Anthony (DD 515) - Naval Cruise Book

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young Ensign from Georgia, James G. Raines, USN R. The unfortunates who appeared before the Royal Court were too busy wondering about the strange lack of justice to properly appreciate the beauty of this Royal Mermaid. I There isn't room to tell the whole story of the day, but it is impossibleto close without a men- tion of the Turmel of Love which appeared to those who had the privilege of crawling through it to be merely a long chute made of canvas, filled with garbage and coffee grounds, and ending with the surprising greeting of a firehose of salt water being pushed into their weary faces. Truly, sur- vival was a fit test for anyone going on to face the Japs. THE SOUTH PACIFIC FORCE The ship had been happily on its way to Australia, that most famed of places down under, but as the fortunes of war are fickle, the A wound up in Noumea, New Caledonia and after a short stay there, trying to talk French, and buying our first souvenirs, the now eager ship headed for Havannah Harbor, Efate in the New Hebrides where with the Bennett, still her running mate, she joined Ad- miral Halsey's mighty South Pacific Force. A The next few weeks were devoted to more training, ever mindful of the job ahead and the necessity for being in top condition of readiness. Between training, an occasional convoy job kept us aware of the fact that we were now really on the job, but we were eager to start on the Road to Tokyo . ' I ' Our first task was a huge training battle problem which ended in a sweep in support of the Central Pacific Force's raids on Marcus Island. We had our first taste of operating with our own Squadron of similarly built new destroyers northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands and there on the 3rd of Sept., having encountered no enemy, we retired to Havannah Harbor, where on September 6th, Captain Edmund B. Taylor, USN, Cthen Comman-derj, hoisted his pennant in the ANTHONY as Commander Destroyer Division NINETY, and the A was now a proud flagship. - But before we were off to Tokyo, we had our first real excitement when the ship resounded to the cry of man overboard . It seems that M. A. Webber, MM3c, USNR, of Trent, Oregon, leaned over a lifeline on the fantail to dispose of some trash when the line gave way, and Webber joined his trash. His sudden departure was sighted by the alert Boatswain of the Watch, Percy G. Sylva, who got the word to the bridge, and with perfect teamwork the ship was swung out of the formation, and returned to locate our missing man. It was but a matter of minutes before he was located and picked up by the motor whale boat and, although he had been brushed aside by the bow wake of the destroyer that was close astern of us, he was suffering from nothing more serious than surprise. STARTING TOWARD TOKYO The start on the road began for us when on the 1st of November 1943, the Marines landed at -Empress August Bay, Bougainville Island. They had been escorted to their landing beaches by some of our newest and finest destroyers, and the ANTHONY was among them. The preliminary bom- bardment of the beach was the first one for the mighty A and we went at it with real enthusiasm. The J aps sent several raids of planes to assist their grounds forces but these were driven off by the fire of the ships who were also aided by some of our fighter planes of the air arm of the South Pa- -cific Force. ' This was our first experience with Jap planes and while we were right in the center of things, the J aps apparently were wise to remain out of the range of our guns. Not so with one of our sister ships, and although she -shot down a Betty she took a bomb close aboard to receive the first casual- ties suffered by any ship of our squadron. While the casualties were very light, we were nevertheless impressed by the reality and grimness of our business. The real targets, the troop laden transports were safe and thus the air attack was a failure. After a second air raid at noon, the transports completed their unloading an-d the return journey to what was to be our home base for the next few months was begun. We arrived at Purvis Bay, Florida Island, Solomons Islands on the 3rd of November after an uneventful trip. Little time was spent at our base and on the 5th we were once again on our Way with 3, second echelon of Marines. This was to prove a most eventful trip and two new officers had just , -6- IQ I ,, l

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After spending a short but pleasant few days in the zone , the three greyhounds of the sea herded their charge into the Pacific and the mighty carrier headed for Hawaii secure in the knowl- edge that she was well guarded. It was on this part of the voyage that the Anthony started anothe: record that is equally as important as that of the enemy destroyed. On May 20th, Lieutenant Cjgj Reuben H. Denoff, USNR, was rescued after making a forced landing at sea. This made him the first of many of our gallant pilots and aircrewmen who were to be saved from the sea by the efforts of this ship, which although dedicated to the deadly business of destruction, also took even greater pride in the saving of lives of our men. PARADISE 0F THE PACIFIC May 31st found the little group ,arriving at Oahu after having been welcomed to the Pacific Fleet. There followed two months of intensive training for the operations that were to come. Al- though this time was spent in training the A was now doing her job, as this training included op- erating with and providing anti-submarine protection to the battleships and carriers that were also training in the area in preparation for the time when the fleet would start on the way to Tokyo. It was during this stay in Hawaii that our Navigator, Lieutenant Cjgy Rinaldo Guinasso, USNR, fthen an Ensignj of San Francisco, California, and our Asssistant Gunnery Officer, Lieutenant ljgj D. Ross Denison, USNR, fthen an Ensignp of Hutchinson, Kansas, joined the ship to serve with the others who were serving with the proud ship until the fall of Japan. OFF TO THE FORWARD AREA Feeling better prepared, but still eager to learn more before encountering the enemy, the An- thony steamed out of Pearl Harbor bound for an extended stay in the forward area. At that time, the forward area extended to the central part of the Solomons, before the sleek grey hull was once again to knife her way through the Hawaiian waters, that forward area was to be moved all the way up into the Mariannas. CROSSING THE LINE Escorting a troop convoy Wasn't particularly rugged, but the arrival into the domain of Father Neptune was. The ship arrived at the equator on the 19th of August and the Pollywogs had been well prepared for their entry into the mystic realm by the few but enthusiastic shellbacks among the crew. So important was the occasion that for the two days before, an officer watch had been main- tained on the top of one forward and one after five inch gun mountsg and this officer clad in a steel helmet, fur lined coat, white shoes, and white gloves, but nothing else, searched the horizon for any Sign of his majesty, using a pair of lead sounding weights for binoculars, and carrying a horn upon which he was to announce his sighting of the old man of the sea. The lookouts didn't find him, but they did acquire a good sunburn which put them in a better physical condition for the ceremonies that were to come. The fatal morning arrived and at nine in the morning His Royal Majesty Neptunus Rex, Ruler of the Sea, Cand on any other day, Lieutenant Commander William V. Pratt, USN, the Executive Of- ficerj came on board to conduct the ceremonies. He was attended by Davy Jones Cwho normally used the name of Theodore A. Roginski, Chief Boatswain's Mate, USN, of Long Island, N. YJ and a host of other royal personages. All manner of fiendish tortures were perpetrated on the lowly Polly- wogs who appeared before the court and were not too adequately defended by the Defense Attorney, Lieutenant Norman C. Wiatt, USNR, who being a shellback himself, wasn't too concerned about the charges brought by the Prosecuting Attorney, Lieutenant David B. Cohen, USN. Since justice was quite blind, the inevitable decree was Give him the works and another Pollywog was on his way to kiss the tummy of the Royal Baby, get his haircut by the Royal Barber and the special at- tention from various other prominent members of the court. These last three personages normally were W. R. Wright, WT2c, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniag H. I. Boren, BM1c, and P. G. Sylva, CBM, USN, of Passing, Virginia. The Royal Queen was attired in a grass skirt, a suitable crown, an odd wig, and some padding under a bra that was designed to give a feminine appearance to the most unfeminine person of the ...5...

