborative effort was limited to Naval escort of Army troop convoys.[32] Morison explains:[33]

… a properly conducted amphibious operation requires an organic unity rather than a temporary partnership, and neither the organization nor the traditions of the two armed services were then particularly receptive to a commingling of that nature.

The Navy and Army did not agree on the tactical implementation of the combat loading scheme for an operation. The Navy’s view was that assault troops, especially if landing at night, should be very lightly equipped and slenderly supplied, leaving the big stuff to follow later. The Army’s desire was to get as much as possible ashore in the assault boat waves, fearing that the follow-up convoy would be decimated by enemy submarines prior to landing the majority of equipment and supplies.

These differences would be worked out over time from lessons learned under hostile exercises in the early stages of the war.

Learning the Ropes Aboard The USS Harry Lee

When the Company 4 seamen reported to the Harry Lee they were immediately lined up on deck and were split into two groups: Deck workers or Snipes. Deck workers were given jobs in the deck divisions, including assignments such as signalmen, radiomen, painters, general deck workers, etc. Snipes were assigned to the engineering divisions, including areas within the ship such as the engine room, fire room, etc.

Sterling was immediately assigned as a general deck worker in the 2^nd Deck Division. Sterling spent his first few days learning basic deck work duties and standard seamanship skills. His expectation was that he would spend the majority of his time undertaking the never-ending job of painting the ship. Life aboard the Harry Lee was not very comfortable for most of the enlisted crew. The berthing areas were devoid of bunks, so Sterling spent what little downtime he could find in his hammock. Meals were eaten standing up. There were no tables or chairs for the enlisted crew in the mess.

On most transports there were three deck divisions, designated 1^st division, 2^nd division, and 3^rd division. Members of the deck division were responsible for the external operations and maintenance of the ship. Select members of the deck division were also selected and assigned as boat crews for the ship’s landing craft. Each deck division had a Chief Boatswain Mate who had responsibility over the division. Reporting into the Chief Boatswain Mate was the Leading Boatswain Mate.

Tom Sawyer was the Leading Boatswain Mate at the time Sterling joined the Harry Lee. The Leading Boatswain Mate was responsible for making up daily work orders, assigning watches[34] and runners, as well as assigning secondary duties to members of the division. Tom Sawyer had taken a liking to Sterling almost immediately and a few days later he assigned Sterling as Bowhook on the Captain’s Gig.

The Captain’s Gig was the craft that the Captain[35] used as his personal transportation.[36] The Gig was an LCP outfitted with a removable hardtop cabin that extended back beyond the engine compartment. This cabin provided good protection for the Captain and the crew of the Gig when running about in poor weather. The cabin also had lace curtains, brass fittings, and windshield wipers. Inside there were removable leather cushions and a divider that could be used to keep the embarked personnel in privacy from the coxswain. The Gig was further differentiated from the other landing craft with the marking of an arrow through the hull number. Although the Gig was outfitted to accommodate the Captain, the craft was also used in action. In the first waves of an invasion the Gig was typically used to transport members of the Beach Party to the beach. It was also used for the landing of troops and equipment during the later stages of a landing operation.[37]

The crew of landing craft, such as an LCP, consisted of three enlisted men, the coxswain, the engineer, and the bowhook. The coxswain was in command of the craft and had ultimate responsibility for the operation and well being of the craft and the crew. The Engineer had responsibility for running and maintaining the mechanical components of the craft, such as the engine and pumps. The Bowhook was typically the lowest ranking and least skilled member of the boat crew.

At first Sterling did not know what he was to do as the Bowhook. Tom Poe, then coxswain of the Gig, kept trying to tell Sterling what to do. Sterling didn’t follow as quickly as was expected of him so he was sent to training. After a few days of training he was reassigned back as Bowhook of the Gig. Although still wet behind the ears, Sterling learned the ropes under the watchful eyes of Tom Sawyer and Tom Poe.

As Bowhook Sterling had several responsibilities. Using an 8-to10 foot pole called a bow hook, given it had a hook at the end, he was responsible of helping to position the Gig as the coxswain pulled the boat in next to the ship or the dock. When either getting under way, or while hooking back up to the davit hooks, the Bowhook was responsible for the forward hook-up whereas the engineer was responsible for the aft[38] hook-up. He was also responsible for forward lookout when the Gig was under way. On a ramped craft, such as an LCP(R), the bowhook had an additional duty to man the bow ramp winch.

After only a few weeks Sterling was promoted to Seaman 2^nd Class. At this time he received his first permanent assignment as the Captain’s Orderly. As Captain’s Orderly Sterling stood watch outside the Captain’s stateroom waiting to announce when messages and visitors arrived. Over a twelve-hour period he typically spent half of that time standing as an Orderly, usually in intervals of two-hours, and the remaining hours helping in various deck activities. Sterling also retained his secondary duty as Bowhook on the Gig.

An additional responsibility that Sterling gained as S2C was assignment to the Damage Control Party. Members of the Damage Control Party were responsible for identifying, reporting, and repairing, as quickly as possible, the effects of any fire, explosion, or significant water leak. Within each division teams were assigned to specific sections in of the ship[39] and were responsible for these areas in the event of a critical situation. When General Quarters[40] sounded the Damage Control Party was responsible for reporting to their assigned battle stations[41] and taking action to contain the situation in the event that the ship took damage from attack or accident.

Sterling, as Bowhook on the Gig and as the Captain’s Orderly, spent a good deal of his time in the company of the commanding officer of the Harry Lee, Captain J.W. Whitfield. Captain Whitfield had the reputation as a tough captain. Sterling recalls, “He could be a son-of-a-gun. But yet if he liked you, he liked you.”

The crew frequently referred to Captain Whitfield as ‘Bulldog’. One reason for the nickname was the way he wore his hat. It was too large for his head and it rested on his ears, which made his ears stick out. His choice in hat sizes wasn’t the only reason for his nickname. He was a strict disciplinarian. Sterling describes one example of Captain Whitfield’s many actions that earned him the nickname bulldog:

I happen to be on the watch on the bridge[42] that day. Word had been passed to dump garbage and trash over the fantail[43]. Well the Captain thought he saw someone go down the port side[44] of the ship, throwing something overboard. You see, you were only allowed to toss trash off of the ship a predetermined times, right before dusk, and only from the fantail at the stern[45] of the ship. And then the trash had to be weighted down so that it would sink immediately.

Anyway it looked like he threw something over the side, but I have to take his word for it that it wasn't. You usually did it right after dusk, just before it was totally dark. The Captain happened to be on the port wing of the bridge, and he said to the officer of the deck, bring that man up here. So the officer of the deck ordered me, I was standing as Messenger of the Watch, to go get him.

I went down and got him and he came up on the bridge. The captain asked him why he threw that junk over the side instead of taking it to the fantail. The sailor said "I didn't throw anything over the side." The Captain said "I saw you" and the man said "No Captain, I didn't throw anything over the side." He looked at him real good, and then said "Your shirt and dungarees[46] are dirty. Three days bread and water." He wasn't going to be corrected even if he was wrong.

Captain Whitfield had a good reason to be so concerned about this situation in particular. There was an appointed method and time for disposing of trash. This method minimized the risk of enemy subs spotting floating debris and tracking a convoy by following a trail of trash. Captain Whitfield’s attitude might have also been shaped by his experience aboard a ship docked at Pearl Harbor, on the fateful day of December 7^th, 1941.

One of Sterling’s first direct encounters with the Captain occurred shortly after he had rejoined the Gig’s crew. The Captain ordered him to purchase a pair of sneakers to wear when in the Gig. Although his first payday had not yet arrived he was able to borrow money at the ship’s store to pay for his sneakers. Sterling was glad to have the sneakers. They made for much better working shoes aboard the Gig. When his first payday did arrive, his pay quickly disappeared after paying back the money he owed for his sneakers and paying the next installment of his insurance premium.

Sterling had very little downtime given his many duties and assignments. He worked diligently to learn and hone his deck and boat skills. He also spent many hours tending to the maintenance of landing craft. Typically the only breaks from work came during his breaks between nighttime watches, which he used to catch a few hours of sleep in his hammock.

Amphibious Training In The Chesapeake

The crew spent the early months of 1942 participating in training and maneuvers along the eastern coast of the US. Sterling recalls most of the training took place in the Chesapeake Bay, particularly the Solomons Island training area. According to one source, amphibious training exercises in early 1942 were originally to take place off the coast of North Carolina. However, maneuvers were moved to the relative safety of the Chesapeake Bay given significant U-Boat activity along the Atlantic Coast during the early months of 1942.[47]

Sterling spent most of his time working along side senior-rate sailors from the 2^nd Division such as Tom Poe, Tom Sawyer, John Zdanowicz, Chief Del Gaizo, and sailors Dougan and Potacker. Many of these men were Navy Reservists from the New England area who were called into active duty for the war. Sterling was exposed to a variety of skills by these more experienced boat crewmembers, most notably Tom Sawyer and John Zdanowicz. Both Tom and John had grown up making a living on the water and they had also been in the reserves prior to the start of the war.

Eventually Tom Poe was promoted and John Zdanowicz took over as coxswain of the Gig. Zdanowicz was a Maine lobsterman by trade. On maneuvers in the Chesapeake, they would pull up along side of oystermen to chat with them about their trade. Oftentimes John and Sterling would return to the Harry Lee with a basket full of fresh Oysters.

The time spent in the Chesapeake afforded the crews of the transports training on all aspects of an amphibious operation, from the preparatory stage through to actual landings. The training exercises were conducted during both the day and the night. However, emphasis was placed on nighttime training exercises. Upcoming invasions would attempt an element of surprise by hitting the beaches in the early morning hours shortly before dawn. This approach required that the boat crews be able to effectively and quietly get their boats prepared, loaded, and organized in near total darkness. The boat crews had no lights and minimal radio communication to rely on for guidance during loading and landing. The entire crew of the ship practiced using hand signals. If they were lucky they sometimes had filtered lights to assist in their tasks.

During a landing operation the first step was to lower a landing craft to the water. The boat crew rode the craft from the deck to the water to ensure that the craft was under control once it became waterborne. As the boat was lowered from the rail, the engineer readied the bilge pumps and started the engine so that as soon as the boat hit the water the bilge pumps were running to cool the engine.

