Denver (CL 58) - Naval Cruise Book

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in the Mindoro operation, working with the Carrier Escort group which provided convoy and beachhead cover. The group was sub- jected to numerous air attacks in which the Dcmvr sustained no damage, but accounted for two more Jap aircraft. This operation went well and the cruisers returned to Manu.s tor logistic replenishment, including Christmas dinner. Before they left the Mindoro area the men from the ship were able to get ashore and do a little sight-seeing on their own. For almost everyone this was their first experience with the water buffalo, which they ran into around San Jose. The e er-present souvenir hunters found an un- exploded Jap torpedo on the beach and pro- ceeded to try their hands at dismantling it without the benefit of professional advice on the subject. When the nLiuvr men left it, the torpedo was no longer alive. With their little screwdrivers and pliers they managed to take away all the vital parts as trophies of the Pacific War. Some people are just born lucky. That liberty turned into rather an all night affair for one of the men in the B division who got lost in the jungle and wandered around all night. The Japs evi- dently did not enjoy a stranger in their midst, so they took a few pot shots at him. He was finally rescued in the morning by a Marine scouting party who found the bedraggled fello • sitting perched up in a tree. At the first of the year 1945, the Denver departed Manus for the Lingayen Gulf oper- ation, operating as part of the covering group of cruisers, CVE ' s, and destroyers. Operat- ing well at sea, this group was not subject to suicide attacks on the scale experienced by the bombardment ships in the gulf, but did receive considerable attention from Jap planes in the course of which three more were splashed by her AA guns. With the Lin- gayen landing successfully completed, the task of cleaning up the Philippines was left to the Seventh Fleet cruisers, and the OiMrir became part of the mopping up and con- solidating force. Not all of these operations required the full cruiser force, but the Dciiicr still got in on landing operations in Zambales, Batangas Province, Grande Island in Subic Bay, Nasugbu, the Mariveles-Corregidor assault, Puerto Princessa, Palawan, stood by at Zamboangaand Iloilo, and again participated in operations at Malabang, Parang, Cotabato vicinity of South Central Mindanao, and the last amphibious operation of the Philippines in Davao Gulf, thus firing the last as well as the first big gun salvo in the Philippine campaign. These operations became routine to the Dcnrcr ' 5 gunners, but this was nicely broken by a couple of liberties in war-torn Manila, the first of which occurred on April 2 and copped another first for the Dciu ' cr. Steaming as flagship of Rear Admiral R. S. Riggs at the head of the cruiser division, in column, she was the first heavy U.S. man-of- war to enter Manila Bay since the beginning of the Pacific War. On June 7, 1945, the Dnuvr got underway from Subic Bay in company with her old friends, but not for another job in the Philip- pines — their task was completed there. This time the mission was that of furnishing dis- tant cover for the amphibious operations in the Brunei Bay area of northwestern Borneo — another cruiser division being the bambard- ment group. But the Jap cruisers reported to be at Singapore gave no trouble (one did come out at the time and was sunk bv a 21

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Looking Forward GcdunU Stand Fresh ScflgMll Signal Light Anderson, Armour, Benson, Glcnnon, Ahrams Services in the Hangar Deck 4 22