California (BB 44) - Naval Cruise Book

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On the USS West Virginia, what was thought to be an internal explosion in the USS Calqfarnia, with an almost simultaneous ex- plosion near the USS Oglala and the USS Hel- ena, caused the Fire and Rescue Party to be called away. This brought hundreds of men and officers topside, undoubtedly saving many of their lives. At this point it seemed that the attack had started everywhere at the same time. Moored alone made the Calyfornia vulner- able from all directions to the attacking planes. At 0800 hours, the General Alarm was sounded when it was determined that the ship was be- ing attacked by the Japanese. Personnel in the Flag Communication Station watched as the first torpedo hit. 4 At 0805 hours, fwo explosions rocked the Calgfornia setting off an ammunition magazine killing 50. seamen. Oscar Svensen, a young Gunners Mate, with the responsibility to take the magazine temperature, a daily routine, was up early and had drawn the keys to the magazines. The early rounds in the magazines were finished well before the attack began. Had this not been so, he would have been in the area of the bomb hit in that magazine. Immediately after the attack alarm sounded aboard the Calnfornia, but before the maximum degree of watertight integrity could be set, even so far as the ship's bad material condition would permit, the Japanese were on her. About 0805 hours as the ready machine guns opened fire on planes attacking up the line, a low-flying Nakajima B5N Kate,' ap- proached from the direction of Merry Point, banked steeply, and launched a torpedo. With a clearly-visible bubble track, the fish sped into the port beam below the armor belt at frame l0l tTur'ret IIIJ, lifting a heavy column of water alongside with the force of the explo- sion. The Seaplane tender Acocet CAVP-45 moored at the NAS Dock, Ford Island, took the plane under fire with her two three-inchersg the Kate', burst into flames and crashed adja- cent to the Naval Hospital. Simultaneously, a second torpedo hit the port side, again below the armor belt, at frame 52 Cbetween Turret II and the Bridgeb. Due to the unbuttoned condition of the f'Prune Barge, the two torpedo hits 'fproved to be far-reaching and disastrous. Although neither hit punched completely through the ship's well-designed torpedo bulkheads, their wallop began a port list which, but for prompt counterflooding by Reserve Ensign Edgar M. Fain, might have capsized her. The forward torpedo, which ripped open a 24 by ten foot hole, allowed salt water to contaminate the fuel linesg before they could be cleared, all power and light was lost. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Little was everywhere, encouraging the men and issuing emergency orders. The anti-air- craft guns were firing with ammunition brought up by hand. Toward 0825 hours, Commander Stone appeared on the bridge, the first of the Calyfornias top officers to get back. Admiral Pye, though not tactically in control of the ship, was speeding toward the dock with the man- ager ofa local hotel while Captain Bunkley, st i -li ' -.tv ll W' Y ll -ti When the USS Caldarnia was hir, it set ojjfan ammunition magazine killing 50 men. She listed 8 degrees and began I0 settle. Ajier repairs the Calnfornia rejoined Ihejleet in 1944. lC0urresy afH.A. Lang! caught by the raid in his swimming trunks near the pool of the Halekulani, was also enroute. Just as Commander Stone and Lieutenant Little were conferring on the torpedo hits, Japa- nese Val', dive bombers and several Zero fighters turned their attention to the flagship. After a stick of bombs dropped alongside, a huge 250 kilogram missile hit the starboard upper deck level at frame 60 and passed through to explode on the armored second deck, setting off an anti-aircraft ammunition magazine, killing 53 men. A second bomb rup- tured the bow plates while near-misses caused fragmentation damage to the funnels and star- board anti-aircraft batteries. Strafing from the attacking enemy aircraft wounded a number of crewmen. Smoke from the bomb which blew the ammunition locker infiltrated the second and third decks. Acrid fumes found their way into the forward engine room, via the ventilation system, delaying efforts there to clear the fuel lines of water from the torpedo hit. Neverthe- less, tremendous efforts by damage control parties restored light and power which helped control several fires by the time Captain Bunkley returned aboard. However, before he could issue orders to unmoor and get under way on the four available boilers, another crisis erupted. Around 1000 hours, burning oil from other ships drifting down the harbor engulfed the Calyforniais stern. Captain Bunkley ordered Abandon Ship, but within 15 minutes, the wind blew the burning oil pool clear. The skip- per ordered all hands to return on board. but not all would and those who did. did so very slowly. After witnessing an officer on shore begging a group of men, Yeoman Durrel Conner, still aboard, had an idea which helped. Noting that the national ensign had yet to be raised this day, he and another seaman hoisted the colors on the fantail. A cheer went up from the men on shore and soon many were hurry- ing back. Unfortunately, by this time the situ- ation was beyond repair. Although gas