Robert M. "John" Chamblee's line
Robert/Jared/Freeman/James Robert/Charles Perry/Robert Marlin Chamblee.
I found this article in mother's papers. Robert was her Uncle John.
The Itawamba County Times, Fulton, Mississippi
Thursday, July 30, 1981
�Survivor of Navy LST Reminisces 1944 Fatal Incident�
On January 26, 1944, during the assault on Anzio, Italy, an incident took
place
that was to bring grief to many Mississippi families, including eight
families in
Itawamba County.
In face, it caused the deaths of more Mississippians than any other known
incident in the war. Ed Blake, director of information for the Mississippi
Farm
Bureau Federation, has been contacting survivors and families of those
involved
in the incident to gather material for a forthcoming book.
That day, a Navy LST (Landing Ship Tank) carrying companies C and D of the
U.S. Army�s 83rd Chemical Battalion - a total of 600 men - exploded and
burned.
One of the survivors, Robert M. �John� Chamblee, who now lives west of Fulton
on Highway 78, recalled the incident:
�To the best of my knowledge, the ship hit a mine field,� said Chamblee. �C
and
D Company was on it, and some �aak-aak� boys out of some other unit. How
many there was, I don�t know.
�My outfit was a battalion and I was told there was 550 Mississippi boys in
C and
C Companies. I don�t know why that was either, but there were quite a few boys
from Itawamba County I knew personally.
�I was in D Company, and we were asleep. And, all at once that explosion went
off and everything was blacked out. My sergeant, Sgt. Riddle, was sleepin�
next
to me, and I said, �I smell fuel. I hope nobody don�t strike a match.� And he
hollered, �Nobody strike a match!�
�Riddle was a platoon sergeant, and Sgt. Kitely was a squad sergeant. Where
he was from, I don�t remember. But they got hold of a flashlight, �cause
the lights
were cut off. And they finally got a hatch open and we went through there. The
doors were all locked and everything.
�We got on top. We was on one end, and some of the people was on the other
end. And we had trucks on there, loaded with ammunition. Some of �em was on
top; some of �em was on the bottom. And some of those boys that drove trucks
slept under �em.
�And a sailor come up and said, �You see them lights? That�s the beach. And
we�re gettin� a signal that we can�t pull in, �cause we�re in a mine field. So
everybody is on his own.� And, with that, he went over without a life
jacket or
anything, and what happened to him, I don�t know.
�The best I remember, they wasn�t another sailor come through. I noticed one
little boy way up high after I left the ship. He was still up there givin�
that signal,
and how he got down, I don�t know...if he did.
�But me and these other two boys, we had all decided that was it. So nobody
seemed too disturbed about it, and we decided to jump, �cause everything was
explodin�. We had white phosphorous on there, and that stuff kept blowin� up.
And it�ll burn you up.
�So Swifton jumped first. Benson (Arlander F. Benson of Itawamba County)
jumped next. And I jumped last. We was jumpin� off the anchor chain. When I
hit
the water ... Benson had a different life belt than me ... and I�m pretty
sure I seen
his belt, but I never saw him again. Before I jumped, I heard somebody holler,
but I�m not sure who it was.�
Chamblee likened the boat�s destruction to the destruction of the villain�s
lair in
the climax of a James Bond movie. �Everything blew off the top,� he said. �All
that ammunition was on there. Some of it was high explosive. Some of it was
smoke. But it never did sink. It just collapsed, they said. It melted down the
metal.
�But they was three boys stayed on that boat. One of �em was a Warheim from
Tennessee. This other boy was from my company, but I can�t remember his
name. They was picked off by a boat. And one of �em, they said, he jumped off
and got back on the boat eight times. He�d jump off toward the beach and the
waves would just push him right back to the boat, and he�d climb back up the
anchor chain. This third guy, Holley, I don�t believe I knew (John R.
Holley, now
on the athletic staff at University of Mississippi).�
Chamblee spent three hours in the waters of the Mediterranean before being
picked up by a passing LCI, a personnel landing boat. �You didn�t last too
long in
that water,� he said. �Ten minutes more and I wouldn�t have been there, �cause
I�d done give up.
In a letter written to his wife, Chamblee said that as he swam he saw or
imaged
her face and that of his mother, which gave him the resolve to keep going.
When help finally came Chamblee was so tired he at first thought the rescue
boat was an island with trees and then a log.
�It (the boat) came in better view, and I remember seein� this officer. He
had a
bill cap. He got up there on that tower. I remember seein� him. And a wave
caught me and carried me back till that boat looked like it was a long way
off. But
that guy threw me a line with some coveralls tied to it and it hit me right
in the
belly. And I�m pretty sure my left hand went to it first, and I hugged it
to me.
�And I remember, I think, them pullin� me on deck. And I think I remember them
startin� through a door. But that�s the last I remember.
�I woke up about three hours later and I thought every bone in me was gonna
bust wide open. A guy like to strangled me to death with brandy, and he said,
�You got to have it,� and he just kept pourin�.
�I went back to sleep, and I guess about three hours later I waked up and
there
was an officer talkin� to me. I was in the kitchen, on that boat, without
any clothes
on and rolled up in blankets. I never did open my eyes, though, �cause they
was
salt water burned.�
Chamblee was eventually put on another boat and sent to a hospital in Naples,
where he recovered. He was sent on to southern France, where he saw eight
more months of action before finally being relieved and discharged.
Of the 600 men on the ill-fated LST, only 171 survived. There is still some
question as to whether the boat hit a mine or was struck by a shell.
Blake had thought that the survivors or relatives lf all but eight of the
Mississippians had been located.
But, according to Chamblee, there are five men - three who died and two
survivors - who are not on the list: George Shirley of Laurel, a Brewer
from New
Albany, and Coy Hall of Amory, the casualties, and Orville Bell of Saltillo
and
Claude C. Burkett of McComb, who survived.
All the families of the victims from Itawamba County have been located, as
have
several others from around the state. Still to be located, in addition to
those
mentioned by Chamblee, are the relatives of the following men: Murray H.
Berryhill of either Lee or Monroe County, and seven others whose home
counties are unknown: Richard I. Cassels, James H. Clayton, Joe C. Dickerson,
Winfred L. Dunlap, James D. Earley and Orie L. Jennings.
Other Itawamba victims besides Benson were: Fletcher Baxter, Hershel Gentry,
Olen Hale, Zelmer Jackson, John Kuykendall, Paul Wheeler and Wiley Wheeler.
Anyone with more information about any of the missing victims should call
Blake
toll free at X, or Gaston Robinson at X. (The ph# for Mr. Blake no longer
works. I spoke to Mr. Robinson, who will attempt to contact Mr. Blake.)
As for Chamblee, he said he would now prefer to forget the incident. To
illustrate
his feelings about his wartime experience he related the story of a hearing
when
he was applying for a war related disability pension.
�The Judge asked me what I did in the Army,� said John Chamblee. �And I
answered, �As told�.