Denver (CL 58) - Naval Cruise Book

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

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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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British submarine), so the Diiiivr and her group were detached from the area when the landing was completed successfully about lune 1 1 . The division proceeded to Tawi- tawi Island in the Sulu Archipelago for re- plenishment before the Balikpapan operation — perhaps the longest and shootingest in the Dcm ' cr ' 5 career. The group left Tawitawi on June 13 to cover the preliminary mine sweeping opera- tions and to furnish pre-landing bombard- ment. From the fifteenth of June until the DciUYT was detached on the first of July, she was in continuous Condition 1 or II during the daylight hours — along with some more of the same as conditions required at night. By Dog Day, July 1, our Naval forces off Balikpapan totalled eight United States, three Australian, and one Dutch cruiser and their accompanying destroyers. Our shore bombardment was so intense that Australian troops landed at the oil-rich Jap-held hot spot without casualties. The high points for the Denver were several: she was ordered to sink one of our own mine- sweepers that had been damaged by Jap shore batteries; she got her last assist of the war when one of several attacking Jap planes was shot down during a night raid; and she had two more close calls, once when Jap bombers dropped three sticks of bombs which landed within eight hundred yards of her and again when one of our own B-24 ' s headed for a strike on the beach inadvertently dropped a bomb much too close for comfort while the Demer was alongside — of all things — an ammunition ship. Whew! Plank owners as well as boots cussed and discussed that incident for some time. The Demcr does not claim all of the firsts ' and lasts of the Pacific War, but the unique experience of firing at shore installations while fueling is certainly worth mention. While along- side the U.S.S. Cliefiielict for fuel, with the smoking lamp out, Jap shore batteries opened up on our mine sweepers. The Deiirer im- mediately returned that fire and silenced the batteries, for the time being at least, all to the delight of the crew of the tanker, for it was not often they got to see big guns in action so near at hand. After further replenishment and a week ' s rest at Leyte, the Deiu ' cr and her gang joined up with some larger fellows to go north. With Rear Admiral F. S. Low in command of the task force which included the mighty battle cruisers Giuuii, and Alaska, the Demer left Leyte the morning of July 13, 1945 for the now famous Okinawa Island in the Ryukyus and entered Buckner Bay at 0739 on the sixteenth. Even the old-timers aboard the Demer felt they were entering hallowed waters, for it was in these waters that the Kamikaze at- tacks reached their peak, and more such attacks could certainly be expected any time. The task force remained to fuel just that day, and before nightfall was underway again on what was expected to be one of the most exciting operations of the Deiu ' er ' s career — an anti-shipping sweep of the China Coast north to Shanghai. After playing tag with two typhoons for nearly four days, the task force entered the sweep area the evening of the 21st and early the next morning made contact with the China Coast. But except for tossing a few five-inch shells at a bogy that night, which turned tail in a hurry, the Denver had no targets. Subsequently sweeps made during 03}-