powered pumps were bor- rowed from other ships and the minesweepers Bobolink CAM-209 and Wrea KAM-521 came alongside to apply their pumps. the Caldarnia was slowly sinking. Even though the fires were put out, there was now no watertight integrity below the second deck. Flooding caused by a combination of battle damage, non-closure of watertight fittings, and rupture of ventila- tion ducts,', could not be halted. Thus. the ef- fort to stop the sea water entering her great gashes amounted to 'fsimply pumping Pearl Harbor through the ship. Calnfornia rolled to an eight degree list and started to settle. A scheduled inspection had reduced the watertight integrity by having many lower deck hatches open. This accounted for the immediate flooding that required quick action with counter-flooding measure to cause the ship to settle evenly and to prevent it from capsizing. Bomb hits started fires and burning oil on the water erupted into a blazing wall of fire surrounding the ship. Although the crew was ordered, at this point. to abandon ship. when the fire fighting equipment from the Ford ls- land. NAS was employed. the fires were re- duced and the abandon ship order was canceled and the crew returned. Despite valiant efforts. Caliyivrnia settled into the mud. .The holes in the hull were too big to permit control of the flooding and at- tempts to keep the ship afloat were met with defeat. Despite three days ofattempts to save her. the California. though partially afloat. contin- ued to settle. Adequate pumping. wrote her salvage supervisor in 1968. if it could have been supplied at the time. would have kept the vessel afloat. Neither the giant pumps re- quired nor sufficient divers were available for the task and late on Wednesday night. Decem- ber l0th. the battleship came to rest in about lo feet of soft mud. With a list to port of some five and one-half degrees and a draft of about -13 feet forward and 57 feet aft. only her masts .ii I ,J 5 -A Qi-Q lj , .QW .Q- KM 22

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we U U54 I l 5 I ,ff JL ' USS California KBB-442 radio gang at the Moose Lodge on Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA. lCourtesy of Wayne Lindalzll Califomia fthe last in October, 19413, carried out a schedule of training, basing on Pearl Harbor. steaming with various task forces and groups in the Hawaiian operating area. Com- manded by Captain Joel W. Bunkley and fly- ing the flag of Commander, Battle Force, Vice Admiral William S. Pye, the dreadnought led a number of two-week evolutions at sea, each followed by a week in port for upkeep. These exercises were executed under combat condi- tions. Battle stations were maintained watch- on-watch as evasive actions were practiced for simulated enemy attack. Gunnery, damage control, and fire drills were constant. The last of Admiral Pye's cruises occurred during the first week of December, 1941, at its conclu- sion, the overdue battlewagons put into Pearl Harbor. maneuvering up around Ford Island and down to the southeast side to a series of masonry mooring quays often known as battleship row. Japanese secret agent Takeo Yoshikawa reported the units of the Battle Force late on December 6, 1941. Torpedo nets, he noted, were not spread and aerial surveillance had been non-existent. The Calnornia lay moored at Quay F-3, the row's southernmost, with some 40-60 feet of water under her keel. Like her sisters astern, she lay in Readiness Condi- tion Three lor X j- two machine guns manned and two five-inch guns prepared with ready ammunition and crews. Fuel and food were onboard and the engine room was on twelve-hour notice. It being a weekend. many of her officers and men, including Captain Bunkley. Admiral Pye, and the executive of- ficer. Commander Earl E. Stone, were on lib- erty ashore. Those left onboard played cards, napped. or read under the watchful eye of the capable Lieutenant Commander M. N. Little, the ships first lieutenant and acting commander. 'flt is a well-known fact. although never admitted. that battleships carrying admirals' flagsf' wrote Samuel Eliot Morison in the first volume of his semi-official history, although taut and smart in appearance, were commonly inferior to others in readiness and material con- dition. Such was the case aboard the Calnfor- nia: her material condition as to watertight integrity was bad. According to a variety of experts, the f'Prune Bargel' would be lost, as Bureau of Ships War Damage Report Number 21 of November 28, 1942 has it recorded, be- cause 'fmanholes Con the double bottomj left open and loose manhole covers on the port side of the third deck and because most of the watertight fittings on the third deck and below were open .... Why watertight integrity was so poor remains a controversial issue. In his January 26, 1942 after-action report, Captain Bunkley stated that a material inspec- tion of the Calnfornia was imminent and that normal preparations required a thorough vent- ing of tanks and voids. This view, reported and repeated by Monson and others as recently as Doctor Gordon W. Prange in his massive At Dawn We Slept, may not be accurate. The 1946 Joint Congressional Committee on the Inves- tigation ofthe Pearl Harbor Attack examined the manholelinspection question closely. A schedule of major inspections noted on page 1677 of its