Daly (DD 519) - Naval Cruise Book

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Her Adventures fcontmuedj an 3 F ijty The DALY operated with covering forces for the occupation of Cape Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea, on the 30 July 1944. When this small operation was completed, the Captain put out.the dope of our return trip to Sydney, Australia, for some liberty and recreation. The past months were months of long, tiresome operations against the enemy 5 and just the thought of a trip to Sydney created a new high in the morale of the sailors aboard the 519. t Sydney lasted somewhat longer this time than the last-from 13 to 26 August 1944 fthirteen daysj . . The ship departed from Sydney on the morning of 26 August 1944, ar- riving in 'Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, 2 September 1944. It now became very obvious to the crew why we were called away from Sydney so hurriedly, for on 12 September 1944 the ship was underwayjwith a cruiser-destroyer task force en route to a rendezvous point north of Manokawarl. THE ASSAULT AND OCCUPATION OF MOROTAI ISLANDS, MOLUCCAS Efveryone expected the worst from the enemy at Morotai, which lay some 300 miles south of the Philippines. On 15 September, the ship approached the designated area and com- menced bombarding .enemy installations. Her guns swept the target areas thoroughly. I . The Morotai Operation was a part of a joint operation in the Pacific, for at the time of the assault other forces of the Pacific Fleet were conducting the assault and occupation of the Palu Islands, to the east of the Philippine Islands. The joint operation caused the enemy to pick one of the two islands to hurl his air power against. Because no attempt was made at Morotai, it was assumed the enemy chose to defend his base in the Palu Islands. When the pre-landing bombardment was completed and troops had pour- ed ashore, the ship joined a force of cruisers, destroyers and CVES patrolling the area northeast of Morotai to prevent enemy forces from moving in to break up the operations there. , .lust before sunset on' 16 September, the DALY, in company with the Morotai Covering Force, departed the area around Morotai en route to Mios Woendi Anchorage, Padaido Islands, Netherlands East Indies. During the days and nights until the end of September, the ship, in com- pany with the destroyer-cruiser task force Q Task Force 51, conducted various types of training exercises. Another short period of intense pre-battle training. It became very obvious that DD5l9 was about to participate in something very important-soon-previous operations formed a string of stepping stones to the Philippine Islands. When the ship pulled into .Seeadler I-Iarbor during the early part of October, everyone was astonished by the presence of the fleet that had gathered there during our absence from the base. It didn't seem possible to a destroyer crew that there could be so many large units of the fleet here in this base at Seeadler Harbor. Just a few .months ago it was a Japanese base. Little did anyone believe that it would be used as a base for large units of our Great Fleet, but there they were. The night was so still and quiet it was possible to hear the music and all sorts of sounds from ships throughout the harbor. Signal lights were going steadily. Every direction of the harbor showed a flashing light and the out- line of a mighty warship. The presence of so many units of our Mighty Fleet concentrated in Seead- ler Harbor just abo-ut spelled out Philippine Islands for the wondering crew. The anxiety of the boys now was forming around the Captain's fantail get-to- gether. '

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Her Adventures fcontinuedj Q 1 During the afternoon of 4 J une, the general alarm gave the warning that enemy planes were approaching and the crew scrambled to their battle-stations. There was very little time to get those guns manned, because this time the planes had sneaked in on us before they were identified as enemy. The next five min- utes brought a fast and furious air-sea battle as anti-aircraft fire from all units made patterns in the sky. The danger of shells from our own ships became just as grave as the danger of enemy bombs. After a long five minutes, the planes were driven off, but the fear of more attacks made everyone's nerves stand on edge. But the next few days and nights of the patrol were exceptionally quiet until finally, on the night of 8 June 1944, the anticipated surface battle began to materialize. Enemy naval forces were attempting to reinforce their positions in the Schouten Islands. The enemy force was detected a little over ten miles away when our destroyers were ordered to attack. The DALY immediately built her 'speed up to 36 knots. In company with three other destroyers, the chase began. The enemy had chosen to run rather than fight it out. With such a great distance between our force of destroyers and the enemy naval units, which were also destroyers, it was doubtful whether or not any surface battle would take place. The enemy had the advantage, they could make course changes to the right or left and let go with their torpedoes, but, for the DALY, the range was far too great to let go torpedoes. p After the first few hours of the chase, the DALY and accompanying des- troyers closed range and opened fire on the enemy. Salvo after salvo was hurled at the enemy. It was a foul night for a sea battle. The sea was rough, and the moon shone just enough so that it was possible to see the outline on the enemy ships, and they undoubtedly saw our silhouette. lt was believed that some of the enemy ships were damaged, but, be- cause of the fact that the enemy layed smoke screens, accurate observations were not available. The chase was broken off when the enemy destroyers were pursued almost to the outer harbor of their protective base. The danger of at- tacks by swarms of enemy planes became so grave it would have been a one- way trip to pursue the enemy any further. ' V -The boys all had a slight feeling of defeat, but, technically, they had no reason for that feeling. They had done their best. The most important thing was that the enemy didn't complete his plan of getting reinforcements to the Schouten Islands. ' ' When the enemy finally gave the Scouten Islands up for lost, the force of cruisers and destroyers left the area en route for Humboldt Bay to replenish fuel, ammunition, and provisions. , ASSAULT AND OCCUPATION OF NOEMFOOR ISLAND, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 1 The ship departed Seeadler Harbor on 29 June 1944, en route to rendez- vous off Biak Island, in company with a combined force of cruisers and destroy- ers of Task Forces 74 and 75. V At daylight on the morning of 2 July, our guns again blazed away at enemy installations. The combined force conducted a terrific bombardment of the little island, covering U. S. troops as they waded ashore. This operation proved to be just another pushover. The enemy was weakening in these areas. ' It was almost a month after the Noemfoor operation before the DALY was again called upon. During this time, the .crew had been exerclsed.. Every opportunity was taken to get in as much training as possible. The 1211116.15535 drawing near when the arm of the Pacific Forces would reach out for the Ph1l1p- pine Islands. i - Forty nme

