California (BB 44) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 29 text:

By this time. the USS Nevada, although damaged. got underway along with several destroyers. Almost all the battlewagons were burning and sinking. With screws chuming slowly. the USS Nevada made its way toward the harbor entrance. They realized they couldn't make it. would sink and block the channel. so they backed it up, under full power, into a cane field opposite the Hospital Point. Our ship. the USS Phelps, with a skeleton crew, managed to get underway and out to sea, which left Zack and me, at the moment, without a ship. We continued fishing sailors from the oily water. mainly survivors back of the USS Ari- gona after it had been hit. ln the murky water, all we could see was part of some sailor float- ing, and would grab an arm or leg or uniform and haul him into our boat. One time, Zack leaned over and grabbed a sailor's head and lifted it up. There was no body. After we pulled as many men as could be found from the water, we put ourselves un- der the command of the senior shore patrol officer who had us carry dispatch to the ships and various other craft still afloat. We were darned scared after dark because everyone was frightened and trigger happy. We flashed our running lights and hollered our identifications: then came alongside looking into an arsenal of rifle muzzles. How we slept, or whether we slept that night escapes my mind entirely, I can't recall. The next day, December 8th, we carried more messages around the harbor, including offic- ers so they could assess the damage and make preparation for repairs. How long the USS Phelps stayed out on sea escapes my memory, too. Time seemed to stand still after the awful event of December 7th. We kept on working and stayed in the Receiving Station until the USS Phelps returned, but my mind blocked out just about everything that we did. 'fOf course, with our country at war, dis- charge from the U.S. Navy was just a memory. The Battle of the Coral Sea followed as did Midway and on and on .... UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET BATTLE FORCE, BATTLESHIPS USS CALIFORNIA IBB-441 PEARL HARBOR, TH. DECEMBER 22, 1941 'fFrom: Commanding Officer To: Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet HSubject: Report of Raid CRevisedJ, De- cember 7, 1941. Reference: tal CinCPac Despatch 102131 of December, 1941. tbl C.O. California Serial Number 1002 of December 13, 1941. 1. Since submitting reference tbl, addi- tional infomiation has become available from a study of individual reports received from personnel of this ship and therefore makes de- sirable the submission of this revision of ref- erence tbl. 2. A complete report of damage is in the process of preparation as exact information in the premise becomes available. HAIR RAID ENGAGEMENT, DECEMBER 7, 1941 NARRATIVE Prior to the air raid by the Japanese Air Forces on December 7, 1941, the USS Cali- fOrnia CBB-445 was berthed at Fox-Three, star- board side to with boiler number one in use for auxiliary purposes. The Material Condi- tion ofthe ship was X-ray except voids A- 146- V, A-148-V, A-184-V, A-186-V, A-188-V, A- 137-V, A-139-V, B-119-V, B-123-V, and B- 109-V, which were open preparatory to com- plete necessary maintenance work. The ship was fueled to 95 per cent capacity. Four hun- dred rounds of fifty calibre ammunition were at machine guns number one and number two. Fifty rounds of five inch anti-aircraft CA.A.J ammunition were in the ready boxes. All other ammunition was in the magazines. Guns num- ber one and number tow had been designated as the ready guns. All five inch!25, three inch! 50 and anti-aircraft CA.A.J fifty calibre machine guns wee completely ready for use and ready to load in all respects. The battery was not manned except machine guns number one and number two. The ship's senior line officer aboard was Lieutenant Commander M.N. Little, U.S. Navy, Lieutenant H.E. Bernstein, U.S. Navy, was the officer with the Head of Department duty. The attack was marked initially by the bombing of facilities of the Naval Air Station, Ford Island, and a strafing of the ship at 0735 hours. The General Alarm was sounded and General Quarters was ordered. Main Control was ordered to make all preparations for get- ting underway and by 0800 hours the main and auxiliary steam lines were warmed. f'The ship's company went promptly to their battle stations, with the stations above deck under a strafing attack. Condition Zed was ordered set. Communications wee estab- lished between Conn, Fire Control, Central Station, and Main Control, and their subsid- iary stations. Before the strafing attack was over the torpedo planes commenced their at- tack on the battleships moored at the inter- ruptedquays. By 0803 hours, fifty calibre machine guns number one and number two opened fire and were shortly followed by number two and num- ber four five inch anti-aircraft CA.A.J guns. The shortage of ammunition immediately available at the guns was acute, and orders were issued to ammunition parties to expedite the service of it to the guns. Before the foregoing order could be ex- ecuted the ship was struck at 0805 hours with three torpedoes, two at about frame 110 on the port side, the other at about frame 47 on the port side. These torpedoes struck almost si- multaneously and their effect due to the incom- plete setting of Condition Yoke and Zed proved far reaching and disastrous. The ship com- menced listing to port and the Commanding Officer ordered counter-flooding to limit list to four degrees. Forward in the vicinity of Forward Ord- nance Repair, by the rupture of fuel tanks, the third deck commenced flooding with fuel. The strength of the fumes were such as to overcome the ammunition party attempting to expedite the delivery of ammunition. The rupture of fuel oil tanks forward introduced water into the fuel system and before it was cleared, light and power were lost on the ship at a critical time. The flooding of compartments in closeprox- imity to the torpedo hits prevented the neces- sary access to make possible some control of damage. The instantaneous flooding of compart- ments on the third deck directly inboard of the forward torpedo hit was probably due to the fact that the man-holes to five C51 voids in that area were open. The voids noted in paragraph one were opened in order to inspect for pos- sible leakage from fuel tanks, which had been filled when the ship fueled to 95 per cent ca- pacity. The five C57 voids, however, on the star- board side were closed by repair parties, the five C55 voids, however, on the port side were still open when the torpedo striick. The fuel oil tanks between the inner and outer voids were probably ruptured by the explosion and the oil probably driven up through the open men-holes of the voids into the spaces directly above them. The Port Thrust Block Room C-106-E flooded rather rapidly after the torpedo hit at frame number 110, due to either a ruptured deck or bulkhead, or both. The compartment was evacuated and a hatch in the trunk leading to it was dogged down. The pressure under this hatch was such, however, that the hatch was bulging and it is very probable that it car- ried away, flooding the Engineeris store room and gyro compass room C-304-A, which is im- mediately above the port thrust block room. No other main machinery spaces were flooded immediately subsequent to the torpedo hits. The Center Motor Room was eventually flooded by the ventilation duct carrying away. The cause, therefore, of the flooding of the compartments in line with the after torpedo hit is not clearly established. There appears good reason to believe that either the tank tops of the fuel oil tanks in that area were ruptured or that the man-hole covers were blown off or buckled and that again the longitudinal bulk- head between the third deck spaces directly over the fuel tanks and the living spaces in- board on the third deck were either ruptured or severely strained and leaking. The preva- lent opinion among the men stationed on the third deck during the engagement, all of whom were driven out by the flooding and oil fumes, seems to be that flooding subsequent to the torpedo hit was probably through ventilation systems, few of which were secured. The time available between the sounding of the General Alarm and the time the repair party personnel in the third deck areas were forced to evacuate their stations was totally inadequate for any- thing like complete setting of Conditions Yoke