Hearings does not list the 'fPrune Barge. A statement on page 5351 ends, the logs of the U.S.S. California, Maryland, Nevada, and Tennessee have been examined for any record of inspections, and for any ref- erences conceming watertight integrity prece- dent to or in preparation for any inspections on 5, 6, and 7 December 1941, with negative results. The Bureau of Ships never learned for certain how many manhole covers were off or loose at the time of the Japanese raid and evidence provided by the captain varies sub- stantially from that found during salvage op- erations. Whatever the exact number and the reason for them, this weakening of the ship's defenses. even if regarded as a minor oversight, would turn out to be a serious matter- one so serious that it meant the difference between the Calnfornia s survival and her loss. It was a typical Sunday morning, on De- cember 7, 1941. The battleships were moored in their as- signed berths in Pearl Harbor and along the southeast side of the Ford Island, NAS. The USS Calnfornia was moored southemmost and alone. Next came the USS Oklahoma and the USS Maryland with the USSMaryland in- board. Astem of them to the north was the USS Tennessee, and the USS West Wrginia with the USS Tennessee moored inboard. Next astern was the USS Arizona with the USS Ves- tal a repair ship, moored alongside outboard. The USS Pennsylvania was across the harbor in dry-dock Number One in the Navy Yard with the USS Cassin and the USS Downes ahead of her in the same dry-dock. The Cruisers, the USS San Francisco and the USS New Orleans were in the Repair Ba- sin and the USS Phoenix was moored north- east of Ford Island, NAS. The USSSI. Louis , the USS Honolulu and the USS Helena were in docks at the Navy Yard. The USS Raleigh and the USS Detroit were moored on the north- west side of Ford Island, NAS, and the USS Utah directly behind to the south. Twenty-nine destroyers were to the north and east of Ford Island. The USS Shaw was in a floating dry-dock with the USS Sotoyomo, a tug boat. The USS Bagley was moored at the Navy Yard for restricted availability. Else- where in the harbor were five submarines, a gun boat, ll minesweepers, 23 auxiliary ships, nine minelayers, the Coast Guard ships and many smaller craft, making a total of 96 ships in the harbor. The total of all types of Naval units present at Pearl Harbor or within three miles of the Island of Oahu was 157. Very little was stirring aboard the ships. On the USS Tennessee a few crew members sipped coffee and relaxed. A Boatswain's Mate on the USS Arizona was standing by the rail checking the condition of the shipls sides. On various other ships, including the USS Cali- fornia, men were readying the details for mom- ing colors. A small boat shoved off from the Merry Point landing. On Pearl Harbor the moming sun rose gleaming on the harbor wa- ters as it broke over the Koolau Mountains and Diamond Head. The 0800 hours to 1200 hours watch was eating breakfast on the USS Oklahoma and, on other ships, gun crews were wiping the moming dew from the anti-aircraft batteries. It was quiet and the church bells from ashore called the 8:00 olclock Mass. It was 0755 hours. Just before 0800 hours on December 7, 1941, warplanes from the six carriers of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's First Air Fleet commenced their well-planned attack. Shortly thereafter, radios were calling in plain English: f'Air Raid Pearl Harbor- This is No Drill! The Japanese dive bombers swarmed across Ford Island, NAS loosing their bombs on aircraft and hangars. The aircraft tiashed apart and started to burn.

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-X . fn Yi AUC uf wr,- r fr SE' tiilw E iii: ,wg . eff ,,. .r j ,:AA are Q W. if and superstructure rose above the waves. As observers noted Thursday rnoming, the sea had closed over the port side forward and over Turret IV on the quarter-deck. Of the 120 of- ficers and 1.546 crewmen aboard on Decern- ber 7th. six officers and 92 men were killed or missing in action with another three officers and 58 crewmen wounded. It was a devastat- ing loss. After two happy decades of smooth sailing. Pearl Harbor marked a sudden and bitter end for the Golden State Battlewagon. Veteran Chuck Sharman recounted his experience at Pearl Harbor in his eye-witness account: My buddy, Bob Mitchell, and I had some good luck in the summer of 1940 and again in December of 1941. A week or two before we were to report aboard ship for duty in July of 1940. our orders were changed from the USS Arizona to the USS Calnfornia. We became signalmen on the USS Calnfornia CBB-445. On the morning of December 7, 1941, I was relieving the watch on the signal bridge shortly before 8:00 a.m. I heard the engines of several planes, looked up, and saw three planes wing over and start to dive just forward of our bow. Even as I saw their bombs fall, I thought they must be our own planes. Not until the explosions of the patrol plane hangers on Ford Island, and I saw the red meatballs on the wings, did I realize that the planes were Japa- nese aircraft. My buddy and I made it through the at- tack. However, our families in Tacoma, Wash- ington, were notified that we had been killed- in-action and they proceeded to have memo- rial services for us at our church and at the VFW. where a year or two before