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Page 95 text:
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about foot-deep mud. There is not a tree on th Iceland. When we got back to the ship, two of tllaevzllxglioi-E that fly the Brooklyn's catapulted spotting planes were making a report on how they were shot at by a British ship. After a brief investigation, the senior flyer was put under hack. Guess he was flying where he shouldn't have been. We learned that the convoy had sunk two and possibly three subs on the way over and four women were nurses and had been adrift 12 days with 12 men from a Norweigan ship torpedoed by a German sub. Five of us from the Brooklyn were invited to dinner at the King's Harbor Master's Wartime Residence with ten British officers that commanded the anti-aircraft batteries here on Iceland. The next morning six of us rode a destroyer down the fjord to Reykjavik. Seemed to me to be a nice old-fashion city with good looking, bashful people. Joe and I shopped a bit, swam in an indoor pool and then sun-bathed nude on the roof over the pool. We are just three degrees below the artic circle. We have frequent air-raid warnings, but no planes ever got near our ships. That night we entertained the British friends we had made on the Brooklyn and they were very happy with their presents of cigarettes, magazines and oranges. In the morning set the special sea detail, got underway down the fjord and out to join the formation. All ships except the tanker are going back with us and we are heading for Hampton Rhodes, Virginia. The battleship Idaho and three destroyers joined us and then the Orizaba had engine trouble and dropped way back. The Nashville and two destroyers came from the States with 200 bags of mail for the Brooklyn and passed them over to us via lines between the ships. My mail from home and friends was about what we would do when I came home this summer. They didn't know it would be awhile before I got there. The trip back was slowed by fog and for five days we couldn't see ships 600-1000 yards around us. Most of the time had trouble seeing the bow of the Brooklyn from the bridge. The mornin the fog went away we kicked up to 25 knots and headed for Norfolk. On Tuesday, July 22, we went into Norfolk passing the USS Wyoming, our apprentice seaman cruise ship, and the British HMS Illustrious which had been reported sunk, and alongside the dock ending successfully the first American convoy of World War II. CHAPTER 5 ATLANTIC-CARIBBEAN PATROL The Brooklyn was assigned to a task force made up of the aircraft carrier Yorktown and three destroyers to patrol the Atlantic from Bermuda to the Azores. Bermuda was our main base. This was a period of time when officers and men were coming and going in a steady stream of assignments to new jobs, ships and stations. In this short space of time, I had moved from the foot of the third table in the wardroom up to the second table with at least one third of the officers on board junior to me. I was assigned one junior officer' as Assistant Signal Officer and one to assist me in the coding room. We revised the communication staff to seven officers to handle the work three of us had done. The days are constantly hot as we go back and forth with the ship in Condition 3 and Baker with all hatches closed. General Quarters one hour before sunrise and sunset. The Yorktown makes constant launching and recovery of aircraft as they sweep the ocean in large areas around us. For each launching and recovery there is a course to head into the wind. The Brooklyn and destroyers are right with her with the necessary flag signals. Sometimes the Yorktown provides low bombing plane, towing targets for our 5-inch guns to have target practice. One day there was a simulated dive bombing and torpedo plane attack by the Yorktown on the Brooklyn. Frightening to say the least. You had to put out of your mind how you thought you could stand up to the real thing if it happened to us. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular and we saw them all at .General Quarters. The sun, stars, and moon were all beautiful and we didn't have much to do but look at them. We would go into Bermuda and anchor off Hamilton. Liberty overnight except when we had watch. There were no tourists in Bermuda, just the local families and the ships of our task force when we came in. Got to know many of the families quite well, particularly those with daughters. Many nights would doze on a couch in someone's living room ready to make the 8:00 A.M. boat back to the ship in the morning. There were no automobiles and we had bicycles and sometimes rode the horse and buggy to our main gathering point, Elbow Beach. When out on maneuvers, we moved fast so the danger of submarines tracking and stalking us like a slow convoy is minimized. We had submarine sightings during these patrols either by the planes or destroyer screen and things really went into action - plane launching and flank speed, diepth charges by the destroyers, and bombs by diving p anes. On August 24 the number two shaft on the Brooklyn burned out and we were running on the other three. We had orders to go to New York for repair and the Yorktown was to drop off at Norfolk. There was a report of a German cruiser not 250 miles from us, so the Brooklyn put into Bermuda to fix the shaft. We were just starting on the shaft and getting ready to see a movie when we were ordered out again and started for Norfolk. At 11:00 P.M. we turned back for Bermuda. We sat in the Outer Harbor and the engineers worked on the shaft. The German cruiser was still around and it looked like we weren't going to New York where I had a five-day leave planned. At 5:30 A.M. the next