Anthony (DD 515) - Naval Cruise Book

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bogies and the Japs provided us with many excellent pyrotechnic displays on several of the nights that we spent steaming back and forth from Guadalcanal to Bougainville. The snooper planes would drop the flare to illuminate us for bombers or torpedo planes, but epgcept for costing us the loss of our sleep, we received no disasterous effects. We also learned to love the dark nights, and to shud- der at the thought of being out in the bright moonlight. Our monotonous job was broken only by a quick trip to Noumea in the latter part of November when we escorted some returning transports, and we made the most of the opportunity. What had seemed to be somewhat primitive and not too inviting a place when we had arrived there direct from Hawaii and the states now took on new beauty as we arrived there in the relatively cool - breezes after the heat and strain of operating in the Solomons. BARGE HUNTING AT NIGHT The next diversion from the Milk Run was an assignment we received late in the afternoon of January 20th, 1944g we were detached along with the USS PRINGLE to proceed to Bougainville Strait between the southeastern tip of Bougainville Island and Choiseul Island. Both were enemy held, and our PT's had been making regular attacks on their barge traffic, when, on the night of the 19th, they had encountered a Jap Motor Gunboat. This was a bit large for them, and we were the answer, and an effective one. Shortly after midnight we spotted a group of troop-carrying barges moving between the islands, and opened fire. The gunboat which had been covering them, and hadn't been-spotted up to that moment, opened fire on the PRINGLE. We immediately shifted our fire to this craft and were in turn honored by their shifting their fire to us, and a stream of tracers passed over the bridge. We returned the compliment by directing our 5 inch, 20 and 40 MM fire on it. It was but a matter of a few minutes before it was reduced to a mass of burning wreckage. The interest in our work was heightened by the reporting by our spotting plane, an invaluable Black Cat, of high speed wakes heading toward us, and we knew that we were in for an encounter with enemy PT's. Shortly thereafter a torpedo wake was sighted heading for us, but again we dodged a fish by radical maneuvering. We turned our guns on the PT's and they retired to the safety of the shoreline, but only after we had definitely damaged one or more, and possibly de- stroyed them. . To leave this part of our story without a word about our friends, the Black Cats would be shortsighted, indeed. In all of our experiences in the Solomons, we were looked over at night by these true friends and they were a source of continual comfort to us as we steamed close to enemy held waters in the danger scented night. This particular plane was heard to remark to 'another in the vicinity, They are shooting hell out of everything and they won't even let me drop my bombs . This was indeed typical. Later, we did allow him to drop his bombs on some barges that had taken shelter in the reefs near the beach where we were unable to get at them. This soothed his hurt feeings. The early morning light found us steaming at 30 knots for our refueling base at Hathorn Sound, happy in the knowledge of having destroyed a goodly number of enemy small' craft, and having definitely broken up his operating schedule for some nights to come. A return trip the next night, which was fruitless, proved this. THE NEXT STOP-GREEN ISLAND After having spent a couple of weeks putting the ship back in first class shape and getting some AA firing practice, we were ready to set out on our next invasion. The initial landings on -Green fN1SS8.11J Island were made on the morning of the 15th of February 1944, and having escorted 'the LST group to the objective, we were scheduled for fire support duties. These did not materialize due to the absence of any appreciable number of Japs to oppose our landings. The main interest was 'the large number of hecklers which surrounded and illuminated us most of the night. We did lr-ave .a small surprise raid early in the morning, but the combined fire of the ships, plus the assistance of our P-38's took care of these SBD's with wheels down and excellent lessons in the importance of llookouts and recognition were demonstrated. ...g.. S I r ..

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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..

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BAEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN Shortly after the middle of February, one of the squadrons of destroyers who was acting as the covering force was ordered to bombard Rabaul, New Britain Island, to destroy supplies and any enemy shipping found in the harbor. It was really something for a group of destroyers to steam right into the mouth of the vaunted enemy stronghold of the South Pacific, but the raid was very Successful and not 9- Ship Wa-S damaged- We sighed with relief for them, and the comment was freely passed that they had been lucky to catch the enemy by surprise, but woe-be-tide the next ones to try it. Two nights later we were speeding up St. George Channel for that very purpose! We left Purvis Bay on the 23rd for Treasury'Island, practicing torpedo attacks enroute. It was a grand sight watching the squadron steam out of Purvis Bay, trim grey little warships, bristling with guns and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to trade punches with the enemy. The next night we left Treasury Island and headed up St. George Channel between New Ireland and New Britain. At the entrance to the outer harbor our ,division headed in While the other division 'steamed on, look- ing for shipping and waiting in reserve just in case. As we approached Credner Island, we saw a light blinking as if to warn of our approach, but for some reason we were allowed to steam in unmolested. Opening fire with all five guns, we poured the shells out at almost machine gun rate of fire. Our sister ship was doing the same, and in but a matter of seconds, there was a brilliant fire blazing in what had been an enemy supply dump and barracks area. Still the batteries on Credner Island were silent, and we were thankful. A battery in the Vunapope area fired a few shells at us, but we put it out of business before he got the range. As we steamed back and fourth pouring shells into the blazing supply area, PT boats were re- ported heading our way, and we decided that it was time to withdraw. Shifting our fire to the inner harbor area where we struck what possibly was a supply ship at anchor we started' to retire. Again we safely negotiated the most dangerous part of the harbor, right imder the very muzzles of the shore batteries and out to comparative safety. We continued to sweep north in the hope of running into enemy shipping, but we had no luck, and soon it was time to turn our bows toward friendlier waters. Miles away, our other division could see the fires we had started, and pictures of the area taken the next day proved the success of our venture. So ended our second bombardment. We never could figure out why the shore batteries didn't blast us out of the water, but there are many of us who are satisfied to give the 'credit to some higher power looking down on us and protecting us as our gtms 'spoke out in the name of humanity and freedom. WE JUIMP RIGHT PAST KAVIENG Our next invasion took us beyond Kavieng, that other stronghold of the enemy, and the morn- ing of the 20th of March found us covering the landing of Marines on Emirau- Island, one of the St. Matthais Group about 75 miles northwest of New Ireland. The trip up was uneventful, and our principal hostile act at the objective was to strafe the south end of a small adjoining island when machine gun fire from this island was seen to be endangering our landing craft. The reports on the actual presence of .laps on this little island were contradictory, and it was even reported that there were no Japs on Emirau at allg however, the effect of our 40 MM fire must have made the Marines: feel better, and when we ceased firing, there were definitely no further splashes near our boats. We don't claim this for a bombardment, but we sure made a lot of noise and we almost made a landing ourself as we approached within 1000 yards of the beach. . With the marines firmly entrenched, and the Seebees hard at work on the airstrip, we steamed between Guadalcanal and Emirau to bring in supplies. This continued until the 20th of April, when we left Purvis Bay on a surprise escort trip with a merchant ship. Upon beings detached at sea, we were ordered to proceed to Havarmah Harbor, Efate, for duty with the battleship task force--Some- thing was in the air and we hoped that it would be good. BACK TO CIVILIZATION We had not reached our destination when the news came in that we were going there to escort the Battleship Task Force to Sydney, Australia, for Rest and Recreation . That was good news if' there ever was good news. We left Havannah Harbor on the 24th of April and arrived at the en- trance to Port Jackson, Sydney on the morning of the 29th after a journey that was spent in get-- , -9-- .