I was on the Isle of Wight along with my SEABEE MATES Al E. Williams, Cliff Winders, Harry James Winslow, and Al Willaert, Chief Isaac Willingham was our leader.

On June 6th, 1944 D-Day the sky was full of planes as far as the eyes could see. It was ear deafening.  WOW!!  My seabags were all packed, I did some target practicing into the channel. After lunch I got ready to go to war.

On the morning of June 7th, 1944 I got dressed with five layers of clothing, plus a rubber tube life ring, and a MAE WEST JACKET. We were given 6 pork chops and a loaf of bread, this was to be our dinner.

We went aboard our large concrete caisson, a "phoenix," 200 feet long, 60 ft high, and 60 ft. wide, at about 1330 hours (1:30 pm).

Our gun crew was 6 British tommies, who were to man our 40 mm aircraft guns. They were in the bow of the Phoenix, and we were in the stern of the Phoenix. We left our dockage early afternoon, when the U.S.A. tug boat came and hooked us up, and pulled us at 4 knots per hour, headed for Omaha Beach Normandy, we were to arrive the morning of June 8th, 1944.

The 6 of us Seabees were paired off to stand 4 hour watch each, I, Bob Pintar went on watch at 2400 hours with chief Isaac Willingham from Company "D" Pl. 1. We were to be the 2nd phoenix to arrive at Normandy June 8th at dawn. It was dark and the skies full of airplanes, and ships all around-- red skies on the coast of France, sounds of war gave chills up one’s spine!

Standing on the stern deck watching the tug towing us at 0115 hours, I, Bob Pintar, heard a splash - splash and a hissing sound on the port side, and saw 2 torpedoes skimming along the surface that crossed our bow and aft of the tug boat "missed" us!

The Germans misjudged our slow speed of 4 knots. The tug cut us loose, I was speechless!! Then I hollered below to the other 4 Seabees, “Torpedoes—Torpedoes, may day, all on deck.” Then I ran along the gangway to the bow section to alert the British gun crew with the same warning.

I, Bob Pintar, ran back to the stern and made sure Chief Willingham's mae west was tied tight.

At this time we could hear the deep-throated diesel sound of the enemy "e" boat, and 2 more torpedoes splashing, as they were launched - German loosed... We watched them hissing along the surface in a form of death towards us, one along our starboard and the other on the port side, both missed us again,

By this time I cut one of our life rafts loose, “How dare the Germans shoot at us.”?
We were all on deck now looking & listening, Harry Winslow from Co. "C" Pl. 4 and myself were standing on the stern. Off in a distance dead center we heard splash torpedo #5 was off to starboard, Harry and I leaned over the stern rail to watch torpedo #6 slam into our stern with a --Ka—BOOM. We were about 45 feet above the water. The #6 torpedo, the same as used by the "u" boats.

We were blown 20 ft, into the air. By the time we landed back on deck, the phoenix was listing to port about 30 degrees and sinking fast.
We slid and tumbled on the deck to the port side and into the sea.
The sinking phoenix caisson sucked us down with it to the bottom of the English channel about 25 fathoms or 150 feet, and about 10 miles from the coast of France,

The noise under water seemed to me to be made by angels hollering plus the sound of under water explosions and many bubbles. When we came up to the surface, Harry and I found the life raft to float on. Chief Isaac Willingham hung on to a crate with "k" rations. The other 3 seabees were strangers to me as we had been selected as a team. They were Al E. Williams Co. "C" Pl. 4, Cliff Winders, Co. "C" Pl. 4 and Laurance Waelert Co. "C" Pl. 4. We all surfaced trying to keep alive.

We still heard the sound of the enemy's diesel engines as he patrolled around us. Chief Isaac Willingham was crying out, “God Save Us,” very loud and out of the darkness the German "e" boat, we could see the scull cap bridge. A machine gunner opened fire and laced the water in front of chief Willingham, and fired from bottom to top. Chief Isaac Willingham was gone !! The "e" boat disappeared into the darkness.

