Harris (APA 2) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 16 text:

We Wi I Never Forget Pearl Harbor At the time of the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1 94 1, while people all over the civilized world were glued to their radios, shocked and stunned by the news of the treach- ery, the Harris was operating off of San Diego running her final tests. At 1420 that fateful day, a message was received to the effect that a sub was op- erating off Point Loma, and the ship was ordered back to port immediately, jll engines Full Ahead . Immediately after, the Big H steamed for Pearl Harbor, making three trips between there and the Mainland during December and January. She holds the distinction of being one of the first ships into Hawaiian waters after the disaster. Pearl Harbor, the Pearl of the Pacific, how many millions of Pacific fighting men remember as their first foreign port of call, the first stop-over on the long trip out to the fighting fronts and the last stop-over on the long trip home- ward back, the huge base of Pacific naval war, an arsen.il for the rearming and repairing of wounded ships, a hos- pital area for wounded warriors, an early training ground for jungle and amphib- ious warfare, a rear area rest camp, a place of crowded hectic recreation for weary men, and of shopping for Hawai- ian souvenirs for the folks back home, the place of Poi and the Hula . •

Page 15 text:

And She Has Been Around. . . Thirteen major amphibious operations plus numerous other errands of war took the Harris 250,000 miles to the Arctic, to the Tropics, to Africa, to Asia, and to the islands of the Pacific. The ports of call of the Hari Maru require no in- troduction, no description. They are famous names, known to every Ameri- can.

Page 17 text:

V -1 First Trip to the South Pacific . . . Took the Harris to Uea in the WaUis Islands to play a pioneer ' s role in the new science of am- phibious warfare.