Macomb (DD 458 DMS 23) - Naval Cruise Book

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gl-een, snapped a perfect regulation salute. and dashed madly away, no doubt in search of a gin- mill. His unconscious donkey he abandoned to its unhappy fate. As Walsh turned to stagger up the gangway. 3 peculiar sight met his eyes. Bill Tschercll. ex- iceman, and Sweeney. midget quartermaster. friends of long standing. were engaged in a drunken argument about Uawd knows what. .-'ts Walsh watched this scene with bleary eyes. liotll men raised their dukes and prepared for a round of fisticufls. That devils brew. cognac. was get- ting in its licks. llut up stepped Ytialsh. and spoke as follows: Whynt-ha pick on shonu-body your shize. llill'!i' As 'l'scherch turned to confront this new menace. Walsh swung a mighty right hand. the same one that had just dropped the donkey. 'l'sclu-rch prudently ducked. lint Sweeney was not so fortunate. and Walshis piledrixer list t'iltIgl'll him smack on his right optic. lfxit Sweeney. lgnoring his mistake. Walsh stepped ou-r Swcene-y's prostrate liotly lo liollow 'list-ln-rt-li aboard. lit now' he was really worked up to a lighting fury. and was swinging at eu-ry thing he saw. or thought he saw. .Xt the quarterdl-ck. luckilv. he stumbled and fell. and lu-lore he could regain his feet. llr. tilark was upon him. With sonic fancy judo. hc soon rcntcred this mad hattlcr unconsicous. and ten men carted the great lmlk below' to his sack. lixit Walsh. 'lihc lvattlc ol llakar was now in lull swing. :ks we latcr discoxercd. all the places ol amuse- ment had closed in thc afternoon. no doubt for a siesta. and all that was available was bottled cognac. So all the boys had spent the afternoon Swigging the potent stutl. and each and exeryone was rip-roaring. fighting drunk. Un the lantail. liallaus. hlhl lp ff c. suddenly ran amok, and commenced to swing his arms scythe- like among his comrades. felling them like ten- pins. Owens. FC Zfc. happened to be in the way. With great presence of mind. he dropped beneath Kallaus' murderous fist. and grasped him around the ribs in a terrific bear hug. Kallaus made a noise like a main gasket blowing. and collapsed. He recovered quickly. however. and would have resumed hostilities except for the fact that Ur. Clark arrixed on the scene with his little old needle. and it was exit Kallaus. Thus commenced a night ol continual excite- ment. in which each member of the crew. return- ing from llln-rty loaded with tighting juice. saw in t'Lll.'ll erstwhile shipinatc a menace tu ltir life and happiness. and forthwith attacked with xigor and fury. the lloctor and his pharmacist mates were kept busy. racing from thc lucislt' to fantail. from lvritlgc to cttgitn' ltousc. witll ln po and jlttlo rendering these wine-crazed men liannless. linallx. the last ol-strcperous imlnlver had come aboard. the last tight had l-een qucllcd. and the gladiators were all nestled snug in their beds. sleeping the deep. dleamless sleep ull tired nu-n. llnly sputktellt' outlvlcaks ol xiolt-nee lvrokc the l '4u'elul night. lln- l-attle ull llakar was oxcr. IXISSHS NNI! NIISSICS 'lhouuh ol tutll ' the ISF. Xldrolltll is a stlltvtllvl -llll' 'ltr' -ltll ltd- ll.t1l llc! slltttt' all Vul' ltsltllls and .tltllwsl-. lln' t-.oln--t one oe'4'tlllce in tht- Xolllt Xtlanti- .is we were eiuisinp along preparing lu ln--l ond.-iw.o. ks we slanted nttl' glpploavlt, tln- punt lv.lI:w' wa' Nt'll'tjlllllQ,1illUllQ' side tontl-sled out snpcliotitx ln l4'lll'-llttl to nioxc. When llnallx wc ggol -lcal. out lovsle' ltnnlxrtl lilo- .in .n'1ouli.in with ltolvs. lull toll slllllllll lptxa' sawn lllo' nlllrt gtlt. lt ulllt llllllx IIS IT JM. in I1.,.l..,, Xmtl In it-pair our ulaniapc. I. xx ,-:ff -pai. fs I: Wifi? s I -tt,-Ar,A-.....- V-X,Q X 1. ffh 'V' fa. ff,-F' . W -- -, ' -xx ',1'!' All f if -ef, ' it -'Zh i 1 f ' ' X . , . . 2 1 ,If X I N .. f-I in ff' I-IAQNAZ Wx x I, MN-I '-4: -' v,,'m'- --f ff, f' s - rx 6,5 1 ,z . f X :I s.-X ,Y ,,..N! ,.,, , .,,. .117 WIIINI. Ll 1 IIIUKIY 55 .o.4t-4-1an- mms---.-.-1 ,...-f,w-- ,,,-.... sp.. ,. -as l i l l rl l 1 E a s l

