California (BB 44) - Naval Cruise Book

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drenching spray. Powerful thirty foot waves slugged at the ship, crashing over the forecastle and streaming out the hawse-pipes in cascad- ing rivulets. The steady whine of the gale shrieked like a tormented soul as this huge vessel crushed against its imponderable body. Yet for all the violence of the storm, the tem- perature was mild and to me, from the north, that seemed strange. The battleships weathered the seas rather effortlessly but the destroyers plunged in and out of the waves like drowning dogs, one mo- ment perched on the peak of a swell, the next skidding into the trough. After taking a beat- ing all moming, their division commander had to radio, For God's sake slow downg our men aren't getting paid for submarine duty. During the aftemoon of the 17th a num- ber of Japanese planes hovered fifty or sixty miles from our formation, sometimes closing to about fifteen. These were Hsnoopersi' shad- owing us like vultures across the sea. We had been discoveredg now any kind of surprise at- tack was possible for snooping, is the Japanese's overture to action. The next day we were to enter Leyte Gulf and commence the invasion bombardment. On the morrow we realized an operation would start that nobody could foretell its outcome. It seemed amazing to me that evening as I sat in the quiet of my stateroom writing what I hoped would not be a last letter home that in twelve hours this ship could be a rubbles and I could be dead. I knew then that nobody can project his life two minutes into the future, that during our existence on this earth nothing is absolutely predictable before it happens, that events are only inevitable after they happen. However, as often occurs to hypochon- driacal people, despite the apprehension with which I awoke on the moming of the 18th, there was not the fearful Armageddon I expected. Instead it was an exhausting futile day. We were at our battle stations fifteen hours through a blistering hot sun and a dark treacherous night. Enemy planes and surface crafts were reported every ten minutes at all bearing and rangesg we would alert our gun crews and stand-by, but nothing happened. Most of the contacts turned out friendlyg a few were absurd like this one: Unidentified plane approaching forma- tion. No, it's a ship. Wait it's showing recogni- tion signals. Hold on, it's not a plane, it's not a ship, it is landf, We laid off Leyte Gulf most of the day because of a saturation of mines in the chan- nel between Dinagat and Homonhom. CThese islands, incidentally, had been captured by the Anny Rangers the day before in a brilliant sur- prise landing.J In the morning a twenty per- cent sweep had revealed thirty-seven of them. Nevertheless, at dusk we started through Surigao Strait. It was a tense, ticklish trip like tight-rope walking over a pit full of cobras. We encountered several minesg one of them, cut by our paravanes, exploded less than a hun- dred yards from the ship. After three long, sus- penseful hours all the ships at last arrived safely inside the gulf. That evening we heard the report of Task Force 38's battle with the Japanese Fleet off Formosa. The results seemed fantastic but were undoubtedly true: 30 Japanese ships were sunk, over 300 planes shot down at an insignificant loss to us. Previously, Tokyo Rose, the famous female commentator who made the Baron Munchausen sound like a disciple of Diogenes, had claimed the Japanese had destroyed 10 of our carriers, 5 battleships and l,l00 planes. Admiral Halsey's communique in reply to the Japanese assertion was, Our sunken ships and downed planes have been salvaged and are re- tiring toward the enemyf, This brings to mind his famous dispatch last September after hit- ting the first tremendous blows at the Philip- pines, f'We socked them so hard the Japanese just stood around and hissedg when we get through with them, they won't even have a place to hiss onf, On A minus One Day COctober 193 the war ships of the Seventh Fleet commenced the bombardment of Leyte. All morning, aftemoon and evening the great guns pounded in the most sustained firing I had ever seen. Selected Japa- nese installations were the targets, but by dark the whole island seemed wreathed in smoke. That morning a strange-shaped out-rigger canoe paddled alongside one of our patrol crafts. In it were some American and Filipino guerrillas who had been on the island for years. They said the Japanese, of which there were 25,000 on Leyte, had fled to the mountains, that there were no aircraft on the island, and that the guerrillas were well organized and waiting for the landing with every confidence of success. However, the under-water demoli- tion teams, that brave group of men who remove obstructions from the invasion boat lanes, had no easy time of it: one killed and sixteen wounded by machine gun fire from the beach. In the afternoon four Japanese dive bomb- ers attacked a U.S. mine-sweep. Our air patrol shot down one and also sank a number of Japa- nese PT boats in the estuaries of the gulf. Thus though A