Published by the WW II History Roundtable s2

May 1999

Volume 7 Number 8

Published by The WW II History Roundtable

Edited by Jim and Jon Gerber

Welcome to the May meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War II History Roundtable. While this may be the last Roundtable of the season, the topic and the oral history that you will hear tonight should get you through the summer until we start up again in the fall. Tonight’s history of Omaha beach should be terrific.

After one of our meetings last fall, Jerry Hoye approached me and asked if I had heard of LCC boats in WW II. I said “no”, and in fact everyone that I have asked the same question of has had the same response. Jerry was kind enough to send me information on the LCC boats and has also sent me their veteran’s group newsletter. It is with his permission that I reprint his history of the LCC Boats. By the way, LCC stands for “Landing Craft Control” boats.

The United States Navy’s Landing Craft Control Boats were a secret weapon during WW II. Each LCC boat weighed 32 tons and was 56 feet in length. Often, the LCC Boats were mistaken for PT Boats. (However, unlike PT Boats, the LCC Boats had a top speed of 10 knots.) There were 90 LCC Boats built during WW II at shipyards in Charleston, N.C. and Portland, OR and New York.

In January, 1944, ten LCC Boats were sent to Great Britain, and they participated in the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944. Later, five of these ten LCC Boats were sent to the Mediterranean area, and they participated in the invasion of Southern France on August 15, 1944. In March, 1944, four LCC Boats were involved in operations at Naples and Salerno. The other LCC Boats served in the Pacific Theater, and they participated in many, many invasions - from the Marshall Islands on February 1, 1944, to Okinawa on April 1, 1945.

The LCC crews were trained at the Little Creek Amphibious base and were told that their LCC Boats were a top-secret weapon - so secret, in fact, that crew members were strictly told to never disclose any information about the LCC Boats to anyone - not even their parents.

The LCC Boats had many special electronic, hydrographic and navigation aids. In fact, these little boats carried more navigational equipment than some destroyers. Some of their special equipment included a gyro compass, gyro repeaters, SO radar, sonar, fathometer, odegraph, radio directional devices, three high powered radio transmitters and receivers, as well as other secret electronic equipment. The LCC Boats also were equipped with two tubs of twin .50 caliber machine guns and a set of smoke pots. It was said that each boat cost one-half of a million dollars to build and equip.

The LCC Boats were carried to invasion sites aboard navy transport ships and then lowered into the sea by the ship’s booms. Using their secret navigational devices, the crews of the LCC Boats would then lead the first wave of combat troops from the transport area to the invasion beach during an amphibious assault. The distance traveled was usually five to ten miles. It was important for the combat troops in their small, bobbing amphibious boats, to arrive at the correct beach at the correct time. Timing was crucial. During an invasion, battleships and cruisers start and end their barrage on the landing beach at a preset time. It was never wise to arrive at the beach too early and catch friendly fire; and if the troops arrived too late, the enemy would have time to set up a strong resistive force. The LCC Boats easily drew enemy fire during most invasions. The enemy, seeing the LCC Boats with radar masts and many waving whip antennas, found it easy to direct its fire power towards what appeared to be the most important vessel on the waterfront.

Once at the invasion beach, the LCC Boats would direct additional waves of LVTs and LCMs and other amphibious landing boats to the correct area on the beach. After the combat troops had established a foothold on the beach, the LCC Boats would then serve as a communication channel between the beachmaster and the command ship in the transport area. The length of time that an LCC Boat might be on assignment during an invasion varied. Sometimes an LCC Boat might be on assignment at the invasion beach for several days - sometimes for several weeks. While on beach assignment during an invasion, the crew subsisted on C-rations, or on meals that they might luckily beg from a nearby ship. There were two bunks on each LCC Boats; the bunks were often reserved for the sick or wounded, and the crew members slept on the deck or near their assigned station.

The crew of an LCC Boat consisted of fourteen men. There were two officers, two gunner’s mates, two motor machinists, three radiomen, one radar man, one boatswain’s mate, one quartermaster, one signalman and one radio technician. Each enlisted man was specially trained and held a Petty Officer’s Rating. Most of the crew members were 18 and 19 years old.

Again, thank you to Jerry Hoye for his information on the LCC Boats, one of the little known parts of WW II.

All Those Machine Guns

One thing all Allied infantrymen remembered when fighting the Germans was the almost constant machine gun fire coming from the enemy. This was no coincidence, since the Germans had built their tactics around the machine gun since WW I. A single machine gun provided more firepower than a dozen troops firing rifles. For WW II the Germans developed the MG-42 light machine gun. It was light enough (26 pounds) to be carried by one man. A belt of 100 rounds weighed 6 pounds and the gunner would be accompanied by two or three other men carrying over a thousand additional rounds. Every infantry squad of ten men had an MG - 42 and the two or three man machine gun crew would always set up, find targets, and begin firing before the rest of the squad moved forward to the attack. The Germans put a lot of thought and energy into placing their machine guns in the best position to inflict the maximum damage on the enemy while safeguarding the MG-42 crew. In effect, a German infantry squad was basically just one big machine gun unit. As a consequence, German infantry units carried a lot more ammunition with them than did comparable American units. On the battlefield, firepower was king, and the Germans knew it.