Hutchins (DD 476) - Naval Cruise Book

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A HISTORY or THE HUTCHINS 'ffrhis is going to be 2 E004 Shim, This is going to be a fighting Ship- She was born during war, for war. S. h mmissioning, November 17 1942, until nowg the H u From the day these words were spoken, at er co 1 with almost three fighting Years behind her' came to know their prophecy. . . r her shakedown cruise. This was her test. Even the si Scarcelyfwo minths latfiq,i1eef?E-lsittffyesiregaifos out were not easy for the ship or her crew. At Casc Pfepafed a dubious we Goff, 11- ower 1-uns test firing, anti-submarine practice, and it didn't take long to fi and Cuim Sim go? thetgose 'a gigsting Shipg she could take it, come what may. Her crew, green, wide-eye hlimitoflflihex imlaiiosinaizhd the big cities and fresh from boot camp, became real seamen almost over night. Of there were a few cases of indigestion-and remember the night we almost opened fire on the moon! When the ship docked in Cuba, all hands mustered at quarters for their first full dress Captain's insp . . - ' ' . -V ' S C t f th ew, this was to e eu' Y D . i llilejgiaiiutheiri' well lilnown tradition that has since become familiar to every liberty port from Casco Bay to Harbor Cuba wasn't all play for the Hutchins and in the weeks to follow she laid the foundation of her reputation as one of the crack gunnery ships of this war. Yes, this was going to be a fighting ship Near the end of the Shakedown cruise the scuttlebutt began to fly. Where to next-Atlantic? P Everyone and his brother seemed to have the straight dope. You can bet there were a few surprised looks 0 of their faces when on April 6, 1943 the Hutchins steamed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific b th first libert in a foreign port It was then that the Hutchln 1 'I n of Operations. And yet, there wasn't a man on board who didn't modestly admit that he knew it all the ti Still too young for combat, s e engage in Y P ' P And it wasn't until August that she started out for what pr0miS6d t0 be her fiI'St taste of aCfi0I1-the Ki vasion. The trip up was fairly quiet, no one had much to say and those that did were too scared to say 1 we still think it was the weather that was responsible for those goosepimples. Cuba.was never like this h d ' numerous convo atrols between 'Frisco and Es iritu E : . .1 l it turned .out the absence of enemy resistance more or less tempered the landings, however, it was here t crew became thoroughly impressed with the ship's firepower. And their confidence grew. 1 It will be hard to forget those next four months of patrol through the heavy weather of the North and the Bearing Sea. That indigestion again The mornin of D-Da ' was s ent in an un v ntf l ff- h On December 18th, after a record-breaking run from the Aleutians, the Hutchins arrived at Milne Bag I 1 gf w p e e u o s ore patrol every man was at his battle station ne waiting, expecting, dreading. At mid afte.noon all hell broke loose The sky darkened Wlth attacking Ja aircraft and ack-ack bursts. Several of our ships were hit and the U.S.S. Brownson, only 500 yards astern went down. Brother, that was close! In this operation, the Hutchins was credited with shooting do Guinea. It was only a matter of days after this before she was in real action at Cape Gloucester, New I N 3 . . vi h plane and assisting in splashing several others. Ironically, America at home was singing Peace On Eart Will Toward Men -for it was Christmas Day. was during this landing that she collided with the Smith while attempting to clear the transport area in po ibilxty. On the way to Ca1rns, Australia for repairs, it was necessary that she pass through the Vitiaz These waters were dreaded because they were very narrow and maneuvering was difficult. Ships made a target for ambushing Jap planes. And you can bet that the Japs were just as much aware of that fact Shortly after the Cape Gloucester landing, the Hutchins escorted an LST group to Saidor, New Guin I E 1 were. To make matters worse, the top speed the fantail with egg beaters! When it had we could make was five knots. Even with all the ship's co almost begun to look as though the scare was over, the ships Of QS :'9P0l't9d, Many bogies, Cl0Sing. The luck of the Irish was with us-right, Mike!-for those ' bogxes turned out to be a squadron of P-38's, Our sweetheartsf' At Cairns, we got a new bow and a new ski pper that turned out to be quite a pair- steel and dynamite. equipped, We gave our love to the Aussies, and headed back to sea and to war. , The war was not as far away as we h into Los Negros Island in the Admiralties and ad h0P9d f01', in a few days we were back tossing our 5 calling making coastal sweeps to Wewak, New Guinea, Then to Hansa Bay where the 'B-24's t k 00 Over and d1'0PPed a few of their own callin cards next ti I ' y 8' . 'gaiwgifeagfrligs jiegiigssilgigaiittgisii bomgatdments' you couldfft help but bf-1001116 impressed at the beauty , , U 18 Spec ln perfect f t' ,' T - - - -. thing that is known only to the tin-can sailor. O1-ma lon here ls Somethmg about thls Sighting ,M . I ,ff 3: ,-2- 'Q 3 .fa-,.1 i li . tp, .,-'-ag: N 'I'fQ1, ,hge ii ,,.,,q1jff,2ga'fi I xiwfif ., fi Y .s,,, -av,-,,,-1 '

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U. S. S. HUTCHINS ll ESTRO Y Eli 476 named for LIEUTENANT CARLETON B. HUTCHINS, U.S.N. Built at the Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts Authorized --- ..... ,......,.,....,,- .l une 28, Keel Laid .... - .... September 27, Launched .,-., ---February 20, Commissioned --- ---November 17, ....-1-- 1940 1941 1942 1942

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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...