Page 33 - Desert Oracle June 2020

LST 308 was delivering an armored attack group to Sicily

when two beaches over another LST was blown to bits by
German bombers. “To me Sicily was the wors,” he says.

“I mean I was really scared.” He manned a 3-inch gun

and was at battle sations throughout each invasion,
enduring shelling from the Axis troops on the shore and

from the air. (The 308’s armaments were modifed for

Normandy.)

Once Sicily was secured, it became the base of

operations for the Allies to prepare to invade mainland
Italy. LST 308 would deliver men and materials to

Salerno, the main landing area for the assault that began
on Sept. 3, 1943. “It was a diferent type of experience,”

Hanna recalls. “(The Germans) knew we were coming.”

Once its duty done in the Mediterranean, LST 308 that fall
became part of the convoy that headed north to England,

bound, they knew, according to Hanna, for new duty as

the Allies plotted a course to reclaim wesern Europe from
the Nazis.

Hanna recalls it as a “horrendous trip,” not jus for having
to navigate through Nazi submarine patrols but also

encountering a major sorm of the Bay of Biscay in Spain.
“There were waves 60 to 80 feet high. You’d go down in

the trough and lose sight of the ship beside you,” he

remembers.

The 308 unloaded its cargo at Plymouth, England, before

continuing on, frs to Milford Haven, Wales, and then to

northern Ireland. “That was a real joyful situation,” Hanna
remembers. His immigrant father hailed from Belfas so

landing at the port of Londonderry meant a family reunion.

“I got to see the whole family,” Hanna says. When his