minus One Day had been rather uneventful, we tumbled into our bunks completely beat out. The pounding concussion of the big guns for twelve hours made our heads feel like the targets of a H3-throws-for-a-dime side-show. A-Day: October 20, 1944: We went to General Quarters at 0400. It was a beautiful starlit morning and for the first time I identi- fied Canopus, the second brightest star in the heavens. As the rising sun spread its striped pink rays across the sky, reports came in of Japanese planes in the vicinity. The first we saw of them was on our port beamg we tracked them across our bow and just as two of them released their bombs on a cruiser Cand missedj, we opened fire with our 5',. The shooting was erratic even though the planes were on a steady course and they got away. As the dawn's light sifted through the mist of Leyte Gulf, we could see the tremendous fleet of transports and amphibious crafts of all descriptions forming for the invasion. The larger ships were loading men and material into the ducks, buffaloes and alligators, and all of these curiously practical boats, when filled, commenced circling around and around their mother ship in a fantastic war dance. At 0630 the bombardment of the landing beaches began. Every war ship in the gulf belched its flaming steel onto the sullen shores of Leyte lsland. Booming, authoritative 14 , walloping cruiser 6 and 8 , the sharper crack- ing 5 blended into a deafening Marsation symphony. As How-Hour approached the tempo quickened, louder and faster. By 0930 it had intensified to a world-shaking holocaust, flooding the gulf with canyons of sound. The ships looked ablaze as they spat their fiery venom at the beach which now rolled and rumbled under this tremendous barrage. We topside were mauled by the typhoon of con- cussion. Over-head an air strike of more than 500 planes added their bombs of destruction. Un- der this terrific detonation, their wakes like rip- pling silver bands beneath the heavy clouds of gun smoke, the landing crafts formed their line of departure and streamed toward the beach. The invasion was on! This was the most cru- cial, exciting moment. The boats were 500 yards off-shore, loaded to the gunwales with scared, dry-mouthed men, perfect targets for hidden Japanese batteries. Would they get through? The line advanced through the breakwa- ter. The bombarding, which had reached a cre- scendo, suddenly ceased. The leading boat scraped the bottomg the troops dashed down the ramp, raced across the beach into the first available cover. More and more men piled ashore, shooting their Mark One's at any sus- picious foliage. Am-tracks wallowed onto land like awkward rhinoceroses and rumbled for- ward. Unloaded boats wiggled off the beach and churned back to the LST,s for more men. An organization was set up, a beachmaster started directing traffic and the flow of sup- pliesg the shore fire control party made radio contact with the ships and began designating targets. In less than ten minutes hundreds of Yanks had swarrned ashore to regain their cap- tured possession. Only slight resistance op- posed the landing. I saw a few mortar shells fall among the LCI's but the batteries were quickly silenced. Twenty minutes after the first boat touched the sands of the Philippine Islands an American flag was flying from a coconut tree. It gave us all a thrill. Shortly afterward. we learned from a radio report that a Filipino girl had met the soldiers on the beaches and told them the Japanese had fled to the moun- tains. All day long men and supplies landed as the Army widened its beach-head but seemed in no hurry to push forward. Leyte was too large to be conquered by the usual slashing Marine attacks. The soldiers would first get all their equipment and troops ashore and then start methodically occupying the island in ac- cordance with normal infantry tactics. Late in the afternoon of A-Day enemy planes were reported approaching the area. As dusk settled over the gulf. the reports increased: Unidentified planes bearing 090. 30 miles: planes at 095, 25 miles: aircraft at ll0. l5 miles, closing. Enemy formations splitting up. keep a sharp look-out in all sectors. Suddenly anti-aircraft fire opened up on the starboard

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one Sunday nioming while playing bridge in the crew quarters by a sergeant who didn't like me very much and who l despised. Get your ntle. Yandiy ier you are going out in a motor whale boat to shoot and blow up an oil drum which may be a booby trap with explosives inside. he ordered. Why me. I asked. hold- ing the best card hand l had seen all morning and thinking grand slam. The conversation ended quickly and I got my rifle. The ocean swells were rolling and quite substantial. The boat rocked up and down as we approached the oil drum which I was to blast out of the water with my M-l rifle. We circled the barrel looking for smoother water as I tried to load the magazine into the rifle but. for reasons unknown, could not get it in. The Navy officer aboard looked at me curi- ously but I assured him, no problem, as I slipped a single bullet out ofthe magazine and slipped it into the chambers. By this time the boat was rocking up and down and had moved around to position the oil drum between us the USS Calnfornia. One shot. That's all I had in the rifle and didn't much want to reload. When I took aim at the oil drum the rocking of the boat had me sighting the admirals bridge one moment and 25 yards below the target a sec- ond or two later. 