Arkansas (BB 33) - Naval Cruise Book

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. 1 V u ' ' X V wh- I ' ' -' ' -' Qdensfif mt, , , -,W , 1x4 -S A ., mmwb, K M.. ,. . v---v----------------v-'k X-4vvv-vwwvww-vvwvv Arkansas had at last fired her opening salvo into this war of Shickelgruberls. Through my binoculars, I could see occasional gun flashes from the crests of the cliffs, just aft the port beam. As I trained the glasses over to the area of one Hash, I saw a great cloud of dirty gray smoke and Hame burst, which I later learned had spelled the doom of that battery. We were to see all of them blasted one by one out of existence. Later, as we moved nearer to the beach, we could see the twisted remains of the guns and the piles of rubble that were the shattered pillboxes. I happened to glance at the main batteries and noted that they were training to port. I moved the crews to the leeward side and shortly after heard the word passed, mln one minute the main battery will fire to port !'l A few seconds later, the entire ship shuddered as the big guns thundered their reply to the paperhanger's boast H. . . To- morrow the world I We were prepared for a shock, having experienced main battery firing in practice. However, we had neglected to take into consideration the extra powder charge that ac- companies service ammunition, and we were in- deed literally raised off our feet. .jr ..,, THE ARKY Our target was a heavily fortified gun em- placement. After the first spot, the word came back from the spotting plane that the target was destroyed, and so it was to continue throughout our firing - mission accomplished. A small coastal village, bristling with enemy ammunition dumps, antiaircraft batteries, tanks and troops was to feel the impact of our fire. An inland city was to be fairly blasted out of existence for har- boring enemy troops and supplies. Deadly ac- curate was our fire, and devastating to Nazi troop concentrations, tank columns, fortified houses, and ammunition and fuel dumps which we were called upon to destroy. So accurate, in fact, that from our radio transmitter room, where the oper- ators had been monitoring German broadcasts, came word that a Nazi broadcaster had dubbed us the HDevil Ship, and that the Luftwaffe were out to wget usf, We were to later learn that they were quite serious in their threat, for the repeated air attacks made upon us were quite often the cause of some hair-raising experiences. I I shall never forget a little side show that was performed before our admiring eyes by a plucky little destroyer that had chosen a war all of her own with an enemy observation post and gun em- placement just at the crest of the cliffs off our beam. The Can was incredibly close to the beach, moving parallel with it like a scrappy little dog, stalking back and forth, looking for a fight. Each time the shore battery would open up, the can would reply with everything she had, from five-inch batteries to twenty millimetre machine guns. Someone, watching the scrap, said he would bet even the skipper was out on the bridge, shooting with his forty-five, and it looked just like that. The shore battery scored several near misses ---,------v----v-.AJx.vv,4 5-'V4V15-,-.vwvvw-vvvwv-vv l. .QX 'A' ,Ffh . ., -I ' me - ' 'gnu' - g- I-,A---A-4.-... Vgfkfigfi ' ' iv. 1 . V iff' ' A if . ,

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around the can, but still she fought on. At last, upon orders from the group commander, the can was obliged to move out and let the larger ships take care of the target. This the destroyer did most reluctantly, it seemed, and even then she continued to spot for the big guns, pointing out the target with tracer fire. During D-day, the antiaircraft gun crews were spectators, little more. However, the first night they well-earned their pay shooting at repre- sentatives of the Luftwaffe. just at evening twi- light, our alert was high-lighted by aJU-88 drop- ping out of the sky, across our port bow. A few seconds later, the ship was shaken by a near miss just off the starboard beam, estimated to have been a thousand-pound bomb. Gur guns and those of ships around us were blazing and few of the planes lived to return to tell any tales. It was this night that we downed the two planes gener- ally accredited to us. One of the most awesome sights I believe I witnessed during the operation was that of the underwater mine fields near the beach being ex- ploded. It looked like solid areas hundreds of yards square were being cast up from the sea amid a pall of smoke and flame, accompanied by hun- dreds of sharp, staccato explosions. After the mine fields had been set off, and the beachhead area heavily bombarded by naval gunfire and aerial bombing, a dense, heavy pall of dirty gray smoke clung to the shoreline. It was under and through this dirty-gray cloud that our first troops hit the beaches. From then on, the multi-varied assortment of landing craft moved past in a steady stream. Off to seaward, the big transports and supply ships, with their many barrage balloons, or Hrubber cowsf' hovering above them, con- 'gfNJSlN-J'Jxvvvvvvgvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv-vw'vvvvv3yv1xv1nv1nv1y'g5y tinued to move toward the beach, until by the sf fe IQ.-'f?31fi '5'i3lQ'l-if f,,,,.1Q:' f-L-. 31 3 -'Q ,g V 52713 3133623 11 1 .i -' i f-aff.'EiifffY't - s -- .aff if is e ' J f i fre , , , ., ,i , 1 . J' 'K -7. ,L V 'Vs' . t '. - 'I .. V t 12513 .5-ga' gn . fourth day they had by-passed us and were fast becoming emptied and sent back for more. Invariably troops passing close aboard would wave friendily and shout remarks like 'fGive 'em helllw, ffSee you in Berlinln and Save a few for us! They are great fighters and gallant heroes, and deserve the well-earned ovations paid them. It was dusk of the ninth day that we experi- enced one of the most harrowing experiences of the entire operation, and here the officers and crew unanimously averred, 'fThere are no atheists in foxholes - or on battleships, either! just as the sky was growing dim, a spine-chilling sound, difiicult to adequately describe, filled the air all around us, terminating in a large splash just off the starboard beam. It sounded like an ear-filling whistle, sans the shrill whistle sound, or like a gigantic rush of air. Unconsciously, we all hit the deck and hugged it, bracing ourselves for the ex- plosion. At last, a thousand years later, when it did not come, we cautiously looked up and saw thousands of tons of water settling back down. Needless to say, the crew were painfully alert the remainder of the night, and not at all in vain, for, I 'k ----J-.1-.------v.A.1i Xvlvvvsvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv