Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

Tom Pendergrast | LCT 777 - Navy

5:32   |   Recovering from wounds suffered on D-Day, Tom Pendergrast encountered one of the loveliest women he had ever seen. She was a captured German sniper working in the hospital. Returning stateside, he became an inspector for the Bureau of Ships.

More From Tom Pendergrast

Keywords   :     Tom Pendergrast    German    sniper    hospital    Nazi    lumbar    Buzz Bomb    Wales    Norfolk VA    Bethesda MD    Bureau of Ships    life jacket    Navy    Naval    Philadelphia PA    New York City    contract    South America    kapok    flotation. Pacific

Videos ( 4 )
WWII
  • Tom Pendergrast  |  WWII  |  LCT 777  |  5:29

    New college graduate Tom Pendergrast chose the Navy in 1943 and headed to Officer Candidate school at Columbia University. During the unbelievably intense three month program, he only got the chance to see New York City once. From there it was LCT training and learning the tricky job of piloting the flat bottomed craft.

  • Tom Pendergrast  |  WWII  |  LCT 777  |  7:59

    Tom Pendergrast got a little nervous when his troop ship developed mechanical trouble and had to drop out of the convoy on the way to England. The ship was repaired before any enemy subs took notice and he arrived in Falmouth, where he continued to train and prepare for the coming invasion of Normandy.

  • Tom Pendergrast  |  WWII  |  LCT 777  |  4:54

    Tom Pendergrast's LCT had been loaded and ready to go on June 5th with all the others, but the miserable weather delayed the fateful invasion for a day. After a cramped day and night aboard the craft, just waiting, they received the word to go and through the night they went, silent and without lights, with only the ship ahead as guidance.

  • Tom Pendergrast  |  WWII  |  LCT 777  |  8:51

    Everything was going according to plan. Tom Pendergrast guided his landing craft full of tanks and jeeps toward the shore at Utah Beach. Just before he got to his anchor point, a German mine was drawn up from the seabed into the propellor and five hundred pounds of TNT exploded.

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