Immediately upon hitting the water the bowhook unhooked the front davit hook, and the engineer unhooked the rear davit hook. The deck crew would then raise the boat cables. It was the job of the coxswain to keep the boat as close to the ship as possible, with the help of the Bow Hook, while the troops climbed down the rope nets and into the boat and any equipment assigned to the craft was lowered into the boat.

The preferred method for embarking soldiers into a landing craft was to load at the rail and then lower the boat to the water. This method minimized the risk of the embarking troops being accidentally crushed between the hull of the ship and the landing craft as swells tossed the craft about the side of the ship. It also reduced the time required to load the landing craft. While this approach was theoretically possible, practice showed that the davits and cables would not hold under the stresses of rough weather and fully loaded boats. If a boat were to drop from rail to the water it could capsize[48], dumping all occupants into the ocean. Until stronger davits and cables could be outfitted on the transports, over-the-rail loading remained the standard practice. For the troops embarking the landing craft in the dark, in heavy swells, and fully equipped with combat gear, neither approach offered comfort.

Once loaded, the craft would rendezvous several miles from the landing beaches and form up into assault waves. When the control craft gave the appropriate signal, typically using flags during the day and colored lights at nights, the assault waves would head for the beach and land their troops. The craft would then return to their ship to pick up another load of personnel and equipment. Sometimes in later phases of the landing radio messages were used to communicate with the landing craft.

Sterling continued to develop skills necessary to qualify as a coxswain. These skills included learning to handle and care for the Gig. Sterling occasionally had the opportunity to pilot the Gig and develop skills when the Captain was not aboard. In late summer, during one of Sterling’s boat watches, one of the boats attached to the boat boom[49] began to drift away from the ship. Sterling, along with an engineer, went out after it and brought it back to the ship and re-tied it to the boom. From that point forward Tom Poe would delegate piloting of the Gig to Sterling when the Captain was not aboard.

Time passed quickly. Before Sterling knew it spring had past and summer was coming to a close. By this time Sterling had earned the rate of Seaman 1^st Class (SC1). In August the Harry Lee was moored in the Brooklyn Navy Yard undergoing upgrades and repairs. Sterling took advantage of the time to take his first leave[50]. He traveled to Philadelphia, via train, to visit with his mother who was hospitalized for eye surgery. He also spent a few days at home visiting with his family and friends. He returned to the Brooklyn Shipyard on August 15^th and rejoined the Harry Lee.

The frequency and intensity of training exercises increased during the summer of 1942. In early October many among the ship’s company were promoted forward one rate. Tom Poe was promoted and assigned to assist Tom Sawyer in the leadership and administration of the 2^nd Division. Sterling, having just earned SC1 a few months earlier, was given all of the responsibilities as Coxswain of the Gig even though he hadn’t yet formally qualified as a Coxswain.

Left: Sterling visiting with Eugene and Harold Wentling, August 1942, wearing his Dress Blues.[51]

Right: Sterling with Edna Wentling, August 1942, wearing his Dress Whites.[52]

Transfer to the USS Calvert

The Harry Lee was scheduled to depart Norfolk on October 23^rd in company with more than 100 ships, including 30 other troop transports, to take part in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. A few days prior to departure for the Harry Lee experienced a boiler malfunction while participating in training exercises near Cove Point in the Chesapeake.[53] This was a serious situation given that the ship was fully loaded with troops and equipment of the 2^nd Armored Division. These personnel and equipment were critical elements of the Western Task Force’s planned assault on North Africa.

The Harry Lee was towed back to Norfolk and docked opposite to a newly constructed and commissioned[54] transport the USS Calvert, designated AP-65. Task force command decided to transfer the troops, cargo, and equipment to the Calvert and send the new ship into action.[55] Nearly half of the Harry Lee’s crew was transferred to the Calvert to augment the crew with more experienced and trained personnel. Sterling went along over to the Calvert with the rest of the Harry Lee’s boat crews. Guys that Sterling had served with to date, such as Sawyer, Zdanowicz, Del Gaizo, Dougan, and Pottacker, were transferred to the Calvert at that time. Tom Poe, one of Sterling’s mentors, remained with the Harry Lee. Captain Whitfield, and a number of his officers, also transferred to the new ship. Abe Weinberg, one of the original crewmembers of the Calvert, remembers the arrival of Captain Whitfield just prior to the start of transfer of equipment from the Harry Lee: “When Capt. Whitfield first came aboard his first words were ‘All liberty[56] is cancelled’.”[57]

Over the course of the next twenty-four hours Sterling participated in the massive effort of transferring troops, combat equipment, and cargo to the Calvert.[58] Eighteen of the Harry Lee’s landing craft, including the Gig, were also transferred to the Calvert.[59] The crews of the two ships were responsible for transferring the Harry Lee’s supplies and the troops’ equipment to the Calvert. The troops themselves were responsible for transferring their ammunition. One of Sterling’s specific duties was to help rig the Harry Lee’s ‘yard and stay’, which was used to transfer equipment from the Harry Lee’s holds to the dock where it was picked back up and then placed in the Calvert’s holds. Progress was slowed however, as the rigging[60] had not yet been run completely on the Calvert.

Sterling remained part of the 2^nd Division and a member of the Gig’s crew. One change for him was his transfer out of the Damage Control Party and into the aft 3-inch gun crew. The 3-inch 50-caliber gun was primarily a defensive weapon. It could be used against aircraft and for work against light surface craft and surfaced submarines. The gun crew was made up of approximately seven or eight sailors. The members of the gun crew consisted of a pointer, a trainer, a sight setter, a first loader, two or three secondary loaders, a hot shell man, and the gun captain. A well-trained gun crew could fire 45 rounds per minute.[61] Sterling was assigned as the pointer. As the pointer he was responsible for the horizontal orientation of the gun as well as firing the gun. His trainer was responsible for the vertical orientation of the gun barrel.

The Calvert had some significant distance to make to catch up with the convoy, having spent nearly a day and a half completing the transfer of men and materials. The ship departed Norfolk on October 25^th running at flank speed in an effort to catch up with the convoy. An escort of two destroyers, the USS Eberle (DD-430) and USS Boyle (DD-600), accompanied the Calvert in her race across the Atlantic.

Although the Calvert was underway, a tremendous amount of work was necessary to make the ship combat ready and to make it as safe as possible. The deck crews worked diligently. The first major effort was to paint the ship to protect it from the elements at sea. Sterling kept busy helping to paint the ship through most of the voyage. He also spent a great deal of his time readying the landing craft in the 2^nd division. The landing craft brought over from the Harry Lee had their designations re-painted to match the Calvert. Sterling spent some of his time re-painting numbers on the landing craft cradled in the 2^nd division.

The Calvert had capacity for approximately thirty LCPs/LCPRs, and two or three LCMs. Nearly half of the LCPs/LCPRs were stored in the 2^nd Division. . The remaining craft, including the LCMs, were split between the 1^st and 3^rd Divisions. The 2^nd Division had two boat davits on either side of the ship. Each davit could hold three landing craft. Boats were also cradled on the deck. According to Sterling a well trained, experienced, and coordinated deck crew could disembark three landing craft to the water in a space of fifteen minutes, or less, given favorable weather and sea conditions. Sterling recalls that Tom Sawyer was one of the best winch runners he ever worked with during his time in the service.

Other work also kept the crew busy. Countless hours were spent removing flammable materials that posed a fire hazard. Much of the material removed from within the ship remained on-deck until the appointed time to dump trash overboard. Another safety concern addressed was the placement of gun stops on the appropriate armament. If so inclined, the gun crews could have positioned their guns to fire point blank into the ship. Precautions were necessary to minimize the risk of unintended or accidental mishaps in the heat of battle.

With a very short shakedown period prior to joining the invasion force the Calvert was bound to have problems during her first ocean-going voyage. Prior to catching up with the convoy the Calvert experienced a breakdown. Apparently, the situation was due to human error when a water tank was mistakenly switched over as an oil tank.[62] For several hours the Calvert lay dead in the water while repairs were made. The Eberle and Boyle circled round watchful for U-boats.[63]

The Calvert had several amenities that made life somewhat easier on the crew. Sterling finally had a bunk and he happily folded up his hammock and used it as extra padding under his mattress. The boat crews and deck crews enjoyed electrically driven davits, versus the manual davits that the crew had manned on the Harry Lee. These davits made handling boats a much quicker and easier job.

Troop accommodations weren’t much different than they had been aboard the Harry Lee. With nearly 1200 troops onboard, quarters were close. Berthing quarters were tight and very uncomfortable. The mess hall was similar in function as it was on the Harry Lee, which was simply a place to pick up food, so the crew and troops continued to eat their chow standing up. As was the case on most transports, much of the time below deck was spent playing cards in between constant drills, standing in line for meals, and calisthenics. Evening hours were tedious as cigarettes weren’t allowed: “While zigzagging across the Atlantic … the ship was darkened every night and the “Smoking lamp was out.”[64] When a ship was underway blackout began at sunset and continued until sunrise. During this time smoking was not permitted on any of the decks and all sources of lights had to be extinguished or filtered. Even the glow from the tip of a lighted cigarette is visible for from 5000 to 6000 yards at sea on a dark night[65].

Sterling’s worst fears on his first trans-Atlantic voyage were the threat of attack from U-boats and the outbreak of fire on the ship. The Calvert encountered both situations in one day. As the convoy continued east toward the coast of North Africa the Calvert’s watch spotted a submarine periscope. The Destroyers immediately began depth charging the suspected enemy sub. Sterling joined in the action and fired at the submarine as part of the Calvert’s aft 3” gun crew. A heap of trash on the Calvert’s fantail caught on fire from the gun’s blast. The fire was quickly extinguished and the sub was not spotted again. However, the crew was on edge for quite some time following these events.

