Quoting from "And There Shall Be Wars"
(Remember, this is the words of Bud Wagner who was a witness.)
Journal account:
Our DUKWs left the 356 {LST number} at 4am. {I guess he is saying the first wave left at this time; he would disembark later.} Firing some this morning. Jerry hasn't opposed much yet. At 10am the coast of Italy is in plain sight; it looks mountainous. Our pontoons are lowered. Nothing but ships around us. I counted 76 from our position. . . . Lef the LST about noon. Tom and Lynn rode with me. Though 2 feet of water came over the hood{of his jeep}, she never missed once. . . . Came about 1 mile inland; moved again to some ancient ruins. .... C Battery lost a 105 and a DUKW. A Battery knocked out 4 tanks. Things are going faily well for us. Air activity; mostly enemy.
Then he added these additions at publication in 2000.
We lost one DUWK from Battery C. It got hit by some other equipment while getting off the LST out at sea. Though all equipment was lost, including a 105mm and 46 rounds of ammo, all the crew was saved by other DUWKs in the area. The night was extremely dark, but the general direction could be told by the glow of fires in the crater of Mount Vesuvius {I never heard of that before}.
The first DUKW carrying Col. DuBois, Maj Surdyk and 160 rounds of ammo landed on Red Beach at 7:25am with leading elements of the second wave of infantry which had also been delayed by the heavy hostile fire. Guns were unloaded from the DUKWs and sent to battery positions without any attempt being made at reorganizing by battery, because the situation demanded immediate supporting fire. Three guns of the 36th Division Artillery landed and did not know where to go. Capt. Constant took them and sent them into position with his other guns. They were later sent back to the 36th Division when Capt. Constant had to relocate to an anti-tank position.
Capt Stewart, the Liason Officer, continued on with the forward infantry elements and was the first to reach the crest line on the western extremity of Mount Soprano.
At 9:30 seven Mark IV tanks attacked the position. The battery destroyed 2 tanks and drove off the remainder, but the gun crews were forced to evacuate the positions under heavy machine gun fire. . . .
At 3pm, permission was given to fly our Piper Cubs off of the LST 356. Lt. Fleinbert flew off without an incident from the flight deck that had been especially constructed above my peep and other equipment---that is if you could call a 50-foot strip a "flight deck". {Bud had a photo of his jeep parked under this flight deck installed on his LST, which was used to launch L-4 Cubs for airborne forward artillery spotters.} Lt. Fleming didn't do as well as Lt. Feinberg. As he neared the end of the runway, the LST rolled, and the aircraft struck the Bofors AA guns in the bow of the ship. The plane pitched over the bow and fell into the water. Lt. Fleming managed to slip his safety belt and kick his way out of the cabin just before the ship ran directly over the airplane. (This is the way I heard the story.)
Credit to "And There Shall Be Wars".
Steve