Aaron Ward (DM 34) - Naval Cruise Book

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Looking down from the bridge on the fires, the captain, by the light of the fires, watched the struggle against fire and death. I knew there was a good chance of sinking and considered the possibility of transferring the crew to a vessel which was coming to our aid, he said, but it never became necessary. Thank God the sea was unusually calm that night. In a heavy seaway we could never have made it. The captain did decide, however, to transfer some of the more seriously wounded on recornmendae tion of Doctor Barbieri.. Within I5 minutes of the last attack an LCI came alongside to lend help in fighting fires, nine casualties were transferred to this ship and -another LCI which soon joined the operation. Earlier this vessel had picked up half a dozen sailors blown overboard from the Ward. By 8:30 PSM., an hour after the last plane hit, the fires were out. An hour after that the Aaron Ward had been taken under tow of a destroyer and was moving toward Kerama Betto at 5 knots. The captain's report records: Throughout the balance of the night a constant battle was maintained by the damage control parties to keep the Aaron Ward afloat and to bring her to safety. Enemy aircraft were reported as close as seven miles several times and caused considerable concern to the crew which had undergone almost unbearable strain. Anti-aircraft fire was frequently sighted in the area. There was no sleeping aboard the Ward that night. A few of the men ate oranges and other fruit. The captain doesn't remember whether he ate at all. All hands remember, though, that there was no fresh water, and warm Coca-cola was the only thing anyone had to drink. On -the bridge the captain watched his listing ship slip slowly through the water and under his breath he cursed the moon that made the Ward a clear target. I wanted to get that ship back, and I was afraid something might happen any minute. The ship was in a very unstable condition and there were bogies all around. Our chances weren't too good, he said. But we made it. That the Aaron Ward made it, the captain said in his report, was evidence of the finest exhibition of fighting spirit 'and team work I have ever seen. The commanding officer, he wrote, is extremely proud ofall the personnel of the Aaron Ward for their magnificent display of courage during the fifty minutes of battle and their calm, coordinated effort of saving the ship after the last attack. That's the way the captain sums up the epic of the Aaron Ward. Certain officers and men were particularly toutstanding, but the success of all, and the careful training that had drilled them all for just such an emergency. 4 The Captain has been rightly commended by his superiors for his conduct during the action. I-le him- self singled out as outstanding several officers and men. Lt. Comdr. Bubel, the gunnery -officer, and his officers and men were particularly deserving of com- mendation, said the skipper, because of the intrepid manner in which they fought the ship throughout the action. lt was only their deadly defensive fire, said the captain, that enabled the vessel to survive. The damage control department, under Lt. B. I. Biesmeyer, U.S.N.R., of 629 East Court Avenue, Chare- ton, Iowa, showed great courage and tenacity by all hands in constantly combatting the 'tremendous damage in the 'face of seemingly unsurmountable dangers and attacks. The men of the engineering department did a magnificent job under the direction of the engineer- ing officer, Lt. D. A. Young, U.S.N.B., of 675 East Zlst Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. In the face of heavy casualties and power failure caused by the crashing plane they fought to provide such auxiliary power as was available and aided in handling the wounded. The ship's black gang also repaired the flooded forward fire room and machinery s-o that the Ward could return to the States under its own power. They all did a great job, said the proud commanding officer. Throughout the action the captain had 'few orders for his officers. They knew their jobs, and I think that one fault that develops in such a circumstance is having too many orders issued, After the first hit my principal jolb was to try to regain steering control of the ship. The gunnery officer, who was particularly outstanding, kept the guns firing under extremely advers-e and hazardous circumstances. Every other department did the job it was supposed to do. The Taps were really out to get us that afternoon. When that first plane crashed aboard I knew this was a new type of co-ordinated attacks on pickets. When I saw the Little get hit. by three of em and sink within I5 minutes I thought maybe we're in for something like that. But they didnt sm-k the Aaron Ward. We had a guardian angel holding up the stern that day. -I 15 1.-

