Hello drone_pilot
Thanks for this information. I was curious why a "stoker" would be needed for a petrol-driven vessel. I did a bit of research and came across the following reminiscence of D-Day by Walter Palmer who was a stoker aboard on a diesel-driven three-man Thames barge that carried petrol cans on D-Day.
While this was not exactly the same as a petrol-driven landing craft and was obviously more hazardous because of the cargo on board the barge, Mr. Palmer's description of what he experienced, which I found at "Memories of D-Day: Naval Memories", gives an excellent idea of the dangerous, tense, and traumatic time that the brave sailors and soldiers went through during the landings:
"The next nightmare was the acoustic mine, which exploded under a ship when it picked up the sound of the ship’s engine. We really feared this one as all our craft were driven by large diesel engines, so their echo through the water was noisy. We lost a lot of craft this way and a lot of lives. Being a stoker, my job was to look after the diesel engines on my craft, and when I went below in the engine room for four hours I was scared stiff in case we caught a packet from these mines. In fact I was so scared that I used to take my meals on the upper deck and sleep near the bows, so if we did sink I was ready to jump in the water. One night we were going to join the rest of the craft and I was sat near the bows when there was a hellish explosion and I found myself in the air and then in the water, swimming for dear life. Our luck had run out, in the form of an acoustic mine. Those of us that survived were picked up."
Chris
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