morning we sat the special sea detail and sailed out headed towards Brazil in chase of the German cruiser. There are several other ships closing in on her also. We have orders to shoot on sight and our catapult planes go up with 500 lb. bombs when they patrol. I don't really like to put it this way because it's the taxpayers' money, but on September 1 when we were almost to South America, the chief of Naval operations decided the thin we had been hunting was the I-IIMIS Rodney so we turned around and headed for New or . I had my five-day leave and a visit with Louise, the girl that went with me to midshipman graduation in Pennsylvania. At dinner the first evening there, I had my first experience in trying to describe a war situation in the peaceful setting of a family dining room. See, as we approached New York that morning and went to General Quarters an hour before sunup, I was on the bridge and one of the lookouts yelled, Periscope. I looked up and there was a sub with a good part of its conning tower out of the water. We went to flank speed to dodge torpedos. Launched our two planes. They dropped bombs on something they saw. We picked up the planes and went on into New York. I took the train to Pennsylvania that afternoon and was sitting at dinner that evening. I started to tell what had happened that very morning just outside New York CRemember, we aren't at war yet.J and the people at the table looked at me like I was making things up - so I shut up. Two different worlds. Went back out on the Bermuda, West Africa Patrol with the Yorktown as soon as our repairs were complete, but on the return run, turned and ended up in Argentia, Newfoundland. Hot to cold and into blue uniforms. Found
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i official message. Don't know if this had anything to do with it but for the first and only time he invite me to go aquaplaning while being pulled by h1S G18- That afternoon the USS Philadelphia came in. The three battleships took off and our coding room told me they wiere going to Newport, Rhode Island. After them, the Brook YE and three other cruisers went out of the harbor and heade north. The next day we joined the battleships and, With the destroyers escorting us, numbered 20 ships. Then.the message we are all going to Boston' and Im a little embarrassed at what I told the capta1n..Got even more confusing when our course was heading stralght for Norfolk, Virginia. I had just delivered the message to the captain that the USS Robin Moor was sunk when the cry of ' land ho WRS heard and there was the good ol' U.S.A. off in the distance. We left the USS Nashville at Charleston, the battleshlps at Norfolk, the destroyers at Philadelphia .and the remaining three cruisers continued north. It's getting cooler and we sleep below in our rooms now and go.to General Quarters every morning. Pm not sure how it officially started, but I am now officer of the deck at General Quarters. Handling the bridge and giving all the maneuvering orders to the helmsman at the wheel. A very heavy fog set in and we are wearing woolen underwear and bridge coats on watch. The cruisers are in position with towing spars strung out behind. Can't see each other, but keep position on the spars. Came out of the fog in the morning and anchored in Cape Cod Bay to await orders. In the afternoon, Brooklyn and Nashville got underway and moved up to graves to anchor in sight of Boston. Had a movie and went to bed to await liberty and mail tomorrow. Early in the morning we went alongside and docked next to the HMS Rodney which had just helped sink the Bismarck. Went ashore in Boston and, of all things, a date with Jean Buxton. Saw her in Auckland, Honolulu and now Boston. Small world! Returned to the ship to find all hands turned to load all of the many things being put on the ship. We had dinner on the HMS Rodney Sunday, June 22, and heard the whole story firsthand of the Bismarck show. While we were at dinner, word came that Germany had declared war on Russia. While the ship was being loaded, I went to the Navy Yard and went through the entire list of publications for operating in the Atlantic and made sure the Brooklyn's file was complete. Then back to the ship to find it so loaded with stores that some had to be set on deck and lashed down. The ship is filled to capacity with fuel and ammunition. There were a lot of pleasure boats out to wave at us as we went out the channel and headed south for rendezvous. We are in Condition 3, morning and night General Quarters and woolen underwear and face masks are being issued to the crew while they all speculate on our destination. Afternoon we pick up the start of the convoy, four transports, one supply ship, one tanker and four destroyers. Later the battleships, USS Arkansas and USS New York, and eight more destroyers. We are headed for St. Marys, Newfoundland, as our first stop. All personal radios on board were collected and locked up. The weather gets very cold and the windy gray Atlantic is a sharp contrast to the brighter Pacific we have been used to. We are all formed up in convoy formation steaming along practicing zig zagging with the trans orts for the longer trip ahead. As I stand on the bridge and, look around it's a little hard to realize that I'm actually looking at and a part of the first American convoy of the war. All the guns are set and orders are to open fire on any enemy aircraft or surface craft that comes within range. Everyone is kidding about the cold and how bad it would be to have ' . We were joined by 12 patrol bombers as add't' get-iJViI1llnThey are on their way to Newfoundland to esilaglsali a base and doubling as protection for the convoy, 'thout warning a very heavy fog