Hutchins (DD 476) - Naval Cruise Book

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' we - an I .fm .ape ,f . ' ' ' -l V il his .i our dreams were gettingbetter all the' time. It's -no wonder then, that we gOt the bi8'gGSt and Best 'Sl-11'P!'iSef'ofourW lives when we were' ordered back to the states for repairs and general overhaul. Z Thatgwas a Christmas that was a Christmas. ' ' A 3 t q' A ' ' f ' p l Our overhaul coinpleted, and with an eye on the job' over there that was,,still unfinished, we made atgshart trial run to Dago and then turned Westward - this time with another new skipper. I We wanted to make whim Ijfbud ofthe Hutch but he was to make us. even prouder. A L I xi I . A . I , V sg ar - -,fl ',a.5-my a m 4 A 4 A 1 On D-minus-3, we began patrolling off the coast of hIwo Jima. .,For. almost a month, we operated witht a carrier support group in the assault and occupation of the island. I A A April Fool's Day was no joke to us OR the laps: for that Lwas D-minus-nothing for the Okinawaw invgsion. If b an 'chance we had missed any phase of the Pacific war, we got an opportunity to catch up then, pThe,Japs Y , Y . 1 had raised their Kamikaze tactics to almost fanatic perfection. ,Suicidegbent hell came at our forces from 311 - ' H f h directions, and more that are even yet to be charted. The Japs fought long and hard, but we oug talonger and harder. It was as though they realized that this was to be the, beginning offthe end. y For the Hutch, this WAS the end. On the 27th of April, she was hit by an enemy suicide boat and her after engine room was knocked completely out. Up to then we had drawn heavily onour precioussupply of luck and it i 1 .fl had gotten too low to pull us through this last fight. But there was enough left that,.w1th the help of, our krepair, I parties, we were able to stay afloat and limp our way home. There are two kinds of limps in this -world: the broken, tail-between-the-legs limp of the beateng and the proud, satisfied limp of the wounded winner. Andftherg wasn't a frame in her that didn't deserve to be proud. Yes, this WAS a fighting ship. , A . - ' - We were back in the states when the news of the Japanese surrender came over America's radios. The Mighty 'H' would fight no more. ' W ' A A A Now that it's all over, she won't be needing usiqany more. We may leave her but she'll never leave us. The memory of her gallantry will be forever preserved in the hearts and minds of all who knew her.. And no one knew her as we did . . . Q K . l .4- fl if l. l l Y - . l

