Several times I've noted downright spooky coincidences related to my modeling, defying earthly (or indeed statistical/random) explanation. The last example was finding such unusually authentic (for once) pics used in the Victory at Sea's coverage of Bismarck Sea, in which I had already been interested.

Well, again involving Victory at Sea, there is a yet bigger "serendipity" unfolding - now for LSTs:

This was the first pic - immediately following the Bismarck Sea segment - and the opening narration: "Ten thousand miles from the Bismarck Sea, throughout the United States, shipyards are building a new amphibious navy, and a strange, new ship called 'LST': Landing Ship, Tank". Recall my interest in LSTs - likewise "ten thousand miles from" (and well before) my interest in Bismarck Sea - was in building LST-131 for my friend Fred, now sadly, deceased. (RIP Fred!)

But what you didn't know is (after completing the '131) I discovered, in conversation with Fred, that a much more important LST to him was the '902, whose construction he oversaw, on Lake Erie, then rode down the Mississippi - exactly as above - took through shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, then through the Panama Canal - ultimately delivering her to Pearl Harbor. While not precisely the '902, the '831, above, was of course, of the same (LST-542/Chelan County) class and also (according to Navsource) built in western PA, coming down the Mississippi less than two months earlier than '902: no doubt the two looked very close, if not identical. Anyway, I got that "supernatural-creepy" feeling - and take note of LST-831's portside camo, which will prove to be of the same (general) pattern as on yet a third of Fred's LSTs (see below).

Yet more "coincidences" there certainly are: the next, encountered on the 3rd DVD (episode 20: "Return of the Allies"):

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FULL RESRoughly 5 minutes in, yet more authentic footage - this time of the Leyte beachhead, in a flyby when ends looking at LST-909 (top) - only 7 sister-ships removed (out of 612 in the whole class) from Fred's '902 - barely over a "1% miss" - as also for the close sister LST-911 (bottom-left). My attention now firmly caught, I went back to review episode 13, to find, (purportedly) at a landing somewhere on New Guinea (bottom-right), what looks to be LST-904: '902's "second-sister", "once-removed".

If the above still doesn't seem particularly lucky - among some thousand LSTs built, all told - just hang on: the above flyby begins with some sisters even closer to yet another of Fred's LSTs - in fact, his most significant - and longest - assignment of his navy service:


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FULL RESFred's most significant LST - on which he would go to (at least) the Okinawa landing, weather a hurricane, and after the war patrol China, etc. - was LST-610. And here, at top, the Leyte flyby starts with a full view of LST-612: "second-sister" to the '610 - a 99.7% "hit" (again, from out of the whole class)! It will also become clear (see below) that the stern of another LST, glimpsed at top-right, actually belongs to LST-609 - the true, next-sister to Fred's LST-610. Next in the flyby come a pair of LSTs (bottom), the nearest - clearly also 60-something, though a composite of fully six images of the number (inset) still fails to resolve it - will subsequently prove to be LST 608 (see below) - that's fully three of the quintet of sisters bracketing Fred's '610!

The incontrovertible proof delivered by a second flyby - now going the other way, from the beach side:


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__FULL RES____FULL RES__It's easiest to "read" the in columns - actually, from bottom-to-top - and included is a second column of basically duplicate-frames, to catch detail(s) possibly missed in the first. At left, actually the the second half of the pass, you can orient on LST 612, and clearly ID '609 (middle, and top-right) close alongside, to starboard. Note this pass is now down-sun, showing camouflage on all LSTs: the same (basic) pattern shared by '612, '609 and '608 (see below), with a distinctly different one shared by LSTs 126 and '223 (top, not overflown earlier). At right, the beginning of the pass (bottom) views LST-242, in yet a third camo pattern, beached close alongside the '608 (middle).

Note all are paired: '612 w/'609, '126 w/'223 and '242 w/'608, the "three sisters" - '609, '612 and '608 (in that order) - beached contiguously, with no othres coming between them, but only a stretch of "open" beach (now cluttered with LCT/LCVs) separating '608 and '612. This space ideal for having earlier accommodated the "missing" pair - LSTs 610 and '611 - recently up-anchored (very possibly to return again): this is the simplest explanation for all the above - corroborated by Navsource that all five were indeed at Leyte! Although still falling short of a direct pic of Fred's LST (and anyway he wasn't yet aboard the '610) - still the above is darn close - showing exactly what they looked like, and where they had just gone - to run across purely by chance, after surviving in the Victory at Sea series, for over a half-century!

Nor did it end when looking over my other favorites in these DVDs: the ever-present amtraks on-, in and all around these LSTs:


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___FULL RES_____FULL RES______At left, again from episode 13, an amtrak with single 50-cal MG splashes onto a (purportedly) New Guinea beach. At right, back to episode 20, an twin-turreted amtrak crosses the Leyte LZ - on which is beached an LST (background) again the same (general) camo pattern of (and could even well be) Fred's '610. Subsequent coverage from Lingayen Gulf (top-right) features more heavily armed amtraks, followed by an excellent overhead view into an uncluttered amtrak (bottom-left), its crew clinging to the outside, as it approaches an LST holding the cameraman. To the narration "Their sluggish, 12-knot pace wins a new designation from the crews of the LSTs: 'Large, Slow Target", the amtrak backs into an LST: number 612!

If you don't get the significance of this - preponderant appearance of LST-612 in these clips - it is that undoubtedly she was the transport for this camera crew - which again means that Fred's LST-610 was almost certainly also along with them all the way, and that they very likely did photograph LST-610 - such clip(s) possibly left "on the cutting-room floor" - or maybe (the way things are going, here) even yet somewhere in these Victory at Sea episodes - preserved for all time - still to be discovered by us! At this rate, I would even keep a lookout for a film clip of Fred himself - as a 20-something youngster, who, admittedly I would never recognize (but his family probably could)!

So, are you ready - ready to see the real meaning of "Spooky Coincidences", here...?

GodSpeed, Fred! We're thinking of - and keeping a lookout for - you, buddy!

Cheers,

-Matty