Page 28 text:

Sunday, December 8, 1991 lrmpla- lhulx la-lo I I Pearl arbor Survivors Gather T J R ' ' FREDRICKSBURG CAP? - Pearl Harbor sur- vivors, their families and friends gathered Satur- day to remember the Japanese sneak attack 50 years ago that plunged their lives into chaos and the nation into war. It was Pearl Harbor that catapulted the nation into war and changed history forever. said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio. Smith handed out commemorative medals to the survivors in a ceremony at the only museum in the nation dedicated toward chronicling the Pacific theater during World War II. Several hundred people attended the ceremony in the Garden of Peace at the Admiral Nimitz Museum. Chester William Nimitz was named commander-in-chief of the Pacific after the Japa- nese attack that killed more than 2,400 service- men and crippled the U.S. Navy. A World War II vintage training plane flew over the ceremony as the crowd paused silently at the exact moment of the attack. Fifty-four survivors, or their family members, received the medals. They lined up beside a Japanese midget submarine that ran aground 50 miles from Pearl Harbor during the attack. The submarine was later sent stateside to drum up sales of national war bonds. The survivors displayed mixed emotions about the anniversary and the nation's current relation- ship with Japan. Fifty years have passed and we should forgive and forget, said Joseph Berry, who lives near Lake Buchanan. Berry was on the USS Helena. But George Grobe, another survivor who lives in Blanco, said he keeps remembering what they did to us. I don't forgive to easily, he said. Grobe was aboard the USS Maryland drinking coffee when the bombs started falling. The battleship was tied to the USS Okla- homa, he said. She took all the fish ttorpedoesl that were intended for us. F , n Sneak Attack 'U . . 1 -if . E-if eff' 4 1' V E i WM , iii!! X vi ' Jflgk, C iilii. l I 1 , T iffilililis.. ' ' . ' . ifiuiisiw iif' 'Lili -llli ' ' ..i+Q1W'l'l'. 1Afl fw+Wl J . + . ii, J tiiil liii, M J l'J fiilll'i m lii'irs.ii illiil 'llili.,ilM . AP Laserphoto Elmer Childress Wipes Away Tears Sue Thornton of Kingsland attended the eer- emony to receive a medal for her husband. George Lee Thornton, who died in 1982, Thorn- ton had served on the USS California, We should never forget Pearl Harbor and what they did to us, she said. Elmer Childress of Kerrville said he doesn't hold a grudge against the Japanese, but disagrees with people who believe the U.S. should apolo- gize for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. - --