The Calvert and her escorts caught up with the Western Task Force convoy in the mid-Atlantic on October 30^th. Recorded in the War Diary of the USS Augusta: “The USS Calvert, Eberle, and Boyle joined the formation during the morning and took their assigned stations. Position at 0800 Lat 38-30N, Long 46-18.5W; Position at 1200 Lat 38-01N, Long 45-30W; Position at 2000 Lat 37-13N, Long 43-42 W.”[66]

The Augusta was the flagship for the task force. Rear Admiral H.K. Hewitt, commander of the Western Naval Task Force, and Major General George Patton, commander of the U.S. Army forces for the troops embarked on the ships of the Western Task Force, were both aboard the Augusta.[67]

The convoy had to bear the brunt of severe weather and heavy seas for the latter half of the four thousand mile voyage. The roll was so bad that the captain of the Charles Carroll, a transport assigned to the Center Attack Group, made the comment “I can’t believe a ship can roll so far without turning over.”[68] The weather situation, with surf pounding the Moroccan coast with eighteen-foot breakers, threatened the entire operation. Even with the passing of the gale a few days prior to scheduled landings, the forecast for landing conditions from the War Department were “Very Poor”.[69] Delaying the landings meant the risk of running short on fuel the ever-growing risk that the enemy would discover the fleet at sea.[70] Admiral Hewitt was committed to the assault. The convoy “forged ahead at fourteen knots, zigzagging by day and steaming direct courses[71] at night.”[72]

Operation Torch: North Africa

The Calvert was assigned to the Southern Attack Group of the Western Naval Task Force for the invasion of North Africa. The mission of Operation Torch was as follows:[73]

The establishment of firm and mutually supported footholds between Oran and Tunisia on the Mediterranean, and in French Morocco on the Atlantic, in order to secure bases for continued and intensified air, ground, and sea operations.
Exploitation of the footholds in order to acquire complete control of French Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and extend offensive operations against the rear of the Axis forces eastward.
Destroy the Axis forces now opposing the British forces in the Western Desert and establish bases for the intensification of air and sea operations against the Axis in the European continent.

Operation Torch was “in many ways a watershed event for both the Army and the Navy”[74] given the limited experience by both parties with such a large amphibious operation.[75] Sterling was about to participate in the largest amphibious operation up to that time.

Luck was with the task force. In the earl hours of November 7^th newly received forecasts predicted improvement in the weather and surf conditions for a short window of time during the scheduled landings.[76] After nearly 4500 miles and 16 days at sea the Southern Attack Group broke off of the main convoy at dawn on November 7^th. As recorded in the Augusta’s War Diary: “Steaming toward the midnight assault positions. At 0700 the Northern Group was released and at 1400 the Southern Group departed. Position at 0800 – Latitude 34 – 36.5 N Longitude 09 – 49 W; Position at 1200 – Latitude 34 – 45 N Longitude 08 – 51.5 W.”[77]

After splitting from the main group, the Southern Attack Group headed south towards Safi, French Morocco. The Southern Attack Group, comprised of twenty-six ships, was to land in-and-around Safi, French Morocco with over 6,400 troops of the 47^th Infantry Regiment, 9^th Infantry Division, and elements of the 2^nd Armored Division.[78]

D-Day North Africa

At 2345 on Saturday, November 7^th the Southern Attack Force reached Safi where they anchored eight miles east of the landing beaches.[79] They found “smooth seas, moderate swell, and a light offshore breeze.”[80] However, tensions were high. The commanding officers were not sure of how well prepared, or aware, the Axis forces were of the impending assault.

Preparations for the pre-dawn landing began immediately. The boat crews readied their boats. The soldiers prepared their equipment, and as best they could themselves, for the upcoming landing. The gun crews manned their guns, ready at a moments notice to defend against enemy attack.

Sterling’s first assignment was to man the aft 3-inch gun. At the same time the Calvert’s boat crews embarked in their boats and were lowered to the water. Then soldiers of the 2^nd Armored Division disembarked the Calvert via nets and climbed down into landing craft waiting below. From there they were transferred to the Titania where they were joined with their armored vehicles. During the transfer of soldiers to the Titania another member of the 2^nd Division deck crew took Sterling’s place in the Gig.

There were plenty of challenges. The heavy swells hindered the handling and loading of the landing craft. The rough conditions slowed troop and equipment loading. Morison explains the situation:[81]

There was quite a roll on, and the soldiers with 60 pounds of equipment hated to go over the rail and down the net ladders until the fellow ahead was safely in the boat. It took some boats a full hour to load 36 men and their equipment at the transport’s side. Consequently, H-hour, the time for the rush of landing boats from the departure line, had to be postponed from 0400 to 0430.

Sterling had a good view of the challenges the boat crews were facing in the “smooth seas” from his vantage point on deck manning the aft gun. A short distance away equipment was being off-loaded from the Dix. As a jeep was being lowered into an LCT it hit the side of the ship and one of its gas tanks burst into flames. The Dix was so close that Sterling could read the numbers painted on the side of the vehicle in the light of the fire.

By 0200 the soldiers who had been aboard the Calvert were joined with their vehicles from the Titania. The Calvert’s boat crews then headed to the Harris and Dix for loading. Once each craft had received its allotted personnel it broke away from transport staging area and circled with other loaded craft organizing into assault waves to await the signal to cross the line of departure to head to the beaches. Sterling was relieved of the 3-inch gun at 0400 and he joined the crew in the Gig. Embarked in the Gig were members of the beach party.

The Calvert’s boats, loaded with soldiers and equipment of the 2^nd Armored Division, were assigned to land at Yellow Beach. Yellow Beach was located approximately seven miles south of Safi. With the delay in H-hour the officers in charge decided to post-pone landings at Yellow Beach. The crews and troops aboard the landing craft awaited orders to land.

In the pre-dawn light, while the Gig was circling near the line of departure, Sterling spotted what he thought was a periscope. At first the rest of the Gig’s crew disagreed and suggested that the object was piece of floating debris. However, upon circling the object for closer inspection, the consensus was that it was a periscope. The landing officer would not break radio silence to report the sighting. He did, however, give crew the order to attempt to track the sub. The sub wasn’t spotted again and there were no ships torpedoed in the vicinity of Safi.

The USS Joseph Hewes (AP-50) was torpedoed by a U-Boat while it was supporting landings farther north near Fedhala. Aboard the Hewes was a guy by the name of Gilgallan,[82] who was rescued and was reassigned to the Calvert a few months later. The harrowing stories told by Gilgallan still ring strong in Sterling’s memories.

Meanwhile, the landings had commenced at Safi. Resistance was light, landings went well, and Safi was taken by mid-day.[83] The surf at Yellow Beach remained rough and there appeared to be little value in landing at Yellow Beach given the success at Safi. The Calvert’s boats returned to the transport staging area and were ordered to land at Safi. Following their initial landings at Safi the boat crews began the task of transporting supplies and equipment to shore.[84] A few of the Calvert’s landing crews were harassed by enemy sniper fire throughout the late morning hours. Even with the sniper fire Sterling was exposed to very little enemy action during his landings. He eventually returned to the Calvert and rejoined the 3-inch gun crew.

The Calvert remained off of the coast of Morocco for nearly a week. The crew spent this time transferring equipment to the docks at Safi. On the 14^th the Calvert departed North Africa and sailed west towards Norfolk.[85] Captain Whitfield further reinforced his reputation with the crew on the return voyage: “en-route Captain Whitfield ordered a seaman who was wearing army shoes to dump overboard all the souvenirs he bought in Safi. Everyone remembers Capt. Whitfield as a real sweet heart.”[86]

Chesapeake Bay

The Calvert arrived in Norfolk on November 24^th.[87] Shortly after arriving back in the States many of the Calvert’s crewman were promoted one rate forward. Sterling was also promoted, earning the rate of Boatswain Mate 3^rd Class (BM3C). A short time later he passed the written exam to qualify as a Coxswain. Sterling’s primary duties shifted to pilot and maintain the Gig. His responsibilities included tasks necessary to keep the craft ready for action. This work included tidying up after maneuvers, waterproofing, tending to life rafts and survival gear/kits, among other activities necessary to keep the boat ready for the transport of troops and equipment during training operations and invasions.

Sterling had acquired an array of seamanship skills. These skills included the semaphore[88] flag signaling system, Morse code, standard rigging, rigging for mine sweeping[89], among many others. Navigational skills were also important, and by now Sterling was able to navigate by compass, sexton, and at night by reading the stars. Surprisingly Sterling did not receive formal training, he learned all of these skills while he was on the job.

Sterling’s secondary duty changed from Captain’s Orderly to Messenger of the Watch. During his assigned watches he stood on the starboard[90] wing of the bridge while underway, and on the Quarterdeck while in port, delivering messages and carrying out orders as directed from the Boatswain Mate of the Watch. Sterling also began to transition into a leadership role in the 2^nd division. His duties included supervising deck work and teaching less experienced sailors skills such as cable splicing and how to run rigging in a correct and safe manner.

As a member of the Captain’s Gig, Sterling also enjoyed certain privileges that were not available to members of other boat crews. For example, while the Captain was away from the ship the crew of the Gig only had to report to the ship during muster calls each morning at 0800. This basically gave the Gig’s crew periods of up to twenty-four hours leave each day the Captain was away from the ship.

Serving on the Gig did have other advantages. The Captain had a daughter who was close to Sterling’s age. The Captain’s wife and daughter would often stay at the Hotel Chamberlain when the Calvert was participating in exercises in the Solomons area. Not liking the idea of a service man dating his daughter, Captain Whitfield made it clear to everyone, including Sterling, that he would not allow a Navy man to date his daughter:

Captain Whitfield had a favorite saying whenever someone was assigned to his crew. He had a wife and a daughter. You met most captains' wives when you would take the captains ashore in the Gig. Well, he always said that if he ever caught anyone trying to date his daughter that would be the end of his career. Well that just made this Dutchman bound and determined to date his daughter. And I did. I got to be very good friends with both his wife and his daughter. He did find out about it and he gave me a little hard time about it when I would run him to shore or take him to different meetings. But he never came down with the repercussions that he said he would.

However, serving on the Gig did have its disadvantages. First, there was the endless task of tending after the Gig to keep it in tip-top condition to the Captain’s liking. Cleaning, polishing, tending the Gig for hours day after day could be tedious and very boring. Second, ship’s company gave the crew of the Gig a hard time:

Well, serving in the Captain's Gig you oft times had privileges that other shipmates didn't have. But also you had repercussions due to the fact that you were considered primadonna, or somehow a little better than everyone else for chauffeuring the Captain around whenever he needed it. Now his barge was always converted to be involved in the landings on invasions. But as far as being shipboard, there was oft-times a lot of petty nitpicking because of the position you were either lucky, or unlucky enough, to be put in. There was a lot of slang and carrying on against the Gig's crew. Most times you were just called ‘boats’ but I got my fair share of ‘brow noser’. Of course guys who knew me well oft-times just called me ‘Funcky’.

