My uncle's remarkable Navy tour

[John Kettler]

I've probably mentioned this before, but it wasn't just Patton's army which raced across Europe. There was also Patton's navy! The pic is of part of a highly obscure Navy unit called Boat Two en route to the Rhine. Boat Two operated the LCMs aka "M" boats which allowed him to put forces across rivers without waiting for the Engineers to build him a bridge. In turn, this allowed Patton to employ his "rock soup" method of ever advancing--despite what the orders to him read. Amazing how a quick scout across the river mushroomed into Patton's Third Army, in its entirety, on the far bank. MoMM3 (Motor Machinist's Mate, 3rd class) George Kettler was with Patton and may very well have served on one of the boats in the pic.

https://www.facebook.com/417580594992591/photos/a.418454124905238.97879.417580594992591/421304101286907/?type=1&relevant_count=1

Relevance to CMBN? He landed at Normandy on D+1 and was involved in some pretty ghastly cleanup afloat. Went on for days I'm told. If you want to know where he went thereafter, see where the Third Army went. Uncle George had a Brownie box camera with him and took quite a few pics. I saw them decades ago (now in custody of his son), but I particularly remember the shot of going through the Siegrfried Line dragon teeth. Two quick anecdotes.

Somewhere in his armed tour of Europe, Uncle George managed to acquire the highly prized Luger, together with ammo. He sent them home, expecting to play with his new toy when he got back. Good news and bad news there,I'm afraid. He got back, the pistol was fine, but he was still quite unhappy. Why? My then adolescent father-to-be, Bill Kettler, had decided the Luger was just the thing for shooting box turtles. As a result, Uncle George had his beautiful pistol--and no ammo!

The second story was from late in the war. At the time, Boat Two was operating on the Rhine. Uncle George was busy repurposing war materiel into useful civilian items. He was making salt and pepper shakers, you see. And from what? Live 20 mm HEI shells! Apparently, he had a big pair of pliers, which he'd use to extricate the projectile, after which he'd dump the propellant and carry on from there, producing beautiful brass salt and pepper dispensers. Sometimes, though, the fuze would start to sputter. In consternation, some passengers aboard his LCM urgently asked "Now what?!" Without missing a beat, he'd backhand the pliers, deftly releasing the about to explode shell to land harmlessly in the water, then dig out another round and carry on.

Regards,

John Kettler