Manchester (CL 83) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 116 text:

Communists .it Snngjin didn ' t like helicopters They knew now what Won:. m Communists could have told them weeks before the appearance ot that clumsy steel bird above would invariably mem imminent drstruction below. At right. .1 token ot tlieir esteem in the Manchester helii opter ' s landing gear. It wasn ' t much; it was -ill tlu-v hud to otter .it the time, but the second shot was luckier it passed through the delicate main rotor rei uirmg a ;!■ nni blade replacement We found that North Koreans at Songjin were astonish- ingly industrious. Every day we broke their bridges and ripped up their railroads — but every night they set about making temporary wooden repairs in spite of our night interdiction tire. Then, on the outskirts ot the city we discovered their lumber source, a sawmill, and dealt with it as shown below. ' JP V. w 4p --- f ■ V

Page 115 text:

During the next two weeks the Manchester s efforts were divided between Songjin and Wonsan. But neither Chongjin, Songjin nor Wonsan was ever without an assailant, for while other units of TG 95.2 harrassed two of the cities, the Manchester dealt out poison to the third. For us, Songjin was a lucra- tive target. After several days, primary bridge, rail and highway objectives assigned us were sus- taining deep wounds . . . and our gunners had other activities on the side: DESTROYED: — 3 barracks and troops within — 1 AA emplacement — 13 railroad box cars — 2 large brick buildings; 1 gutted. 1 levelled — 37 direct hits out of 41 salvos on 8 waterfront warehouses — 150-ton freight barges and several docks nearby — 9 storage warehouses along main coastal railroad

Page 117 text:

A WONSAN JACKPOT At 1 100 on March 15th, the 27th day of Wonsan s siege, the Manchester and destroyers of Task Element 95.21 executed a strategy that proved disastrous to two Chinese Communist divisions. One day our air spotters had been observing activity in a barracks near Wonsan. Shortly after, two more areas turned up with troops milling about in and out of the buildings. Aboard the Manchester, these areas were plotted on charts, and later each ship was assigned a sector. During the observation period Admiral Smith care- fully instructed the Task Element to keep their fire away from these barracks to prevent scattering of the troops. When every gun on every ship opened up in rapid fire simultaneously, the troops were caught in a hopeless trap. It took us only eight minutes. The result: 6,000 Communist troops -dead or wounded.