Memoirs: William Eccles, at D-Day Normandy Pt. 4

"Eggs on the Beach"

[Photo: A landing craft (LST?) next to LCI(L) 295, June 1944, east of

Arromanches, France. From the collection of W. Eccles]

Introduction:

William Eccles, born in Sault Ste. Marie in 1917, was the oldest of six children and quit school at about age 16 to work at Algoma Steel. He did so to help raise his two brothers and three sisters after their parents died. In 1942 he enlisted in the RCAF but found his calling in the Navy. He did his training at HMCS York (Toronto, Ontario) and then HMCS Stadacona (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Like many other Canadians during WW2, he took courses to sharpen and increase skills and became Stoker 1st Class and then Leading Stoker.

As a Leading Stoker, William would have been responsible for a never-ending list of mechanical duties aboard an LCI(L), e.g., related to the efficient running of engines and screws, and getting his craft on and off beaches smoothly.

Another member of LCI(L) 295 he may have got to know was John E. Rimmer, a sailor who had been aboard Ennerdale on its way to southern England in the lead up to Operation Rutter (the planned, later cancelled first attempt to raid Dieppe), and aboard LCM 1022 (80th Flotilla) during the invasion of Sicily in July, 1943.

Rimmer writes:

I turned 18 the day we arrived in Portsmouth on the Ennerdale, after being attacked by JU 88s in the channel off Eddystone lighthouse the night before.... I took a General Service Leading Seaman course prior to joining LCI(L) 295. (Page 193, St. Nazaire to Singapore)

Note: J. Rimmer, among others, aboard HMS Keren, on their way

around Africa to Sicily, prior to Operation Husky, July 1943.

Together, Eccles and Rimmer and mates aboard their large landing craft would need to maintain steady effort during and after D-Day Normandy.

The following appears in W. Eccles' personal diary concerning the days after the D-Day landings:

After the war, W. Eccles lived and worked at IBM in Toronto as a Quality Inspector. He retired in the 1980s after 30 years of work. Unfortunately he was later diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and spent his last years at Sunnybrook Hospital Veterans' Wing. 

Memorabilia from the collection of William's son, Reg Eccles.
Photo used with thanks.

Though there are some stories written after WW2 by Canadians about life and personal experiences aboard LCI(L)s (found in Combined Operations by Londoner Clayton Marks and St, Nazaire to Singapore, Vol. 1 and 2 by David and Kit Lewis and Len Birkenes), observant readers will realize that notes from journals written during and after D-Day Normandy are not only very enlightening but rare indeed. 

Please link to Memoirs: William Eccles, at D-Day Normandy Pt. 3

Unattributed Photos GH