Admiral W L Capps (AP 121) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 58 text:

during shakedownb, too much strain had been placed on the main propulsion motors and that the pole pieces had been pulled out of shape to such an extent that they would have to be re- placed. There were several other desirable alterations and nec- essary repairs, which would have warranted an availability period, but because of the large number of ships in the San Francisco harbor at the time, it was deemed necessary to repair only the motors. Thirty-five days elapsed before the ADMIRAL CAPPS was ready to sail again. This was regarded by many as the best in-port period of any that we ever had. Being close in to town made liberty very con- venient as well as enjoyable. It was there that we got our first dock. It was about 0730 one morning, when the marine officer had the gangway, that the bollards and cleats on the pier began to pull out, one by one, and the ship drifted out into the slip. The marine officer didn't know what to do so he did nothing-thus greatly reducing the amount of confusion which is customarily present at such operations. The day's duty officer ordered the anchor dropped to hold us in our displaced position and then lowered a boat to carry lines back to the dock. These lines were then used to warp us into the dock. We were ready to sail again on 5 February, loaded with 3215 passengers bound for New Guinea. Our first stop was Finchafen, British New Guinea. We entered the harbor, received orders to go to Hollandia, turned around and departed. If you call that an in-port turn around, that was our fastest. We now thought that we were getting into the war zone. There were Iaps all around us- they were all starving and hadn't fought back for months but they were still Iaps. We thought that there Troops Relax on the way to New Guinea Entering the harbor at Hollandia, New Guinea ff' ,! sf! .f' 'S' 0, Z! sf' Z' 5 A QQ 4 ,t 1 fha W .i-7t.g, 'Q-Lg' , -WAY W Relievz wculd still be fighting at H Nc submarines attacked us strfed us and no surface ra wc found that the closer w ligits burned at night. Lc ou than Hollandia or any We arrived in Holland 1-ugfy, There we waited fc proceed to Leyte, but the c milk a week to form and ir sergers, 157 tons of hold c

Page 57 text:

Mil il-BNWT P0-lVhf1gj3n fnwklbfi jfh' 3 if twhcr we nm qinaluhfwl In explain. Ar si! t-lygng shin an-nt, nf ug CY' H milk U l Wits bf!-an to W f' V 'ii as the targo W at sg eff the pas. A 4 5 Vttfltftf QRS were Y ' LV Vt' Vilfll spaces. k 4 W Nfvu .xml llifhl- 3 ' -if fha. if mm home A have helped il , mania.-sand K W - ,M 4 . rss..- LL- -- - - N- u Loading Casualties in Espirita Santo We sailed for Esperito Santos, New Hebrides Islands, on the 14th of December and arrived there in the afternoon of the 15th. Unloading of mail and embarking of passengers Was completed that night and the next morning, and We sailed for San Francisco on the afternoon of the 16th. We were diverted to San Diego on the 23rd and arrived there in the evening of the 26th. Thus we had sailed on Thanksgiving Day and arrived back on the day after Christmas. All of the casualties and most of the passen- gers Were unloaded at San Diego and in less than 24 hours we were on our Way to San Francisco again. We arrived in San Francisco late in the evening of the 28th of December, 1944, completing the maiden voyage. lt was dis- covered in the inspections of the ship during the following Week that at some time or other, Qprobably in the crash stop tests Navy Barracks on ESPIRITU SANTO 1 Tlze casualties get tlzeir first loolq at the states - San Diego, Cali

Page 59 text:

v M New Causes i-.Nti Gill' + . f-in 7. 2 as .xx-mi ,r f li - I E ff ly X I E x 1 l xx u X I ' x X Q I . x S l A li xx til R Q it I Y . . , 1 - X XX .xX L K I i is '39 A X ix' X. . - pp Atl 5 ,Q it i nf' V VQN QQ V ' V' A ' .-X - .41 A , 21 'tml' if 'Zum X I s all I -. I X 2 .3 4 J Ex it s X X 2 ax l xxx 1 ' : -xxx X E X i XX . f AH lie in ill i 1 X - sg? ' I Y ka 2 X 2 H XE xx 5 If gp R 2, X Qvxi fx Y I i tt 1, Xxx ix hx 2 E Xixijl ' J I Ft ii idk XXX' x KX if R 3 . .7 N . . Q .VR 5 It .bs RS IK XB l. ,1 f Q A y 1 1935 r-1 I ,,..evr...- NU'-'-- -- -' ee was ' K ! I 2' Q 7 ,Ar m . if un' 95513: TT- L1-'SE' X .Wu-.W'W -----.- '.'.:' MT A ' -'---...,..-, 9' -f Wx. -sW +--.. Relieving the forezop would still be fighting at Hollandia. We were sadly disappointed. No submarines attacked us, we ran into no mines, no airplanes strafed us and no surface raiders shelled us. As a matter of fact, we found that the closer we got to the fighting, the brighter the lights burned at night. Los Angeles harbor was better blacked out than Hollandia or any of the other bases we later visited. We arrived in Hollandia in the early morning fog of 21 Feb- ruary. There we waited for a convoy to form so that we could proceed to Leyte, but the convoy of three ships and two escorts took a week to form and in the meantime we picked up 647 pas- sengers, 157 tons of hold cargo and 27 tons of deck cargo. We would have had more had we been willing to take it. They seemed to be trying to move all of Hollandia up to Leyte. In the late afternoon of 28 February our convoy formed. We were convoy commodore, the USS RIXEY CAPH-35 and the S.S. BRITISH COLUMBIA EXPRESS were the other members and the destroyers YOUNG and STEVENS were the escorts. We and the RIXEY were going to Leyte and the others were going to Manila. Distinguished passengers aboard the BRITISH COLUMBIA EXPRESS Ca Norwegian shipj were General Douglas Mac Arthur's wife and family. That is why she rated two destroyers for escorts. Being in a convoy was new to us-let alone being convoy commodore. The O. Dfs and the signalmen really had a work- 'H- Dawn Alert on the way to Leyte