A Special Memorial Day!

The Roll of Honor:
LST 921, LCI(L)99, U-667
Brushy Creek Journal
Memorial Day
Monday May 27, 2019
Cloudy 61°F/ 16°C off Falmouth, UK
Partly Cloudy 62°F/ 17°C off La Pallice, France
Buonagiornata,

We have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history,

and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again!

President Barack Obama at Hiroshima, May 27, 2016

When I was a little boy, Memorial Day was still called Decoration Day and it fell on May 30^th. My

New Edition Cover

mother told me it was a memorial event that started at the end of the Civil War, because that’s when Americans would pay tribute to the fallen who wore both blue and gray by decorating their graves with flowers. The observance actually began with former slaves celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation by decorating the wartime graves of African-Americans who fought for their freedom from slavery. Decoration Day quickly became a memorial day honoring Americans who fell in all of our country’s wars. After World War I, we honored the fallen of The Great War on each November 11^th.  For many years, November 11 was Armistice Day, and on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of the year there was a moment of silence to commemorate the end of The War to End All Wars. In 1968 Congress revamped our national holidays, combining these hallowed days into a pair of three-day weekends. Decoration Day is now Memorial Day and Armistice Day is now Veterans Day. Today we will again  honor those who fought and died for their country. But, as the years pass, the real meaning of both days is sometimes lost in the holiday atmosphere that accompanies any long weekend.

When my father returned from his US Navy service in World War II, he told my brother and I a story that is retold to each new generation in my family as every new Memorial Day approaches. It begins with a few terse lines from the LST 920’s Ship’s Log:

LST 920 Ship’s Log: Monday 14 August 1944

1654 hours:  First hit on LST 921, directly astern of us. Presumably by torpedo.

1654 hours: General Quarters sounded

1656 hours: LCI #99 (British) hit by torpedo presumably

1657 hours: All stations manned and ready; approximate position…50°54’ North, 4°45’ West

1657 hours: Relieved on conn by Captain Schultz and went to GQ station

Ensign John J. Waters, Officer of the Deck

My father, Lieutenant Charles Botula, Jr. died in 1965 without ever knowing the full story about the afternoon of August 14^th 1944 off the west coast of England. It’s taken me years to research it. Neither my Dad nor his Captain – Harry N. Schultz ever knew which enemy submarine attacked them or what happened to that U boat after the LST 921 and HMS LCI(L)99 were torpedoed. Most of the survivors of that terrible afternoon have also faded from our midst, but their story is well worth the retelling. For in the retelling, we can pay them a long overdue honor.

Monday, 14 August 1944 -16:54 hrs. - USS LST 920, commanded by Lieutenant Harry N. Schultz and USS LST 921, under the command of Lieutenant John Werner Enge were underway in convoy EBC 72 from Milford Haven, Wales to Falmouth, England. They were suddenly attacked by the German submarine U667, was under the command of Kapitӓnleutnant Karl-Heinze Lange. LST 921 was hit by the first torpedo and broke in two with the aft section sinking minutes later. Some survivors scampered to safety on the bow section. Others went overboard into the chilly water. When the aft section sank, it took half of the ship’s crew to the bottom.  General Quarters was sounded on the LST 920 and Captain Schultz came to the bridge. Seeing survivors in the water, Schultz ordered his radioman, Seaman Fred Benck to send a request for permission to turn his ship around to pick up survivors. Permission was denied and the LST 920 was ordered to proceed to Falmouth. Shortly after receiving these orders, Schultz ordered Radioman Benck to send the message again. This time, Captain Schultz disregarded the order to proceed and ordered the LST 920 to turn around to rescue any survivors of the attack.

As my father watched from the bridge of the LST 920, he spotted a torpedo coming straight at him. Just then, a British escort vessel, LCI(L)99 came alongside, took the full brunt of the torpedo and was blown out of the water. There is no way of knowing if the Captain of that British escort vessel deliberately  steered his ship into the path of that oncoming enemy torpedo or if it was happenstance that put the crew of LCI(L)99 into harm’s way. Either way, the Skipper, Lt. Commander  Arthur John Francis Patrick Reynolds, Royal Navy, died a hero.

The 920 came about and Captain Schultz ordered two small boats into the water with Ensign John Waters in one and Ensign Harold Willcox in the other, along with nine other sailors to rescue survivors. Willcox tied a line around his waist and jumped into the water numerous times to help pull survivors aboard. In his After Action Report, Captain Schultz singled out Waters and Willcox and the nine seamen for outstanding performance during the action. In all, 48 survivors were rescued and brought aboard the LST 920.  Seaman Joe Wallace tells this part of the story, I remember one of the 921 crew members coming up to the bridge all wet and oily. I gave him my locker keys and location, and he showered and put on some clean dry clothes. By this time it was dark. We gathered the survivors and were on our way to Falmouth. There, I had the task of counting the departing survivors - 42 walking and 6 stretcher cases.

