Robert Sherer served aboard a landing ship, Tank, with the U.S. Naval Amphibious Forces, a unit that played key roles in some of the battles that changed the course of World War II, the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that uses naval ships to protect ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a predetermined beach. Military experts call the most complex of all military maneuvers since it requires difficult coordination of many military specialties, such as airpower, naval gunfire, naval transports, logistical planning, specialized equipment, land warfare and tactics.
Admiral John H. Morrill, said, “Putting the two movements together, landing from the ocean and then to fighting on land, was called amphibious warfare.”
LSTs were relatively large vessels created during the war to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks and other vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly to unimproved beaches.
Scherer, a Port Allegany native, was 17-years-old when he enlisted in the Navy.
He completed boot camp at the Sampson Naval Training Base in New York and then received technical, qualifying him as an electrician’s mate.
Scherer’s LST 1584 was part of the Battle of the Mediterranean given to the naval campaign fought in the Mediterranean Sea from June 10, 1940 to May 2, 1945.
American troops in the European theatre swept across the Mediterranean to Sicily, then to the Italian mainland.
On July 10, Allied forces, including Gen. George Patton’s Seventh Army, invaded Sicily. “We were carrying soldiers for the invasion of Italy and were north of Sicily when the Germans fired on us for a couple of days,” Scherer recalled. “Some of the them soldiers were wounded, but most landed safely.”
On another occasion, LST 1584 was the target of shelling with shells exploding overhead, but there were no direct hits.
In yet another instance, Scherer mentioned the Germans dropped free-floating contact mines that exploded upon contact with their targets. He said, “We got up one morning, and some of our crew in small rowboats carefully pushed the mines away from out LST. That was pretty exciting.”
The mines were exploded later that day.
Allied troops landed at Anzio, Italy, on Jan. 22, in a move to outflank the German defensive positions on the Gustav Line across central Italy. Extremely rough weather — not uncommon west of Italy during January and February — hampered the bringing ashore of men and equipment at Anzio of the build-up days.
After a month of heavy and inconclusive fighting, the Allies finally broke out in May, and headed for Rome. Scherer remembered a lot of hospital ships in the Anzio harbor.
“Before leaving, Anzio, we walked around the town and not one of the walls left standing was as high as a regular table,” he said.
LST 1548 also took part in the invasion of southern France.
Scherer was in Corsica when the war ended.
After the war, Scherer continued his education and earned a degree from St. Bonaventure University.
He owned and operated an insurance agency in Port Allegany before retirement.
Scherer is a member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Port Allegany.
Now 91, he is a resident of Sena-Kean Manor in Smethport.
Military service is a Scherer family tradition. His son, Robert Jr., was a helicopter pilot for 23 years, and grandson, Cody,, is an air traffic controller in Philadelphia.