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.We continued -bombarding at Alexishaven and Madang and then 1, d d Q ., ea e westward to I-Iollandia. The in- svqltitigrliigtgiznlssimtf xtfldiildi Ii liiipe of..e'l9oufagement' but they couldft hell? but grin and wave at us when sa d b uc and Give em Hell hanging over the sides of the ship. And we couldn't but Erin an wave ack- Maybe it was wrong for us to feel a little luck as w h egding for the beachg but that was something we couldn't help either. y e sat out t ere watching them By this time were beginning to consider ourselves quite an ex ' ed bo b rd irdrome and Wakde. Island bombafdmellts, We Were almost ready forpegrrfdiiation.mTliateronsendw::ti:ii tii: id? didn't take long' to find out that school had only just started. . ' . ' We wogiliggack to the Admiralties for a little crest and relaxation. While sitting in the harbor, resting and relaxing IJ .l we were ordered to a point within about 280 miles of Truk to pick up survivors of a B-24 that had gotten it on one of the raids over the island. We picked up their position from a Black-Cat QPBYQ that was spotting for us, and soon, they were safely aboard. A little worse for the weather and the water, they were brought around with a couple of cups of our good old Navy Joe. In fact, two more cups and they'd have flown the life raft back over the island! Not that they didn't offer to take the ship up for a short hop as it was! Resfed and relaxed, we went back '60, YGS, lwmbarding again. This time at Sarmi Point, New Guinea. Up to now we had been tossing out plenty of ammunition and, believe it or not, it was a lot easier to get rid of the stuff than to get it aboard in the first place. For ammunition handling details were no picnic in the tropical heat. And June can get plenty hot in the Southwest Pacific, even without the war. On our next bombarding mission, we picked up a little present from the Emperor. A 4.7 shell drifted over from Biak Island and connected with our spud locker. That night we had mashed potatoes for chow. Incidentally, the Japs who wrote our name on that shell had already eaten their last meal. That night, our task force for had we forgotten to mention there were other ships in this war tool headed into the Narrows, south of Biak. The memory of Vitiaz Strait was still warm, if not welcome, in our minds and as our single column of ships moved along in the black night, several of the old gang of goosepimples dropped around for the excitement. They weren't disappointed, for a little later on there was more than enough action to go around. Shortly after midnight, we were attacked by a number of Jap torpedo planes that flew in low over one of the islands. They dropped their fish and tried to escape through the fierce AA fire of the task forceg however, the next morning, the Emperor was displeased to find that the night air hadn't done his Torpedo Squadron any good. Less than a month passed before the Hutch was back at her bombardment routine again: Noemfoor, Aitape, Cape Sansapor. And then one afternoon while we were laying at anchor at Mios Woendi, the Captain called an assembly of all hands on the fantail. We all knew that something big was in the air. Men, he said, we are about to embark on what will undoubtedly be our most dangerous operation. 600 knees clicked back an Amen! Again we have been chosen to spearhead the attack. Another Amen! Our casualties will be heavy, but I know that Hutch will come through as she has before. He paused for emphasis but needn't have. At dawn tomorrow we get underway for ten days in Sydney, Australia. It took a few seconds for those words to hit home, but when they did, 300 men stopped praying and began to yell. On the way down, we were still a little pessimistic about the whole thing and it wasn't until we steamed into Sydney Harbor that we knew that this time, we were really going to get that long sought rest and relaxation. Through our various sources of information, we had picked up what we thought was an almost unbelievable description of Sydney. This Was supposed to be the kind of a liberty port a sailor dreams about but never really expects to see. We saw, all right. Brother, did we! But as for rest and relaxation, well, we'll take shore bombardment any old time. When we finally said goodbye to Australia for good, we left behind us 18 unforgettable days. And said to ourselves, Someday, when it's all over, we're coming back .... It wasn't over yet and we were still to get another crack at bombarding again. By mid-September we were supporting the landings on Morotai Island. We have a feeling there's a canoe of natives down there that will re- member the Hutch for a long time to come! On our way to Leyte as part of one of the largest invasion forces in history, a leading transport in the con- voy lost a man overboard. It was impossible for her to stop so she radioed back to the ships astern to be on the lookout for him. As soon as each ship would spot him, they'd throw a life raft, life jacket- anything to help him out. After awhile it became a little hard to decide just what be E,'iV9n to the ZUY that he didn't 3l1'93dY have two or more of. When he was finally picked up by the last ship in line, he was brewing a pot of coffee before retiring for the night. We hit Leyte at dawn of October 20th. A few days later, we made our famous kill at the battle of Surigao Straits. The word 'famous' used in connection with this battle was borrowed from the history books- t about a new twist in the well known line, Wonder when Th ' f l b f m home brough l . , . we're goi:i'al:x:i othi:v1iiIn?e itniwisntlo Wonder if we'll be home for Christmas. Any other day, it s just as hard to be away maybe but Christmas just isn't Christmas anywhere but home. It didn't cost anything to dream and ..3...

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I N MEMORIAM It is with the deepest sorrow and respect that the officers and men of the Hutchins pause to pay tribute to: Donald Van Valxenhurg, Sllc, U.S.N.R. William George Champion, MoMM1 c. lI.S.N.R. Paul Clifton Tucker, Jr., Sllc, U.S.IN.R. James Patrick McKenna, S2lc, U.S.N. Douglas Warren Waldron, Slfc, U.S.N. Francis Joseph Montclair, MoMM2!c, U.S.N. William Joseph St. Jean, S2lc, U.S.N. Frederick Thomas Vollrath, Sllc, U.S.N Julius Nutter, StM2fc, U.S.N.R. Bruce Almond Nettleton, S2lc, U.S.N. Robert Walter Luken, Fllc, U.S.N. William Robson, GM3!c, U.S.N.R. Gaylord Grant Hanley, S2lc, U.S.N.R. Joseph Lucious Anderson, Sllc, U.S.N.R ....5--