A number of other survivors from the 921 as well as the LCI(L) 99 were rescued by a British ship that joined in the rescue operation. All told, about 65 survivors were picked up, but fully half of the LST 921’s complement of 107 officers and crew had been lost. Years would pass before a dusty and forgotten archive* would reveal the names of the sailors – Americans, British and German who lost their lives on that August afternoon more than seventy years ago. I would like us to remember:

        

LST 921

Baker, Thomas A., USNR                              Seaman First Class           

               Banit, Roman J., USNR                                 Seaman Second Class      

               Bennett, Frederick W., USNR                      Seaman First Class            

               Bent, Eugene E., USNR                                 Seaman First Class           

               Clements, Charles M., USNR                       Seaman First Class            

               Dove, Raleigh J., USNR                                 Seaman Second Class     

               Feeney, Lawrence E., USNR                         Fireman Second Class      

               Fitton, Edward Joseph, USNR                      Seaman Second Class     

               Freely, James Joseph, USNR                        Boatswain's Mate 1st Class  

               Furino, Louis A., USNR                                  Coxswain             

               Guthrie, Edward J., USNR                             Ensign   

               Guziak, Walter V., USNR                               Seaman Second Class      

               Hoak, William K., USNR                                Gunner's Mate Third Class 

               Jerzewski, Chester R., USNR                        Seaman Second Class      

               Jones, Oscar R., USNR                                   Coxswain             

               Kozlik, John H., USNR                                    Seaman First Class           

               Lowe, Samuel M., USNR                               Seaman Second Class      

               Micheline, Carmine A., USNR                      Seaman Second Class      

               Mindlin, Daniel, USNR                                   Ensign   

               Monaco, Robert Chester, USNR                 Radioman Second Class 

               Moore, Charles H., USNR                             Seaman Second Class      

               Mulholland, William P., USNR                     Seaman Second Class      

               Newberry, Clyde, USNR                                Seaman Second Class      

               Pizon, John J., USNR                                      Seaman First Class          

               Potasky, Joseph E., USNR                             Seaman First Class           

               Progy, Henry, USNR                                       Motor Mach Mate 3^rd Class 

               Richard, Donald James, USNR                     Gunner's Mate 3^rd Class  

               Siring, Ronald John, USNR                            Ship's Cook Third Class    

               Smith, Kenneth J., USN                                  Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class 

               Smith, Lee I., USNR                                        Seaman Second Class     

               Smith, Ray R., USNR                                      Seaman First Class          

               Sprague, Herbert K., USNR                           Seaman Second Class     

               Suazoe, Ray M., USNR                                  Seaman Second Class      

               Totulis, Albert G., USN                                  Gunner's Mate 3^rd Class  

               Trachsel, Ernest W., USNR                           Seaman Second Class     

               Van Why, Henry, USNR                                 Seaman Second Class      

               Verity, Edward C., USNR                               Seaman Second Class     

               Vitense, Glenn, USNR                                    Seaman First Class           

               Widmer, Richard C., USNR                           Seaman Second Class     

               Yavornitzky, Andrew J., USNR                     Shipfitter Second Class

The British escort vessel – LCI(L) 99 was a much smaller ship than the wounded LST 921. It was about 150 feet long compared to the LST’s 328 feet. And, instead of a ship’s complement of 110 officers and crew, LCI(L) 99’s casualty list shows a crew of eight – two officers and six enlisted men, including the 19 year-old ship’s cook, Able Seaman William Todd. Todd’s great-niece, Gillian Whittle told me in an email, Bill as he was known was only 19 when he died, and he came from Chorley, Lancashire, England. I imagine he was called up when he turned 18, I don't know his birthday. He was acting able seaman and he was actually the ships cook. We as a family are very proud of him and I go to Kent, England when I can to lay flowers at the naval memorial. I am afraid I don't know much else about my Uncle, but I have his medals and I had the privilege of  wearing them proudly on remembrance parade for him one year and we keep his memory going.

Also aboard the Escort Ship LCI(L) 99 on that deadly August 14, 1944 were:

Lt. Commander  Arthur John Francis Patrick Reynolds, RN, Age 24

Sub-lieutenant Douglas Edwin Swatridge, RNVR, Age 25

Leading Seaman Gordon Henry Astor House, RN, Age 21

Able Seaman James Quine, RN, Age 21

Able Seaman Francis Ernest Dennis Shacklock, RN, Age 19

Ordinary Seaman John Shields, RN, Age unknown

Ordinary Seaman Donald Maurice Thompson, RN, Age 20

Able Seaman William Todd, RN, Age 19

Toward the end of November 2018, I received an email from Able Seaman William Todd’s great-niece, Gillian Whittle. In her correspondence, she admitted that she never really knew her great-uncle, but she thanked me for my efforts to keep the memories of all who died that day fresh in the memories of Americans and Britons alike. She wrote, We as a family are very proud of him and I go to Kent, England when I can to lay flowers at the naval memorial. I am afraid I don't know much else about my Uncle, but I have his medals and I had the privilege of  wearing them proudly on remembrance parade for him one year.

The attacking submarine, U 667, had sunk four ships including the LST 921 and LCI (99), the Liberty Ship SS Ezra Weston and HMS Regina on what turned out to be its most successful cruise, as well as an RAF bomber on a previous mission. But as it headed back to its base and a hero’s welcome, its jubilant crewmen could not know that their luck was about to change. In all of the research I did for this story, the US Navy and German  Kriegsmarine archives revealed only that U 667 struck a mine on or about August 25^th on the way back to its home base. But, as I researched further, I found the answer on a specialty internet site: uboat.net, which is devoted to the archives of the Kriegsmarine and its unterseebooten. According to the archives, the RAF had carried out a series of aerial mine-laying missions off the coast of France in an area code-named Cinnamon right after the U 667 left port on its final cruise. The RAF dropped mines into the U 667’s inbound route back to base. An RAF report that I read showed that the coordinates of that  August 1944 mine-laying sweep matches the location where the U 667 was finally found and examined by diving crews. The loss of the U 667 was recorded by the Kriegsmarine after it missed a scheduled radio check-in on August 25^th. When any U boat failed to meet its daily radio check-in, Admiral Karl Dönitz’ high command assumed that the sub had been lost. And so it was when U 667 missed its scheduled radio check on 25 August 1944.

