Lowry (DD 770) - Naval Cruise Book

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We fired all nighf ai' snooper planes and feel we downed al' leas+ one if nof fwo planes +ha+ closed us. We had been ai' general quarrers nearly 24 hours by ihen. The nex+ af+ernoon a plane sneaked over The forma+ion and began a dive on +he Lowry For some reason he changed his mind and swerved for fhe des+royer asiern, missing her by aboui IO feel. The frip home was unevenfful. Our nexi ven- 'rure was wirh fhe Cruiser Sfriking force in an eFFor+ +o infercepf a Jap ba++leship force fhaf had shelled Mindoro. No aHack maferialized. We fhen moved in wi'rh rhe main bombardmenl' force in +he lnvasion of Luzon. These were days none of us will ever forgef. For fwo sfraiqhf days we were under consranl sui- cide affack. Ships on all sides were being hir. Upper leff shows one of our uniis being hi'r by a suicide plane. Upon righf is a shoi' of one frying fo sneak around aslern of us. One plane go+ wi+hin a couple of hundred yards before we shof his wing OFF and he +wis+ed over +he ship, missing us by a narrow margin. As we enfered Lingayen Gulf we saw one of our des'rroyers lhaf had been sunk resfing on fhe bo++om llower lefil. The lower righ'I' is a piclure of HMS AUSTRALIA. She held +he record of being hir by 5 suicide planes. The nex+ one +o hi+ her afier 'rhis piclure was 'raken knocked off number 3 slack. Close examinaiion will show 'l'he hole al her wa+erIine where one Jap crashed. In addirion +o air a'r+acks we were consfanily 'Fired a+ by shore ba+'feries. - ss X any 4 NX X X X5 9 S . ,WMI 7' ' R ' si rijuaef rf if: '

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. ,,XrA I X ,ll ',,n ,. '- . ll was a long frip from Pearl lo Ulifhi A'l'oll in 'Hue Caroline Islands. lf was hard 'lo believe 'Thai' 'lhere was so much wafer and so liffle land. Affer a li'l-He overhaul in Ulilhi we headed for Leyle in +I-ie Philippines. Things were plenfy hof in fhis area, We figured we would be 'umped on The way up bul no aflaclc malerializecl. On arrival al' Leyle we found fhe res? of our squadron gone so we iusi :a+ around a few da s. The boredom was relieved by frrequenf air affaczs bolh day and nigh? and we spen+ a good deal of time a+ general quar'rers. Then 'lhe word came lhaf we were fo 'rake The LST Resupply convoy fo Mindoro. ll sounded lilie a hor job and il was. Bur like everylhing else il' had i'rs humor. The second day oul we sighled a sail on fhe horizon, figured if fo be a Jap and slarled ailer il. Imagine our embarrassmenl when we arrived af 30 lcnofs, all guns lrained ouf, +o find a small Filipino sailboaf wi+h a group of Filipinos waving American flags The humor soon ended and +he frouble began. Firsf fwo fighier bombers jumped us, dropped 'lheir bombs and golf away. Then a formalion of Vals and one Be'H'y dropped on +he formaiion. The Vals commenced suicide diving fhe LST's w-e had wifh us. Many scored hils and LST and cargo ships were burning fiercely. Then a 'rwin-engined Berry came 'learing fhrough lhe iorma+ion and dropped iis bombs. All 'lhe ships and deslroyers were firing. The big plane weni fhrough il all +hen made a 'rurn and headed for us. Guns 42, 44, and all porl ZOMM were firing like mad. Suddenly he bursl' info flame ahil hi'r lhe wa+er. Oi course we all cheered. W9 fe' ceived official credil for fhe plane. The cenfer plc- 'lure is a shol of The fishing boaf and 'l'he olher piciures are of fhe convoy under aflacll. You can see +he AA fire, +he ships blazing and in +he Upper picfure a Jap hiH'ing fhe wafer.

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During lhe air aHacks Roberl Arem' Flc was hi+ and killed ins+an'rly. He was buried a+ lhe moulh of Lingayen Gulf wi+h full milifary honors. All of +he crew no l' on wa'rch lurned ou? To pay 'rheir las? respecfs. The war was brough+ home preHy close 'l'hen. H s one lhing 'fo see ano'I'her ship hif bu'l' seeing one of your shipmales killed is different Upper righi is +he Machine C-Bun Con+rol leam. There's Burgess. Byrne, Reisinger, Farbman and Boehm. Immedi- a1'ely afler This piclure was Taken a Jap plane suddenly dived on us and broke up 'I'his happy B ,ff f ww-,W ,,,ff,vW , f., f' fr ,My ,, fm ,Hy v...-........ scene. All smiles vanished and Byrne swallowed his cigarefie. The day before +he invasion one of our minesweepers was hi+ wifh Jap shore fire. We moved in and 'look of? fheir wounded 'rhen moved on up and pounded fhe beach where +he fire had come from. Lower leff is 'l'he minesweep and l0wer righ'r is Doc+or Pearson +aking one of lhe boys 'ro sick bay. All 'rhe 'lime we were under consldnl' fhrear of enemy air a++acks. I+ is impossible 'fo remember ihe number of fimes we fired on enemy aircrafl diving on us or some ofher ship. L...-nl l