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-,..,....-...1...-,.,,,M,.,s.. ,. 4, , t Her Adventures fcontinuedj I Finally the Captain did call the crew together and let go with the dope. As the Captain expressed it, this was the operation long awaited. All those successlve battles in the Southwest Pacific had been completed according to schedule, and the big blow was just around the corner. Leyte Island was the objective. We were told we could expect all kinds of opposition from the enemy while at Leyte. The battle for the Philippines was expected to draw out the enemy fleet and bring forth an all out battle. The DALY got under way on 11 October 1944, in company with Task Force 75, en route to Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, to join Rear-Admiral Dan- iel E. Barbey, Commander Northern Attack Force. Arriving at Humboldt Bay on 12 October, the ship anchored with the rest of the force, remaining overnight. During the afternoon of the 13 October the ship departed from Hum- boldt Bay as a unit of the Northern Attack Force en route to Leyte Island, Philippine Islands, via a route south of the Palu Islands. While assault forces were approaching Leyte, great Naval Task Forces of our Third and Fifth Fleets were battling it out with the enemy in areas around the Philippine Islands and sea lanes of Formosa. Extravagant claims made by the enemy based on the destruction of units of our Third and Fifth Fleets brought about a worried look on the face' of every man on board. Huge air-sea battles were in full progress for- days. Mighty U. S. carrier forces were sweeping enemy airfields on the Philippine Islands and Formosa. Everyone knew that, without these assaults by our carrier forces, the operations at Leyte would prove much more dangerous and destructive to our attack forces. The Captain kept up the crew,s morale by announcing 'over all loud- speaker systems that all the enemy claims were exaggerated and our carriers forces were hurling successful attacks at the Japanese in the Philippines and Formosa. The boys,began to cool down, because they all knew that the Captain was getting the straight dope from the radio waves, and there was nothing to worry about. Everything was under control. At midnight on 19 October, the DALY with the Northern Attack Force arrived at the entrance to Surigao .Strait and commenced the approach to Leyte Gulf. Mines were sighted much too close aboard for comfort, but the approach continued without damage to the ship or any unit of the attack force. At 0600 on 20 October, silence was broken by intense anti-aircraft fire from a number of ships as two enemy planes made an unsuccessful bombing at- tack on our force. 1 At 0900 the ship's guns blazed' once more. The target was a small island suspected of containing an enemy three-inch battery. From 0925 until 0952 the guns blazed continuously on assigned targets in the San Ricardo Area, thor- oughly covering the target areas. Everything had gone well thus far. The DALY watched eagerly for counter fire from the beach as the first wave of troops landed at 1000. Our mission was now to cover the troops as they advanced on the beach. The guns blazed violently at enemy installations, and the results of the firing was gratifying to see and something to be proud of. The desperate enemy conducted numerousair attacks on the forces of Leyte. There was very little sleep for the boys. Endless days and nights on battle stations. When conditions were such that the crew could be sent below decks to eat, the opportunity was always taken advantage of. As the tired, weary, hungry, homesick sailors started appeasing their appetites with chow which at that time was priceless, the general alarm would sound and everyone would scatter for his battle station. They knew that that sound meant trouble and lots of it. The first few bites were good, anyway. F lfty one