set in, so thick dlii1ldn't see the bow of our ship from the bridge, We 1523 to crawl along and jl1Sll try tflkffep from bumping into one another. As I write this now, it IS hard to describe because radar takes care of all this in 1972. But just like trying to explain to a child of today what. life was like without television, it is just as hard to describe ships at sea Without radar. We did manage to stay together. The fog cleared Slightly and we found our way into Argencia, Newfound- land. So cold and had so many clothes on to stand my watch I couldn't move. And was still cold. In the next few days, while waiting for more ships to arrive, had a chance to go ashore and compare life in this rugged, rather backward part of the world, to what I had seen in Hawaii and New Zealand. The country is awesome and beautiful. Took a car ride to Platencia over very poor road. Was ferried across a lake by man in rowboat and had dinner in an old farm house. Back to the ship to stand 8-12 in port watch, but at 9:30 P.M. fTuesday, July D under cover of darkness and a light fog, all of the ships slipped out, formed up, and we headed north. Then the annolmcement we are going to ICELAND. Five transports loaded with marines, two supply ships with tanks, glms, etc., a tanker with oil, two battleships, two cruisers and thirteen destroyers. The night's so short now there is no need to go to General Quarters at sunu and sundown. We stayed in Condition 3. The ship's radlio got a press notice that Senator Wheeler says the U.S. is sending an expedition to take over Iceland and that we'll get there on the 24th. It's only July 3 now. Follows that the next day is July 4. The first time in years I haven't spent it in the Feather River Camp in California. On my first Christmas away from home, I swam in the warm Hawaiian waters and now, on July 4, it is snowing a little. Funny life. Our concentration is now on German submarines which are assumed to be all over this area. We drill each day on what to do if a torpedo hit us. Everyone had subs on their mind and the lookout concentrated. During this day, a destroyer sighted something and went racing toward it. We saw it and to us everything in the water looks like periscopes. It was a small boat with people, including four women, from a torpedoed ship who had been adrift four days. Then that night, with the sky in its semi-light, the general alarm went off with word, Man your general quarters - no foohngf' The crew went in underwear and plenty fast. It was a mistake. In the poor light, m jumpy si alman had read Turn Z1 to mean Emerg Syl, the suinsignal. We sight more floating life rafts and boats now and a destroyer drops back to explode a floating mine. I had a midwatch and the sun was only gone for three hours and the sky didn't even start to get dark. 'Ilhe.morning of July 7 started with a destroyer near US picking up a sub contact and dropping eight depth charges on the contact. Sure shook our ship. Then with pat1'0l P19-HSS, and our own Brooklyn planes spotting for US, we went through the mine fields and anchored in the harbor of the Clty of Reykjavik, Iceland. After one-half l10t11' we UP anchored and were led up a fjord to a beautiful hidden P1806 Where British battleships, cruisers, destroyerS, and subs were hidden. The cliff goes 2,000 feet straight UP b0th sides and the tops have snow on them. Heard the news that Our President had announced our arrival and with the SUI1 Shmmg brlght in my port at midnight, I went to bed- The next morning three of us put on some suitable c1otheS for hlkmg and climbed through some thick mud and rocks up. the 2,000 foot side of the cliffs of Hualfjarda. It Was qulte 3, Slghtl We rolled boulders down and watched them splash In the fJ0rd way below. Went by a British arm! camp and watched the men play soccer in what seeme to be
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Page 96 text:
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-M three battleships, two carriers, two cruisers, 20 destroyers in the harbor when we got there. Put on all the clothes I owned and sat outside to see a movie. We happened to be moored in the same berth the HMS Prince of Wales was when Churchill and Roosevelt met. It was here I was qualified to stand a full officer of the deck watch in port or underway. Ialso was one of two officers that picked the right number out of a wardroom hat and got to make liberty in St. John's. We took the lucky 12 enlisted men and left the ship at 3:00 P.M. to catch a 4:15 P.M. train. The train didn't leave until 6:00 P.M. and.the gunner fthe other officer, he was in charge of the marines on the Brooklynl and I really fixed ourselves. We bought first class tickets because of our high opinion of ourselves. After standing back to let all the lesser folks on the poorly equipped train, we found there was no first class - never had been - and we had to stand and flop around for the better part of a seven hour, 80 mile ride. There were our sailors having a drink now and then and talking to the girl passengers while most of the other passengers read church pamphlets. We got there at 1:00 A.M. in freezing weather and with no lace to stay. Finally slept in Mrs. Kelly's house. We had, met a nurse named Phyllis on the tram and she had given us some phone numbers of other nurses. We finally got a room in the hotel, called the phone numbers and got dates for a formal dance at the Yacht Club that lasted most of the night. On a 7:00 A.M. train for a wild ride that took nine hours to get back through wind and heavy rain. So bad at Argentina that no boats could run, so with no food since the night before, we waited until 11:30 A boat got through the wind and we had a wet ride ac . Mr. Coleman, one