LCI 570 circa 1945

Background

Joe is 91 and served with the Amphibious Forces during World War II.  He is a longtime and dear family friend of my wife, she’s known him since she was 5.  I’ve known Joe since about 1980 when I first met my (then) future wife.  He and his wife Fran (also a vet – more on her later) were at our wedding, and at my military retirement 29 years later.

The four of us get together regularly and as usual the discussion tends to migrate towards their service, and mine.  Lots of great stories but I’ll focus on his…

Joe served on a number of Landing Craft, Infantry (LCI) vessels after he joined the US Navy in 1942.  He worked as a radio repairman for his father, who owned a radio shop before the war.  So naturally Joe became a Radioman.

Joe worked up on his LCI at the amphibious base at Solomons Island, Maryland, which is at the mouth of the Patuxent River across from the Naval Air Station named for the river.  Joe also spent time down at Damneck, Virginia before deploying to the Mediterranean theater of operations in 1943.

Most landings in North Africa were already completed, however initially his ship provided logistics support, running supplies forward as the US forces advanced East.  His LCI supported the Sicily landings and then continued the logistics train.  His commanding officer was a Lieutenant, Junior Grade (LTjg), and the Exec was an Ensign.  Both were “90 day wonders” from Officer Candidate School.  No older than he was and certainly no smarter, they just had much more responsibility.

According to Joe, his LCI was part of the landings at Salerno, September 1943.  He was in the radio room so didn’t see much, but knows the cook was the first to be killed; his role was to drop the ramps at the bows which exposed him to withering machine gun fire.  He did get the ramps down before he died.  The soldiers disembarked but not before many of the crew had been killed; then a large calibre shell hit the side of the LCI, probably a German 88mm, and the ship began to list quickly and sink.  Joe was thrown from his post, the large battery that powered the radio landed on him.  Luckily he had very minor injuries.  He immediately moved to abandon ship and on the rail saw the Engineman standing at the rail with no life preserver — he couldn’t swim so Joe gave him his and they both jumped.  They spent most of the rest of the day in the water, but were fished out late in the day and taken to a nearby battleship.  Joe doesn’t remember which one but he does remember the food was extremely good and accommodations were like a 5-star hotel compared to his little LCI.

The Subject

After a few days on the battleship he was sent stateside to work up on another LCI.  Combat experience was useful in training new crews, and Joe’s would be put to great use.  He initially started training new Radiomen working up, listing as many as 6 different hulls, then was transferred to LCI 570 for special duties.

During this time Joe was promoted to Radioman Second Class (RM2c).  His responsibilities were to the Commodore of the LCI Flotilla (about 6 ships) relaying communications from shore to the other vessels as well as the Flotilla Commander’s orders.  Joe notes that his Flotilla Commander was a former submarine skipper from the regular Navy; likely because he hadn’t done well — the regular Navy was on cruisers and battleships, not amphibs.

There is much, much more on LCI 570.  At the time it was all classified, Joe tells of all the modifications made to it, first as a rocket launcher LCI(R), then with extra 40mm guns LCI(G), and finally with special torpedoes to support the SEAL Teams prior to landings.  The latter were launched from a special platform at a key angle, allowing the torpedoes to run on the surface and detonate berms the Japanese would place just offshore to stop the landing craft.  I couldn’t find any references online, or pictures, but Joe has one…it’s in a frame and he’s not letting go of it or I’d scan it and post it here!  The hull is clearly 570…

As I write this apparently Joe is the sole survivor of LCI 570.  His shipmates have all passed on, the last one within the last year.  He’s not sure how many “ELSY AYE” sailors remain, but believes most are now gone.

The Model

This is the old Lindberg kit that is about 1/150th – 160th depending on the accuracy of measurements.  That’s about N scale so finding a few figures wasn’t too hard.  I was at a show in England last year and picked up a package of sailors for a few dollars.

The kit has quite a few inaccuracies, the biggest being the lack of ramps and the bridge/conning tower being oval and capped.  On early LCI’s they were square, on latter ones round; the top was open to the weather, albeit most had a canvas cover for normal ops.

Joe purchased the kit from a magazine, because he knew I made models and he wanted me to make it for him.  Nothing special, right out of the box.  Well, his service is too special to not do this with some justice…so I mounted it on a base and corrected some of the obvious errors.  I also looked at lots of pictures on line and it was obvious that the rails were quite visible so I added those using plastic rod.  Also visible were the 14 doors around the ship…so I made a template and cut those from thin sheet.

I asked about the ramps, simply because I knew 570 had been modified and he stated emphatically that it never had ramps.  They were removed before he got to her and with all the mods were never re-installed.  He didn’t want the gun or rocket launchers, nor the torpedo ramps that were on the sides, so I didn’t add any of that but was more than willing to do so.

Summary

This will end as one of my favorite builds of all time.  He takes the model to any meeting with vets locally (he doesn’t travel anymore) and is quite proud of “his” ship.

Oh yes…his wife is a former SPAR who served with the Coast Guard during the war.  She ran the Baltimore area anchorage — scheduling when/where ships would anchor.  She was responsible for about 200 Coast Guardsmen in a number of roles including beach security out on the Maryland coastline.  She was in her early 20’s then…only 11 remain of the more than 10,000 who served.

Thanks for looking…