U534, Birkenhead Warships Trust - fate of collection.

Hi Mike,

I've been looking up the LCT 7074 saga on the Internet and it seems virtually everyone has been campaigning to save her over the years - all to no avail. The landing craft is on the official Historic Vessels at Risk list, but that is apparently meaningless. I'd certainly be willing to back any efforts to save her, as I am sure would countless other people. I see the former owner Jud Evans is hoping a campaign can be started, so it may be worth seeing how that develops. I think the only hope at this stage would be the intervention of the Government. The most shameful aspect, of course, is that while the last landing craft from D-Day lies rotting and sinking in Birkenhead docks, barely a mile away at Woodside a German submarine has been expensively restored and put on show as a tourist attraction. Meanwhile, just across the river on the Pier Head in Liverpool - in direct line of sight of the submarine - stands a memorial to the thousands of Merchant Navy sailors lost during the war, many of them victims of U-boats. It makes you want to weep.

 

tmac,

Don't get me started on this mate- I could really go off on one!
Having said that over the next few days I will find as much as I can about previous/current campaigns and have a think about it.
If you are interested in Landing Craft etc try googling:
LST and Landing Craft Association

Combined Operations

The lost flotilla


The last one is specific to the event in which my uncle (Martin Long) was lost and I have provided some of the information there.
Are you anywhere local to Liverpool/Birkenhead or just an interested observer? Don't feel obliged to answer if you would rather not.

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the link to the landing craft pages - I'll have a look at them. My interest in this is simply that I'm from Birkenhead many moons ago and I was back down there last year when I saw the LCT looking in a sorry state on the East Float and it aroused my curiosity. I hadn't really followed what was happening with the Historic Warships and was shocked to learn they were being dispersed. I always liked the idea of the LCT being restored, because I'd loved to have looked around it. My father went over to Normandy in one on D-Day. It baffles me that we seem to have no sense of history in this country when it comes to situations like this. We can't be bothered saving such an irreplaceable vessel, but we'll probably end up in 2044 - the 100th anniversary of D-Day - having to build a replica of an LCT to show people what they were like.

 

tmac,

Yes, 2044 - I can see it now!
Britain, know officially known as the European State Of Refuge For The Whole Of The EU, is preparing for the Centenary of D-Day. The Government, now based in Brussels, will (after a Newspaper campaign) provide 500Million SuperEuros (in todays values about £25.50) and place an order just too late for a replica to be built.
The quarter size model will be made in China out of melted down £10,000 coins which were officially banned after a recent Health and Safety scare (and were anyway worth more as scrap than it's purchasing power).
The model arrives 30 minutes before the unveiling ceremony and after being unwrapped is found to be made of plywood and papier-mache.
On seeing the model the Germans recognise it and immediately start making plans to invade Poland. The French (forgetting what side they were on in 1944) call a National Strike and threaten to burn the model. The Italians surrender - just in case.
The next day the Brussels based Govt issues an arse covering statement blaming the whole thing on a banned minority subversive pro-colonialist and imperialist element based in the former London, now officially known as De-Gaulleville.
The model ends up as a kids toy outside the former Buckingham Palace, now a MacDonalds owned theme park and drug familiarisation resort.
A week later an article appears in the EU state newspaper 'Wikipedia Times' claiming that D-Day never happened and anyway, who cares.
By 2045 all 'ecole' children's folding plasma screen 500Teratera byte micro super-computers are automatically updated to erase all history of WW2 and for good measure all history prior to El Grande Presidente Of All Europa Harriet Harmon's rise to power. Her e-book 'How I fought against the male oppressor, common sense and reason' becomes the highest download in world history, with nearly 20 being sold. The reason for this is unclear as there are only 3 'academics' who have learned the ancient skill of 'reading'.
With the proceeds of the e-book deal El Grande Presidente resigns after almost a whole month in office with an undisclosed 'golden handshake' and performance related payment rumoured to be in the Billion TeraEuro range.
She retires to her private estate, formerly known as 'the Caribbean'.


Cynical? Moi? maybe just a sense of reality and humour?