Page 30 text:

and Zed. Only the most obvious openings such as doors and hatches could be secured and in some cases, even this was done in darkness and in the presence of heavy oil fumes which spread through the entire third deck area rap- idly after the torpedo hits. This flooding through ventilation systems is probably due in part to failure to close the deck and bulkhead fittings of the systems and in part to the rup- ture of ventilation ducts themselves. In one case at least, that of the Center Motor Room, it was definitely established before the area was evacuated, that the ventilation duct itself was ruptured and water pouring through the open- mg. f'The general floodingon the second deck and into the Machine Shop flat from that deck was due to the effect of the bomb hit at 0830 hours which hit abreast casemate number one at frame 59, penetrated the main deck and ex- 'ploded an the second deck, and which com- pletely destroyed the watertight integrity of the first and second decks between frames 26 and 100 approximately, and between the second deck and the machinery spaces tthird deckj reached by the large centerline hatch about frame 65. f'About 0810 hours Fire Control ordered all five inch!51 personnel to assist in the five inch anti-aircraft CA.A.J ammunition service. About 0815 hours Control ordered turret crews to assist in five inch anti-aircraft tA.A.j am- munition supply. The effectiveness of Turret I and II was restricted in this capacity for access handling room access, trunks, and subsequently access via the forecastle and the third deck was blocked by the fire that developed from the bomb hit at 0830 hours. Turret III personnel advanced along the partial flooded starboard ammunition passageway to frame 48. Oil was leaking through the door of frame 48. The fumes of fuel oil in Compartment A-51 made it untenable. In the meantime an additional group was organized, Ensigns H.C. I ones, W.F. Cage, and I.W. Jeffery, to assist further in the ammuni- tion supply. Repair V sent a party to assist this supplyf' UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET BATTLE F ORCE, BA TTLESHIPS USS CALIFORNIA IBB-441 PEARL HARBOR, TH. DECEMBER 22, 1941 HSubject: Report of Raid tRevisedJ, De- cember 7, 1941. About 0810 hours the light and power was off the ship. Ammunition was obtained from A-231 U2-M and passed into Handling Room A-233-M and up Hoists Number ll, Number 21, Number 13, and Number 23 by hand operation. Men in this vicinity were overcome with fuel oil fumes and had to be removed. Gunner J.C. Pharris, with replace- ments from the broadside guns, succeeded in removing the overcome men and getting sixty- two rounds from magazines to the guns. En- sign E.R. Blair obtained, with a ten had work ing party, 1,600 rounds belted fifty calibre machine gun ammunition from the fifty cali- bre magazine in the torpedo hold forward be- fore that compartment flooded. No further ammunition thereafter was available or ob- tained from the ship's magazines during the engagement. The ship was badly shaken by either a near bomb hit or torpedo hit at 0820 hours. Main radio room was flooded and abandoned. Compartment A-518 started to fill with fuel. NThree dive bombing attacks were made between 0815 hours and H923 rio succezaivley lrorri the xtarboair i ahead, and from port bow The 1 near hits along starboard :ide eau .ed sized holes Ltfflldfullifl between the armor and gallery deck. Uri the dive horririiri tack, at 0830 hours. a hit was made ah casemate number one, frame 59. penetr the main deck and explosed ora the second on the starboard side, This hit started a amidships on the second deck between a 51 to 77, main deck, frames 51 to ar casemates number three. number ri' aff , l' I W , A L. ... li f T A A f A R A .- . . X I X . I X! ,QILMFW J ng -x ffl .L . M' 17 -,--1-Q USS Calhfornia band, 1937. fC0urIesy QfJ0e Let'e1zg.l Bfllfffitllijl Ci'z1frfoi'i1i'41. fClUllI'ff'.X'Y rif'1'sfr1m!r1' Hcrzirl is