Brooklyn (CL 40) - Naval Cruise Book

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j .. . I l' 'MW I 44 '9e5lR A ' TGSCOLMSG Punt! Q t Q Wigorrh O SQDWM MMS I , l j g anifuvw j I I ,MMS I j I s 9 'A I I I I H Zffds I A A 'rexns fic 1 lwmsklllllllfl 'Hill , 'f,.'..eff III HI ' llllalzllll a I 4 1 1 1 . ' Zgyivl-ES I , l l I Hmm! , Shan' , , I Shvgvuuh Sragwzg I V' ' I I Q Striking force and convoy for Operation Torch We slow to eight knots today for a full fueling of all ships from the tankers and the depth charge sounds are more frequent at this slow speed. Also the bad news that U.S. aircraft carrier Wasp who we had patrolled with several times was sunk in the Solomons. Our first fight is a week away. Sundayg November 1 - D Day Minus 7 - We have come two-thirds of the way and Africa is 900 miles due east. We are turning south to make a fake' pass at Dakar. Another big U.S. aircraft carrier was sunk in the Solomons. In Gibraltar the parachute troops are arriving and off Dakar five U.S. submarines are taking position as spotting ships. We have issued all the equipment for each man. Flashproof hood, gloves, eye shields, helmets, life jackets, flashlights, knife, face masks, bandage case and clean clothes. All this we wear to battle stations and I also have binoculars and earphone set. Tuesday - D Minus 5 - We have completed our fake at Dakar. Last night the intercepted sub reports we got from various ships showed our force had been spotted by German subs who informed Germany. Some of the reports were able to be decoded. With this accomplished, we swung north this morning just before daylight and are now on course 035 degrees T. The Savannah had one torpedo miss her and Tuscaloosa saw a sub on the surface at night. The captain gave his speech to the crew over the loudspeakers. We are ready, he said. I ask only your best. Make no mistake, this is a killing affair. To stay alive, you must kill first. I have no inhibitions about kicking the enemy in the fteethl if it will help win. If we win, you will have a good memory of a job well done. If we botch things 'll have an awful defeat and probably the 1 tllle Kita? dvd our minds forever. Some will get hurt, Weczignqf think about that. Just think about the swell liberty we are going to spend in Time Square around December 5th. Much cheering. This is the largest expedition in history and the Brooklyn'S job is the most dangerous. We are to lead the main force fcenter attack forcel into Fedala. That means the Brooklyn steams ahead and within range of the shore batteries in the dark and can't open fire unless they do or we will give the show away. We stay in that zone within range of the French battleship Jean Bart's 15-inch guns all morning and protect the convoy as they come in. Our job is spelle out that we are to silence all enemy big guns before we are disabled. Wednesday the 4th - D Day Minus 4 - It's rough. So rough we can't stand up. High winds and big waves. We eat with chairs lashed to the tables and spill everything all over. We are on the upward swing and just off and out of sight of the African Coast. Just know there are lots of seasick soldiers on those ships. One carrier plane crashed yesterday and was lost as it tried to operate in bad weather. Thursday the 5th - D Day Minus 3 - It's still very rough - ship rolling 40 degrees and we really haven't had food on the table for the past two days. Just sit and balance a plate in our hand and try to stay in one place and eat it. At night we jam ourselves against the bulkhead and try to stay in bed to sleep. Not much sleep. Just pray for this weather to go away so we can use the small boats for the landing as planned. Battleship New York reported her A.A. guns and boats were being heavily damaged by the waves and early this morning the Minelayer USS Maintinowa had to give up and dropped back to come as best she could. The waves are over 35 feet high and hit hard. From Egypt comes news that Alexandria and the British 8th Army are giving Rommel's German African Corps a beating. A big victory with many planes and tanks, etc., destroyed. There was also news that heads of Vichy French Navy met with high German officers yesterday. This could mean the nme cruisers, two battleships, 19 destroyers and 30 submarines at Dakar and Casablanca will take orders and come out to fight us tomorrow or the next day. We kinda hate to fight the' French even if they have got themselves all mlxeduup with the Germans. If they fight, we have a necessary job to do on them or it could really mess this thing up. A British Catalina plane escorts us now. She can just about stay up in this storm. Ffriday, November 6, 1942 - D Day Mnus 2 - Our prayers did some good and the sea is calm and that awful pitch and roll