of the Brooklyn's aviators, took me up in one of our airplanes for some bombing runs. After being here with all these ships for almost two weeks, we were ordered to Portland, Maine, and found the New Mexico, Yorktown, Savannah, Salamonie and Denebola there with lots of destroyers. That night had a message USS Kearney a destroyer, torpedoed south of Iceland with heavy loss of life. She was convoying British ships. Two dalys in Portland and off to Bermuda where we operate right around the island for awhile with no' long trips. A message that the USS Salanis, the tanker that fueled us a few weeks ago in Newfoundland, was hit by two torpedoes. The carrier, Wasp, and cruiser, Nashville, join us as the British carrier, Indomitable, and cruiser, Dispatch, left Bermuda. Message the U.S. destroyer Rubin James was sunk by torpedos off Newfoundland. Somethin was wrong with our turbine and we were standing by to leave for New York to have it fixed so no liberty. Then word came to stay here and try to fix it ourselves. Then were ordered into South Basin Drydock in Bermuda and we laugh. All the British ships are taking up the space in American dockyards and so we take British sgace. It was a tight squeeze to get in. We are the largest s ip ever to get in this drydock. Since we are in British base, the British extend us the hospitality of all their facilities including their wives. I mean we could dance with them at the Officers' Club. Made note of a typical but bad day on November 6. I worked all morning and stood watch all afternoon, then the Captain had very im ortant high priority secret messages for me to encode and, send. He wrote them, I typed them and he checked them and I encoded them. There was a bad mistake in one of them that he made and I didn't catch and I got holy hell. Then I had the midwatch and a commander came back from liberty with a little too much to drink and we had a fight on the deck. My relief overslept and I got no sleep at all. mber 11 is Armistice Day and we had British ne iiollfoard and after dinner ended up at the Royal gyasll-E Club and I was escorting Mrs. Waterfield, acknowledged to be the most beautiful woman in Bermuda. She invited us to play tennis at the club in Sommerset and we played the next day before a gallery and drank tea afterwards. Was invited to her home, Casa Nina, on Saturday night, Made note on November 14 that I had been an ensign one year today. The captain decided to have a dparty that night and I was one of 10 officers to attend an entertain the British. Big dinner on board and here was Mrs. Waterfield again. We went to Malabar and danced all evening while her husband watched. The next day we went out in the morning and tested the shaft. Then a boat to Somerset and the Waterfield's party. I missed the last boat and had to stay in a 330 a day honeymoon cottage. Got up early the next morning and put on a bathing suit and went around to Casa Nina by way of the ocean - three and one-half miles over rocks and barbwire in my bare feet. The Waterfields were a bit surprised to see me again. We had a good day in the sun. I walked all the way back the same way I came and the lady at the honeymoon cottage only charged me a dollar for the cabin in honor of our war effort. I got the boat back to the Brooklyn. Never did see the Waterfields again. On December 4 I noted I had come on board the Brooklyn one year ago. We went out and in on gunnery practice etc. and this is how it was in beautiful Bermuda when the calendar read December 7, 1941. Over the radio flooded the messages. Japan had bombed and torpedoed the ships and shore stations at Pearl Harbor. We are at WAR. We listened to the news all night in between our aviators giving us very vivid description and diagrams of how it is impossible to drop a torpedo from a plane in Pearl Harbor and have it hit a ship. No sleep for awhile. The coding machine keeps us busy around the clock with messages and we also censor all incoming and outgoing mail on the ship. As the reports keep coming in we know there was a heavy loss of American lives. Many of our original 90 day wonders were on those ships. E. F. Evans, one of the nine to fly to the coast with us on. the United Airline plane when we graduated from the Illinois, went down on one of those big ships. The President officially declared war on Japan and so did England, Canada and a few other countries. We went into war-time conditions today. Darken ship at night and Condition 2 in the guns. The coding room is jammed with work and the mail censoring piles up. The Brooklyn has been scheduled for a two-month overhaul in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and everyone has his lans for leave. But .at 2:00 P.M. today we are ordered undler way with the Carrier Wasp and three destroyers to go to Martinique to capture or destroy any French ships that might try to get out. December 11 Germany declared war on us and Italy followed. We sank a Jap battleship in the Philippines - the Heruna, the news says. We are making 27 knots racing t0 Martinique. We know there are seven French ships there Including a carrier and two cruisers. We went to General Quarters on the word that action was probable and stayed until 10:00 P.M. when it appeared nothing was golllg to happen that night. Things! Were quiet in Martinique the next day and the French ships ooked like the were going to stay there- There. were submarines aroundv here but we hadn't seen any until Just before noon. The destroyer on the port bow had a contact and attacked with depth charges. Then an h0l1f later another destroyer contact and we sent our planes UP with 350 lbs. bombs. They saw the sub just below the
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