Hamlin (AV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 33 text:

From our posiTion we could see smoke buf very liTTle fire. The plone hdd evidenTly corried cnly lighT bombs ond no oddifionol explosives. IT wos ci reol relieT To woTch The rcxpidify wiTh which The domdge conTrol porTy exTinguished dll Tire ond wiTh The hospiTol corpsmen, core Tor The cc1suolTies. In The mednTime, The oTher oircroTT vvos moneuvering dll over The sky, dodging Tlok ond Trying To geT inTo posiTion Tor dnoTher oTTock. The onTi-c1ircrc1TT Tire incredsed in occurocy ond volume while The Jop circled lower dnd lower over The wdTer. One wing dropped ond The crippled plone plunged inTo The vvoTer beyond The islonds in The some spoT where The c1mmuniTion ship hdd gone dovvn o monTh before. Spldsh one bogiel

Page 32 text:

l i UIUIDE il'l I'illlli For a week preceding, there had been almost no raids and no one hurried particularly that Sunday morning as the general alarm brought us to the station. That slight delay came close to costing us our ship. Even before every gun was manned and ready, two planes appeared over the northern end of the cove. There they separated in usual Kamikaze approach and came in tor the attack. One plane darted oft on a westerly course, drawing the tire ot our atter 4Olvllvl while the second plane dove tor the nearest ship, crashing into her port side. That vessel was one ot our sister ships and only 400 yards away from us. Page 30 K,

Page 34 text:

In ony ocTion, The enTire ship funcTions merely os o ploT- form from which To fire our guns ond The mosT essenTic1l men ond moferiol cxboord ore The gun crews ond Their bofferies. On ouxiliory ships such os This, There is no primory or sec- ondolry boTTery. From modern Worfime experience, iT hos been found ThoT our opponenf will oTTocl4 chiefly by oir. Thus, our guns were consTrucTed ond designoTed os duol- purpose wedpons. More imporTonT Thon The guns, however, ore The Troined men who Trock TorgeT, lood ond fire. Upon Their skill ond couroge under dTTock resTs The lives of hundreds of men ond quife ofTen, vicfory ifself. Poge .32