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THE BATTLE OF DAKAR There are innumerable battles listed in the history of World War ll, but in the minds of the lVlacomb's crew there remains the memory of one which will never appear on any official battle list. Nevertheless there was such a battle, and it was unique in the annals of warfare in that there was no objective, either moral or geo- graphical, there were no weapons used other than the ones with which all mankind is born, and each and everyone of the belligerents was terrifically intoxicated. It was at the port of Dakar where the scene of this great battle was set, the first liberty party had gone over in the morning, and had found plenty to amuse them-shops, cafes, theatres, and other places of amusement. With so many divcrsihcd forms of recreation, the boys were kept too busy to succumb to demon alcohol, and consequently arrived back at the ship in rela- tively good shape, and with glowing accounts of the delights of liberty in Dakar. These descrip- tions whetted the appetites of the men in the second liberty party. and they set off into town like a hunt-h of wolves in sailoris clothing, which is just what they were. The afternoon wore on. and the three de- stroyers basked in the warm Dakar sun, bliss- fully unaware of what was transpiring in town. The first indication of the state of affairs came when the U.D. happened to glance up along the dork. only lo do a swift double take as a strange sight met his eyes. Meandering along the dock came an ancient donkey, pulling an equally ancient two-wheeled cart, and perched atop this veliiele. singing an obscene ditty at the top of his obviously drunken lungs. was our coxswain, Williams. The O.D. looked farther. Running madly after the cart was a swearing Arab, clad in a regulation mattress cover, yelling unin- telligihle but unmistakable curses at the unper- turhed Williams. Whoa, girl, spoke Williams, ignoring the animals obvious sex. The animal came to an abrupt Slvp. precipitating the driver to the ground. Picking himself up. Coxswain Williams made his unsteady way to the back of the Cart. in a blissfully unconsicous state, lay Ray ,Sig- nalman lfc. The Arab, obviously the owner of the e age, took this moment to arrive puffing on the scene, and between his French-Arabic swearing, and Coxswain Williams, alcoholic babbling, it was some time before the O.D. could elicit the facts. It seems that Williams had come upon Ray lying in a Dakar gutter, about to drown in its contents. You know what runs in the gutters of Dakar. To save a shipmate from this horrible fate, he had commandeered the only vehicle at hand and brought Ray back to the ship. With an air of smug righteousness, Williams completed his report and staggered aboard ship, leaving the whole affair in the hands of the O.D. Now while this scene was taking place, several other imbibers had arrived, among them Big John Walsh, gigantic brother signalman of the unconscious Ray. Seeing his shipmate lying in the cart, Wialsh sat down on the tailgate to shoot the breeze, utterly ignoring the fact that llay was out like a light. But lohnis great weight C230 lbs.l was too much for the undersized don- key, and it rose majestically in the air, sliding both John and the unconscious Ray to the ground. This bothered Ray not a bit, for llc slumbered peacefully on, but Walsh rose from the ground with wrath burning in both his cognac-inflamed eyes. Confronting' the donkey, which had now regained its normal earthbound condition, he accused the animal of malice aforc- thought. ln great rage, he cursed the p00f equine, casting slurring remarks upon its ances- tors, and dropping broad hints that its mothers husband should have stayed home and waiCl'lCd the billygoat next door. Working himself UP into a frenzy, he challenged the animal to fight like a man, obviously an impossible feat. FUT' ther enraged by the animal's stubborn sileItCC, he raised his great fist, and drove a terrific right squarely between the animalis eyes. The poor beastas legs buckled, its eyes crossed, and it quivered throughout its body as it sank slowly to the ground, a perfect K.O. ear The screams of the Arab owner were nog Ish . . , . . 3 piercing, but, with a magnificent g6StUlC, wa ' flung a roll of francs at the man, and S 5 CU1'i0U5: the O.D. followed. There in the cart, gered ayyay. The A1-ab pounced upon the long 54 3 e l p ,,,,, all c Sk' . W , i 4 s quiv-