has stopped. Had some sleep and breakfast and feel better. We are 300 miles off Casablanca. The destroyers all fueled and got that out of the way. The ship IS Complefely stripped and ready. This afternoon we go 111110 Condition 2 ffour hours on duty and four hours offl, and will stay that way until we go to General Quarters for the b1g show tomorrow night. We have on board a W41' correspondent and a naval historian. The historian IS Samuel Eliot Morison who was to write the Naval History of World War II and the corres ondent is from the New York Tunes. The name I remember is John Morrose. The other ships- also carry cameramen and war reporters. The Br1t1sh again had big victories in Libya, Madagascar SQVB UD t0day and we are ready here. Everyone is really qulte calm and businesslike. Saturday j Day Minus 1 - The day is beautiful and calm, and surprisingly only two submarine alarms all day. The Southern Attack Force broke off at 6:30 in the morning and went to attack Safi to the south. In the evenlhg the Northern Attack Force went north to attack Medehia. The carrlers dropped back and spread out. The Center Attack Force of B1'00k1YI1, Augusta,,20 transports and 9 destr0YefSf

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surface and hit it with three bombs and sunk it. We t and steamed through the huge oil slick that kept cdlrlmriiig up from the sinking sub. The entire officers and men of Sky forward and director control had watched a torpedo track go astern of the Brooklyn shortly before the planes hit the submarine. Beautiful hot day with low clouds and blue sky and water. We are on our way to Trinidad to fuel. One sub alarm in morning, but no results. We had a warm welcome in Trinidad because as we got there, a sub was trying to torpedo the HMS Indomitable and motor boats were laying a smoke screen across the harbor. We refueled fast and got out just after dark and went at flank speed for Martinique. Destroyer dropped eight depth char es on contact just as it was getting dark and we also haf a brief definite look at a periscope as it dove in the darkness. The Martinique question was officially settled today by conferences with Darlan and Petan. We are awaiting word to leave. There are definitely many submarines here and we would just as soon o. It took 48 hours to come, but it did and and we headed for New York fast. Admiral Kimmel was blamed for the Hawaiian attack and relieved as CINCUS by King. Try to go as fast as possible, but are held back a bit by destroyers who will run out of fuel if we go too fast. We get there and go into Gravesend Bay, New York, to discharge ammunition prior to going into Navy Yard. Were greeted with 118 bags of mail that had been trying to catch up with us. December 24 in a freezing storm we moved up the East River and into the Brooklyn Navy Yard to start our long awaited overhaul. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were quiet ones. For the second year in a row, I had the midwatch to welcome in the New Year. Had a few things to think about. One of the most adventurous and exciting, but also the most lonesome, year of my life. I figured we logged 43,800 miles of traveling on the Brooklyn. Wilson an Wakefield are gone to other ships and only three of our original five are eft. Friends have been killed in less than a month of declared war. What will happen when the war effort really gfoes intg action? A sincere wish to still be around next New ea.r's ve. CHAPTER 6 CASABLANCA - THE INVASION OF NORTH AFRICA The Brooklyn went back to the Bermuda Area Patrol after coming out of the yard, dodging torpedos and attacking subs, then was assigned as the leader of two highspeed convoys to England. The speed of the convoys reduce the sub threat because we could zig zag and change course during the night so it would only be chance if the subs happened to be where we were at dawn. They couldn't chase us and had to lay in wait for us to be able to get off any goapedos. During these trips, I was promoted to Lieutenant The main si nal on a trip like this with. big fast ships 1S the Zig Zag Plan. There are many variations and they are all given in secret book form to the captains of each ship at the convoy meeting prior to sailing. Underway the signal is sent by the flagshipnin this Case the Brooklyn, on what plan to use. Then ive minutes before each hour a si nal flag hoist is put up by the flagship telling whether to 11? keep zig zag going according to. same plan, f2l change to another designated plan, or 437 218 Zag Plans are made so you go to the left for an hour and then if the signal says to you go to the right for an hour or you go to the left again. We had been doing the left-right plan during the day putting up a signal every hour indicating