Daly (DD 519) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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F zfty two Her Adventures fcontinuedj D p A Change of Command, Enemy planes seemed to appear' in the area on schedule, just before sun set and sunrlse. We were always at our battle statlons, wa1t1ng to g1ve them a hot receptlon, and d1d so on many occaslons Our cool manner and expert marksmansh1p turned away many a plane that had our stacks 1n 1ts bombsight approachlng us for the k1ll. 1 - Durlng the period from 21 to 24 October, the 519 performed a number of fire support dutles, depart1ng from fire support areas to- Joln the covermg force at nlght in preparatlon for mterceptlon of ant1c1pated enemy surface at tacks ' On the nlght of 22 October the DALY encountered a small salling vessel and proceeded to lnvestlgate lt Wlth all guns tralned the shlp pulled alongslde and took aboard three of 1tS occupants Two of the occupants were F1l1p1no members of the U S Army, and the th1rd an Amerlcan naval officer, Enslgn I D Rlchardson fMaJor, U S underground forces ln the Ph1l1pp1nes s1nce the J ap attacked Cavlte 1n December 19415 He was orlglnally attached to a U S Navy motor torpedo boat squadron after sunset, on 24 October, the DALY relleved from her fire to ICJOIII the naval forces 1n Leyte Gulf Thls group proceeded entrance of Sur1gao Stralt to mtercept a strong Japanese surface approachlng the southern entrance to the stralt The enemy was estlmated to have three battleshlps, four heavy crulsers, four llght crulsers, and ten destroyers Motor torpedo boats kept the force 1n whlch the DALY was a un1t 1n formed as to the pos1t1on of the enemy steamlng onward to threaten the entlre operatlon at Leyte Shortly support dutles to the western force reported At 0248 the DALYS surface radar contacted the enemy force, and at 0321 the 519 1n company wlth two other destroyers of Desllon 24 commenced a hlgh speed torpedo attack on the heavy unlts of the enemy force The crew was eager to see what thelr destroyer could do agalnst the tremendous odds the sh1p was headmg 1nto The enemy attempted to lllumlnate the torpedo attack Undoubtely thelr b1 guns were tralned on the U S destroyers, the1r furlous attempts to destroy the feared destroyers proved poor I 7 ' 9 - n n o a ' s . . ' ' ' s o , . o