JOIN the Navy and see the world they say. Peter Smoothy, from Herne Bay, did just that, mostly aboard the tank landing ship - LST 215 - on which he shipped as writer.

Peter volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1942, and after training was given a draught to HMS Asbury, a shore establishment in America. He spent months chasing up and down the eastern seaboard in pursuit of craft that always seemed to have departed the day before he arrived.

Eventually he caught up with LST 215 of the 9^th Flotilla, and after a period of undergoing exercises - in which they ran aground in Chesapeake Bay - the vessel headed out into the Atlantic.

"As writer my job was to carry out the function of secretary to the officer leading the Flotilla," he said. "I also had responsibilities for the pay office.

Mercifully avoiding U-boats, the Flotilla reached the Mediterranean after 22 days. LST 215 then set about transporting men and machinery from North Africa, first into Sicily, and then onto the Italian mainland.

Next came orders to head for the far side of India to take part in operations against the Japanese. After reaching Calcutta, however, the ship received orders to return and prepare for D-Day.

"We began exercises around Gosport and Portsmouth," said Peter. "The main danger was from German E-boats that could slip across the Channel very quickly and cause havoc.

"Eventually we loaded up with tanks, lorries and troops at Gosport about a week before D-Day. We left at 5.30pm on June 5. There were hundreds of ships everywhere you looked. We were due off Juno beach at 7.30 next morning.

"As we got near you could hear the guns firing. There were battleships, cruisers and goodness knows what firing all the time. We came round the bow of the Belfast and she let off a salvo over the top of us. She only had six-inch guns but I thought it would lift us out of the water.

"We had to anchor about a mile offshore because they were too busy on shore to accommodate us. Many of the defences were still in place with mines attached to them."

Each LST towed a huge raft, about 100ft long, called a Rhino. These were manoeuvred to the front of the vessel, and the bow doors opened, so that vehicles could be unloaded offshore. It meant the valuable LSTs could be kept at a relatively safe distance.

"We got our first load off onto the Rhino and it was delivered safely onto the beach," said Peter. "It broke away part way through getting the second load off, and drifted onto the shore.

"After that the beaches and surrounding area had been cleared sufficiently for us to go onto the beach. We got stuck on the beach that night just as we did at Chesapeake Bay.

"Next day they loaded us with about 300 German prisoners. All we had to guard them with was six old army rifles. And each man guarding them would only have had about six rounds each. 

"We floated on the next tide and headed straight back to Southampton, the first vessel to bring German prisoners back. Then we immediately loaded tanks and troops and headed back to Normandy."

Landing vehicles on the beach was severely hampered by the hoist which brought them down from the upper deck. It could only handle one at a time. The crews were glad when the Mulberry harbour was ready, with ramps that enabled tanks and trucks to be driven off. 

LST 215 plied back and forth with troops and equipment until after the breakout, when the war moved further into France. The ship's officers were sent to a shore establishment, HMS Squid, and as writer, Peter went with them.

He later transferred to a Fleet Air Arm despatch facility in Oxfordshire from where he was demobbed in December 1946.