this. I had some decoding to do and the communications officer took over my signal watch for awhile. When I.came back on the bridge, I know he turned over all. the instructions before I relieved him, but I was just thinking of something else, day dreaming and watching the ocean. All of.a sudden the officer of the deck yelled, Oh God, Captain, Captain Come Quick. It was 20 seconds after the hour and 24 big heavily loaded ships were going in every direction. For the five minutes before the hour they all had a different idea of what to do since there was no signal. Some said we have been alternating left and right so he means to keep alternating. Some said there is no signal so we keep zig zagging the way we have been. Some said no signal means no more zig zagging. And they all did their thing on the hour. How there Wasn't a collision of two or more ships I don't know, but I do know how I felt when the captain walked over to me after he got things straightened out and said, You didn't put up the signal did you? Everything we had done so far was warmup. We were getting ready for the main event - the invasion of North Africa. After extensive plans and preparation, we put to sea from Norfolk, Virginia, with the Savannah and Philadelphia plus four destroyers and waited for the 100 plus other ships that are going also. There is no secret on this trip. The plans were too extensive and the crew completely briefed. We are going to invade West Africa along the Northern Coast, take Morocco and then Algeria and Tunisia. Get Rommel from behind in Libya and push the Axis out of Africa. We face up to the fact that we are going into our first fight, but somehow the might we see around us is reassuring: 3 Battleships 5 Aircraft Carriers 8 Cruisers 45' Transports with over 100,000 men and equipment 36 Destroyers and Mine Sweepers 4 Tankers Our ship and all ships have been stri ped of everything that can burn. Even the paint has been scraped off the bulkheads, decks and rooms. Unlike anything else we did, the eyes of the world are on us because it rea ly isn't much of a secret. Even the radio and press were talking and writing about an attack on Casablanca. It was the 30th of October before we were all formed up and this is what it looked like. There are over 100 ships and this morning all are going to fuel from the tankers to be full at the start. We have some submarine alarms, but figure most of the subs are gathering over near Africa waiting for us. Sunday, November 8, is D. Day. The day the invasion begins. 0400,is H. hour, 4:00 A.M. On the last da of October, we were etting more sub alerts. Dropped ten depth charges the day before on contacts, two more last night, and now, today, every hour we can feel and hear more going off. Our best estimates have .a line of subs from the Azores to Cape Verde Islands. Thirty to forty subs are there. Radio re orts that Montgomery is smashing at Rommel in Libya. Also reports that no Axis aircraft in the area of East Africa for the past few days. Maybe they have come west to wait for us.

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hill- The boats continued to pour the soldiers on the beach and plus minesweepers and minelayers head straight for Fedala 15 miles above Casablanca, the main objective. The Massachusetts, Tuscaloosa and Wichita went a bit South and stayed outside and to the southwest of Casablanca. At 8:00 o'clock Saturday night I took the watch as officer of the deck in Condition 2 and stayed there as officer of the deck until 3:00 o'clock the next afternoon. At 10:00 P.M. went to General Quarters within 20 miles of Fedala and could see the light on the point. We are in a long line heading south with the Brooklyn on the inside with transports behind and Augusta on the outside with transports behind. Brooklyn slightly in lead and closest to the French shore battery at Chergui the bi gest danger point of the whole operation because it coulcf really mess up the troops. We stopped at midnight. It was a pitch black night, slightly cloudy and even a little rain. The transports started to put boats in the water and unload troops into them. Still Chergui didn't open up, so the Brooklyn couldn't do anything without giving away the surprise element we had. We went out behind the transports and patrolled near them just in case the French warships came out of Casablanca. At 4:00 A.M., right on schedule, the first wave was on its way to the beach when a French Corvette and an American destroyer came close together in the dark. The French Corvette was told to surrender and it opened fire with machine guns and tried to ram the destroyer. The destroyer stopped him with its 5-inch guns and the show was on. Just at this time we got word President Roosevelt had