All through the early hours we would be silent, or whisper, Harry Winslow and I would take turns to hold up two soldiers who didn't have any life jackets on -- we didn't see any life in them. As time passed we were numb and cold and let them slip under!

During the time in the water we were drifting towards Cherbourg, and the coast. We encountered many body parts and dead bodies, like fishing bobbers, heads down and feet up. The sea was full of debris--what a solemn sight-- Harry Winslow lost his hearing, Cliff Winders got his leg crushed and all the others were banged up. We watched the red glow at night from all of the blasting of the French coast line and the sounds of explosions. On June 8th at 0635 am the coming of dawn we sighted, to the west, a ship. It came closer and it was the HMS Vivacious British Destroyer. It stopped to pick us up, putting its starboard side bow along side.

The crew put its cargo nets down at that point the Vivacious crew pointed to the eastern sky , we looked up just in time to see a German Stuka 87 D nose over with its wing dive, brakes in position along with 2 fifty lb. bombs slung under its belly, the wheels were extended and shrouded with its spats; looked like an eagle with its talons extended.
The Stuka J 87 D went into its dive with the wheel spats and a screeching sound along with the roar of its engine gave the look and sound of an eagle as it came in for the kill----very menacing----
The crew of the Vivacious along with us survivors were mesmerized as we awaited the bombs!

Two loud --Ka-- Booms-- we were about 20 feet from the starboard side of the ship.  The two bombs missed the ship and us. The bombs landed into the water between the Vivacious and us. The concussion blew our legs back up under the "K" ration crate and our raft. The backs of my legs were all shredded.

The Stuka J 87-D went out of its dive and disappeared into the clouds
The crew of the Vivacious, with lowered nets, had to help us up the nets as we were shocked and numb and cold. We would have not lasted much longer.

The crew removed our clothes and wrapped us in blankets and gave us a grog of rum and hot tea. The crew washed our oily clothes and gave them back to us to us to wear

The British officers notified us that we were prisoners of war

Note: not a shot was fired at the Stuka as the crew was mesmerized. The rest of June 8th we sailed with the Vivacious, as they were on submarine –U- boat patrol.

The Vivacious turned us over to the British War Ministry to have our wounds treated and interrogate each one of us.

We were taken to London, and put up in a hotel on the 2nd floor near Picaddily Circus--how convenient---

Early that evening we crawled out of that hotel window and down the fire escape, and off to Picaddily Circus with our oily torn clothes only with French invasion money.

We went into a pub, didn’t need any money, soon Scotland Yard was called and we were picked up, and escorted us back to the hotel, and they put a guard on the door and the window.

The next morning they took us to Plymouth, England to be processed. We rested again and went over the hill! In the same oily torn clothes.

We came back after a few hours and rested and made out our lost claim forms and was awarded the Purple Heart.

On June 14th we were taken back to the Isle Of Wight, and eventually Tiegnmounth, England, a rest area until our ship The New Amsterdam sailed for U.S. Of America.

Note

I, Robert Pintar, was in the water for 5 hours and 10 minutes; I was wounded twice in those time frames, all due to torpedos and bombs

That gave me a 40 % hearing loss and a very bad hip, and left lower back.

                                        ROBERT PINTAR             HARRY JAMES WINSLOW
                                        WICKLIFFE, OH               BLOOMINGTON, MN.
 

Note: Bob Pintar and Raymond Dierkes became close friends as we were in the same draft that took us to Okinawa with the 1081 C.B. Detachment.

We both became master contracting plumbers and have a great respect for each other.

Bob Pintar time at Omaha never existed, as they never got there. On the other hand Ray Dierkes Spent June 6th to August 3rd erecting THE PORTABLE HARBOUR, code name MULBERRY.

Let me tell you I wouldn’t trade places with Bob Pintar, or his Seabee crew and go through what that crew went through.
 
 

                                                                    SEABEE HISTORIAN
                                                                    RAYMOND B. DIERKES
                                                                    PRESIDENT 97TH –108TH NCB