The exploding mine sent U 667 to the bottom of the Bay of Biscay, where it remains with its entire crew. Along with the U 667’s Kapitӓnleutnant Karl-Heinze Lange, the identities of the other sailors in his crew are listed from the roster of all the sailors who served aboard her.  They are:

Name	Rank (In German)	Age
Lange, Karl-Heinze	Kapitӓnleutnant	26
Bauch, Walter	Omasch	30
Bensel, Rolf-Rudiger	Olt.z.S.	21
Borowsky, Helmut	MaschMt	23
Brübach, Friedrich	MtrOGfr	20
Brunk, Kurt	MaschOFfr	21
Drewes, Gustav	MaschMt	23
Eder, Franz	MaschOGfr	21
Ederer, Hans	OfkMt	24
Ehrenfeld, Kurt	OfkMt	25
Erasimus, Johann	MaschOGfr	20
Faust, Erich	Olt.z.S	23
Fickert, Wilhelm	MtrOGfr	23
Figlon, Herbert	MechOGfr	22
Flach, Hans	OsanMt	23
Grimm, Kurt	MaschOGfr	20
Hagelloch, Hans-Georg	OLt.ing.d.R	23
Hahl, Adam	MaschOGfr	21
Hantel, Artur	MtrOGfr	22
Hochstetter, Wilhelm	OMaschMt	23
Holle, Oswald	MaschOGfr	20
Kabs, Helmut	MaschOGfr	21
Krӧller, Helmut	Olt.z.S	23
Laschke, Kurt	MaschMt	21
Leisler-Klep, Jürgen	Lt.z.S	n/a
Matthias, Heinz-Karl	OMaschMt	25
Mӓurer, Ludwig	FkOGfr	21
Mittler, Arnold	MaschOGfr	21
Mrziglod, Heinrich	BtsMt	22
Oehler, August	MtrHGfr	38
Proske, Walter	MtrOGfr	21
Reiβach, Werner	StOStrm	30
Reitor, Emil	MechOGfr	21
Richter, Georg	OMasch	32
Richter, Helmut	OMechMt	24
Sauer, Helmut	MtrOGfr	21
Schӓfer, Richard	MaschOGfr	19
Scheit, Reinhold	ObstMt	27
Schӧmetzler, Rudolf	MaschOGfr	20
Schrӧder, Gerhard	MtrOGfr	21
Schrӧder, Günther	Olt.z.S	30
Schulz, Kurt	OMaschMt	24
Seeliger, Willi	MtrOGfr	20
Senden, Wilhelm	MtrOGfr	21
Steigerwald, Wilhelm	FkOGfr	20
Warmbold, Adolf	MtrOGfr	23
Weiβ, Rudolf	MaschOGfr	21
Witzel, Hans	BtsMt	23

Christophe Moriceau, the French diver who has explored the U 667’s final resting place and photographed the site extensively for his dive organization L’Expédition Scyllias and its web site www.scyllias.fr explained to me that unlike the United States and Great Britain, France has no legal protection for wreck sites that might contain human remains. War graves carry the protections of international law. But that protection does not exist in France’s territorial waters.

It’s fitting that we remember all who perished.

 Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

     US Navy Hymn

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

*LST 921; LCI(L)99; U 667 casualty lists via US Navy Archives, Royal Navy and Uboat.net.

© By Mike Botula 2019

Getting Settled In Roma!

DIARIO DI ROMA V
Thursday (Giovedi) May 23, 2019
Sunny 67°F/20°C in Roma, Latium, Italia
Buonagiornata,

It always takes me a few days to get over my jet lag on a transatlantic flight! Never mind that I saw Dr. Young twice for what turned out to be a bad cold mixed in with my allergies. Then there is the acclimating that’s needed moving into a new apartment.  I have a top floor apartment that my son found on Airbnb. I’ve had good luck with Airbnb. It’s the third apartment I’ve rented…. In a nice neighborhood close to Michael and Laura. Stefania, the lady that owns the place, just renovated it with all-new appliances and dual-pane windows.

Il sesto piano…the sixth floor…sits seven stories above a quiet street lined with those ubiquitous

My Roma View!

Umbrella Pines that seem to be everywhere around Rome. Respighi immortalized them in his symphonic work The Pines of Rome. The effect for me is overlooking an urban forest from my balcony.  The neighborhood is in the EUR district, about 35 minutes by Metro from Roma Centrale, the historical heart of the Eternal City. EUR was developed under Benito Mussolini as the site for the 1940 World’s Fair. But, while Il Duce famously drained the swamp that EUR was best known for at the time, World War Two broke out and Mussolini’s World’s Fair died on the drawing board. EUR itself survived and is now a bustling borough of the city.

I’ve metamorphosed from first-time tourist in 2005, when I first arrived in Rome expecting to visit Naples, Pompeii, Florence and Venice in ten days, to the present and my status as a part-time resident. I’m limited only by the 90-day window that comes with a European Union tourist visa. From day one, the kids have lobbied hard to persuade me to move here full time. That’s a tempting thought, and one that was very far from my mind just a few years ago.

