Lloyd Thomas (DDE 764) - Naval Cruise Book

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E5 -... .-5 .X g - . T5-ss at k ..., , ran, geria Twelve days after leaving Newport, U.S.A. we steamed into the bay of Oran, Algeria, North Africa, the land of mystery and beautiful women, or so most of us had been led to believe by the books we had read and the stories we had heard, but our first look was far from romantic. We were welcomed by heavy seas and high winds, in fact, by one of the roughest storms that had hit the ship in many months. After considerable difliculty we moored along- side the Yellowstone in the inner harbor, and because of the high sea walls around the harbor we thought the storm would have little effect on us inside, but to our regret, we were never more wrong. The seas poured over the wall and pounded the ships alongside as if there had been no wall at all. All the ships lost lines and cables from the terrific beating of the waves, and some broke away completely from their moorings, one ship lost its anchor, and several had to put out to sea. Although we were in a sheltered spot we lost .several lines and received a hard blow on our fantail from a small French ship along- side. The Harwood, our sister ship, was severely damaged, as the French would put it hors de combat fdisabled, out of the fightj and had to proceed to Gibraltar for repairs. There was no liberty for the crew until the following day.

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jlte jnilo ver Mlhile still dark on the morning of 9 January 1952, the U.S.S. Lloyd Thomas got underway from Newport bound for adventures which were destined to add a new and colorful chapter to the history of the ship. Shortly after departing the harbor entrance in company with the air- craft carrier Cabot and destroyers Harwood and Keppler, we had a long last look at the Brenton Reef Light Ship. Before noon of the first day, it became readily apparent that the trip across the Atlantic was not going to be remembered as a smooth one. The storm lasted about four days, and some say the Thomas took rolls exceeding 500 5 ' After a rendezvous in mid-Atlantic with the destroyer Robert L. Wilson and submarine Tench, both of which had departed from Nor- folk, all ships enjoyed a period of anti-submarine exercises with-the Tench always being the goat. On 20 January, after twelve long days at sea, came the joyous announcement over the ship's P. A. system, Land ho! It was the first bit of African or any foreign soil for that matter, that many of the landlubbers had seen. As foreign as it may have been it still was a very welcome sight. The crew of the good ship Thomas were all on deck right after evening chow to see Pru- dentia1's best advertisement as the narrow Straits of Gibraltar were traversed. One more night of steaming and dodging fishing boats and the Thomas would touch the first foreign port of her 1952 Mediterranean cruise.

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, fl - . ,717 xg , .fn 'ii lf: ., ,,.,- ,W lil 149 5 J! -. , x I UW N l J .F H 9 I 'E' l A f Y, f . I X-. ' um It -'P I- ii uv xi- 5 1' Oran is a large and modern' city fnothing like the conception most people have of Africay with broad tree-lined avenues covered with modern shops and side-walk cafes. Most of its population is a mixture tmade up of Arabian, French and Spanish blood. As soon as you 'step off the ship, you are surrounded by all kinds of little Arabs wanting smokes and candy for Pappa . ' Everywhere you go they follow you, and if you don't watch them closely, they will pick your pockets. Most of them look as if they haven't had a bath or change of clothing in months and most likely they haven't. While in Oran we took a tour -to Sidi Bel Abbes, the home of the French Foreign Legion and the boot camp of all legionnaires. Here they are trained to be sent out to different posts all over the world. They are known to be the best trained fighters in the world, and have often won battles when they were greatly outnumbered. The Legion is made up of men from all coun- tries, therefore a recruit must take an oath of allegiance to the Hag of France while serving in the Legion. However, if they are to be sent to battle against their mother country, they are asked if they desire to iight and if not, they are not forced to do so. A big percentage of the men are German, many of whom served in the German Army in World War II. There are also some Italian, Spanish, French and a few Americans.