Louisville (CA 28) - Naval Cruise Book

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I A .lap suicider in a daylight raid on the picket line goes to meet his ancestors. V hurled 30 feet into the air and dropped on the starboard side of the signal bridge as neatly as if by the calculating arm of the shipas crane. The doctor in the wardroom, main bat- tle dressing station, was quickly joined by corpsmen to start the tragic work of the night. The first casualties brought in were the two Radiomen and the '6Tech,,, their bodies torn by shrapnel. All died. Then came the crew of gun F orty-two, seriously wounded, some dead. Others followed. The cost of that suicide hit was eight killed, forty-five injured. Fires were quickly gotten under control and the destroyer H. C. Edwards led us through the black night to the anchorage. Next morning crews started removing the remnants of the battered stack. In the afternoon services were held for the dead, who were buried ashore with the heroes of the Army, Navy and Marines. On the following day necessary repairs were completed, and we returned to the firing line. The number of fire support ships had decreased, and although the bat- tle was waning, there remained much to be done. Proceeding to our station in company with another cruiser, our Captain flashed a message to our sister cruiser, How do you like our manicure?', The answer came speedily back, HTO us it looks more like a circumcisionf' On June 12 while bombarding, we were signalled by a Marine contingent on shore. 185

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I84 on the battleship, sending up a mass of flame and smoke. At that instant our eyes were torn from the tragedy of the Mississippi by shouts of, Coming in port sideln Low over the water, a second plane was racing directly at us out of the land mass. Skipping over two of our LCl's three thousand yards away, he continued to direct his attack on us. Men off duty topside dashed for cover. A messenger about to descend the ladder from the navigation bridge was seized by an oflicer and dragged behind a splinter shield. The unsuspecting Radiomen con- tinued shooting the breeze with the c'Tech,' in Radio Three. A few 20-mm. guns which could fire safely opened up and set the plane ablaze. But its aim was not diverted. On it came, straight for the bridge superstructure. Then it hit. The kamikaze struck our plane perched on the port catapult with cyclonic power, driving across the ship into number one stack, most of which it carried away, as it ricochetted to starboard, and fell into the sea in a geyser of smoke, burning wreckage and spray. A 200-pound shrap- nel bomb, .carried by the enemy plane, exploded near the stack, riddled all bulk- heads in the area, and by concussion blew out the boiler casings in number one fire room. All that was left of our plane was the engine and propeller, which had been A Corsair 'unleashes his death-dealing rockets at a spot inaccessible to naval gunfire

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Out of the dusk on an evening such as this came the suicider that fate had destined for CA 28. In the light of day we survey the wreckage A Immediately C. and R. men set to work caused by our fanatical visitor from the sky. with acetylene torches to cut away debris. 186 Our dead are removed from the hanger The plane on the catapult is found to into a boat to be sent 'ashore for burial. have been swept clear of its pontoon.