Hamlin (AV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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Page 23 The bloodiesT baTTIefield of all The war whereon U. S. M a ri n e s displayed The sTrengTh and rneTTle of The men of America. MT. Suri- loachi dominaTed The enTire island and vic:Tory seemed assured Us The day The STars and Sfripes was implanTed on The highesT poinT of This vol- canic mounTain.

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slowly inTo The blue-green waTers cf The anchorage. On bow and lceam were The islands which formed This group 'and noT sfnce our deparTure from Oahu had iT been our privilege To behold such scenic beauiy. Accusfomed as we had become To The dusf of Saipan, The volcanic ash of Iwo and The heaT of Ulifhi, These lush islands of The Ryukus seerrod a welcome change. l.aTer days were To prove how mis'eading were firsT impressions. We had liTTle Time in which To enioy The view, however, for our planes were urgenfly needed on paTrol duTy. The Okinawa invasion was scheduled for The firsT of April and iT was The sauadron's Task To discover any enemy ThreaT afloaT or submerged. Day afTer day, in all kinds of weaTher and sea condifions, Through flak and hosTile air- craff, The crevvs of 208 searched for The Japanese. ln addifion To reconnaisance, The MARINERS were loaded wiTh fragmenTaTion and incendiary bombs, or Tcrpedoes for larger vessels, and wiTh These implemenfs, carried The war beyond The shores of Japan. Norfh To Korea, Wesf To The China Sea, souTh To Tiawan ranged The P. Boafs, finding and desfroying enemy surface and air crafT. Surprisingly, There were very few submarines encounfered in The area. lT appeared ThaT The Japanese eiTher had less undersea boafs Than esTimaTed by Naval InTelligence or ThaT These vessels were being saved for fuTure use, perhaps To repel an invasion of Japan iTself. lT had been sfrangely quief during our firsT day and nighT aT Karama RheTTo. The gun crews inside Their splinfer shields were aT firsT nervous, Then relapsed as The hours passed wiTh no raiders diving from The clouds or winging inTo The moon. Hours became days, and a week wenT by before The Tranquillify was disTurbed. lT was almosT immediafely afTer The invasion in Okinawa on The firsT of April ThaT we received our inTroducTion To The Kamikaze. For The remainder of our sTay, These suicide planes were To be The ThreaT To The fuTure exisfence of The HAMLIN and her crew. Though There were many hours of similar combaf ahead, ThaT firsT day of acfion will never be forgoTTen by The men who were There. lT was laTe affernoon when The bong of The general alarm called us To baTTle sTaTions on The run. WiTh eyes narrowed againsf The seTTing sun, lookoufs searched The skies from horizon To zeniTh for wings Touched wiTh red. The whine of a sTarTing moTor cuT Through The Tenseness as a LTOMM came To life. WhaT had been confusion a momenT before resolved inTo a fighTing machine, waiTing, ready, almosT eager. We had noT long To waiT. On The oppcsife side of The cove, ships opened up wiTh anTi-aircrafT baTTeries, firing low over The waTer. From behind one of The islands plummeTed a Jap plane. Under The heavy and accurafe fire The plane wavered' for an insTanT, Then dove sTraighT inTo a LST! A ball of flame blossomed upward, searing, burnirg inTo The sky for Two hundred feeT. The decks of The landing ship had been laden wiTh drums of gasoline. For seconds before The explosive-filled air- crafT had sTruck, we could see The small figures of men dropping inTo The waTer. We saw no one afTer The blasT. The LST, underway aT The Time, disappeared behind The island, buT unTil sundown The' pall of smoke hung high inTo The air. We had wifnessed The horribleness of a suicide crash. The sun had yeT anoTher hour when The second plane, a Judy, flying iusT over The waves, made a pass aT The ieep carrier anchored nearby. NOT so successful was This piloT. The crippled Torpedo-bomber made a big splash as iT fell before The hail of hoT sTeel. STill anoTher Judy appeared, coming in high. AircrafT aT Two-zero-zero, elevaTion TwenTy, came The word from ConTrol. Open Fire, repeaTed The voice of The Talker in a monoTone which belied his exciTemenT. This would-be suicider was diving on us! Blam, wenT The five inch afT. Then boTh fore and afT guns were on Targef and leTTing go. Direcfly before The whirling prop of The down-rushing plane, a 32 special bursT inTo a blossom of black smoke. WiTh a quick wingover, The piloT changed course. Tracing a crazy paTh across The sky, The plane plowed inTo The upper works of an ammuniTion ship. Soon The enTire supersTrucTure of This vessel was in flames and a paTrol crafT had gone alongside To render assisTance. We were now seeing red and Too angry To be afraid any longer, buT The day's greaTesT Tragedy was yeT To be seen. Up unTil now, The carrier had been fighTing only wiTh sTaTionary weapons, buT now, like hornefs roused inTo madness, Two F4F fighfers roared off her flighT deck. Info The sky beyond The cove zoomed The Two, and There They were meT by a deadly hail of Tracers. Unwarned of These friendly planes, The ships ouTside The ring of islands leT loose wiTh every Trainable gun. Who could blame Them? WiThin a maTTer of minuTes, Two ships had been blasted inTo fiery 'infernoes and nervous fingers were wrapped around The reassuring hardness of sTeel Triggers, waiTing. WiTh real anguish, we wafched The firsT of The WildcaTs roll over in a vain aTTempT To