​LV72JUNO

NAVY DAYS - by Guy Walkinton

A WW2 veteran shares his memories, and in it gives the the location of where JUNO was anchored off the Normandy coast, at Le Hamel

During 1944 I was serving aboard an American-built Lease Lend Fleet minesweeper

HMS Steadfast. In those days itwas the very latest in the class, and was able to sweep

at 12.5 knots. We had to deal with several types of mines which the Germans had sown

in the English Channel – firstly, thecontact mine which was secured to the seabed by a

cable, and which we wouldsweep with a serrated cable, thereby releasing the mine to

the surface, so allowing us to dispose of it with machine-gun fire (Oerlikon). Secondly,

the magnetic mine, which was laid onthe seabed. We would dispose of these mines by

towing an electrically charged cable, which sent out an impulse, thereby exploding the

mine. Thirdly, there were acoustic mines, which were removed by bow hammers that hit

a diaphragm at regular intervals, hereby activating the mine. This particular mine was a

menace as ships' engines would set it off, causing an immense explosion. For a time we

would sail out of Plymouth, and I wellremember seeing the city centre as just a heap of

rubble as a result of the "Baedeker Raids" of 1940, as they were called.A fair number of

vessels were engaged in the Atlantic U-boat war; in fact, I remember standing on the

Hoe and watching one of the Bird-class Sloops setting out to do battle.
As she passed us, her public address system blared out "A Hunting We Will Go".

We all cheered and waved, but in today's climate the skipper would probably be "banned" from the bridge and condemned to 28 days' stoppage of gin!  One day we were ordered out to clear the mines from around the Eddystone lighthouse, 14 miles south of Plymouth. I sailed past the lighthouse in 1998, and was pleased to see that we had done such a good job! We then moved down to the Solent to participate in the Normandy landings. Several channels had to be kept minefree, so we were involved with the British channel from Nab Tower (Portsmouth) to the Juno light vessel which was anchored off Le Hamel. It was a never ending job as the Germans put down more magnetic mines during the hours of darkness. We would be sweeping during the daylight hours, and at night go to a designated trot line off the beaches. The anchor positions were numbered, and it was alleged that the staff officers drew numbers out of the hat so that those with the lowest numbers were nearest to the enemy! A trot line was established so that they could act as guard ships during the night for the vessels that were closer inshore. One of the night-time hassles was the human torpedoes and the divers who were liable to attach limpet mines to our hulls. I can remember seeing the Monitor class (shallowdraught) cruisers supporting the army as they landed and also the rocket-firing landing craft. There was an immense amount of noise!
These days we tend to decry the Americans, but I shall always be grateful to them for the tremendous firepower support that they gave us on our right, which must have taken off a lot of the pressure on our landing beaches. Sadly, they managed to drop a bomb on one of our sister ships, killing
our sailors. Such is war. Eventually we had a disagreement with a magnetic mine, but managed to limp back to Portsmouth. There were no serious casualties, but when the encounter happened, the skipper signalled the flotilla leader: "Stand by to pick up survivors", but thankfully we did not need any help! Looking back it was quite an experience, but thankfully nothing like that will ever happen again. I will be around with the poppies at the end of October and will look forward to your support!

 

extract taken from http://www.burton-by-lincoln.info/

 

More details on Operation Neptune
http://www.mcdoa.org.uk/Operation_Neptune_Minesweeping.htm