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001119 ab0ard- Lieutenant USP, Ernest C- HiPP, USN fthen EI'1SigI1J, of Clinton, South Carolina, who -was to become our gunnery officer in time for the Iwo and Okinawa Campaigns was one of the new Naval Academy graduates. The convoy hadnot reached Bougainville when word was received to send ahead two destroyers to cope with an anticipated move by the J aps who were expected to have some destroyers off the coast to cover counter landings. The ANTHONY and our sister ship the HUDSON were selected, and we proceeded at high speed for the area of possible activity. While we didn't encounter any Jap de- stroyers one could hardly say that We didn't find activity. Shortly after midnight on the 8th, the ship went to battle stations due to a surface contact ahead which was assumed to be the enemy. The target turned out to be a native sampan and was passed by, then an aircraft was heard in the immediate vicinity. It wasn't long before it had passed overhead, and the after machine gun control officer, Ensign F. J. McConnell, USNR of Long Island, N. Y., lqoked up, saw what appeared to be a Liberator and heaving a sigh of relief, remarked Aircover . . . I-Iis remarks were punctuated by the explosion of a stick of bombs about 125 feet off our port qua er. Since we believed the plane to be friendly, we made efforts to identify ourselves to him, and as he came in a second time, we blinked recognition signals to him. Sy Coatrey, CSM, USNR, of New York, N. Y., saw the response, and remarked I-Ie's answering us with a flashing red light . Unfortunately these flashes of red were tracers and we were straffed from the stern to the bridge by 50 calibre bullets. As this was not the time to further consider his friendly nature, we let him have a few flashes ourselves, and he imme- diately departed for safer places. Fortunately no one was hurt although there were several miraculous escapes. W. F. Hastik, TM2c, of Chicago, Illinois, and W. L. Smith, TM1c, of Powellville, Maryland, who were manning one of the torpedo mounts had bullets pass between them and shatter the instruments in front of them, and Dr. John R. Seal, Lieutenant, CMCJ, USN, of Proffitt, Virginia, who was lying down in the wardroom had one pass over him in such a manner that had it happened a few moments earlier, it would have struck him as he had been standing up working in what would have been the line of fire. We' were unable to contact anything else but our own motor torpedo boats, and in the morning we joined our squadron screening the transports as the troops were being put ashore. MANY BOGIESH ' Thus dawned what was to be quite an eventful day. Shortly before noon a large group .of enemy planes was contacted approaching the transport area, and although the fighter cover did an excellent job, there were just too many of them, in the next few minutes, over 100.planes attacked. They were dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters but they were no match for the intense AA fire, and the raid was almost completely destroyed by the combined fire of the ships and the fighter pilots who braved our own AA fire to assist us. Being in a favored position, the mighty A was able to shoot them down like ducks in a shooting gallery, and by the time that the smoke had cleared away, eleven planes had fallen to the fire of our guns. This did not count any probables, possibles, or assists. One dropped a fish for our benefit before he was splashed by the fire from our main battery, but we maneuvered, and it passed about 150 yards astern. Another was making a bombing run on one of our older destroyers whose AA battery vvasn't quite as modern or deadly as ours, but we made fast work of him, there was a burst of smoke, a flash, and he just wasn't there. VVhile we were still discussing the phenomenal score of eleven planes definitely destroyed by our ship alone, a record probably not equalled by a destroyer until the Okinawa Campaign, we were again alerted to another attack but we were just departing with the unloaded transports, and we sought refuge in a rainstorm which appeared as if in answer to our prayers. We were protected by this same storm for several hours on our way home and while we were thus protected, the bogies , unable to get at us, located and attacked our covering force. Their attack was so furious, that the comment was heard made by one of their ships over the voice radio, There are so many fish in the waterltilooks like Friday . One of those fish found its mark, but the A and her group found their Way back to base safely. H THE MILK RUN With a beachhead firmly established at Empress Augusta Bay, the supplies and troops had to be kept moving, and that was our job for the next few months. We would convoy, any type craft from the stately Assault Transports to the slower but nevertheless effective, LST's. We had our share of ....7..