WORLD WAR II - Hubert Bernet, Jr.
Hubert Bernet from Cincinnati and Jo Harrison of Oxford met as teenagers in a Methodist Youth Fellowship Camp. She later enrolled at Miami University and he at the University of Cincinnati. They corresponded during the war and were married April 5, l947. Hubie would later say that the brush salesman married the farmer’s daughter.
Hubie received a draft notice the first time while a new freshman at the University of Cincinnati. He was deferred and received another one near the end of that first year, so on March 24, l943, he entered the U. S. Navy.
Hubie knew that he was color-blind, but he memorized the four color charts before his physical exam in Cincinnati. This later proved to be a handicap when he had to read signal flags. Another test for color-blindness was given at the Great Lakes Training Center, but he passed this exam only because the examiner was bored and not paying close attention. If he had not passed, he would have been placed in a construction battalion. (C. B. s)
After Great Lakes, he went to Newport, R. I. and trained as a quartermaster. A quartermaster in the Navy helps with navigation, signaling, chart maintenance, and acts as helmsman on smaller craft.
From Newport, he went to Solomon Islands, Md. and then to Little Creek, Virginia and continued to train for the amphibious force on Landing Craft Tanks. (LCTs) He then went to Mare Island, N. Y. where he was issued foul weather gear and a carbine in preparation to go to England for the channel crossing for the invasion of Europe.
Unexpectedly, he found himself, as he described it, on a cattle train to Vallejo, California. There he watched the construction of LCT 992, which became his primary station for the remainder of the war.
This LCT, still in three sections, went by Liberty Ship to Pearl Harbor. A hammerhead crane lifted the three pieces on board a LST, and when they were assembled, the ballast of the LST was shifted so that it was all on one side, and the LCT just slid off the slanting deck into the water.
Hubie described the LCT as a bathtub going to sea. It is about 115 feet long, 30 feet wide and has a single broad ramp that could be lowered on the beach to disgorge materials or take them on. It has a maximum speed of seven knots and a crew of one ensign and twelve men. It is difficult to steer and hard to manage. It ferried cargo and sometimes men to shore, and was used to transfer cargo from ship to ship. Hubie thinks that in his entire navy experience, it was used to haul tanks only once. That was all right with him since the decks were painted steel, and the tanks chipped the paint, and the crew had to repaint it. For long ocean voyages, the LCTs wee placed on the decks of LSTs.
On a quiet Sunday afternoon, May 25, l944, eight LSTs, combat loaded with ammunition, troops and LCTs for the coming Saipan invasion, blew up and sank. More people perished at that time than on Dec. 7, l941. LCT 992 was at least 500 feet away at the start of the explosion.
After that, LCT 992 participated on Einewetok Island and went on to Manui Island. One of their jobs was to load ammo to the Battleships, the USS California and USS Texas. Fourteen inch shells were transferred from the deck of 992 to Texas.
MacArthur had promised to return to the Philippines. He brought four divisions of the U. S. Army and the largest armada of warships, troop carriers and supply ships of the Pacific War. The Japanese fleet had been scattered and hidden for this moment and place.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf occurred in late October, l944, and it was a major factor that opened the Pacific for the Allied Forces to move with more freedom. Japan planned to send two powerful fleets to converge on both sides of American forces. But after the largest naval battle in history, the Japanese Navy was decimated between our ships and relentless air attacks. LCT 992 was not a battle ship and was not directly involved. Edwin Hoyt’s book, The battle of Leyte Gulf: Death Knoll, written in l972 is reported to give a most interesting and accurate account of this battle.
To be continued next week.
-- Percy