0.K., I decided. Illl fire on the downward swell just as I sight the top of the oil drum, it was a perfect shot. The bullet en- tered just below the water line and the barrel ta harmless oil drumj slithered to the bottom of the sea. Nice shot said the relieved en- sign. Thanks , I replied. Back aboard ship, expecting congratula- tions from all hands, I was greeted instead by a threatened court martial. It seems the admi- ral was on the bridge watching this display of marksmanship when he suddenly realized that the rifle was pointed right at him. He was not a happy admiral nor did he express even the slightest appreciation that we may have saved his damn ship. Such is War. LEYTE as .weft by LI. UG! R. Sutrler written by WD. Fuhriman On the 15th of October, 1944, the USS California shoved off from a censored island base in company with the largest task force ever assembled in the Southwest Pacific. Over one hundred major combatant vessels, aircraft car- riers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers, not only covered the entire visible ocean but many of them were hull down on the horizon. The potential might of this formation was probably as great as half the Japanese first-line Navy and yet it was barely on-fifth of the full Ameri- can Fleet. Little wonder the United States con- trol the Pacific Ocean from the gusty shoals of Tasmania to the misty peaks of Attu, and from the arched span of the Golden Gate Bridge al- most to the very spires of Japan. The mission of this force, the Seventh Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Kinkaid, was to support General MacArthur's reoccupation of the Philippines. Leyte Island, where the initial landing was to be made, is midway along the archipelago between Mindanao in the south and Luzon in the north. Maps indicated it was 115 miles long and 40 miles wide, and characterized by numerous broad valleys and rugged mountain peaks. At least eight air fields were located on the island of which six were operational by the Japanese. As to the other Japanese installations which had to be destroyed before the invasion, intel- ligence was also good. As we steamed toward our objective, we realized this was not only the most gigantic operation yet attempted in the Pacific, but its successful execution would be the most deci- sive of the war. For the Philippines sit squarely astride the Japanese's sea lanes to her stolen southern empire of Java, Borneo, Sumatra and Singapore. Our recapture of our former pos- Chel Lana' and friends. l945. fC0urtc'.s'y IUfCl'1f'fLC1l1l'.j session would be like cutting the branch on which these rich territories are the fruitg inevi- tably they must wither and die. Furthermore, with our land-based planes in great force on these islands, the invasion of the China coast, should it come, would never be in doubt. Like- wise, we would be able to strike devastating blows at Formosa and the island chain up to Japan itself. Finally, the land mass of the Phil- ippines would be an ideal base for the tremen- dous quantities of military equipment we will fall heir to in the Pacific after Germany is de- feated and with which we can conclusively set the Rising Sun. Therefore, this seemed like the great ffBattle of the Pacificgl' the prelude of historyg a moment in history. Undoubtedly, the Japanese knew this. All indications pointed to heavy opposition. We were told to expect every type of armament that could be launched against a naval force. From the many nearby air fields could come hordes of Japanese planesg Leyte Gulf, which we had to enter, would surely be mined, PT boats could swarm out of the innumerable coves and estuariesg submarines were always a threat, finally, the Imperial Fleet might at last make a belated but ferocious appearance. As every officer on the Calqfornia said to his men, after briefing them on the operation, Fellows, we can anticipate and probably will get, the Woiks! Yet we had not been out one day when it was apparent the ship was jittery. There was a prevailing premonition, a hunch as vivid and illusive as a drama, that this vessel would not get through the operation unscathed. One could see it in the way men gathered in groups and talked softly, one could feel it in the tautness of the watches, in the moments of silence at the dinner table, in the self-tortuous way scuttlebutt spread that the Japanese were wait- ing for us in great force. I think the weather had something to do with this uneasiness. The skies had been ashen and overcast for several days, fitful squalls and a creeping fray mist shrouded the ship. No one came topside for a breath of air or a look to the horizon. We were cooped up in our narrow compartments, the men