In mid-December Sterling took leave to visit his family. He returned to the Calvert just before Christmas. Shortly thereafter Captain Whitfield was reassigned as Commanding Officer at Little Creek Virginia to head up the Amphibious Training Base. Captain A.P. Mullenix, USN, replaced Captain Whitfield.[91] Captain Whitfield offered John Zdanowicz and Sterling to join him at the training base prior to departing for Little Creek. Sterling and John both chose to remain on the Calvert.

Training during this time was a tedious experience. The winter of 1943 was one of the worst winters in years for the Chesapeake Bay area. Sterling remembers the terrible weather: “Ah man, was it ever. You ran into some rough weather.” Training went on however, even though the weather made it extremely difficult. The landing craft could only make slow progress in the ice-ridden waters of the northern Chesapeake. In very cold temperatures the landing craft would sometimes freeze-up. Pumps, and sometimes even the props, would freeze leaving the boat crew and embarked troops floating powerless in the rough waters.

Between January 10^th and January 27^th, the Calvert embarked Company C, 1^st Battalion, 23^rd Marines for landing maneuvers in the Chesapeake Bay.[92] John Seymour and Rowland Lewis describe their experiences training with the Calvert during this timeframe as part of C Company:[93]

January 1943 will not be easily forgotten by anyone who was with us. Our Battalion went on "maneuvers" in the Chesapeake Bay, aboard the USS Calvert, to practice assault landings and disembarking to Higgins boats and re-boarding.

It so happened during our 16 days at sea that the weather was abominable. Although hard to imagine, the author still feels the Chesapeake Bay was the roughest sea he ever experienced, with six to nine months total sea time over the next three years. Climbing down or up the rope nets with the Higgins boats (Amtracs were not yet available) rising and falling with forty-foot sea swells was not a picnic. We learned in a hurry to let go instantly as the Higgins boat reached the crest of the swell. If you released a fraction of a second too late you could fall forty feet into the Higgins boat. If you climbed down too far, the boat would rise to swat you in the keister and knock you off the net. That was the better choice - at least you were in the boat, not falling. Re-boarding was slightly different. You had to grab the net at the top of the swell and climb five to six feet immediately or the next swell would raise the boat up to swat you. I also learned during these exercises that a waterproof belt was a great thing to have, unless it got wet. I lost some "valuables". Our practice landings were made on Solomon Island and as Russ Gross observed, it was "colder than hell". We agree that it was cold, although we don't know how cold it is in "hell". Another footnote to that history, in later years Rowland Lewis had a fishing boat on the Chesapeake Bay and often went fishing in the vicinity of Solomon Island. However, he had learned his lesson, he didn't go in January.

Even liberty, which meant precious time away from daily rigors of ship duty and training, didn’t raise the men’s spirits. The crew had the misfortune of having Norfolk as their primary liberty destination. A visit to Norfolk wasn’t much better than being on the ship. The sailors’ favorite nickname for Norfolk was ‘Shit City’:

At that the time we had support from everyone, no matter where you went stateside, you connected to people who were interested in seeing the war taken care of. The only place I can say that I ever ran into bad feelings, and that changed not to long after the war was on, was that Norfolk. First time we ever pulled into Norfolk, VA, I can still see the signs: No soldiers, sailors, marines, or dogs on the grass. You see Norfolk was a rough Navy town. The people that lived there weren't necessarily happy about all the sailors.

Coming from an area where you had the full support, not being used to that attitude took some getting used to. Now out of town, the attitude was altogether different. If you went out the main drag of Norfolk there was an amusement park and a rolling skating. You could go roller skating, which was always nice because there weren’t many sailors there.

Sterling also recalls that Norfolk had the largest rats of all the eastern port cities. Special watches were set up to watch for rats trying to climb aboard via the mooring lines. When Sterling did have the time and money available to take advantage of liberty he would take a ferry to Portsmith where decent theatres and restaurants could be found.

In early February the Calvert was reclassified as an Attack Transport, designated APA-32:[94] “The Navy Department, recognizing that it possessed no formally designated amphibious force and that amphibious operations were and would play a major role in the war, decided to classify ships accordingly based on a general ship nomenclature jointly developed with the British.”[95]

Towards the end of February, the Calvert relocated to Florida to participate in training exercises with the Marines at Ft. Pierce ATB. The relocation to a warmer training area was greatly appreciated by the crew after enduring several months of frigid winter weather in the Chesapeake.

Sterling had the first of a series of encounters with Marines while at Ft. Pierce. One day he was working on rigging when a group of Marines began loitering in a hold where he was preparing to fill with supplies and equipment. They didn’t react quickly enough with his request to move out of the way. He had a little fun with them, allowing a load of cargo to drop very quickly down next to them. The Marines threatened to throw him overboard if they ever got a hold of him.

In another case he was running a load a marines in a landing exercise in very rough weather. The weather was so rough that water was coming in over the sides of the landing craft and the bilge pumps could barely keep the craft afloat[96]. Other craft were having the same problems. Some were turning around and returning to their transports. Sterling kept going. The marines aboard kept demanding that he turn back and return to the Calvert. He replied back that he’d just as much see the whole bunch drown as go back. The Marines got so angry that they threatened to throw him overboard if he didn’t turn around. He didn’t turn around. The Marines didn’t follow through on their threat.

While in Florida the Calvert received temporary boat crews. These boat crews were trained under the command of the Calvert’s very own Captain Whitfield at the Little Creek Amphibious Training Base, Virginia. The new boat crews filled the coxswain, engineer, bowhook, and gunner positions for the Calvert’s boats. The ship’s original boat crews were reassigned back into regular deck duties in their respective divisions. The only boat crew not reassigned back to regular duty was the crew of the Gig. Sterling retained his primary assignment as Coxswain of the Captain’s Gig. One change for him was a transfer out of damage control to the aft 3-inch gun.

According to Sterling the Calvert’s original boat crews had little in the way of bad feelings in regard to the loss of their positions on the boats. However, the arrival of the temporary boat crews brought about a marked change in atmosphere aboard the Calvert. Many of the crews had an attitude that rubbed many of the Calvert’s crew the wrong way. They came across as hot shots. The prevailing wisdom among the new boat crews, which Sterling attributes to their specialized training, was that the belief that they were better than the Calvert’s original boat crews. It didn’t help the situation that the new crews only had responsibilities for their landing craft. They did not have secondary duties, whereas most of the Calvert’s crew retained multiple duties. Many of the deck crew saw the new boat crews as having a relatively easy life aboard the ship.

By mid-March the Calvert was back in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and then remained there until the end of March. During her stay the Calvert received several upgrades, including her first installation of radar.[97] When compared to the systems available at that time for Destroyers and larger ships, the Calvert’s radar was a rather lightweight system. Sterling believes it was used primarily for identifying surfaced submarines.

Around this time the Calvert also began receiving the next generation landing craft, the Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP).[98] The LCVP, commonly known as the Higgin’s boat,[99] was a redesigned landing craft taking lessons from the shortcomings of the LCP. Although specifications, such as capacity, length, beam[100], etc., remained similar to the original LCP there were several differences. The primary difference was that the LCVP was specifically designed with a ramp in the bow. The coxswain conned the craft from a position on the port quarter next to the engine compartment. The troops and equipment were located in front of the steering position and the engine compartment. When the craft hit the beach the ramp was dropped and the soldiers could disembark quickly over the ramp. The craft was built primarily of marine plywood and was structurally engineered to carry both troops and/or a vehicle. Improvements included a top speed of 12 knots.[101] It was also armed with two .30-Caliber machine guns.

Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP)[102]

Sterling qualified as a coxswain in these new boats. Although disembarking was made much easier for troops, handling suffered. Most Coxswains preferred the handling of the older LCPs to the newer LCVPs. When the LCVP beached, with the ramp lowered, the craft was easily swamped if unloading proceeded quickly.[103] The LCVP was also more easily broached[104] in strong currents and tides. Sterling preferred the handling and maneuverability of the LCP. He was happy that the Captain’s Gig remained an LCP.

At the end of March the Calvert had returned to the Norfolk area. Sterling was still adjusting to the changes aboard the ship. Following the arrival of the temporary boat crews a formal boat division was formed. Previously the deck division command structure had responsibility for the boats in that division, such as the 2^nd Division boats. Lt. Marks, who joined the crew with the arrival of the new boat crews, was the newly assigned boat division officer. He was responsible for the leadership of the temporary boat crews as well as the care and operation of the ship’s landing craft. As Coxswain of the Gig, Sterling had a few run-ins with Lt. Marks. One such incident happened very shortly after Lt. Marks joined the Calvert:

Norfolk can have the ugliest weather you’ll ever see, the sleet, freezing rain and the wind. I was running the Gig as a liberty boat. Sometimes you used the Gig for liberty boats when the weather was bad. When you ran liberty boats you usually had so many hours on and so many hours off. I got back to the ship with what I thought was my last trip. You couldn’t see. My bowhook lay flat on his belly on the deck at the front of the Gig as lookout. So I got back and pulled around to the boom to tie up. Lt. Marks was Officer of the Deck[105] that night and he hollered down and said “Hey Boats’, make an extra trip, we’re short a bunch of people.” The last trip was supposed to be at 2300, but it was already close to midnight and it was so foggy you could barely see to the end of the boat. And I said “Are you serious?” and he replied, “Yes, I am ordering you to make another trip.” So I replied with something along the lines of “kiss my ass” – I used to be a smart mouth for as young as I was, I mean a lot of the older guys’ habits had rubbed off on me – and well, he said “now you’re on report and you’re going to make the trip or I’ll get you for disobeying orders and insolence.” So, I went and made the trip and we didn’t get back until way late. When I come aboard he said that he had written me up. I asked why, and he said, “Because you told me to kiss your ass.” I replied, “I didn’t ask you to kiss my ass, I said oh hell I’m out of gas.” He looked at me and didn’t know what to say. To this day I’m not sure how I got away with it, but I did.

On April 9th, Captain L.A. Thackrey[106] relieved Captain Mullenix as commanding officer.[107] Shortly thereafter specially trained beach party personnel of the 1^st Beach Battalion joined the Calvert. The Beach Party personnel were responsible for overall coordination of the initial stages of landing operations. Members of Beach Party were trained in areas such as facilitating communications between shore and the ships, coordination of the evacuation of wounded from the beach, organization of salvaging operations for broached and damaged landing craft, and keeping the beaches clear of obstacles and congestion.[108]

The Gig was assigned the role of transporting elements of the Beach Battalion to the beaches. In the forthcoming invasions Sterling would be responsible for transporting the beach party safely to the beaches. Most of these landings took place prior to the landing of the primary assault force.