One thing that I did in settling into my new digs – change out the old, one-cup-at-a-time percolator

Caffe Italian Style: Old v. New! 

style coffee pot for a brand-new Nespresso coffee maker. You know, the type that George Clooney touts in those TV commercials. I’ll just leave it with Mike and Laura until I come back to Rome. I did that with my laptop computer and a suitcase full of clothes last year. If you’re Italian, and you grow up with a coffee pot like that, it’s one thing! But if you’re an American who grew up on the likes of Mr. Coffee, then an Italian-style coffee pot is going to be way beyond your abilities.  The same of cultural chasm exists between what most Americans consider a good, full cuppa cawfee, and what most Italians do, and we have G.I. Joe to thank for the course correction. Back during  the latter days of World War Two, when Rome was aswarm with thousands of American soldiers all looking for sex and coffee (not necessarily in THAT order), the GI’s decided that they would have to drink at least eight of the demi-tasse cups that the Italians drank from to get just ONE American-style cuppa cawfee out of the deal.  And so, another wartime compromise was negotiated between the occupiers and the occupied and Caffé Americano was born.  Now when I go into a bar, trattoria or ristorante, I can get a full cup of Joe. Since I drink my coffee black with a little sweetener, I order a Caffѐ Americano nero, con dolcificante.

Michael and Laura popped around noon to pick me up for a stroll around my new neighborhood and to have a spot of pranzo (lunch). Since, the sun had decided to make an appearance after several days of thunderstorms, a pleasant stroll was had by all, even Sofia, Mike and Laura’s black Volpino. Knowing that I am good for a few random table scraps, Sofia nestled her muzzle on my leg and looked up at me with her best feed me gaze. Italians bring their dogs with them everywhere. So, it’s not unusual to see the family pooch in a restaurant, at all.  Back home, the mere sight of a pooch in a restaurant would most likely cause a run on torches and pitchforks. We checked the shops restaurants within a few blocks of my  apartment. Laura wanted to orient me to the location of the Elite Mercato, which lies several short streets away from me. This market is not to be confused with the Elite SUPERMercato which lies beyond the junction of Laurentina and Viale dell’Oceano Atlantico on Via Giacomo Debenedetti.

Now, my goal with this series of Rome Diaries, is not to dazzle you with a typical travel log. After all, the likes of Rick Steves and Samantha Brown can do that, with much more panache.  Rather, my objective is to target the first-time traveler who has taken the kind of tour that drags a poor tourist

My Living Room

through 15 cities in 12 days and leaves him or her wondering, Wow! What a vacation! The castles. The ruins. The museums. The wine. The food. And, the people!  Oh! The people! What a wonderful trip! Oh, how I would love to go back THERE! Wait just a minute, Pilgrim! Do you have any idea where THERE is?  That was ME on my very first trip to Italy. I had just two weeks, during which – I figured – I  could visit Rome and Pompeii, see Naples, hop the high speed train to Florence, with a side trip to Pisa, and wrap it up in Venice, AND be back in Rome in time to catch my flight back to California. PS: I never left Rome! Too many interesting things to do in Rome. Besides, my son is one of the best tour guides in Rome. So, it was a no-brainer. In 2013, I came for Christmas and stayed nearly three months. That was where we started following a pattern where I would rent a place of my own. So. Life in the Big City – Roman Style! It’s designed for the first-time traveler who want to go back. IF he can figure out where THERE is!

Caio,
MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

© By Mike Botula 2019

DIARIO DI ROMA V:

DIARIO DI ROMA V:

Il Mio Ritorno alla Città degli Echi!

Sunday May 5, 2019

Sunny 61°F/16°C in Roma, Latium, Italia
Sunny 80°F/27°C in Cedar Park, Texas

Buonagiornata,

      Rome: City of Echoes!
      The complete quote is one of my favorites. It was written about a thousand years ago by the Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone, on his first journey to the Eternal City. Giotto observed,Roma è la città degli echi, la città delle illusioni e la città dell'anelito. (Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning).

Giotto di Bondone

And, I’m returning to my little corner of it!

Last year, I left one of my suitcases with Michael and Laura along with my fancy walking stick and my laptop computer. Now, I won’t have to pack so much. Going along with Ben Franklin’s wise saying about having company, Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days, I don’t impose on Michael and Laura any more than I have to. We usually book a small place nearby through Airbnb, and I’ve managed to book a couple of gems. They’re both close together in a neighborhood that I’ve gotten to know well. And, my hosts are both jewels. Mia, whose apartment I’ve rented several times now, is a Moroccan lady who speaks several languages. Mohamed, whose apartment I stayed in during a rare Roman snowstorm, is  a retired Tunisian diplomat who speaks French and Italian as well as his native language.

I love the diversity of any great city, and I’ve hung my hat at various times in New  York City (where I was born), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin (on both sides of the wall), Amsterdam and Frankfürt. Since I’ve been traipsing to Italy, I’ve added Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Naples to my bucket list.  As Mark Twain once said, Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime! Amen to that, Mr. Clemens!

I don’t drive anywhere in Italy. Roman drivers have a hard-earned reputation for being hair-raising behind the wheel, and the city abounds with round-a-bouts, those traffic circles left over from

Laura and Michael

antiquity. And Napolitano drivers are crazier than the Romans. I found drivers in Milan to be the most considerate. The Milanese will actually surrender the right-of-way to pedestrians. In Rome and Naples, it’s always open season on pedestrians. Instead, I rely on Rome’s public transit system. It’s just a 15 minute walk from either apartment to the Laurentina Metro station, last stop on  Linea B, which stops at the Circus Maximus and Coliseum before reaching the major transfer point at Termini, Rome’s central train terminal. For intercity travel, I heartily suggest Italy’s high-speed rail service. Either Trenitalia or Italotreno can whisk you in hours to Naples or Florence, Bologna or Venice at speeds approaching 200 miles an hour.