piled one on each other like boxes in a warehouse and all of us were a prey for bad mmors and apprehension. I must confess I was scared too. This was my sixth invasion and never had I felt so inse- cure. I couldn't seem to get hold of myself. Usually I had an enthusiastic interest in these operations, for this one I felt a morbid curios- ity bordering on fatalism. Yet I would not have missed it for anythingg if I had had the oppor- tunity to turn back, I would not have accepted it tthough thank God no alternative existedj. For not only was this an historical expedition, but it had the personal significance for me that in the danger I might find myself. I wanted to conquer fear, I wanted to control my shivering instincts, I wanted to face the Great Death and discover that, after all, it was only the Great Deathg in short, I knew I was a coward and I wanted to prove to myself that I was not. On the 17th of October the sea tumed ex- tremely rough. A strong wind of fifty knots whipped the froth off the white caps into a

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u, -Q82 'wi' 1-Q -4. 'N 'G-.tv lfsgx in . w., .wil .,,, vas, 'K 955' quarter: red tracers arched into darkening sky, 5 inch burst probed the black. Just as suddenly it ceased the night grew blacker. Reports con- tinued of planes on all bearings. The lookouts saw tive twin-engined bombers going aft. Fir- ing blazed out again and then quit. A contact was made on the port beam and the transports fired dead ahead. A cruiser commenced laying a smoke screen around the formation. The dark- ness deepened and the topside gun crews tried to push it away as if it were a shroud. Planes were sighted on the starboard bow and then lost in the smoke. A 20mm traced a red pencil dash across the sky. Aircraft droned overhead. The suspense was heart-freezing. A trigger- happy ship fired and frightened eyes groped for the target. Now a long creepy silence with every muscle tense, suddenly a growl and lash of gun fire and silence again. It was like fight- ing rattlesnakes in a closet. In the middle of the tension came the re- port of a submarine in the gulf. We held our breath. Hardly anyone spoke. Was this it? Manned and ready at our battle stations, we waited. Suddenly a crash behind me! My heart leaped to my throat. 'fWhat the hell was that?M Someone laughed. I tumed on him. HWhat's so funny, mate? He pointed to a steel helmet which had fallen from the bridge three decks above. Then I smiled too Calbeit rtrefullyj at the incongruity of the incident-with the en- emy all about us, I almost got my head smashed by a quartermaster's carelessness. At 2300 we finally secured, exhausted af- ter being at our battle stations eighteen hours for the third successive day. As we left Sky Forward Canti-aircraft control platformj, Lt. Tony Gasperino of Butte, Montana, said, Now all that has to happen is for us to run aground and get a gopher contact. We've had every other kind of a report. A-Plus One-Day COct. 215: The General Alarm hurled us out of our bunks at 0430. 'fFlash Redf - enemy planes in the gulf, Con- trol Yellowv fire on all aircraft, none of ours in the vicinity. Men were at their stations, power motors on, nervous fingers tickling the firing keys. Unidentified planes contacted astern. Occasionally machine gun tracers lashed like a fiery tongue in the sky. Gradually the stars dimmed as the glow of the east filtered across the heavens. Considerable ack-ack fire broke out among the transports, since that area was cov- ered with a dense smoke screen, the shell flashes looked like flames licking out of a tall building. Suddenly, on the portside, a torpedo plane streaked toward the ship. The 40s and 20s opened with a staccato snarl. The plane came barreling through the barrage, tracers lashing at it like forked lightning, it banked to the left as hundreds of projectiles poured into the fuselage. It crashed in flames off our port bow. Oh the thrill! the lust! the blood surging fury! Kill! Kill! Kill! Good God, what savages we are! How strong the instinct to kill. Having scented blood with what barbaric joy do we rend our victim apart. Civilized man -the bunk. The brute is in all of us and in times like that it comes out with bared fangs. Shakespeare and academic culture vanish like water on a hot griddle. We are beasts! beasts! beasts! The sooner we realize it the better, the quicker we recognize that civilization is a veneer and man's action can often best be explained by his pri- mordial instincts, the more accurately will we solve our problems. Mind you, it was not bestial to shoot down the Japanese attacking us. That was self-pres- ervation and understandable even in cultural man. But to get such joy out of it, to hear the bloodthirsty shouts go through the ship as the plane hit the water, that was the true savagery and not a jot different from our Caveman an- cestors racing toward their prey with brutish growls. All the rest of A-Plus-One-Day we con- tinued to bombard the beach and at night we fired star shell to illuminate and harass the en- emy. American troops and material poured ashore in