On this day in Yorkshire 1943

Yorkshiremen in Fiery Ordeal

An official description of gallantry in landing vehicles on the bridgehead in Italy tells how one transport landing craft, with a Yorkshire skipper, had to cope with heavy shelling before the beach was reached.

German batteries firing over open sights, and aided by dive bombers, scored 40 hits on the craft, set vehicles on fire, wrecked the ship’s boilers and killed the engineer.

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The vehicles, though several were damaged, were all successfully unloaded.

Sergeant Stanley Morse (Royal Corps of Signals), of Farnley Road. Menston was in charge of one of the vehicles which caught fire.

“I thought were done for.” he said. “Stuff was falling all around like hail and explosions from ammunition on the blazing vehicles wounded a number of men.

But through it all the soldiers and the ship’s crew worked to unload the vehicles.

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“While the heaviest of the shelling was on, two fitters worked on the open deck refitting tyres to one of the vehicles.

The others had been burnt off and it was impossible for some time for the fitters to touch the hot metal of the rims.”

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