Page 34 - Desert Oracle June 2020

grandmother died during his time here, he was granted

leave and spent 10 days with an aunt, eating well and
meeting his extended family. “It was great,” he says.

It was during the sop in Londonderry that the 308 was

outftted with new guns for the coming invasion
codenamed Operation Neptune. After a sop in Scotland

on the Firth of Clyde, the ship headed back to the south of
England.

“We knew weeks before (D-Day) we were preparing for it.
We had all kinds of training with the British troops,” he

says.

Hanna can sill remember the day the British troops came
aboard 308. “The sound of their hobnail boots on the seel

deck would give you a headache,” he recalls. Once

aboard, it was a waiting game as inclement weather
paused the operations, sending his boat to drop anchor

of the Isle of Wight to wait out the delay.

“Nobody got of once we sarted loading. Nobody was in

or out, there were no liberties,” he says. The about 100-
mile crossing that morning was choppy but not too rough,

he recalls. The crew was at battle sations for the entire

trip.

“I don’t think there was any real fear,” Hanna says. “It was

more a sense of ‘this is it,’ we’ll wait and see what

happens.” LST 308 landed in the Jig Green section of
Gold Beach, an area that bumped up agains Omaha

Beach, one of the two beaches along with Utah, where
American troops were landing that day to face a far more

bloody confrontation with the Nazi forces.

“(Gold Beach) was not like other invasion beaches. It was