Lowry (DD 770) - Naval Cruise Book

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On January 25, we lefi' Lingayen and headed for Uliihi 'ro ioin 'rhe fasi' carrier force. While wiih 'rhem we par+icipa+ed in 'rhe firsi' carrier raids on Tokyo and supporied +he landings ai lwo Jima. Alihough some desiroyers go? in+o shoo+ing marches wiih Jap picker ships, l'he only 'I'hing we foughi was 'rhe wea+her. We did blaze away al' a couple of Jap planes one evening wiih no resul+s. The wealher was +errible. I+ buckled The mounl's and ship every- where. Everyone had 'lo exercise care 'ro keep from being washed over 'rhe side. During our +rip we I fueled ai sea several +imes. This page shows some of +he picfures of a 'ranker and fhe various crews geiling +he fuel lines over and secured. l'r was usually fun fueling al sea if i+ wasn l' 'I'oo rough. We could holler over and insuli' +he +anker crew and ihen 'rhere was always ihe ques+ion as 'ro who would be covered wi'rh oil 'ihis lime. H seems as 'rhough -everyone concerned wilh fueling, from fhe Exec on down, was covered wi+h oil a+ one 'lime or anoiher. i i

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The nexf day we moved in fo shell the beach again. The picfure in fhe upper leff shows a Jap ammuni- fion dump going up. We wenf fo fhe far end of fhe gulf where we supporfed fhe underwafer demolition feamg as fhey cleared away all fhe obsfacles and underwafer mines planfed by fhe Japs fo prevenf our boys from reaching shore. We shelled fhe beach wifh 5 inch and 40MM fo prevenf Jap arfillery or snipers from working on them. Thaf nighf the resf of fhe formafion leff fhe gulf and fhe Lowry sfayed in and sysfemafically shelled Jap posifions wifh 5 inch for fhe balance of fhe nighf. Every once in a while a briqhf red fire and explosion would occur and we would linow we had hif our marlm. The boys in CIC did a fine iob fhaf nighf, lreeping us off f fool: place fhrree days before fhe landings. On Janu- ary 9, I945, fhe firsf American froops wenf ashore. ln fhe firsf half hour we fired 600 rounds of 5 inch proiecfiles af fhe Nips. The picfures on fhe upper righf and lower leff show fhe firsf wave of American froops on fheir way fo fhe beach. Affer fhe firsf wave landed we moved in and provided close supporf. During fhe air affaclrs of fwo days before we had been hif by a 40MM from anofher ship. The hole in fhe bulkhead is shown below af fhe righf. This was fhe only damage done fo fhe Lowry in fhis' series of acfions. We were one of fhe few ships fo gef ouf so luclcy. he reefs and designafing fargefs as well All fhis

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E-Mqg en 'C.4'5'-a'! '- Also on This Trip we began To pick up aviafors on a big scale. IT seems as Though The poor old Zoomies have enough Troubles keeping from being shoT up by The Japs buT Thal doesn'T seem To be enough. They are forever lighTing in The waTer. Several Times a day we geT The signal PiloT down and The nearesT can is oTT To geT The pilof and crew. Generally we are successful and The rescue proceeds as shown in These picTures. FirsT of all we have To locale The piloT. He has usually Tired a Tlare or broken a green dye marker so we can see him. However one or Two men make a mighTy Tiny spoT in The ocean so iT's no easy job To spoT Them. Once we have Them in sighT, The ship has To be maneuvered so They won'T be hurT by The screws or .oTher parTs of The ship. A ladder 22 .'fi,'ieoifi.l .e Fda and he Pi'0+ climbs up if he . e :sn T, we send a couple of men down The ladder To give a hand. lT's hard To describe how glad They are +0 See us. espeasn if Th i. b Ve , Y ey ave F n in The waTer Tor some Time. l suppose fhe closesT way To figure iT is ThaT They are abouT as qfdc:hTo see 'us as we are To see Them when some o e Kamikaze boys are in The viciniTy. EV? didn'.T do a h-eck of a loT ourselves on This Trip u we did learn To Think a greaT deal of The boys in The Naval Air Force. They Tlew in all kinds of weaTher, hiT Their TargeTs and goT back home. They are a greaT bunch and have done a real iob in This war. ln making These sTrikes aT The Japanese homeland we operaTed under The pr0T3cTi0n of bad weaTher and siorms. The piTch and roll and The mighTy carriers was no handicap To The Tly boys who Tulfilled Their missions wiTh all necessary roqulariTy. Being a lighT uniT we suffered qulle 6 going over from The heavy seas, buT all ended well and happily.