This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Lewis Jr., Lemuel Banks (Stepdad), GM1 USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Savannah
Last Address Savannah
Date of Passing Aug 15, 1971
Location of Interment Bonaventure Cemetery - Savannah, Georgia
Lem married my Mother in January 1946, they were divorced in 1968. He died due to a massive heart attack in August 1971. I was deployed to the med at the time and was considered to valuable by CO to be given emergency leave since Lem was my step-father instead of my natural father. I was Leading Signalman on the Canisteo (AO-99) at the time.
Lem never discussed, in detail, his war time expierences, there for most of the information i have is based mostly on conjecture except for the two battles that I have listed. I have never known what wartime commands he was actually stationed on, however he did mention that he had had two ships sunk out from under him with in a month. I do know that one of those ships was an APA.
All of the commands that he was assigned to, after the war are from my memory and the actual commands are factual, though the actual time frames are, in sum cases, conjecture based on what school year I was in at the time and what school I was attending.
Description Operation Avalanche was the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, executed on 9 September 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, but the Allies landed in an area defended by German troops. Planned under the name Top Hat, it was supported by the deception plan Operation Boardman.
The landings were carried out by the US Fifth Army, under American General Mark W. Clark. It comprised the U.S. VI Corps, the British X Corps and the US 82nd Airborne Division, a total of about nine divisions. Its primary objectives were to seize the port of Naples to ensure resupply, and to cut across to the east coast, trapping the Axis troops further south.
In order to draw troops away from the landing ground, Operation Baytown was mounted. This was a landing by the British Eighth Army in Calabria in the 'toe' of Italy, on 3 September. Simultaneous sea landings were made by the British 1st Airborne Division at the port of Taranto (Operation Slapstick). British General Bernard Montgomery had predicted Baytown would be a waste of effort because it assumed the Germans would give battle in Calabria; if they failed to do so, the diversion would not work. He was proved correct. After Baytown the Eighth Army marched 300 miles (480 km) north to the Salerno area against no opposition other than engineer obstacles.
The Salerno landings were carried out without previous naval or aerial bombardment in order to achieve surprise. Surprise was not achieved. As the first wave approached the shore at Paestum a loudspeaker from the landing area proclaimed in English, "Come on in and give up. We have you covered." The troops attacked nonetheless.
The Germans had established artillery and machine-gun posts and scattered tanks through the landing zones which made progress difficult, but the beach areas were captured. Around 07:00 a concerted counterattack was made by the 16th Panzer Division. It caused heavy casualties, but was beaten off. Both the British and the Americans made slow progress, and still had a 10 miles (16 km) gap between them at the end of day one. They linked up by the end of day two and occupied 35–45 miles (56–72 km) of coastline to a depth of 6–7 miles (9.7–11.3 km).
Over 12–14 September the Germans organized a concerted counterattack by six divisions of motorized troops, hoping to throw the Salerno beachhead into the sea before it could link with the British Eighth Army. Heavy casualties were inflicted, as the Allied troops were too thinly spread to be able to resist concentrated attacks. The outermost troops were therefore withdrawn in order to reduce the perimeter. The new perimeter was held with the assistance of naval and aerial support, although the German attacks reached almost to the beaches in places. Allied pilots slept under the wings of their fighters in order to beat a hasty retreat to Sicily in the event German forces broke the beachhead.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
September / 1943
To Month/Year
September / 1943
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Assigned to Rear Admiral J. L. Hall's Southern Attack Force, she departed Oran 5 September and approached the Gulf of Salerno late 8 September as the Allies announced the armistice with Italy. During mid-watch, 9 September, she debarked assault troops in landing boats, and later began unloading cargo. Her boats assisted HMS Abercrombie, damaged by a German mine. Undaunted by German air attacks, the veteran transport discharged cargo at the Paestrum beaches before departing for Oran 11 September.
As Allied forces secured Salerno, entered Naples, and began the hard-fought drive up the boot of Italy, she continued to transport reinforcements and cargo from North Africa to Italy. On 30 November she departed Oran in convoy for the United Kingdom; and, with almost 2,000 troops embarked, she arrived Belfast, Northern Ireland, 9 December Departing for the United States 20 December, she reached New York 31 December.
