Daly (DD 519) - Naval Cruise Book

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Her Adventures fcontinuedl approaching. Soon, dogfights between our air patrols and the .laps were sighted on the horizon. The OTC shouted the order over the TBS for all ships to stand by to -.repel enemy air attacks. V ' It was a matter of minutes before every gun on the ship blazed away at enemy planes diving in from all sides. One of these planes managed to obtain a direct hit on the sister ship of the DALY, the U.S.S. Brownson fDD518J . She was sinking fast. A good many of the crew saw the horrible sight that shall never be forgotten. The Brownson burst into flames amidships, and her crew was streaming over the sides into the shark-infested waters oil' New'Britain. - Enemy planes again came in at us dropping bombs that landed 50 to 100 yards in the wake and on the starboard beam. The ship's' guns blasted two of the attackers from the sky. The ship ceased maneuvering radically and took position to rescue sur- vivors from the Brownson. Both boats were lowered into the water and rescue operations began. The gunners watched the sky eagerly for enemy planes, the ship was dead in the water providing a perfect target for the enemy planes had they come in again. Rescue operations continued until every survivor was aboard. They were treated quickly. Every man that could be spared from his battle station assisted, saving the lives of many o-f the survivors. s The crew of the DALY was no longer a green crew. They had now seen war. They were no longer eager to get into battle with enemy planes, but when the enemy planes came around they gave them a hot reception, knowing it was either the DALY or the planes. The air-sea battle at Cape Gloucester was long remembered by all those who were present. We now knew that we had 'to be on our toes, we had to do our jobs and do them well. This battle gave good evidence of what future was in store for us in the Pacific. It meant teamwork-something the officers and men exemplified. U A Enemy planes appeared in the area quite often during the remainder of the day. Our air patrols performed a marvelous job of intercepting the larger numbers of enemy planes before they got into- position to attack. Be- tween the anti-aircraft firing from our ships and the splendid. work of our air patrols, over 80 enemy planes were shot down during the assault and occupa- tion of Cape Gloucester. Following Cape Gloucester were operations reinforcing the .Cape and new assaults on New Guinea. Q THEF ASSAULT AND OCCUPATION OF FSAI-D-OR, N. G. On New Year's Day 1944, the ship departed from its base at Milne Bay via the regular routes to escort and cover amphibious units, Seventh Fleet, to the Saidor Area, New Guinea, for the assault and occupation of this enemy area. It was not a very difficult operation, as our fighter cover prevented enemy planes from interrupting the operation. A few, days after the initial landing, the ship made numerous trips from Saidor to various bases on New Guinea, escorting reinforcements back to Saidor. - After the situation was well in hand, the ship returned to base at Buna, N. G. Early in February 1944, the DALY was released from duty with Task Force 76, for a ten-day liberty and recreation period in Sydney, Australia. Arriving in Sydney on the 8 February, liberty parties streamed ashore. We all had a well-earned, enjoyable time. Everyone from the Captain to the greenest seaman second class made out well in Sydney Ship's parties and dances went over w1th great success, and, as the Captain told the crew in one of his fantail get togethers, the hunting was very good in Sydney When the period of liberty and recreation was over the ship proceeded back to base at New Gulnea and was reassigned with the Seventh Fleet Thls 0 ' . V 66 ' 99 Q O I . I 9 . Forty Four Q

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,-,.....,.. Her Adventures fcontmuedj I n time lt was a cruiser destroyer task force Task Force 74 including the Austral 1an cruisers Shropshire and Australia Australlan destroyers Arunta and War ramunga Destroyer Squadron 24 and the American cruisers Boise Phoenix, and Nashv1lle 0 s 0 . . n 9 . 9 u u 0 . , o 9 n . 0 0 o 0 3 . , 0 THE ASSAULT AND- OCCUPATION OF THE ADMIRALTY ISLANDS The first mission as a unit of Task Force 74 brought the DALY to Los Negros Island, Admiralty Islands, for the initial assault and landings there. During the pre-landing bombardment, every gun from the five-inch to the 20- millimeter hurled shells into enemy positions. This was the first operation in which the guns hurled shells in enemy shore installations. The area around the Admiralty Islands was given a thorough going-over by the force of cruisers and destroyers. After long, tiresome days and nights of patrolling, fire-support, and various other combat duties, the force returned to base in New Guinea. r Most of the talk in the mess hall now, was whose gun was the best and whose gun was putting out the most salvos, etc. Every member of the main- battery gun crew was proud of the record they had thus far obtained. The DALY maintained an excellent record in all her operations because she had a great team. When it came to bombarding enemy shore installations, the gun crews, CIC, director crew, plotting-room crew, lookouts, soundmen, bridge per- sonnel, engineers, and every other group were performing their jobs with pre- cision and a thoroughness that spelled defeat for the Japanese, and the fact remained obvious that one group was no good without the other. The ship arrived at Milne Bay on the I2 March 1944. Although it seemed like a holiday, it was far from that actually. There was routine ship's work to be carried on, replenishment of ammunition and provisions, correcting defects noted in the last operations, etc. RAIDS ON ENEMY SHIPPING AND BOMBARDMENT OF SHORE INSTALLATIONS AT WEWAK, NEW GUINEA On the I6 March 1944, the DALY was directed to lead a force of destroy- ers 1nto Wewak Harbor to destroy enemy shlppmg and to knock out shore ln stallatlons at Wewak Polnt-the most darlng operation yet performed by the Shlp With lncomplete and outdated charts and very llttle knowledge of what mlght be encountered 1n Wewak Harbo-r, the DALY led the force of destroyers into the objective area That night will never be forgotten by any of the boys As the ship steamed into the harbor, Japanese signal llghts flashed their challenge If only the .I ap code could have been known to us, what an answer they would have received' After steaming into the harbor on a zigzag course to avoid numerous enemy barges the ship got into position to make careful radar sweeps of the mner harbor How we ever got out of the harbor wlthout casualties, no one will ever know For the first time slnce our battle practices the torpedomen had the pleasure of firlng their deadly fish Thelr target was an enemy merchantman lying at anchor in the harbor A beautlful colored ball of fire lndlcated that their fish had h1t the target with deadly results Now it was the enemy s turn Shore batterles opened up from various positions on the beach Thanks to the cover of darkness and poor marksman shlp and some execellent defensive maneuvers the enemy s shells passed harm lessly overhead or short of thelr target A small escort vessel opened up wlth three mch guns from the inner har bor the main battery answered her fire She fired no more It proved to be quite a nlght Just before the scheduled tlllle of retire ment enemy planes were detected taking 0E from an alrfield on Wewak At O , C O ' 0 9 l - - cc 97 - - 9 - ca 99 ' ' O . 9 ' ' u 0 s 9 - 9 9 s y - - 9 . . Forty five