Jut re-read this - thought it's not too bad!

Mike

 

Clubship Landfall (LCT 7074 Mark III) In Canning Dock, Liverpoool 1969


SOURCE : LANDFALL(LCT 7074) IN CANNING DOCK LIVERPOOL 1969 - ATHENAEUM LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY

 

A more recent photo

SOURCE: LCT7074 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

LCT 7074 (otherwise known as "Landfall") is the last surviving LCT that took part in the D-Day landings of World War Two. More than 700 landing craft tank provided the backbone of the invasion of Normandy. LCT's could carry eleven Sherman tanks and LCT 7074 carried ten of them to Normandy. Nine managed to reach the the beach without being hit or breaking down. After returning to Southampton, LCT 7074 carried American reinforcements back to Normandy for the assault on Cherbourg. After the War the Royal Navy handed the LCT 7074 to the Master Mariners of Liverpool and for many years she was the lunch club, in a central position on the Liverpool Waterfront, later to be a floating nightclub known as "Nightclub Landfall" moored in Stanley Dock. The Warship Preservation Trust hopes to complete restoration of the LCT 7074 in the near future.



SOURCE: Wyre Heal

 

Phil,
Thanks for posting those, Hadn't seen the one on flickr before.

Mike

 

Hi Mike L, tmac and englandphil,
Great to meet you! I just joined ww2talk a few minutes ago and am very impressed with your mutual knowledge of things military in general and the maritime arm in particular.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jud Evans, an ex-soldier (Gloucestershire regiment) I am retired, married, have eight children, the three youngest of whom are three boys aged 13, 10 and 8. I live in a village equidistant between Southport and Preston in Lancashire.

As the former owner of the Landfall LCT 7074 during its heyday as The Merseyside Master Mariners Club I am natural very interested in your current dialogue regarding the ongoing tragedy concerning the now semi-submerged craft in the East Float, which is part of the Birkenhead dock system. Some of you may have visited my philosophy website The Athenaeum Library of Philosophy within which I have embedded The Landfall Story website.

I am trying to get a campaign established to bring pressure on the government to provide a grant to cover her raising and refloating in order to either drydock her or lift her onto the hard somewhere as an initial emergency action pending the raising of sufficient capital for a thoroughgoing restoration and refurbishment of her as a publicly owned museum piece for the benefit of Merseyside and world history. I have no financial interest in the vessel personally.

I have only been up and running on the project for a few days and as of yet have been joined by one enthusiastic fellow campaigner called Gavin and during that time I have written to various newspapers and radio stations, written to The British Prime Mister, the leader of the Conservative opposition and the Liberal Party plus the Minister of Defence, and Ministers from other departments whom I thought might possibly help.

It is still early days for a reply from those sources. I have also beenn in contact with To Mr. Tony Chapman, the Official Archivist/Historian, LST and Landing Craft Association (Royal Navy) who has alerted the American Landing Craft group in order to elicit their support. I have formed a group on FACEBOOK called Landfall (LCT 7074) Preservation Group in the hope that as many members as possible will disseminate the message the cut and paste the ready-prepared e-mail to Lord Mandelson (a very influential member of the government.) My son Cameron (13) has lots of young friends on Facebook and he is helping to involve as many kids as possible to send e-mails to Lord Mandelson.
I am considering using the net as a major publicity tool. If we could get schools to cooperate and get schoolchildren flood the net with emails to the powers that be - it would be really powerful as a persuader.

I thank you for your patience and will close now and take this opportunity of sending you my greetings.
Best wishes,
Jud Evans.

 

Hi Jud,
Must be something strange going on here. I got off the phone to Tony Chapman only a short while ago having just got home from Kew where I was doing some research for him (amongst other things).
I have read your story re the Landfall and saw it in Birkenhead before it sunk.
From my previous posts you should know the reason for my interest.
I will be more than happy to assist in any way to see the vessel raised and preserved, and hopefully restored to WW2 condition. Please keep in touch with this thread.

Mike

 

Back on topic: a picture of when the girl was still complete in 2002

 

Jud,

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I wish you well on your venture, which is a worthy cause.