Throughout the spring of 1943 the Calvert’s crew continued to participate in debarkation drills, gunnery exercises and tactical maneuvers at key amphibious training areas in the Chesapeake, such as the Solomons ATB at Cove Point MD and Little Creek ATB VA. The scene in the Chesapeake at this time is described in the Calversion:[109]

Four or five AP’s from the transport squadron likely were lying off Cove Point. The landing crafts’ white wakes were visible as they ran for the beach, retracted, or circled off the quarters of the mother ship. There would be LCT’s in the river or nosed against the shore for practice landing. And later there would be LCI’s, LST’s, and LCS’s maneuvering with each other. Then LSM’s would join in the training. Alongside in the harbor, the LCT’s, LCM’s, and LCVP’s would be moored as solid as cigars in a box.

By late spring Sterling was qualified to run LCMs in addition to LCPs and LCVPs. LCMs were the largest type landing craft that the Calvert could carry. The LCM, short for Landing Craft, Mechanized, was a twin-screw, twin-rudder, all steel craft. The coxswain’s conning area was an enclosed steel box aft of the troop/equipment area. It could carry sixty men or a thirty-ton tank. Given its size and shape the LCM was a rather clumsy boat to handle, but it was considerably sturdier which allowed it to be driven harder during landings. After the arrival of the temporary boat crews Sterling only drove an LCM as a substitute coxswain such as when another LCM coxswain was sick. The two versions of LCMs that Sterling was exposed to during the War included the LCM (Mark 2) and the LCM (Mark 3). The boat crews typically referred to these craft as ‘Mike Boats’ or ‘Tank Lighters’.

Operation Husky - Sicily

On June 12^th, 1943 the Calvert departed the Chesapeake in company with a convoy of transports and escorts. The convoy’s destination was the Algerian port of Mers el Kebir. The ports along the Algerian coast were the staging area for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. In transit to the convoy experienced several submarine scares. Fortunately, none of the ships were torpedoed.[110] On June 21^st, the convoy cleared the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean. Sterling was impressed at seeing the Rock of Gibraltar. He was also surprised by the phosphorescence in the Mediterranean waters at night: “it looked like there were spot lights shining up from under the water, it really lit up.”

On June 22^nd the Calvert joined the Western Naval Task force at the small port of Mers El Kiber, Algeria.[111] For the next several weeks the crew made final preparations for the upcoming invasion of Sicily. Practice landings took place in and around the Gulf of Arzeu.[112] The beaches of Arzeu had been used during Operation Torch the previous autumn and debris still littered the beach. This made training maneuvers dangerous and several of the Calvert’s landing craft were damaged during the practice landings.[113]

When the Calvert was not on maneuvers the crew kept busy loading the ship with supplies at Mers el Kiber during daylight hours. The Navy used locals from Mers El Kiber to help unload and reload the ships. These stevedores were paid around twenty-five cents for a day’s work. They were nicknamed “seven-day pants people” by the sailors aboard the ships, given that they showed up at the docks each morning in what appeared to be the same pants from the previous days of work. Unfortunately, there were a few workers who attempted to sneak aboard to try to steal supplies. Constant lookouts were in place.

The few sailors from the Calvert who were allowed off of the ship were prohibited from leaving the dock area. Those who managed to sneak away from the docks during the day ran the risk of various un-pleasantries at the hands of the locals. Petty crime was the standard fare. However, rumors of men being castrated circulated through the ship’s company. While some of the crew from the 1^st and 3^rd Deck Divisions made it to the docks to assist in loading, the sailors in the 2^nd Deck Division spent nearly all of their time rigging the booms and loading materials into the 2^nd Division’s holds. Sterling never even made it onto the dock.

The fleet was also under sporadic air raids from German bombers the entire time. Each night the Calvert anchored at sea, fully darkened. It was a tenuous time for the crew.

The Calvert departed Mers El Kebir on July 5^th in company with Attack Group One of the CENT Assault Group.[114] The CENT group was assigned to land along the southeastern coast of Sicily in the vicinity of the town of Scoglitti. The group traveled east along the Algerian coast towards Tunisia. On the morning of July 9^th the weather was quite pleasant. However, by mid-day the weather took a turn for the worse. By late evening, in the face of a forty-mile-per-hour gale:[115]

The ship was undergoing considerable roll and pitch because of the wind velocity. After dark, and as the convoy neared the land, the wind abated and the sea subsided until at the time for anchoring for the debarking of the assault there was little wind, although a swell continued which gave the ship a ‘snapping’ roll.[116]

On the evening of July 9^th the transports entered the Tunisian War Channel.[117] This was a mine-swept channel two-to-three miles in width through the shallows of the Mediterranean between Cape Serrat and Cape Bon.[118] Then, “after a feint to the South past Cape Bon the fleet headed for the Sicilian beaches”[119] taking a northerly course passing west of Malta. In the late hours of July 9^th the task group assembled in the waters east of the Isle of Gozo.[120]

D-Day Sicily – Saturday, July 10^th, 1943

The task group arrived off the objective area in the very late hours of July 9^th[121]. The transports’ anchorage area was approximately 8 miles south of the landing area. The Calvert’s specific assignment was to land the 1^st Battalion, 180^th Regimental Combat Team, 45^th Infantry Division, US Army, at Red Beach.[122] Red Beach, also known as “Wood’s Hole” sector, was located approximately 10 miles northwest of the town of Scoglitti.[123]

Immediately upon arrival the crews began the process of unloading the landing craft, troops, and supplies for the landings.[124] The Army had requested a pre-dawn landing in an attempt to maximize the element of surprise.[125] However, little surprise was possible. The clouds had cleared, the moon was shining bright, and visibility was excellent.[126]

Very rough seas complicated debarkation. H-Hour was pushed to 0345, approximately 2 hours later than originally planned, given that the rough weather had slowed debarkation and organization of the landing craft.[127] The deck crews, boat crews, and soldiers were having a rough time. One memorable incident was the accidental firing of a .50-caliber machine gun from one of the vehicles being unloaded from one of the close-by transports. A stream of tracers arced into the air, making all involved in the operation uncomfortable knowing that the enemy was sure to have seen the tracers, thus threatening an already tenuous attempt at a surprise landing.

The rough seas made debarkation for the troops extremely dangerous task as well. Swells of 12 to 15 feet tossed the landing craft about as the troops attempted to climb down the nets.[128] A few ships tried to load at the rail in an attempt to minimize the risk of troops falling from the net ladders or being crushed between the landing craft and the hull of the transports.[129] The Calvert, not yet having improved davits that could safely hold a boat fully loaded with troops and supplies, required that the troops climb down into the landing craft via nets. The challenges of reaching a landing craft via net are explained by W.J. "Bud" Vey, a member of the 1^st Beach Battalion who was on board the Calvert:[130]

… the small boats were subsequently lowered into the water with only the boat crews aboard, (as was done in the North African landings). Then when, (and if), the boats were “safely” in the water and detached from the davits, the assault troops were ordered over the side to make that treacherous trip down the cargo nets to the landing craft, presumed to be down there somewhere in the blackness. This method, of course, as we had learned earlier in the rolling seas off the Atlantic coast of Africa, had serious drawbacks also. Debarking troops, if they managed to make their way safely down the spaghetti-like cargo nets, soaking wet and slippery, ignoring the occasional crushed fingers, and placing the first foot tentatively on the landing craft’s gunwales with the other still in the webbing of the cargo net only to find a moment later that the boat had disappeared into a trough 10 or 15 feet below the level at which the frightened soldier had first placed that tentative foot on the boat. The unfortunate troops were left in the air, desperately trying to find a segment of net into which they could place at least one foot, knowing that they must hang on somehow until the boat came back up on the next rise - and then try it all over again.

Compounding the situation was the roll and pitch of the transports, which terrorized the troops on the nets with their heavy outward, rolls over nothing but ocean and then the smashing counter roll against the rough, barnacle-encrusted sides of the ships. Farther down the side, many soldiers were caught on this counter-swing and crushed between the landing craft and the transports’ hull as both vessels gyrated in the churning seas. It was not a night to remember. Until, and unless you have inched your way down a wet, slimy, slippery network of rope which is constantly in vertical and horizontal motion as its occupants try to take one more step to their destiny down there in the blackness, with 40 to 50 pounds of food, ammunition and weapons fastened somewhere on their bodies, sliding, grasping, slipping into that ridiculous little boat wallowing around in the monstrous and remorseless seas, it would be difficult to envision what a terrifying experience it could be. Finally, the knowing that once the first stage - a standing room only space in the landing craft - had been reached, they were to be transported somehow in this bucking, rolling piece of lumber with a ramp, through the pounding surf which would turn out to be just as ugly as they were imagining, onto a stretch of enemy beach, reported to be heavily mined, with the enemy lying in wait behind the dunes, cross-hairs zeroing in on their boats as they made the final approach, did absolutely nothing to erase the terror of the cargo net descent a short time before.

After each boat was loaded with troops it circled off the stern of the ship and then joined its assigned wave, with each wave keeping it’s own circle. All of the waves followed a larger pilot boat to within a few miles of the beach. When the signal to cross the line of departure was given, the first wave headed towards the beach. Almost immediately the Germans and Italians lit up the fleet with spotlights. Destroyers and cruisers immediately shelled the enemy positions and put them out of action. The fire support vessels also shelled the beaches for several minutes as the landing craft made their way towards the beaches.

Sterling’s first responsibility was to deliver elements of the Naval Beach Party to Red Beach prior to the landing of the first assault wave. By the time he reached the beach it was dawn and visibility was favorable. Fortunately no enemy fire was received. The Italian and German defensive positions were empty, presumably abandoned. However, landing was extremely difficult given various factors. Just getting to the beach was a challenge with the presence of a series of sand and mud bars[131], running parallel to the beach some 150 to 200 yards offshore.[132] Sterling suggests that most skilled Coxswains could back off of a sand/mud bar prior to getting broached against the bar. However, there were many boats that never made it across the sand bars. Closer to the beach the coxswains had terrific tides to deal with, which made it difficult to hold the landing craft perpendicular to the beach during troop debarkation.