On my first visit to Italy back in 2005, I thought two-and-a-half weeks would be more than enough time to see all the sights. And so, I sketched out plans to see Rome and Pompeii, and then head north to Florence and Venice, with a side trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. Wow! Was THAT ever wishful thinking in the extreme! I never got out of Rome. Too much to see and do in Roma. I made another trip in 2009 for two-and-a-half weeks, and this time got to see Pompeii. But, the life changer came late in 2013, when I came in a time of great personal upheaval and spent nearly three months. After a few weeks, my son came to me and said, Pop, you’re welcome to stay forever if you want, but we’re going to give each other some more space. And, that’s how I wound up in a studio apartment in nearby Mostacciano. As soon as I was moved in and comfy-cozy, the kids informed me that they were going on a cruise and wouldn’t be back for ten days. I was on my own, thousands of miles from my stomping grounds in California…in a strange city, where I didn’t even speak the language. I was instantly reminded of how my grandparents must have felt when they landed at Ellis Island in 1903 unable to speak a word of English in their Brave, New World! If my grandfather and grandmother could do it, I muttered to myself, so can I! And, so I did. And, what’s more – I never looked back. My new digs was a one-room studio apartment on the eighth floor of an apartment building overlooking the street below. Outside was a large terrace populated by cactus and other desert plants usually found in North Africa or the Sonora Desert of Mexico. My landlady, who spoke perfect English, asked me to water her plants while she was on a month-long holiday in Argentina. That said, she left me to the tender care of her uncle who lived several floors below and spoke not a word of English.

She had a rather large book collection – all in Italian, of course – with the exception of a lone copy of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, which I sat down to read with gusto, since I had just seen the movie. Over the next few days, I nervously ventured out of my new apartment to visit the Bancomat at the Post Office across the street; the trattoria and ristorante cinese next to the Post Office. There was also a news stand across the street where I could purchase biglietti – tickets for the bus or Metro, and a supermarket up the hill to the right of my building, where I could buy my groceries. It was a nice, compact neighborhood with stores offering every creature comfort I could want in easy walking distance of my front door. Once I got over the shock of being a stranger in a strange land, I began to feel right at home. By the time that Michael and Laura returned from their cruise, I felt like a native.

It was on that visit to Rome that I began keeping my Rome Diary. It began simply enough, but now, it has morphed into a series of blogs which are posted on my website http://www.mikebotula.com, and carried on Blogspot, Facebook and Twitter. In terms of individuals chapters of Diario di Roma, this is Chapter Five. That experience launched me on a new career as a writer, which serves to keep me healthy and in control of my mental acuity, if not wealthy.

Since 2013, I prefer to visit for at least a month, preferably two or more, and rent a place near

Family night at the Circus

Michael and Laura. So, in spite of the fact that roughly five thousand miles separate my son and my daughter, Grandpa is still able to travel back and forth and keep the remaining family ties well-tended. And, speaking of family ties! I would be terribly remiss if I did not introduce you to Laura’s parents, Sergio and Annamaria. They live just a short drive from Michael and Laura, also have a home in nearby Sabina, about an hour’s drive from Rome. It’s where I spent Christmas in 2013, and helped usher in the New Year, 2014. Last year, we all went to see CirCuba together. That’s the National Circus of Cuba, which I would never have seen at home, given the current political climate. Laura also has a sister, Chiara, who lives in another part of Rome with her hubby Maurizio and young daughter Noemi. So, I feel blessed to have, not just one family … but two.

So then – My passport is up-to-date…I have my ticket…have a new suitcase for my trip and everything I need to put in it. Stay tuned, Diario di Roma Cinque:  Il Mio Ritorno alla Città degli Echi! is right around the corner!

Ciao,

MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

© By Mike Botula 2019

THE UNSINKABLE CHARLIE BOTULA AND HIS MAGIC LST 920!

Brushy Creek Journal

Friday January 19, 2019

Sunny 58°F/14°C in Cedar Park, Texas

Partly Sunny 66°F/19°C in Falmouth, United Kingdom

It appears that the destinies of two great empires

 seem to be tied up

 in some Goddamned things called LSTs!

Winston Churchill to General Eisenhower, D-Day:  June 6, 1944 

Buonagiornata,

When my father told his best war story to my brother and me over Sunday dinner as we grew up, we hung breathlessly on every word! Our sister ship, LST 921, had just been torpedoed; he would tell us. I was on the bridge trying to see what had happened. Suddenly, I could see the wake of a torpedo coming straight at me!  But, before I could even react, our British escort ship steamed between the torpedo and us… and was blown out of the water! And…our dad would inevitably add, when the smoke finally cleared….the ship had disappeared!

Dad would then go on to relate how his ship stayed in the area to pick up survivors from the U boat attack on his convoy; how Captain Harry Schultz ordered the launch of the 920’s two small boats into the Dover Channel to rescue the fortunate sailors who had survived the attack; how Ensign Harold Willcox dove repeatedly from the Higgins boat into the chilly water to help the hapless sailors from the LST 921 into the boat and safety. All the while, he told us, officers on the bridge sighted the German sub’s periscope numerous times. The U-boat was obviously looking for an opportunity to kill again!

My brother Packy and I never tired of our dad’s war story, and we begged him to tell it, over and over again! But, as I would come to discover many years later when I applied my skills as a journalist – honed over many years in the news business – to the story, that Charlie Botula had only told his sons a fraction of the story!  Lieutenant Charles Botula, Jr., Executive Officer and second-in-command of USS LST 920, only knew part of the full story of 14 August 1944 himself. He died in 1965, well before all of the facts of that day would come to light.