we had played in the marching band. In a few weeks' time they learned we were alive after all, and removed our names from the Memorial Pylon in town. About a week after the Japanese attack, word was passed that most of the USS Cali- fornia si gnalmen were to be transferred to four heavy cruisers. They were the USS Vincennes, the USS Chicago, the USS Astoria, and the USS Portland. We were allowed our choice of ship. Mitch and 1 decided we wanted to be on a ship named for a city close to our home town, so the Chicago and Wncennes were im- mediately eliminated. That left the Portland and Astoria. Both were cities in Oregon, but we thought that Portland was closer to Tacoma than Astoria was, so we went aboard the Port- land, the only one of the four cruisers to sur- vive the war. Only afterjoining her crew did we discover she was named for Portland, Maine, Q Portland, Oregon! Following the battle of Midway, Bob Mitchell was transferred to the USS Atlanta, where he was wounded when she was sunk off Guadalcanal in November, 1942. Later he served on the destroyer USS Hahford, finish- ing the war as chief quartermaster. 'fln January, 1943, I left the Portland and went to the USS Crescent City, an APA. Sev- eral months later I was on the Lunga Point Tower on Guadalcanal. During that time the Hahfora' came out from the United States and took station off Lunga Point, making runs north through the Solomon Islands. I had not seen Mitch for many months and finagled my way on board for a good visit of several days. 'fLater in the year of 1943, I went back to the United States and was part of the commis- sioning crew of the USS Van Valkenberg. When the war ended, I was teaching NAN Sig- naling School in Pearl Harbor where it all be- gan on that unforgettable day aboard the Cali- forniaf' And then Veteran Frank M. Murphy re- counted his personal encounters at Pearl Har- bor on uthe day of infamy : Y sf if 4 . Q 21, f'No,, Wx 4 , , . , 1 1 ea 1 I r W s 5 Q39 ia s . 'Url' -snug. 7 f , 'f f 'M , ' t... A 1 7 4 rm.. -P ,-- :ur -. .ts ,r ., ff t - ' f . , We r.. -- e ' 7 A z sv-'Q -Q-f-f ... 7 f , 2' H 'S' M' W , of A-gig, f ass' dn- Q 'Te 1... 'f f , W 'WW f M1-'1 ' ' r 0 Al anchor in Long Beach CA., during a Santa Anna high wind storm, weathering it out. lCourtesy of Robert Gardner J f'Nearing the end of my enlistment, I had orders in hand to proceed to the nearest port in the Continental United States for discharge. I could practically smell the creosote and sage in Arizona. I planned on one more liberty in Honolulu, so Clinton Zachary and I went ashore from the USS Phelps about 0730 hours to hang one on for the last time. The calendar affirmed the date to be Sunday, December 7, 1941. Hlmpatiently we waited at the liberty land- ing for a bus into Honolulu, and idly glanced at a group of planes flying in unusually low. We joked, 'Sunday is a hell of a day to prac- tice, but that's the Navy for you.' We noticed some of the planes carried torpedoes and saw them dropped on battleship row. Laughingly we joked that the torpedomen would have to work to overhaul them. Natu- rally, we thought they were exercise heads. All at once it struck us the USS California CBB- 44J listed unnaturally and its boats were fall- ing off the boat deck. Smoke began to fill the sky, too. 'fAs the first planes passed overhead, we had waved at the pilots and they waved back. Suddenly, one plane dipped our way and ma- chine-gunned the dock. This wasn't an exer- cise, something terribly was wrong! f'Now we noticed various ships in the har- bor began firing anti-aircraft and machine guns, and we noticed the planes coming in had a big red ball on the wings. Zack and I started to run to the half completed receiving station, but three machine gun bullets tore into my right lower leg. It seemed inconceivable how they hit me when my skinny legs moved faster than light! We found the medics at the receiving station and they bandaged my leg. The firing had slacked off some, so Zack and I liberated an empty whale boat and mo- tored out to see what had happened. We picked up an engineer on the dock. I was the boat cox'un and Zack was the bow hook. Out on the water, we noticed several men swimming between the USS Arizona and Ford Island, so we headed for them. The planes roared over us and one made a direct hit on the USS Arizona. She exploded with a hell of a roar and with a huge fireball. I had my hat tipped back and it burned my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes off. The force of the explosion pushed me against the tiller, a two-inch piece of polished brass pipe. Unbelievably, I bent it with my hip. We retrieved a boat load of swim- mers and took them to the landing. Many Japanese planes filled the sky with firing from them, and from our ships, too. Zack and I made numerous trips, picking up as many men as we could find. The water, black and murky with oil and debris from the damaged ships, and the sky filled with black, choking smoke from the fires, made it seem like Hell, only we were still alive. We saw the bomb that got the USS Penn- sylvania, and the USS Cassin, and the USS Downes, which were all in dry dock. The USS Oglala, the oldest mine layer in the U.S. Navy, had tied up at the dock and was sunk. Because of its age, we always said it sank from fright and wouldn't credit the Japanese with it.