Sterling returned to the Calvert and began participating in the transfer of troops and equipment to the beach. During this time German and Italian artillery batteries located further inland went into action shelling the beaches and boat lanes. A number of enemy tanks also appeared near the beaches and engaged the U.S. forces. Sterling recalls that the heaviest fire came during his 2^nd and 3^rd landings. Fortunately the fleet’s fire support vessels quickly helped to put the enemy out of action.

Some of the Calvert’s boats had also assumed patrol stations along the boat lanes. At daylight these patrol craft began to lay smoke screens to help obscure the beaches from enemy air attack.[133] Later in the day Sterling switched from transporting materials to assist these patrols. He would run parallel to the beach, as close as possible, while avoiding the sand and mud bars. Sterling remained at the helm of his boat throughout most of the day. As ordered he would switch between running patrols and the seemingly never-ending task of transferring equipment and supplies to the beach. The few breaks that Sterling did get from running the boat were spent aboard the Calvert manning the 3-inch gun.

Throughout the day the HMS Abercrombie, a Royal Navy monitor,[134] was underway in the area of the transport staging area. The Abercrombie crossed in front of the Calvert several times while Sterling was aboard the ship. Tremendous swells hit the Calvert every time the Abercrombie would fire her guns.

Although it was a bright and sunny day the seas remained rough and continued to challenge the fleet.[135] The swells worsened as the day progressed and by evening heavy swells and very rough surf made boat handling nearly impossible. By the end of D-Day, there were countless landing craft stranded on the soft sand and shifting sandbars. Even the transports were being tossed about in the rough seas.

During the evening hours of D-Day an unfortunate incident occurred. The invasion force was under constant aerial bombardment by German planes all throughout the day. The attacks continued into the night. Orders to open fire on any approaching aircraft were passed down to each ship. As the night wore on, a group of low flying aircraft flew directly overhead. Nearly every ship in the fleet opened fire on the planes after hailing the aircraft but receiving no response.

The formation was a group of US C-47 transport planes en-route to Sicily to drop paratroopers in support of the ground assault. They had the unfortunate situation of being many miles off-course and directly over the besieged amphibious force.[136] A total of 23 planes carrying paratroopers were shot down that night. The paratroopers’ emergency recognition signal for that mission was a yellow flare, the same color flares that the German bombers were dropping. There had been no way for the fleet to know that they were firing on their own planes. No one knew that the casualties were friendly forces until dawn when American paratroopers were spotted in the water.[137]

Official Army History explains the situation:[138]

After a day of heavy fighting, Patton decided to reinforce his battle-weary center with over 2,000 additional paratroopers from his reserves in North Africa. He ordered that the 1st and 2d Battalions, 504th Paratroop Regiment, the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, and a company from the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion be dropped near Gela on the night of 11 July. German aircraft had been active over the American sector all day, and consequently senior Army and Navy officers went to great lengths to inform everyone of the impending nighttime paratroop drop lest overanxious gunners fire on the friendly aircraft. Nevertheless, when the transport planes arrived over the beaches in the wake of a German air raid, nervous antiaircraft gunners ashore and afloat opened fire with devastating effect. Allied antiaircraft guns shot down 23 and damaged 37 of the 144 American transport planes. The paratroop force suffered approximately 10 percent casualties and was badly disorganized. Later investigation would reveal that not everyone had been informed of the drop despite the Seventh Army's best efforts.

The Calvert was one of very few ships that withheld fire during the incident. Sterling’s only recollection as to why the Calvert did not fire upon the unidentified aircraft was the conservative approach that Captain Thackrey took in regards to offensive action: “If it wasn’t a given or a complete known, I would say that he just didn’t order firing on account of being not sure. But the crew was absolutely angry with Captain Thackrey that night. They couldn’t believe he wouldn’t give the order to fire. All we kept hearing from Lt. Tully was that the Captain kept saying that something didn’t feel right.” Sterling recalls that several Destroyer Escorts had the job of picking up the downed paratroopers that solemn morning.

The Calvert’s boat crews spent D-plus One and D-plus Two transporting equipment to the beach and salvaging craft that had become disabled during the landings. Sterling, along with the rest of the Gig’s crew, spent quite a bit of time salvaging wrecked landing craft. Many boats didn’t make it across the 1^st or 2^nd sand bar. Sterling tells of the challenges experienced by some of the boat crews and the work necessary by the Calvert’s carpenters to repair the landing craft:

You had sand and mud bars, which for a skilled Coxswain shouldn’t have been that difficult to deal with. That didn’t mean there weren’t problems. The biggest problem was that guys would hit them and then the surf would get them sideways. If they weren’t able to get their boat righted there was a good chance that they would bend the prop and then tear the brass structure that held the prop in place. If you were sideways and you kept working it, forward or reverse, you could chew up the brass prop. Well, when the propeller got chewed up too bad the vibration would damage the structure that held the prop in place. Each landing craft had at least one, if not two pumps that could keep a damaged craft afloat. So while the craft could usually be salvaged off of the bar and returned to the ship, the carpenter crew would have more trouble repairing the brass prop structure than it would a hole in the side of the boat. You could have a hole six-foot long and two-foot wide. You see the boats were only made of plywood, layers and layers of plywood. But they could patch them up and paint them and you would never know that the there was anything the matter - it was near impossible to tell that the craft had ever been damaged.

Following a laborious three days the Calvert departed the transport staging area and sailed back to Oran. Unfortunately several boat crews were stranded on Red Beach and did not made it back to the Calvert for departure from the transport zone. The situation where boat crews were stranded on the beach was a frequent occurrence. Sterling would experience a similar event himself later in the War.

Although the Calvert herself had suffered very few lost landing craft, this was not the case for other Transports. With so many landing craft lost or inoperable, many of the Calvert’s craft were re-assigned to remain in the landing area to assist in the continued transport of materials and men to the beaches. Eventually these craft were permanently assigned to those APAs who had lost boats during the operation. As such many of the Calvert’s boat cradles were empty for the return voyage. One of the very few boats remaining in the 2^nd division was the Captain’s Gig.

In Oran approximately 300 German prisoners of war, soldiers from Rommel’s Afrika Corps[139] embarked on the Calvert. Sterling recalls that they were still clothed in their desert uniforms and that they had a relatively casual demeanor as they boarded the ship. The prisoners boarded the Calvert in the vicinity of the 2^nd division via a gangplank. The POWs were searched prior to boarding, and as such Sterling had little-to-no contact with them as they were immediately ushered to the 1^st Division. The daily routine changed slightly to accommodate the necessary security measures to guard the prisoners as well as to limit contact between the prisoners and the ship’s crew. The prisoners were berthed in troops quarters and were allowed topside twice a day for half-an-hour at a time. The entire time they were onboard they were under heavy guard by a detachment of Marines.

The Calvert’s boat crews eventually rejoined the their ship in Oran after catching a ride aboard the USS Alcyone (AKA-7).[140] In late July the Calvert in company with a large convoy departed Oran for the voyage home to the United States. Rear Admiral Kirk, the “Flag”[141], was also aboard for the voyage home. Sterling and Zdanowicz transported Admiral Kirk to and from various locations and ships in the Gig quite frequently in late July and in early August.

In the book To All Hands Lieutenant John Mason Brown describes the invasion of Sicily to the men onboard a transport who are down below and who can’t see the battle. While the majority of the book’s narrative takes place on the USS. Ancon (code named Spelvin), many of the pictures in the book were taken aboard the Calvert (code named Bond) while en-route back to the United States and shortly after arriving in the area of Norfolk. According to Hal Winter, Lt. Brown came up with the code name Bond based on the association with the Canadian whiskey, Lord Calvert, which was bonded whiskey.[142] In To All Hands there are an excellent assortment of pictures of the Calvert’s crew:

Page 12: The officer not wearing a cap and using the sextant is Lt. (JG) Osborne, Assistant Division Officer in the 2^nd Division.
Page 18 and Page 20: Andy Surdyka, BM1C in the 2^nd Division.
Page 32: Sailors of the 2^nd Division hanging laundry over empty boat cradles.
Page 49: Seaman 1^st Class Smith, (Smitty), reading a book on an empty boat cradle.
Page 222: A boat crewman making fenders. Fenders were used to buffer contact and prevent chafing when alongside another vessel or a dock.
Page 229: 2^nd Deck Division sailors relaxing around empty boat cradles. The Captain’s Gig is the lone boat cradled, and Sterling can be seen working in the Gig. The sailor in the far right of the picture reading a book is Tom Sawyer. The sailor in the foremost right of the first row of sailors, looking directly at the camera, is Harold Pottinger. This picture would have been taken shortly after the Calvert returned to Norfolk.

Last Days In The Atlantic

Upon arrival in Newport News, VA, the prisoners were unloaded. The Calvert returned to Norfolk on August 3^rd.[143] Two days later Sterling took leave to visit his family. He returned to Norfolk to rejoin the Calvert on August 12^th. When he returned he found that the LCVPs that had been left in Sicily were replaced with new boats. There was also a brand new LCP that replaced the Captain’s previous Gig.

A few new sailors also joined the crew. One young sailor in particular, Harold Pottinger, joined the ship’s company as a 2^nd Class Seaman. Harold remembers Sterling and Tom Sawyer:[144]

When boarding the Calvert August 1943 in Norfolk, I was an l8 year old sailor, lonely for home, scared, and not knowing a soul. I was assigned to the second division where upon I came in contact with Sterling and his senior petty office a fine sailor by the name of Tom Sawyer. I could not have found two finer leaders who had much empathy for young recruits like myself. I seemed to fit in real well. Sterling was a kind leader and he was someone a young person like myself could go to for advise.

We mustered each morning, the entire 2nd division, and that was done by Sterling and Tom. They would stand before our group and recite our names for roll call and also checking our mode of dress, hair trim, etc. Then we would be given our daily work duties.

The Calvert’s next destination was New York for a brief overhaul. During this overhaul the ship was fitted with heavier boat handling equipment, davits, shivs, and cables. This heavier hardware supported at-the-rail loading of soldiers into the landing craft. Sterling never quite trusted the rigging to support the heavy loads placed on it during at-the-rail loading, having seen earlier attempts at this method fail. That’s not to say he had a choice in the matter. Loading at the rail became the standard loading practice. However, the landing nets were typically still hung over the side of the ship just in case they were needed. To this day he is amazed that the davits and cables withstood the stresses of a fully loaded landing craft in rough weather.