idenTify iTself by displaying The circled sTar and recTangle. AT ThaT insTanT a wing Tank bursT inTo flames and The plane nosed over, disappearing behind an island. The piloT of The second WildcaT, seeing The faTe of his wing maTe, dropped his plane To wiThin a few feeT of The waTer and Twisfed his way To safeTy. This lasT momenT almosT unnerved us all, and The darkness which closed in afTer a blood-red sunseT could noT blankef The picfure of ThaT burning plane. The nighTs usually broughT us some respife, Though aT The Time we did noT realize iT. Every nighT Time general auarfers was a signal for The laying of a proTecTive smoke- screen over The enTire anchorage. Believing ThaT our besT defense lay in obscuring ourselves from The air, we sTa- Tioned Two mo-Tor launches aT sundown, always ready To sTarT smoke generafors and igniTe smoke floaTs. NOT once during The many pracfices aT UliThi and Saipan had anyone realized To whaf exTenT The once irriTaTing smoke would proTecT us. STill, none of us were auife sure of how well covered The ship was and soon iT became a greafer sTrain Than having The brighT moonlighT reflecfing off The decks beneaTh us. T ThaT doesn'T sound raTional perhaps, buT iT is difficulf To be raTional when smcke closes abouT like a smoThering blankef and Then, overhead, comes The sound Page 22 of a low-flying plane. Unseen, buT can he see us? Guns l are useless when no Targef is visible and still above s. smash iTself againsf Suddenly IT is very easy and God, how we did pray! We prayed and The nighT ThaT Val spoTTed us Through .The ,sm ke sTarTed down.. Washing-Machine Charlie We' laughingly dub oufmoded airplanes such dive bomber. No one laughed as we heard iTs engine, close. The quad-4OMM afT pumped rounds upward as The plane was sighfedffor an Again iT was seen as iT rounded our bow, noT fifTy off The waTer. Swinging inTo our sTarboard side, The crafT was meT by a sTream of TeTryl-filled QOMM proiecfiles. In a verfical bank, The Val plunged inTo The wafer direcTly asTern of The HAMLIN. IT had made a compleTe orbiT around The ship. AT ThaT momenT, we were rocked by an underwaTer explosion while a muffled blasT' was heard. The nexT day, The CapTain receiveda dispaToh from The Admiral, commanding our ,FleeT Air Wing. .lt read: ThaT plane, orbiTing, in search of a Thin-hulled ships o CongraTulaTions on your dead-eyed, gunnery in knocking down ThaT Nip lasT nighT and saving The HAlviLlN. All days were noT as fearsome as Those early ones when' The fighTing on and around Okinawa reached iTs peak. Our Two biggesf concerns were The mainTaining. of flyfing schedules and The Kamikaze. Our planes flew regularly and so did The Japanese. There would be sTreTches1of bad weaTher and someTimes of gcod weaTher when. no raids came and we could relax. IT was good forffhe consTanT sTrain and sleepless nighTs were showing in The bloodshoT eyes and unshaven faces. Ships were sTill being hiT and some were sunk, buT The Toll of enemy dead was increasing sfeadily, far cuT of proporficn To The number of successful aTTacks. Two of our sisTer ships and one. gianT seaplane Tender were vicTims cf suicide crashes and came Through, damaged buT afloaT. ' For The presenf exisfence of The HAMLIN and for ou-r own lives, we have Three Things To be Thankful for. The pickeT line of paTrol vessels which formed a proTecTive ring abouT our anchorage, The CombaT Air PaTro,l which worked wiTh These paTrol crafT To keep ouT approaching planes, and The grace of AlmighTy God. WiThouT any oneT of These, This sTory mighf have ended in April of 1945. During The long days and sleepless nighTs of Mayiand June, The Tide of baTTle slowly, almosT impercepfibly, shiffed as more and more enemy planes were shoT down wiThouT reaching a TargeT. One of The search pahgols from our Wing locafed a Japanese Task force, in company wiTh Their newesT baTTleship YamaTo, sfeaming souTh Toward Okinawa. Carrier Torpedo planes and dive bombers were dispaTched To The radioed posifion and proceeded, To sink or damage every uniT of ThaT small naval force. The loss of ThaT baTTleship musT have been sorely felT in Japan. The Taking of Okinawa was a cerTainTy now as our superior weapons and fighTing men repulsed and peneTraTed ,on each fronT an-d flank. ' . ' 5

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LEFT TO RIGHT, FIRST ROW: von de Maele, Denning, King, Ford, Elliot, Gutierrez, Psaropoulous. SECOND ROW: Welch, Carlson, Tesar, Dalley, Miller, Oglesby, Arcouette, Lt. flgj Selmlnslzl, McCraney, Creech, Winslager, Woods, McKinnis, Caldwell, Williamson, Metcalfe. THIRD ROW: Johnson, Kirk, Fredorlcltson, Choat, Henry, Ridings, Brown, Bongo, Milburn, Kinnison, Cook, Downs, Volenstine, Sullivan, Mitchell, Ybarra. FOURTH ROW: Mitchell, Wood, England, Cominiello, Micheal, Wright, Horvatin, Roberts, Catlett, Mollet, Gallop, Crawford, House, Kurtz, Griffis, Keiser. LEFT TO RIGHT, FIRST ROW: Stone, Edmonds, DeOss, Emery, Hagen, McGinley, Williams, Pendergraft, Sanders, Shepard, SECOND ROW: Kasperak, Kemp, Benavedez, Tltimesch, Van Horn, Willmesherr, Stin- nett, Lt. fig? Williams, Lt. Cigj Kultti, Lutz, Beetz, Palubiak, Stratton, Peterson, Pertosky, Ross. THIRD ROW: Knapp, Bell, Coates, McLoughlin, Cabeza de Baca, Tyler, Wooldridge, Holmes, Rivard, Draper, Blankenship, Winden, Jones, Bottoms. FOURTH ROW: DeMore, Martin, Quizenlaerry, Raker, Prengubar, Lucas, Stevenson, Hodkinson, Burton, Robinston, Andrews, Crawford, Webster, Delih, O'Neal. 'IIIIIIII Ill Page 24 I