Louisville (CA 28) - Naval Cruise Book

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Each evening about dusk the air raid warnings would hoot and wail, and the little smoke boats would faithfully begin their task of covering the immense fleet with a protecting blanket of fog. ward at Hagushi Anchorage. lt was such a raging fire that We suspected it to be a tanker. The blaze sprung to alarming height and intensity, lighting up the entire area. HDelegateM continued, 'Tiaid 73, clos- ing. This is Delegate, out .... 9, 6'Splash one Valfp came the familiar radio voice. uThis is Delegate, outf' UCIQM Combat Information Center, was full of darkness, green luminescent dials, tense, peering faces. The clamor of amplifiers and usquawk boxesp' never quite drowning out the persistent staccato of This is Delegate, out. From the chaos of sound and dials and gadgets, the ship got the now familiar Word of targets and approaching danger. A target at 050 de- grees was within 10,000 yards. No lights were showing, meaning target was not in- dicating friendly signals. 6'Sky control soon reported the target sighted. The ,lap plane started circling us from a low altitude, hunting his target, getting poised. Then came the terse order aboard ship to hold Hre, to wait until We 179

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, -.n,,,v.-ww,--tgwgifff,-,-.-W... .tv - ,. ii' were sure of his intentions. The plane continued his circling. Then suddenly it straightened for a run on an LCI out to port. Streamers of orange tracers shot up from the LCI. Tension eased aboard ship as the Jap attacker was hit, and fell flam- ing into the sea. 'cfiaid 55-zero six zero-two miles from Bolo. This is Delegate, outf' Meanwhile, the fire northward had in- creased. It now seemed beyond Hagushi Anchorage. We learned next day that two Jap Sallys, loaded with suicide squads, had landed on our air strip at Yontan Field. As the enemy planes landed, the suicide squads leaped out and threw hand grenades into our parked planes and fuel dumps. A half dozen aircraft were de- stroyed and an immense quantity of fuel fired before the daring ,laps were killed. Across the island at Nakagusuku Wan, reports came of suicide boat attacks. Speed boats, with explosive charges in their bows, were used by suicide crews as a means of attack on our surface units. All boats were destroyed without damage to us. Notice also came of an attack on the Talbot by two small' craft loaded with grenade-armed soldiers. Survivors of the boats refused rescue. No prisoners were taken. The night was almost over when the last of the enemy planes was driven from the area. The untiring voice of Delegate then gave us a HFlash White,,' and some were able to catch a bit of sleep. With the coming of morning, we again joined the bombardment group. As we stood off shore in the afternoon, looking Opposite page, top: A destroyer disabled by kamikaze- Middle: Naval bombardment of the beach. Bottomr. On Cvery hand warships pour big stuffw into the .THD lines- over recent gains of our forces, the Officer of the Deck saw the sea spout up into a geyser a short distance ahead. Our main battery quickly went into action as the Amtracks bring wounded marines out to the ship. third shell from the enemy shore battery burst close aboard. After a few, of our salvos, the enemy ceased firing. However, we learned the next day that we had not permanently silenced him, for he opened up on other ships. They were within range and immediately took him under fire. That time he was quieted forever. On May 30 we pulled into Kerama Retto, a group of small islands near Oki- nawa known as 'gWiseman's Cove, for fuel and ammunition. Here was our logis- tic center, and the graveyard of damaged ships. Thereafter, we returned to the Hr- ing line for several days, and on June 4, entered HWiseman's Cove again for more ammunition. Targets were getting scarce, 6'Delegate was having fewer dread warnings. On June 5, we got orders to flycatcher duty with the Hooks. 'Tlycatcher dutyv consisted of supplying star shell illumina- 181