broadcasted to the French people and told them we were coming, to be friendly or suffer the consequences. With the gunfire, the search lights on shore went on and illuminated the landing boats coming in. The boats poured machine gun shells back at them and put out the lights. The Brooklyn got into position with our main battery and plotted Chergui's position and our own on the chart and got the range and bearing to fire control. We were just launching our two spotting tplanes when Chergui opened up and a destroyer calle over TBS Chergui has my range. It was the DD Murphy with a hit in the fireroom about 3,000 yards off our port bow. The command, Open fire, went out from the bridge and those 6-inch guns that fascinated me so much in gunnery practice went to work like huge machine guns. Shell casings piled up on the deck as they were ejected from the turrets, three at a time from each turret at about 12 shots per minute out of each gun. Chergui swung all her guns at us and splashes went up all around the Brooklyn. It was no contest. Our plane spot kept calling, No change - No change. The duel lasted about 45 minutes with the Brooklyn slowing down the fire as the splashes around us got less or we would have used up all our 6-inch ammunition. The planes called, No more firing from Chergui, and our first job was done. CThere were many congratulations for that gunnery work later on.J the Brooklyn fired some more at targets pointed out. by our planes. Two planes started diving at our starboard side and Oil? 5-inch and machine guns opened up and drove them o . It was about 8:00 o'clock when the word came that the French ships were coming out of Casablanca and headlng for the transport area at top speed and for the Brooklyn to intercept them. We were ordered because .we just happened to be the only one in their way at this time with a chance of getting to them before they got to the transports. The French ships making 30 knots were using a smoke screen as they came out of Casablanca Harbor and along the shore. The Massachusetts, Wichita and Tuscaloosa 21150 making 30 knots could not catch them in time in the 15 gf 'K' ' '- mile distance to the transports so the Brooklyn was all alone until the Augusta could come down from behind us. Splashes' started coming up immediately around the Brooklyn. There were ten ships shooting at us led by the Cruiser Primauguet. We were straddled four times right at the start without taking a hit. One splash hit thirty feet from the ship alongside the bridge and we got the spray from the splash. Each ship was using a different color dye 1n their shells so they could spot the salvos by the color of the splashes. So when the hit came just below me and the Marines were tossed around in a red mess, it wasn't blood but the dye from the Primauguet's shell. The shell slammed off the armor plate below me and fell out in the water without exploding. j-.DE57PaYA-2: 7'm-asfffff .MJ s , t E gi f ,f , S - r ' 1 ' W ig- Y I H llysi if 1 2 'im 5 . ,. 2 116297 'fuscozefm 4 if ,f . .ytuca-X' qfwyvvk I 5 1 l.- ' ,' ,C xgXi,.l - Q V 4, 13,3 I -- , X Jewgm' 1 l ' , .5 E533-gd X j N f '- 4, . asa 0 Landing beaches in the Casablanca, North Africa, area. The Brooklyn opened up with the 6-inch guns also going 30 knots and firing that rapid machine gun like pace. Even through the smoke screenand haze, the poor Frenchmen found out what those 6-inch guns could do. First our spotting planes reported one cruiser damaged so bad she ran herself up on the beach burning. One of the big destroyer leaders and a destroyer sunk right there blown out of the water. Another destroyer leader and destroyer burning, the rest turned and ran back into Casablanca as the We our our other ships came up behind us and were firing also. stopped firing as we approached Casablanca because orders were to save the docks as much as possible for own use after we occupied the city. We steamed back up to the transport area and at 1:00 P.M. were still at General Quarters. We secured and set a condition watch because we hadn't eaten since we went to General Quarters the night before. I had nolsooner gone below and took off my helmet when the general alarm sounded again and the word was 'passed we are going to Casablanca again to intercept a cruiser and destroyers headed for the transport area. It was a repeat of the first time. We got there first and opened fire first so the French ships picked us for the target and splashes popped up all around us. Our other ships were right behind us and firing too. We found this might be a submarine trap because the Brooklyn had the scare of our lives when in clear View we saw a periscope and fire torpedo tracks showed up right- after. Brooklyn was going 32 knots with the torpedos fired off