Denver (CL 58) - Naval Cruise Book

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Radio Central SUy Plot Main Engine Control Mdcliinc Sliop Clllircll SlTI ' llTM CIC {12}.

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line; and thirdly, to keep at all times the battle line between the Japs and Empress Augusta Bay. The enemy was west-north- west of us when intercepted. We stood in on an intercepting course between them and Empress Augusta Bay to cut them off from the latter. Our general movement was to the west, away from the bay as we com- menced firing at 0249. Our first salvos were fired to the starboard on a southerly course followed by sixty-five solid minutes of in- tensive long range gunnery duelling. Our ships started hitting almost immediately. Meanwhile the confused enemy column was resorting extensively to star shells to illumi- nate us. Float type Zeros were overhead dropping flares to aid them. In a heavy rain, the scene was one of utter confusion. Our ships ■were twisting and turning, constantly maneuvering, yet somehow never losing sight of specific targets. Dark brown clouds of gun smoke were billowing up everywhere to merge into the low-lying rain clouds. From sea level to a height of only several hundred feet, star shells and flares were fur- nishing almost incessant illumination. The enemy ' s eight-inch salvos appeared almost as one enormous explosion when seen from the line of fire. Great geysers of water were shooting up on all sides of us. Every time a star shell broke into light, it brought into sharp relief the churning water, split up by anywhere from six to nine gun salvos Sev- eral ships of our formation vere burning around us. Others were smoking heavily, dead in the water. Almost incessant illumi- nation was aiding the accuracy of the enemy gunfire, so Admiral Merrill ordered our ships to make smoke, and ordered counter-illumi- nation bv star shells short of the enemv line. Great, thick, black rolls of smoke slid out of the funnels emphasizing the eeriness of the picture. Sixty-six minutes after the first salvo was fired, the backbone of the enemv battle line was broken. Those of his units that were able to do so were running away. Our battle line ceased firing at 0400, but it was not until 0545 that our last shot was fired by a destroyer salvo w hich put the final touch on the last cripple, an enemy can of the Fubuki class. The entire three-hour action had been fought in a circle with a radius of thirty miles. Three hours earlier the enemy had been sighted thirty miles off- shore. In the interim the battle had raged east and west about thirty miles and north and south about twenty miles. Secure from General Quarters was sounded about six in the morning as part of the crew staggered below for a well-earned cup of coffee. This respite was not for long, however. At 0745 GQ soundee with the raucous blare of A A call over the speakers. The gun crews racing topside were greeted with the sight of large groups of enemy planes coming in, sixty or seventy Aichi 99 dive bombers, easily identifiable by their fixed landing gear. At 0804 all hell busted loose. The Nips came in in scattered groups in glide- type forty-degree dives, strafing as they swooped past. Not a single bomb hit was scored in even the subsequent waves of bombers. The completion of this action marked the closing of twelve hours at battle stations out of the preceding thirty-two. It was here in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay that the Dtiuvr first tw o-blocked her rabbit ' s foot. Two eight-inch shells passed through the ship without striking armor and exploding; a third shell simply ventilated -Ill

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number one stack. One of the shells which passed through the ship played tag with number two barbette in its circuitous route as It missed the armor, causing white hairs among lower handling room personnel when they later viewed the holes. After the most exciting 72 hours of her existence, the DemtT retired to Port Purvis in the Solomons to lick her wounds and was then ready the evening of the ninth to escort the Third Echelon to Bougainville. The next few nights were sleepless for the D(.iircr men who remained at battle stations all night heckled by Jap planes which some- times only dropped flares but more often came in to attack. The night of 12-13 November started inauspiciously with two air attacks, both driven off by our AA fire. At 0451 all ships in the formation commenced firing at several enemy planes. A destroyer skipper shouted on the TBS, Torpedoes in water headed toward big boys. At 0455 while turning left at full rudder to avoid torpedo wakes, the Denver felt a tremendous jar which seemed to lift her out of the water and leave her quivering in the air. She had been hit in the after engine room by an aerial torpedo and immediately listed 7 degrees. Lights went out and the gyro repeaters and steering engines went dead. Soon she lay dead in the water, listing now thirteen degrees, too close to Rabaul and 200 lap planes for comfort. Excited by the increasing list a few men threw life rafts overboard until Captain Briscoe calmly announced, We ' ll take her home, boys. The engineers soon had us going ahead at about four knots on one shaft as the C and R men removed the list by pumping all the starboard tanks. The de- stroyers continued to steam frantically in circles around the Dimvr until the Sioux, an ocean-going tug, took her under tow about 0730. A sight muster of the crew revealed that twenty men were missing and thirty-seven wounded. Of those missing, two had been; stationed on a gun just above the torpedo hole, five had been in the handling room of mount five, and the rest had been in the after engine room. The rest of that day and night were spent steaming toward Tulagi at six knots at General Quarters in constant fear of an air attack with no air cover and less than half of the AA battery operative. The morning of the fifteenth, amid cheers and blasts on whistles from other ships in the harbor, the DnirtT proceeded to her anchorage in Port Purvis. There followed a dreary time with men eating topside, working night and day in oil and debris of all sorts, removing ammuni- tion, and repairing the ship. The bodies were recovered and taken to Tulagi ceme- tery A memorial service for the Denver men lost in action was held on the forecastle on November 18 by Chaplain Hindman, who was assisted in the service by a Priest from a neighboring ship. On November the 21st, a cofferdam having been constructed in the after mess hall, the ship got underway for Espintu Santo in the New Hebrides, towed by the U.S.S. Pawnee. She arrived there the 24th and went into a floating drydock a few days later. In three weeks the tremendous hole in the side had been closed and number three engine was back in commission. {U}