On August 21^st Lieutenant Commander Edward J. Sweeney, USNR, then the Calvert’s Executive Officer, relieved Captain Thackrey as commanding officer.[145] Captain Sweeney had originally served on the Harry Lee and he transferred to the Calvert following the breakdown of the Harry Lee. Captain Sweeney would make a number of impressions on the crew of the Calvert. He had many sides to him, which the crew often witnessed. Sterling got to know the Captain better than many of the other enlisted men:

Captain Sweeney used to like to come up and stand next to you while you were running, this was in the Pacific. I’d ask, “You want to take over Captain?” And he would take over and run the boat and he got a kick out of that. Same way when you were going into harbor or coming up along side at sea to refuel a sea, his biggest kick, just like a kid at Christmas time, when it was time to give a signal on the horn, he would stand their waiting to blow the horn. He got a real kick out of blowing the horn on the ship.

Captain Sweeney was also fond of the bottle. On numerous occasions Sterling remembers Captain Sweeney returning to the ship quite lit up after a night of socializing in the officers club, “He loved to get tanked, but he was a good skipper.” Even more amusing was Captain Sweeney’s habit of commandeering Marine jeeps while in port and claiming them as his own. The first time this occurred was while the Calvert was still in New York. Although Sterling was not on watch the night it happened, he heard the story of how Captain Sweeney spotted a jeep and took action. As described in the Calversion:[146]

It was during that yard overhaul when we satisfied Capt. EJ Sweeney’s desire to have his own automobile aboard ship just as were held by the commanding officers of capitol ships. With the help of quick switch artists from Chiefs to ship’s officers and the gang in the boat engine shop, a brand new Marine Corps yard patrol jeep was filched while a Marine shavetail and his Sgt. driver were being entertained in Chief’s quarters and the Ward room. The jeep was hoisted to the boat deck where it was swiftly painted ship’s color, numbered and hidden under tarps. The Marine search party did not find it!

The Calvert returned to the Norfolk area to prepare for departure to the Pacific. Just shortly before departing Norfolk Sterling found himself in an interesting situation.

It was down there at Portsmith Naval Hospital. I was out calibrating the compass on the Gig. There was a launch of nurses going ashore and I pulled up along side of them with this shinny new Gig and I was kidding them. You know how smart sailors are. So I came up along side of them, now mind you these were all officers, and I asked them who wanted to go for a ride. So one thing led to another, I just all of a sudden made a hard veer to the left, I didn’t want to open throttle too much because I’d a rocked their launch, you know.

As soon as I got a little piece away I shoved the throttle all the way forward to show off and hot dog in front of them. What do you know, I ran right into a big buoy. It stuck out of the water six or eight feet, but I hit it. The bow split right down the middle, wide enough that you could run your hand through the crack. The water just poured in and there was no way that the pumps were going to keep me afloat for long. I made for the ship as quick as I could.

It just so happened that same day another coxswain had come in around the ship. He had been on a stores run. Well he come back and unloaded the stores that he had onboard and he went around the ship to moor the landing craft. As he came around, went to shift from forward to reverse - and we were with them boats just like kids are with cars, I mean we run them - and he never stopped and he plowed headlong into the pier and split one open. They were still hoisting that one aboard when I came flying around the ship running in circles, ‘cause it was going down. They got me on the davit, picked me up, took the plugs out and let the water drain out of it.

Well, Lt. Marks was boat division officer and we also had a fellow by the name of Toby O’Brien that had just become Leading Boatswain Mate of the Boats. When I got on board Lt. Marks said to O’Brien “look what your protégé done now, I want a written report”. So I went and talked to Tom Sawyer. Sawyer said, “I don’t know what to tell you. What went on?” So I told him I was just clowning around with a launch full of nurses and when I throttled up to leave I just didn’t see the buoy and I hit it. Anyhow he said “I don’t know, go talk to go talk to Chief Del Gaizo, and see what he says. But if Marks ordered you to hand in a written report you have to give him a written report.” You see, Del Gaizo was the Chief Master of the Arms at that time.

So I went and talked to the Chief. He laughed and said, “Well, just write down ‘carelessness’ and turn it in and give it to him. Just tell him you weren’t paying attention. Don’t tell him what happened.” So I did what he told me.

Marks tore it up. He said, “That’s no report as far as I am concerned, I want a written report.” Well, I went back and told Del Gaizo that Marks tore it up. Del Gaizo said “That’s what I figured what he would do.” Now Del Gaizo was a regular Navy guy, he’d been in for years. He said “I figured he wouldn’t take that as a report.” So he said “Write it down again and give it to me.”

Now Marks had put me on report, which meant you went before the Executive Officer or the Captain for a hearing. So we get to the XO’s mast, and Del Gaizo tells me to ask for a Captain’s Mast[147]. Well, I said “I don’t want to ask for a Captain’s Mast because if I get away with it everybody on the ship will say I got away with it because I’m Coxswain of the Gig, or if I don’t get away with it I’m going to face a stiff penalty, a big fine, and probably get busted.” Del Gaizo said, “No, you aren’t going to get busted.” So that’s what I did, I asked for a Captain’s Mast.

Lt Marks asked The Master of Arms read off the charges, which included the fact that I had submitted a report and that he had tore it up. Lt. Marks said, “ Well I didn’t consider it a report, all it said was carelessness.” Captain Sweeney said, “If he said it was carelessness, then that’s a report to me.” So I got away with that one.

Then later one day I was taking the Skipper somewhere and he was up at the front, like he did, and he said, “Hey Boats, what actually happened that day you hit the buoy?” So I told him. He just laughed. He was a good Skipper.

What amazes Sterling is that he didn’t throw his Bowhook, Potacker, into the drink with the force with which he hit the buoy: “Potacker was right up front on the deck polishing brightwork[148], and how he kept from going overboard I’ll never know.” A short time following the incident Lt. Marks made a comment to Sterling that the damage for his misadventure was around $13,000. For a boat made of plywood, the actual amount was likely much lower.

Heading to the Pacific

In late August the Calvert departed Norfolk and headed for the West Coast. On August 30^th the ship passed through the Panama Canal.[149] Sterling describes what he remembers:

I can’t really remember the locks for some reason or another and I’ve never read about it, but it seemed to me that we had to lower our outboard boats. You usually had, especially in the 2^nd division, two boats on top of each other, double decked, and you had four davits on both port and starboard side, and then you had a boat hanging outboard hanging on the actual boat davit. In other words the other two boats were in a cradle one over top of the other, then the other was hanging outboard. And for some reason or another all I can remember about going through the canal, and I can’t even swear to this, was that our outboard boats were lowered and had crews in them, but we had lines going from the ship back to the boats trailing the ship. I can remember, and I don’t where it is coming from, but I believe we called the Calvert “Mother Goose and her baby ducks” after going through the canal.

The Calvert arrived in San Diego on the 8^th of September.[150] The next day the Calvert departed San Diego, sailed north, and arrived in San Francisco on the 12^th.[151] It so happened that Captain Whitfield’s family was now living in San Francisco. During liberty Sterling took advantage of the time and visited Captain Whitfield’s wife and daughter. Of course Captain Whitfield came home while Sterling was there. Sterling figured he’d get it from Captain Whitfield. It turned out to be a cordial visit with his old Captain.

Sterling also took the opportunity to make some extra money while he was on leave in San Diego:

I was broke, so I thought I’d make a couple extra bucks. A lot of guys would go ashore and get their uniforms steam cleaned. So I was in a shop one day and there was a long line. I asked if he needed help. So I pressed Navy uniforms for him. I only did it for a few days in account of getting caught. I can’t remember what he paid me, but it wasn’t much. Of course those days things weren’t that much.

On September 20^th the Calvert departed San Francisco en-route to Pearl Harbor.[152] Six days later the crew arrived in Hawaii. There they docked at Pearl Harbor. Nearly two years had passed since the Japanese attack in 1941. By this time the channels were completely cleared out to accommodate the heavy ship traffic in and out of Pearl Harbor. Sterling didn’t try to think too much about it, but there were constant reminders of what had happened: “You could see hulls, sterns, bows, sticking out of the shallows where they had been moored. But you were kept busy so you didn’t think much about it.”

While en-route to Hawaii Sterling passed the test for Boatswain Mate 2^nd Class (BM2C) and was promoted forward one rate. With this promotion Sterling took on several new responsibilities. One such responsibility was to stand watch on the bridge as Boatswain Mate of the Watch. During his assigned watch, which was usually four hours on and then four hours off, Sterling would accompany the Conning Officer, or the Officer of the Deck (OOD), and pass along orders to messengers and runners on assignments.

Watches were normally 4 hours in duration, except for “dog watches”[153] which were two hours in duration. Sterling was normally assigned the 1^st night watch (2000 – 0000) or the mid watch (0000 – 0400). However at times he also stood watch during the 1^st dog watch (1600 – 1800) or the 2^nd dog watch (1800 – 2000). These were the least desirable watches for several reasons. First, the sun was low on the horizon, which made it the best time for submarine attack. The Captain was usually on the bridge during these watches, so the crew on the bridge was kept very busy. The entire crew of the ship looked forward to the close of the 2^nd dogwatch and the close to one of the more stressful periods during the day.

Sterling was responsible for relaying commands from the OOD to the crew while he was on watch. He had at his disposal two Messengers of the Watch to run messages and errands. He was also responsible for sounding General Quarters. The means to signal the crew to be ready for a command was for Sterling to sound the Boatswain Mate’s Pipe over the intercom system, followed by a spoken command. Sterling was proud to wear this badge of the BM2C. For many months prior to his promotion Sterling practiced and perfected his piping[154].

Sterling was also armed with a M1911 Colt .45 pistol during watches. During most watches while underway and while in port he had a full clip loaded and one round in the chamber. However in some cases his side arm was not loaded and had an empty clip, as were the regulations while docked in certain ports such as Norfolk. In other ports regulations allowed a full clip, but no round in the chamber.

By now Sterling outranked a good number of the older sailors in the 2^nd Division, particularly some of the sailors who had transferred in from other ships, and sailors who were from the pre-war Navy. The general attitude of most of the older sailors, some of who had upwards of fifteen years in, was one of indifference when the younger boatswain mates would instruct them during deck work and rigging work, such as correctness or safety. However, there were certain sailors who just didn’t like Sterling. One Coxswain in particular, Andy Surdyka, gave Sterling a hard time on many occasions.