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-..YHA ,,,,.v Wi, .Rev 1. 43 m, f- 4----' -- -N-F. Nf.,.- ,,..k .f - ' -,L,,,,-,, ,V as they approach. ln their isolated positions these picket vessels are easy marks for the ene-my, and at Okinawa hundreds of Kamikazes met death trying to crash the picket vessels. Many attacks were by single planes or small groups, against the Aaron Ward the dozen or more attacking planes were co-ordinated and timed with accuracy, and one of the Kamikazes circled out of range acting as a suicide director . l-le was a traffic cop of death with wings, in the words of an Aaron Ward officer. 4 The Ward was steaming on picket station with a destroyer, the U.S.S. Little, and four landing craft as supporting vessels the late afternoon of May 3. ' The weather, overcast earlier, had cleared. The wind was light. The sea was calm. Enemy air attack was more or less expected, the battle report says, due to the decided improvement in the weather. lt came. At 5522 PM., or l822 ships time, 45 minutes before sunset, the Aaron Ward sounded the general alarm when planes were detected about 25 miles distant. ln a few minutes the Bogies .came within visual range, and six planes were sighted, four of them friendlies of the Wards combat air patrol. The laps managed to evade attack by the American planes and at l829, seven minutes after GQ had sounded, the attack began. From then on it went something like this: l829 Val sho-t down, landing l00 yards from Ward. Engine propellor and wing section hit Wardg no clam-age. ' l830 Second Val shot down, l,200 yards from ship. l83'l. Third Jap, a Zeke, taken under fire at 5,000 yards, hit repeatedly, but continued Kamikaze attack from port quarter. Plane released bomb which pen.etrated portside to after engine room, and in split second plane its-elf crashed ship on superstructure deck amidship, just below after quad gun- mount. This plane and bomb caused fire topside, put after engines out of commission, and jammed rudder left, causing ship to circle. A l83l to Planes circled at distance, were taken under fire but made no attack runs. Three planes attacked l859 Little, which sank in short time. LSMKRJ l95 attacked and sunk. LCSCLD 2.5 attacked and damaged. l359 Val made attack, destroyed at 2,000 yards. Ship still circling and speed reduced to give partial manual contr-ol of rudder. - l904 Betty circling at l0,000 yards taken under fire and destroyed Cthis believed to be the suicide plane directorl. l908 U Val made steep attacking dive, swerved because of heavy fire and crashed into water after left wing clipped forward stack and carried away radio antennae. Damage to Ward slight. l9'l3 Few seconds after above entry Val crashed be-low bridge. l9l6 Zeke approached through smoke, crashed on superstructure deck amidship. Belly gasoline tank exploded, spraying burning gasoline over the deck. Ship now dead in water, fires raging, casualties strewn about the decks. i , l9Zl Unidentified plane crashedat base of Numbered 2 stack, bomb exploding. Stack, gunmount and searchlight blown into air and crashed on deck. This was the las-t attack, but no one aboard the Aaron Ward knew it. All that the men of the Aaron Ward knew was that their ship was a desperate case and that their job was to save it. H y Even with guns blazing and planes crashing the ship, the first lieutenant's men had been fighting fires, and insuring the watertight integrity of unflooded spaces below. Working amid flames and exploding ammunition, these men continued their job. A Gunnery men and sailors from the black gang whose stations were no longer tenable helped out, and the work of handling the wounded. Only a few of the guns could still shoot, and these were manned. Gas fumes were so thick insid-e the five-inch mounts that gr.imy sailorsstaggered -out and vomited on the deck. Then, gulping a little fresh air, they returned to their posts. Everybody pitched in, said Captain Sanders, 'Those whose guns had been put out of acti-on were taking the wounded to the fantail or to the wardroom, or helping the doctor, or helping the damage control parties. H During the entire time, he reported, men constantly braved exploding ammunition and the blazing inferno to res-cue and render aid to their injured shipmates. Acts of heroism above and beyond the call of duty were common occurrences rather than the exception. -U41-A

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. 2535 v ,is -uri, L ,-j1fff,'TQ:Q'Ef'LI'1llY-VW 1 '- ' 'N' 'i '- WEP 'M V' V A-M EXCERPTS FROM THE SHIP'S WAR DIARY fShip's Activities During Okinawa Campaignl 19 March: At 1415, U.'S.S. Aaron Ward underway from Ulithi, destination Okinawa. 23 March: Still underway, en route Okinawa. Two floating mines destroyed by other ships in our unit. At 1414, secured port engine, due to leaky guard valve. Enemy planes circled formation at sunset, but did not attack. Several ships opened fire. 24 March: ln area, commenced mine-sweeping operations. 25 March: Sighted Kerama Retto, now under attack by carrier planes. Enemy doesn't seem to be putting up any opposition. Destroyed floating mine with port 40mm. battery., Explosion deafening. Rescued Lt. Dalton, pilot of crashed carrier plane. ln very good shape. 26 March: Exploded two mines with machine gun fire. Witnessed explosion of U.S.S. 1-lalligan in evening. Our first campaign casualty. 27 March: At 0918 picked up sound contact and attacked with two depth charges. Results negative. Investigation revealed nothing further. Later in day, mine sweeping operations drew us several thousand yards from the Invasion Beach COkinawaD, between the battleships and cruisers that had already started pounding enemy shore installations. lnvestigated second sub contact, classified doubtful. 28 March: Routine day. Ioined main body of task force at night. First engagement with enemy aircraft at 2000. Unable to see planes be-cause of bad weather, but tracked in to close range. Results of gunfire do1,tb'tfu'l, although planes later disappeared without causing damage to ships of' formation. 29 March: Accompanied sweeps into areas only 1000 yards' of beach. No trouble from laps. At night ships in formation accounted for 3 lap planes. 30 March: Assigned to Radar Picket Station 12 during day and screening at night. 31 March: At 0323 fired at plane inside formation and drove it away. No damage reported to ships. 1 April: At 0127, fired main battery and 40mm. at enemy plane. No visual results. At 06113 ships on star- board quarter splashed two laps. lnvasi-on of Okinawa -has begun. 'Reports from troops already ashore in-dicate easier time than that anticipated. 2 April: Went to GO again at 0205 and 0'237,..gnd again at 0300. Ene-my planes appear to be out in large flocks . Opened fire several times, results very good. Claimed one probable. ,All attacking planes driven away. Refueled and replenished ammo supply in the Retto. 3 April. Exploded mine in the morning CNo. 45. Engaged in action with dozen Kamikazes trying to work over a CVE. Several planes shot down by near-by ships, and others driven away. Fired at four separate attacks. Several probables. One of larger transports badly hit. . 4 April-23 April: Sailed as Convoy Commander of small convoy to Guam. Repair work on ship. Returned to Okinawa. 23 April: Arrived Kerama Retto. Refueled and loaded ammo. Back on picket line. 24 April: Destroyed empty lap wooden hulk. Still steaming on Picket Station No. l. 25 April: Steaming as before. Quiet day-for us. - V 26 April: Many planes reported in vicinity. C1C picked up numerous raids. None closed this ship. lnves- tigated body of Iapanese Pilot floating in water. . , 27 April: A rugged night. Enemy planes flew overhead continuously. Spent ent-ire nigiht at battle stations, firing at '10 separate attacks. Final-ly connected, splashing two low-flying Betty's and one Val. ClC on toes all the time too, reporting some 37 enemy raids to Point Bolo. Received congratulatory message from Admiral T-urner on performance. ' 1 -Ugl-