My book, LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow  Target! was published by Amazon Books in August of 2016, shortly after I moved from California to Texas. Despite the fact that my research and writing on the subject, had taken more than a decade to complete, I was totally unprepared for  the response I got from my readers. The result is my second edition of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target!

As the son of LST 920’s Executive Officer, I felt a special responsibility to tell the story completely. The book had just been published when I received an email from a family member of the torpedoed LST 921. The telegram received by the family following the attack said only that their relative was MIA – Missing In Action! Years had passed and the family had only been able to assume the worst. Only when this particular relative read the casualty list I included in the book, did the family finally have confirmation of the fate of their loved one – 72 years after the fact! Only then did the family of the hapless sailor have closure. It had fallen to me to relate the grim news to the family.

Chuck Watson in 1944

Another mystery involved the identity of the 921’s ship’s cook rescued by Motor Machinist’s Mates Lloyd Meeker and John Abrams from beneath a tangle of debris as they made their own escape from the flooding engine room of their sinking LST.  For that, I have to give credit to Curt Pederson of Ridgefield, Washington. Curt told me that the story of that rescue sounded very much like the wartime experience of his friend, Chuck Watson, a veteran of the WW2 US Navy. Sure enough, when I talked to Watson by phone a few days later, we confirmed the story. I related Chuck Watson’s story in my blog entitled “The Unsinkable Charlie Watson!”  (What else?) Here in 2019, at the publication of the second edition of my book, former LST 921 Ship’s Cook Charles Watson is a hale and hearty 97 years old. He lost one of his legs in the U boat attack, but otherwise is as fit as a fiddle.

My dad  always told my brother and me that his ship did not pick up any survivors from the British escort vessel. 

But I found out later that a few survivors were picked up by  a British rescue ship 

Able Seaman Bill Todd

out of the water along with Don Joost, the Engineering Officer of LST 921. This was confirmed in 2004 when I visited Joost at his home in Walnut Creek, California. My father did not know about this part of the story.
    Late in 2018, I received another email from Ms. Gillian Whittle, great-niece of Able Seaman William Todd, Royal Navy. Ironically, Bill Todd was also the ship’s cook aboard the ill-fated British Convoy escort ship – LCI(L)99. Ms. Whittle wrote, Bill, as he was known, was only 19 when he died. He was acting Able Seaman and actually the ship’s cook. We as a family are very proud of him.

The fate of the submarine, U 667, provides the final mystery. My dad never knew the identity of the U boat that attacked his convoy – EBC 72. Don Reed, my dad’s friend and the Communications Officer of LST 920, embarked on years of research following the war. It was Reed who identified the U 667. The rest of the information  about the sub came from the US  National Archives and the Kriegsmarine archive of the German Navy through the website: www.uboat.net. That’s when I learned that U 667 had struck a mine ten days after the attack on dad’s convoy as it returned from patrol. U 667 sank with all hands somewhere near its base at La Pallice, France, where it rests to this day.

Diver Christophe Moriceau

Enter French diver Christophe Moriceau with the final piece of my puzzle. Moriceau is an expert diver who belongs to a dive organization called L’Expedition Scyllias. Tof, as he is known to his compatriots, told me in his email that the wreck of U 667 had been located in 2002 along with the hulk of another U boat, but not positively identified until 2014. The Kriegsmarine archives revealed that U 667, under the command of Captain Karl-Heinze Lange, sank four ships on what turned out to be its final patrol: USS Ezra Weston, HMCS Regina, USS LST 921, and HMS LCI(L) 99. During the time U 667 was away from its base on patrol, the Royal Air Force laid a field of anti-submarine warfare mines across its return route back to base. Instead of heading home to a heroes' welcome, U 667 struck one of these mines on 25 August 1944, and immediately sank with Captain Lange and the entire crew. Moriceau sent me a series of photos of the wreck site of U 667 taken by Jean-Louis Maurette, the Chairman and Founder of L’Expedition Scyllias.

Retracing my father’s footsteps after so many years has given me, his older son, the perspective of history. It has been an incredible personal journey. I have gotten to know my family, especially my own father from a much closer point of view than I could when I was growing up into adulthood. During our visit, Don Reed, dad’s fellow officer on the LST 920 quipped to me, the crew was made up of kids from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The biggest body of water they had ever seen was a river or a lake. Our ship was welded together by women who had never been away from home. The enemy couldn’t keep up with us. Together, we went out and won a war!

Ciao,

MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon Books in Kindle or paperback. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

© By Mike Botula 2019

LST 920: CHARLIE BOTULA’S LONG, SLOW TARGET!

Second Edition!
Thursday March 28, 2019
Cloudy 60°F/16°C in Cedar Park, Texas
Sunny 51°F/11°C in Cokeburg, Pennsylvania

Dzień dobry,

When the first edition  of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! was finally published by Amazon Books in 2016, I breathed a big sigh of relief. It was the culmination of thirteen years of  research and writing which followed decades of procrastination, but now my family story was complete. I could now move onto other projects. But, I didn’t count on my dad’s shipmates, or their friends and family members or the complete strangers that my father’s war-time story connected with, and the new information they provided. I had started my quest with only the war story that our dad told my brother Packy and me over Sunday dinner for  years as we were growing up.  It was the wartime story of the day that his convoy was attacked by an enemy submarine off the coast of England.