There were guys that you just didn't get along with. Like Andy Surdyka, he'd rather have thrown me overboard than have looked at me. He was an old Navy guy, he had a lot of time in. If you weren't busted back a rate two or three times in your career you weren't considered a good sailor. Some of us young kids got working with some of the older guys and they'd try to make it rough for us. They couldn't understand someone who only had a few years in, while they had 10 or 14 years, being of equal or higher rate than them.

Being a ‘Smart Dutchman’ (as he calls himself on occasion) Sterling didn’t let the older sailors push him around. He could give it back to them as well as they could dish it out to him. There was a slightly less formal atmosphere on the Calvert. For someone coming off of a man-o-war, such as a destroyer or battleship, it took some getting used to. That’s not to say that the atmosphere on the Calvert was totally slack, as Sterling explains: “The officers kept a tight ship, regulations were followed. You would never see an officer with his sleeves rolled up, no matter what work was being performed or how hot the weather.”

Finally, only a few other classes of ships rivaled the intensity of work on a Transport: “APA, them and minesweepers, were the hardest working ships in the Navy. Now, they weren't the strictest, as far as regulations. But as far as working they were probably the hardest working ships at the time.” For sailors recently transferred to the Calvert the working conditions took some time to get used to. Rigging was an important skill for any sailor aboard a Transport. Many of the transfers did not have the depth of rigging experience that the younger coxswains had gained while aboard the Calvert. When they had a young ‘kid’ telling them how to do things, they often resented it. Sterling recalls that even some of the officers weren’t keen on the situation. They were used to and preferred dealing with older sailors.

Sterling found ways to keep busy and out of too much trouble: “I was fortunate to be on one [transport] that had a good crew, we seen a lot of stuff, a lot of action.” Sterling took naturally to rigging. He spent a great amount of time mastering his cable splicing and rigging skills. He was able to pass much of his knowledge to younger and less experienced sailors. He had also formed strong working relationships with many of the officers aboard the Calvert. As part of the gun crew Sterling spent quite a bit of time with the Calvert’s Gunnery Officer, Lt. Tully, and they formed a very good working relationship.

With those sailors with which Sterling had originally served with on the Harry Lee very few problems arose. For example, shortly following promotion to BM2C Sterling was transferred off the gun crew and back into the Fire and Damage Control. He took on a more senior role coordinating the efforts of the Damage Control Party and worked well with these shipmates.

Captain Sweeney continued on with his adventures. One of Captain Sweeney’s more memorable incidents occurred while the Calvert was docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. He was driving his jeep back to the ship after a late night of drinking and drove the jeep straight off of the dock and into the water. Sterling had just been relieved as the Boatswain Mate of the Watch when this happened. The salvage crew, members of the 3^rd division, went to work in recovering the jeep, which was abandoned on the dock the next morning. Sterling recalls that Captain Sweeney was able to find a replacement jeep in fairly short order.

On another night Captain Sweeney returned from a night of drinking while Sterling was standing watch. The Calvert was tied up next to a flagship, and Captain Sweeney had to cross over the flagship to board the Calvert. Upon boarding the Calvert, he entered the bridge and began handling controls. He accidentally hit the General Quarters lever and within moments the entire fleet in Pearl Harbor was at full alert. It took a few minutes to pass word that it was a false alarm.

Sterling continued on with his own adventures and cracked the Gig a second time. However this time he was not at fault. A launch cut in front of the Sterling while he was calibrating the Gig’s compass near Ford Island. Sterling swerved to miss hitting the boat: “I missed the launch and ended up running straight into a buoy. So, I cracked the Gig a second time. I was chewed out, but I wasn’t given as hard a time as I had been given back in Norfolk the first time.”

In late September 75 officers and 1314 soldiers of the Army’s 165^th Infantry Regiment, 27^th Infantry Division embarked on the Calvert.[155] Through the middle of October the crew of the Calvert trained with the 165^th on the beaches of Kauai and Maui. Never before had an Army group landed on a Pacific atoll[156].[157] Neither did the boat crews aboard the Calvert have experience in the Pacific. The training exercises were intended to focus the landing crews and soldiers on the new challenges that they would face in Pacific landings.

Learning to run the landing craft amongst coral obstructions was a challenge for the boat crews. Unlike the sand and mud bars of previous landings, where a craft might only be broached, the coral could cause severe damage to a landing craft. According to Sterling, if a landing craft was broached on coral, there was a high likelihood that the screw would be damaged against the coral. In an attempt to minimize damage to the landing craft, the Navy would attempt to blast openings 25-to-50 meters wide through the most obvious coral obstructions to open boat lanes to the beaches. However, all the Calvert’s coxswains had to learn new skills for dealing with coral during landings. The Calvert’s boat crews spent many of their days in October and in early November practicing landing on the rough beaches of Hawaii.

As the first week of November came to a close the crew of the Calvert was nearing the start of their participation in the United States strategy of ‘Island-hopping’, or ‘leapfrogging’, toward the Japanese homeland[158]:

The basic concept of the "leapfrog" strategy was to seize those islands essential for our use, bypassing many strongly held intervening ones which were not necessary for our purpose. The disparity between our naval power and that of the enemy made it virtually impossible for the Japanese to support the garrisons of bypassed islands, and these bases became innocuous. (Though considerable effort was required to keep them that way).

In a little over two-weeks Sterling would face a new and harsh enemy, the Japanese soldiers defending the islands that they had previously captured. Although he heard many stories while in Pearl Harbor about the fierceness of the Japanese soldiers, he would soon experience a new level of enemy engagement during landings.

Operation Galvanic – Gilbert Islands

The Calvert departed Hawaii the afternoon of November 10^th and steamed southwest. The crew and the soldiers aboard were informed of their mission shortly after departure.[159] The Calvert was assigned to the Northern Task Group for Operation Galvanic, the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.[160] This operation was the first of several massive amphibious operations intended to break and penetrate the Japanese line of defense in the Central Pacific.

The forces taking part in Operation Galvanic were split into two groups. The Northern Task Group would land at the northernmost atoll in the Gilberts Islands chain. The Southern Task Group was assigned the task of taking Tarawa located approximately 100 miles south east of Makin atoll. The Army would take Makin. The Marines would take Tarawa. The Calvert, would land at Makin atoll.

Crossing The Line

At 1520 on November 15^th the Calvert, in company with the Northern Task Group, crossed the Equator and the International Date Line.[161] Each crossing in itself was a special event in a sailor’s career. In the ‘Crossing the Line’ ceremony those sailors who had never crossed the Equator underwent the rite of passage from Pollywogs to Shellbacks. The sailors on the Calvert were also entrusted the honor of becoming ‘Golden Shellbacks’ following their entrance into the Realm of the Golden Dragon, a.k.a., the crossing of the International Dateline. As tradition held it was the responsibility of the Shellbacks to initiate the Pollywogs. The Crossing the Line rite of passage is explained below:[162]

Traditionally, the night before the crossing King Neptune (the most senior shellback) sends a messenger informing the Captain that he intends to board the ship the following day, and summoning list of slimy wogs to appear before him. … The actual ceremony revolves around the pretext of “preparing” the wogs for their audience before King Neptune. This “preparation” involves any number of disgusting, dirty, deprecating and/or difficult actions … kissing the “Royal Baby” (the fattest chief on board) on the belly … Other embarrassing routines with the Royal Navigator, Dentist, Cops, Chaplain, Judges, and Attorneys continue throughout the day. The penultimate ritual is a “shaving” by the Royal Barber with a huge wooden ‘razor,” after which one is dunked in a tub of water (often dyed a hideous color) to “cleanse” oneself for the final meeting with King Neptune. At this meeting King Neptune appears with his entire retinue, Queen Amphitrite, and Davy Jones and officially proclaims the wogs to be trusty shellbacks. The day ends with each of the new shellbacks receiving elaborate certificates testifying to their safe passage.

There were very few Shellbacks on board the Calvert. Only a few officers and enlisted men had previously crossed the line. This didn’t keep the few Shellbacks from having their fun with the ‘slimy wogs.’ Sterling describes what he recalls of the event:

I was on watch for most of the ceremony, so I really didn’t know what was happening on the ship unless something big happened. I can remember them setting up. I can remember some of the guys that took parts in the ceremony. They had some rough stuff, and some of the guys got pretty well bruised up. They made a pitchfork that had four prongs and was charged up with an automobile battery. You got soaking wet crawling through these mazes of canvas hoses, they had fire hoses it at either end, and then when you crawled out you got jabbed on the behind while you were getting up. And believe me, you felt it. A lot of guys ended up black and blue, and several in sickbay for a day or two. But none of the crew complained because not that many guys ever got to cross the line. I had it pretty easy because I was on watch for most of the ceremony. All I got was my Indian haircut, I had to crawl through the maze, and I got poked with that pitchfork. Even during the war, on the way to the Gilberts, they took time to make a ceremony of it. It was a nice escape from the seriousness of the war.

Following the ceremony the crew quickly focused back on the task at hand, preparation for the quickly approaching operation. The Calvert’s destination was the western shores of Butaritari Island, the largest Island in the Makin atoll.

NOTE: Pictures, Charts, and Maps Are Not Included In This Version.
Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chronology

Concepts

Common Abbreviations

Pre-War Years

The War Begins

Boot Camp

The Amphibious Navy

Learning the Ropes Aboard The USS Harry Lee

Amphibious Training In The Chesapeake

Transfer to the USS Calvert

Operation Torch: North Africa

D-Day North Africa

Chesapeake Bay

Operation Husky - Sicily

D-Day Sicily – Saturday, July 10^th, 1943

Last Days In The Atlantic

Heading to the Pacific

Operation Galvanic – Gilbert Islands

Crossing The Line

D-Day Makin Atoll – Saturday, November 20^th, 1943

NOTE: Pictures, Charts, and Maps Are Not Included In This Version. Preface

Amphibious Training In The Chesapeake

Operation Torch: North Africa

D-Day North Africa

Chesapeake Bay

Operation Husky - Sicily

D-Day Sicily – Saturday, July 10th, 1943

Last Days In The Atlantic

Operation Galvanic – Gilbert Islands

NOTE: Pictures, Charts, and Maps Are Not Included In This Version.
Preface

D-Day Sicily – Saturday, July 10^th, 1943