Memories of “Jimmie the One”

Edward (Ted) Bentley

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Author: Gareth Owen

An oral history interview with Edward (Ted) Bentley . Interview Date 25-08-2015

JIMMY-THE-ONE
Naval nickname for the First Lieutenant of a ship. In the early days he was referred to as the “First Luff”. Usually nowadays abbreviated to JIMMY and known as NUMBER ONE.

Ted Bentley was conscripted into the Navy. He eventually joined LCT 629 (Landing Craft Tank 629) for the D-Day operations. During the interview he reads extracts from the logbook and he provides a detailed description of the vessel and its crew.

LCT 629 was berthed in Southampton Water during the build-up to D-Day and conducted several exercises in the Solent. During exercises, they practiced collecting tanks from the Royal Canadian Artillery from Lepe Hard. They also undertook firing practice in Studland Bay.

Mr Bentley gives a detailed description of his experiences on D-Day. Having collected the Canadian tanks from Lepe, the flotilla crossed to Juno beach. He describes how a wave damaged their landing equipment, how an adjacent LCT was destroyed by explosives on the beach defences and how they were bombed by a German plane. During the events on the Normandy beaches, a mine was inadvertently trapped underneath the craft. As they returned to Portsmouth this exploded, severely damaging the vessel but not causing any injuries. LCT 629 subsequently made a number of other crossings to Normandy to deliver personnel and supplies.

Mr Bentley has provided The New Forest Remembers project with various documents, copies of log books and photographs. He has also been able to identify several crew members on photographs of LCT 629. As the only surviving crew member from LCT 629, the information he has provided has answered a number of questions raised by other contributors to the interactive portal – in particular those raised by the son of another crew member.