The New Edition

When my father died suddenly in 1965, my brother and I were suddenly tasked with the wrenching and mammoth chore of closing up the house we had grown up in and getting it ready for sale. I had to fly in from Arizona and Packy came back home from college in Buffalo, New York. The house was pretty much like our mother had left it when she died of cancer five years before. Her death ended a decades-long love story and left our dad devastated. Our house had become a makeshift shrine to her memory. The clothes were given to  charity thrift shops. The household furnishings were sold or just given away, but my parents papers and family photographs were boxed up and shipped to my new home in Arizona, to be sorted out at a later time. What I could not foresee was the amount of time that would pass before my attention  my attention would focus again on those boxes of Botula family flotsam and jetsam.

Don Reed in 2003

Nearly forty years had passed when I posted a note in 2003 on a message board of a special interest internet site devoted to World War Two veterans who had served in the U.S. Navy.  To my astonishment, I received a reply a few days later! Mike, I was with your father on the commissioning crew of LST 920, served with him during all his time on the ship in Europe and the Pacific, and took his place as Exec when he left. Let me know how to get in touch! Don Reed. Ensign and later, Lieutenant Don Reed was the LST 920’s communications officer, and ultimately its last Captain. By this time, I was living in Sacramento, California. Since Don lived near San Francisco in the Bay Area, it was  easy for us to arrange a face to face meeting. So, one afternoon, I invited my son Michael along and we drove together to the Alameda Naval Base where Don was working as a volunteer on the museum ship USS Hornet.

My son Michael had never known his grandfather, since he had been born eight years after his death. So, the prospect of meeting one of the officers that my dad had served with during the war appealed to both of  us. That night over dinner, I decided that enough time had passed. I would tell my father’s story. Next, I contacted the U.S. LST Association and secured about a dozen names and addresses of their members. That’s how I met Don Joost, the engineering officer of LST 921. A few weeks after Michael and I had dinner with Don Reed, I drove over to Walnut Creek, California and spent the afternoon with Joost. Joost and John Edmunds, a member of the LST 921’s engine room crew had actually been among the survivors rescued by my dad’s ship. Several others from both LST crews sent me their accounts of that long-ago August afternoon. The initial result of these conversations was my article for The Scuttlebutt, the US LST Association’s magazine. After that, I decided to expand my efforts and write a book.

     Another key player in my research was ex-Seaman Larry Biggio, who had created an internet site devoted to the memory of his old ship, the LST 920. When he retired, Biggio sent me his files. And for a time, I managed his website through my own site, www.mikebotula.com. From the National Archives, I obtained photos of LST 920 being launched and an aerial shot of the ship on her maiden voyage in her Pacific Theater camouflage colors. I also requested copies of the ship’s logs for 1944.

One of the ironies of the story was the fact that the identity of the attacking U-boat was a mystery to the crews of both LSTs. My father died without learning the identity of the submarine that attacked his convoy and sank his sister ship as well as the British escort ship with heavy loss of life to both. I tracked that down through a specialty website devoted to the Kriegsmarine and its U-boats, Uboot.net.

The decision to write a second edition centers on new contacts I had after the book’s publication in August 2016. Curt Pedersen sent me an email describing the rescue of the LST 921’s cook. The hapless ship’s cook, who is unidentified in the first edition sustained major injuries in the attack, and eventually lost a leg as a result. Neither rescuer, John Edmunds or Lloyd Meeker could  remember their shipmate’s name, but Pedersen told me that his former neighbor, Charles Watson, told a similar story. Curt gave me Watson’s phone number and I was able to confirm his account in short order.

Moriceau dives the wreck of U 667

The other story concerns the fate of the submarine, U 667. All my information obtained through Uboot.net was that the sub struck a mine ten days following the attack on LST 921. In the summer of 2018, I received a series of emails from French diver Christophe Moriceau, who told me that he had actually dived to the U 667’s  wreck site. The German High Command required daily radio check-ins from each of its submarines. When U 667 failed to check in on 25 August 1944, the Kriegsmarine considered it lost. Moriceau, a diver belonging to a French divers organization L’Expedition Scyllias, also told me that the identity of U 667 wasn’t fully confirmed until 2014 by an expert in Kriegsmarine warfare. The location of what is now the U 667’s gravesite is a few miles off the coast of La Pallice, France, the sub’s home port.

Able Seaman Todd, RN

The final mystery concerns the British escort ship – LCI(L)99. As it turns out, both LSTs and
LCI(L)99 were built in the same shipyard at Hingham, Massachusetts. The British ship was turned over to Britain under the Lend-Lease Agreement in 1942. My father had a vivid memory of seeing a torpedo heading straight for his ship when the British vessel steamed between the U 667’s torpedo and my dad’s LST 920 and was blown out of the water. An English lady named Gillian Whittle wrote to tell me that her great uncle, William Todd was killed in the attack. Young Able Seaman Todd was 19 when he died to save my father’s ship.

Ciao,

MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

© By Mike Botula 2019

Anzio at 75!

MikeBo’s Blog

Sunday February 17, 2019

Partly Cloudy 54°F/12°C in Cedar Park, Texas

Clear 54°F/12°C in Anzio, Lazio, Italy

Buonagiornata,

The other day, when I walked Lola over to the mail center at my apartment complex, I reached into my mailbox and pulled out my copy of LST Scuttlebutt, the newsletter of the U.S. LST

Mike Botula at Polish Military Cemetery

at Montecassino, Italy

Association, which I joined back in 2003 when I first began researching my father’s Navy service in World War 2.  The cover story this month is devoted to the  75^th Anniversary of the Allied invasion at Anzio, about 32 miles south of Rome and was the first step in the long, bloody offensive which resulted in the liberation  of the Italian capital on June 5^th  1944 – the day just before the Allied landings at Normandy on D-Day, June 6^th 1944. The Normandy landings completely overshadowed the Fall of Rome and the actions of the general who commanded the Allied Fifth Army, General Mark Clark.  The Anzio campaign commanded the world’s attention in the months between January and June of 1944 and reverberated throughout history for years afterward. It was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war for the Americans who fought their way up the boot of Italy. And in 2017 on one of my visits with Michael and Laura in Rome, I asked them to indulge me and take me to the monastery at Montecassino and the beach at Anzio.