Regards
Tom (ex Prestonian)

 

When I get a chance I will try to enlist the support of Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, Essex. I met him at 'The House' last week and prodded him re TNA search fees etc, will follow up with this. A worthy cause indeed.

Mike

 

Hi Mike,
Sorry about the disconnect Mike - I am still feeling my way around the personalities and main movers involved in the fascinating world of Landing Craft. Being new here I did not realise that you are the same helpful Mike (introduced by to me by Tony Chapman) who is Mike Cresswell the President of the LST and Landing Craft Association (Royal Navy) - so profuse apologies Mike.

Sadly I have a bit of bad news regarding LCT 7074. I managed to trace a gentleman (a fishing boat owner) who was retained by the dock company (he is retained no longer) to keep an eye on the Landfall for a small fee.

He is as frustrated as anybody else that she was allowed to rust away for years. It was he who had to pump her out using his own vessel's equipment during all the years that she has been berthed in that location. In his opinion she is too far gone to salvage. He reckons that the whole bottom of the craft is holed and rusted. His views regarding any hopes of sufficient finance becoming available to refloat her are (perhaps understandably) rather negative.

Interestingly he mentions two other parties who visited the dock in recent years to explore the possibility of removing her from Birkenhead and taking her elsewhere for renovation and display.

One enquiry was from Hawthorne Leslie the shipbuilders from Tyne and Wear (Newcastle area) who were the original builders. I once visited them 38 years ago whilst I was researching for my book on LCT 7074 and on that occasion they made me very welcome at directorial level. Apparently during their visit to inspect the Landfall they said they had the facilities available to repair and exhibit her as part of a D-Day themed tourist attraction. They talked in terms of millions being required.

The other was a group from Southampton who were considering a similar scenario. Both enquiries led to nothing.

Understandably this news has taken the wind out of my sails - though the fact that some of the historic vessels that have been salvaged and restored sufficiently to be put on public view (the u-boat for example) appeared to have been in even a worse condition than Landfall as being only partially submerged and sitting in about 10 or 12 feet of water.

In my opinion divers would not be required as it would be possible with mechanical traction to slip cables forehead of the bow and pull them under the body of the craft in the a form of corporal punishment meted out to sailors at sea, where the man was tied to a rope that looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship's keel to the other side way that sailors were keel-hauled as a punishment in the Royal Navy.

Such speculation on my part would be considered by some as no more than fantasy and that the government and the public in general are simply not concerned with remembering the men and their machines that saved our nation in those dreadful days.

Time (as it always does) will tell – although, as a philosopher, I do not believe that *time* exists - but that it is no more than a neuro-linguistic reification.

To Tom:

Hi Tom!
Thank you very much for your kind words of welcome from a fellow Prestonian – nice to meet you.

Warmly,

Jud

 

Hi Jud,
I am not Mike Cresswell (or I would be Mike C!) but I know who you are referring to. I am an Associate member of LST&LC Assoc.
Truly sad news about the Landfall but it sounds as if there is still a chance of saving her. As you say the U-boat was in much worse condition but somehow the money was found to spend on that - why not the last WW2 D-Day Landing Craft? Makes my blood boil!

If you can summarise your previous/ongoing efforts for salvage and/or restoration and post here (or pm me and I will send email address) we might get a few suggestions from the excellent members here.

Regards,

Mike

 

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and there's D-Day Museum at Portsmouth, they maybe interested. Funding from the National Lottery?

I suspect last year would have been a good year to raise her profile as the 65th Anniversary of D-Day was all over the media.

Regards
Andy

 

I have just noticed from the Mail that Birkenhead's MP is Frank Field. If anyone will take this up he's your man.

Mike

 

perhaps anyone interested could let me have their contact details please.

 

Thanks for your helpful comments Andy and Mike - I continue to plod on writing letters and making contacts.

Best wishes,

jud

 

Jud, Andy,
I am in touch with Billy Stead (WStead above) and there are things going on right now. A bit too early to say what the result might be at this stage but .....well plans are being made.
Watch this space!

Mike