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  From:  WIRTHGH<at>aol.com

To:  Thomas Aubut:
May 28, 2001  There are a few things I would like to add to your constantly developing list of LST282 info.

My name is Gerard Wirth and I was RM2c aboard the 282. Please add the name of Charles Rafferty, RM2C of Worcester, MA. Also, your list for both Plimpton and Sadowski did not include their ratings. Both were CPO’s. They were both CMoMM. Sadly, both were killed . Also, John Deel , one of our excellent cooks, died of his wounds aboard the LST 283, the ship that rescued me and quite a few others. Just before getting underway for Ajaccio, Corsica , shipmate Deel’s body was transferred ashore for burial.

We were taken to a tent hospital in Corsica where we remained for a few days, perhaps a week but I don’t know for sure. Then we were put aboard a British destroyer and taken to Naples. It was my first time aboard a destroyer and I never before realized how fast a ship- could move over water. In Naples we were transferred to a “rest camp” at a place I believe was named Bagnoli.

Because all our clothing had been lost on the 282 we had been issued army fatigue uniforms and big army combat boots. After a couple of weeks in Bagnoli we and survivors from earlier engagements were taken to Arzew, Algeria, another “rest camp” where we remained until a ship became available to pick us up at the nearby port of Oran and bring us home to New York around the 1^st of October.  More later.

“Jerry” Wirth.

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