When I returned to Texas, I devoted one of my Rome Diary pieces to the visit.

      Here is the blog:

The Unsinkable Charlie Watson - UPDATE!

Brushy Creek Journal
Wednesday January 16, 2019
Cloudy 48°F/9°C in Cedar Park, Texas
Rain Showers 47°F/8°C in Falmouth, United Kingdom
Buonagiornata,

Shortly after my book LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target!  was published in the summer of 2016, I found a note from Curt Pederson in my e-mail inbox. Pederson is a neighbor of

Charles Watson - 1944

one of the surviving crewmembers of LST 921, one of the ships torpedoed in the U boat attack on my dad’s convoy. The other ship was a British escort vessel, HMS LCI(L)99. Thanks to Pederson, I was now able to fill in a glaring void in my narrative – the name of the ship’s cook who figured in a heroic rescue by two of his shipmates. I had obtained  the first person accounts of two Machinist’s Mates who had themselves made a dramatic escape from the engine room  of the sinking rear portion of their stricken Landing Ship. As they raced from the engine room to the top deck and safety, John Abrams and Lloyd Meeker told me about hearing the ship’s cook  yelling for help. Their shipmate lay, badly injured with two broken legs and a broken arm, in a tangle of cabinets and shelving that had blocked a passageway of the LST 921. While Abrams and Meeker could still recall the rescue, too many years had passed since that sunny August day in 1944 when their ship had been attacked to remember the name of the sailor they had rescued.

So, when I opened my email that morning, I found Pederson’s note telling me about his friend and neighbor of 25 years, WWII amputee Chuck Watson.  We knew he was a cook on LST 921,  Pederson told me,  and knew his ship was torpedoed.  He never knew much about August 14, 1944 until I started to print out your blog on LST 920 and your father.  You filled in so many unanswered questions!

Chuck’s ordeal is described in an eyewitness account by LST 921 crew member Lloyd Meeker, who survived the torpedo attack after a harrowing escape from the ship’s flooding engine room. LST 920 took us to Falmouth, England to a Navy hospital, survivor Lloyd Meeker remembered. There were lots of cuts and broken bones. The cook was injured the most. The last time I saw him, he had both legs and an arm in casts. He was in traction and his jaw was wired shut. For me, it was good to get out of my oily clothing.

In his account, Abrams told me  how he and Meeker wrestled Watson free and got him to safety on the top deck. Just before they slipped Watson into the water to be picked up by the crew of one of the small boats from my dad’s ship, LST 920, one of them took off his life jacket and put it on Watson. Finally, Meeker recalled, we were told that 43 survivors and one body were taken off the LST 920. All of the rest of the men went down with the stern section. Watson spent months in the hospital and eventually doctors were forced to amputate his injured leg, but he  otherwise fully recovered from the ordeal. Watson is now 97 years old.

Half of the crew of LST 921 went to the bottom of the Dover Channel   when the stern section sank a few minutes after it was hit by the U 667’s torpedo. Chuck Watson was one of the lucky ones. The crew of HMS LCI(L)99 wasn’t so lucky. As my father watched from the bridge of LST 920, the U 667 launched a second torpedo directly at his ship. We were goners, my father recounted after his return from the war. But, just then, the British Escort ship came between us and the German torpedo and was blown out of the water.

One of the crew members of HMS LCI(L)99 was 19 year old Able Seaman William Todd. Like Watson, Todd was his ship’s cook. Todd was not as fortunate as his counterpart aboard LST 921.

Able Seaman Bill Todd, RN

Todd was among those who died on that sunny August day in 1944. From her home in England, Todd’s great-niece, Gillian Whittle read my book and wrote me. I don’t know a great deal about my great uncle William Todd as he only has on surviving brother left and he is very frail now. Bill was only 19 when he died, and he came from Chorley, Lancashire, England. I imagine he was called up when he was 18. We as a family are very proud of him, and I go to Kent, England when I can to lay flowers at the Naval Memorial. We can’t let the memories of these great people be forgotten. Gillian Whittle also attached a photo of her late great uncle Bill. It is among her mementoes now along with his wartime medals, which she wears proudly on Remembrance days to keep his memory alive. If he had survived the war, William Todd would be 94, about the same age as his counter part aboard LST 921, Chuck Watson.

A lot of the men who escaped from the sinking LST 921 would not have survived the attack of U  667 if it weren’t for the skipper of LST 920. Lieutenant Harry N. Schultz, who disobeyed standing orders and ordered his ship to turn around and pick up survivors instead of remaining with the convoy, which continued to steam on to Falmouth, England. Chuck Watson never knew who, specifically, was responsible for saving his life until his friend and neighbor Curt Pederson sent him a copy of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target!

Nearly a century has  passed since that afternoon in August 1944, but it’s not too late to say Thank you for your service, to Chuck Watson, USNR;  Bill Todd, RN and the other sailors who came under attack by U 667 that day.  

Ciao,
MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]

© By Mike Botula 2019