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The South Dakota spent all of two hours replac- ing the paint we scratched. Soon after the 1n1t1al landings at Oklnawa we steamed into Kerama Retto for fue l and stores We haVen't always come out second best in these arguments. In Toulon we made the C. F. Hughesi side and promptly put our anchor into their chief's quarters. This was a grave tactical error since they were packing the command burgee of ComDesDiv 14. It was only a small hole, but, Oh! the points we lost. That was the day it was decided by popular vote that we would be better off on patrol. That area was jinxed for us. It was around there that we left the Brooklynis side to go along- side a French tanker for fuel. The anchor now rates two flags-one American and one French. It was very rough the day we started to anchor and dropped something like one hundred fathoms of chain in seven fathoms of water. l'ivcrybody loves us in the Med. Charleston, C.. was uneventful fin some ways! but we made up for it in Norfolk. We got there Christmas llay and bad luck was in our wake. It was so foggy that it was common practice to baek around bends in the river to make it easier running from oncoming trafhc. One nice night. shortly after coming out of dry dot-k lwe got there by trying to run 14- feet of ship through l2 feet of watert, we started through the thick fog toward the de- perining dock. navigating by fog horns. ive reached the entrance safely enough and were about to enter when a Sunday driver in a ferry boat came tearing down on us. The 0.0.D., who was the one and only Mr. Lawrence ty pride of Brooklynt made a mad dash for the uP.A.i7 and yelled. Standby for collision to starboardfi which was the wrong side anyhow. The captain threw the Mac into emergency forward, back, and then forward again. They missed us but if there had been another coat of paint on the port side it would have been scraped off. Nice people these Norfolk pilots. We got through the Canal with nothing more than a slightly bent depth charge rack and for a while it looked like old man trouble had finally left us. But it was not to be. if 56 and were assigned an APA who was ab friendly looking as' a bobcat with his fan bared. Life rafts jutted out from her sides and as we were in a helpful mood we decided to clear some of it away. As Bogiesw were an ever present menace wehad to choose the expeditious means available, so we scraped it out as gS most off. Once again we came out second bestg our only boat was stove in and one machine gun was put out of action. Since some of her life rafts were splintered our wounded pride was assuaged in a small degree. Since then we have found nothing to really test our mettle. A Norwegian freighter had a boom rigged out to carry away our rigging, but we foiled her treacherous schemes without any difficulty. Then there was the supply ship that crossed our path while we were steaming off Okinawa. They wanted the right-of-way merely because the rules of the road said she had it, and although some of the Macombis hotlieads wanted to contest it, cooler heads prevailed and we charitably complied with their request. Everyone knows that the Macomb is a regula- tion ship, and doesnit go around looking for arguments, but woe to the ship that defies us, be it the Oueen Mary or the Flying Dutchman. THE RECOGNITION 0FFICER'S RISE TO FAME It had been a sleepless, tense night, climaxed when the U-boat surfaced, abandoned, and WHS sunk by the combined gunfire of the EllyS0llf Hambleton, Emmons and Macomb. All hands breathed easier as our seven destroyer forma: tion formed line of bearing, cranked up 23 knots, and headed for Oran. Then at noon came two explosions close astern, later ascertained to be acoustic torpedoes launched at the M30 by a lurking U-boat. Quickly battle stations were manned, and all ships streamed Hfoxerv gearfo lure any more acoustic fish away from the Sill?- All was quiet on the bridge again, until surl- denly Ensign Hartl, newly-promoted recogllg tion officer screamed out uThere goes one- dea