tremendous quantities. The Army started to advance inland and captured one air field. In the afternoon we could hear the rumble of artillery, indicating the soldiers were really beginning to roll. Actually, however, it was amazing how little information we did get conceming devel- opments on the beach. There we were, a few thousand yards off the shores of the Philippine Islands, an important cog in the entire opera- tion, yet dependent for our news on radio broadcasts from Australia and San Francisco. Incredible! At dusk we again went to General Quar- ters as Flash Red was reported. The night dropped softly about us, a platinum ring moon cast a ghostly glow over the sea. We waited and groped in the same tense fashion. Once we heard a plane roar overhead, the transports sporadically spurted beads of tracers across the sky. Generally, however, it was quiet and spooky. As I leaned against a director shield, Poe's lines seemed so appropriate: Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, dreaming, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dare to dream before, And the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token And the only word there spoken was the whispered word Lenoref' The next day was Sunday, the 22nd. As usual the Japanese came again. However, they could not seem to marshal enough bombers for full scale attack, doubtlessly because of the terrific pasting our fast carrier groups were giv- ing their airfields all over the Philippines. They came in five and ten plane raids, mainly it ap- peared for reconnaissance purposes, though they always managed to unload a few calling cards. That morning I saw a Japanese Val dive through a blanket barrage of AA fire, drop its bombs and whish off to the west. It missed badly as do most of the Japanese planes on dive attacks. They are better on torpedo runs but fellows who know say their accuracy even here has fallen off considerably since the beginning of the war. Our airmen also have noticed that the Japanese are easier to shoot down and at- tribute it to their badly trained, inexperienced pilots. Apparently, in the air, if no other place in the war, the personal equation is still an im- portant factor. The rest of the moming Leyte Gulf was as peaceful as a summer resort out of season. The large ships rocked lazily in the stream, under-way with no way on. Smaller landing crafts and messenger boats occasion- ally sped by like gnats on a pond. The island looked green and fertile in the distance and there was little indication of the fighting de- veloping there. Off to the starboard a cruiser or battleship infrequently lobbed a salvo onto the beach. We could see the flashes for a half a minute before we heard the muffled roar. Large groups of our planes winged to and fro across the sky on bombing missions deep into the in- terior. Church call sounded melodiously over the bay and every ship hoisted the white and blue pennant. It was Sunday morning, even here in the midst of the war one could feel the Sab- bath quiet settling on the earth. In the evening we went to General Quar- ters as naturally as the commuters take the 5: 10 home. Almost as soon as we were manned and ready, a tremendous barrage of tracers illumi- nated off our port beam. The metaphor a cur- tain of fire is hackneyed, but that is exactly what it looked like, a brilliant red-beaded tap- estry in the sky. The shooting swung around to our port bow and then Gunner's Mate Carl Izzi of Worchester, Massachusetts, saw what ap- peared like a buming plane heading toward the ship. I gave the command to commence firing and we added our tracers to the spectacular display of the night. The aircraft seemed to hit the water off our starboard bow, bounced up again and finally sunk as the light went out. Later, down in the wardroom, I learned what had really happened. The plane had dropped its bombs on a cruiser Cmissedj, then it strung out a light on a tow line and went zooming across the formation, drawing thou- sands of rounds of AA fire. Over the tip of the island, off our starboard bow, it dropped the light and flew laughingly home. One of the communicators Cwith his tongue in his cheek reported the Japanese to have radioed, Prune Barge, Yoo Hoo, Prune Barge, do you want me to make another run?', On the 23rd the Japanese reappeared in the dawning, as regularly as the milk man. There was much ack-ack but no hits. Some- times it seems as impossible for a plane to pass through such a barrage as it is to dodge rain drops in a storm, but they do. I suppose there is a lot of spacein the sky. However, a point must here be noted. Though the Japanese get away is no indication that the anti-aircraft fir- ing was in vain. The mission of a ship in a raid is to prevent itself from being hit. AA shoot- ing is designed more to break up the attack and to scare the aircraft into dropping their bombs early and inaccurately than to bring them down. Occasionally we do bag a plane and that is a matter of great pride. But the fact that the ship is still undamaged despite the numerous attacks is also a tribute to our accuracy and effective- ness.