Nicholas (DD 449) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE STORY OF THE U.S.S. NICHOLAS landia, just 150 miles further up the coast. It was a bold step which, surprisingly, met with minor oppo- sition and marked the beginning of the end of Jap- anese power in New Guinea. Our duties in the period that followed varied con- siderably. We bombarded enemy positions in New Guinea and New Ireland, participated in anti- submarine sweeps protecting aircraft carriers in their sweeps along and above the Bismarck archipelego, and in September the Nicholas helped in the occu- pation of Morotai Island in the Northern Molukkas. We were proud to take part in the return of Americans to the Philippine Islands. On October 24 the Nicholas brought the first resupply echelon into Leyte Gulf. We barely missed getting into the Bat- tle of Surigao Straits, being about thirty miles away. The glow of the gun flashes were clearly visible, and the sky gave the impression that an electrical storm caused by heat lightning was taking place. In Leyte we encountered the Japanese Kamikaze Corps, and our guns took credit for at least one suicidal enemy plane as it attempted to crash into our superstructure. In December we made one of the night sweeps up through the Camotes Sea, bombarding enemy held Ormoc Bay. All during this period the Nicholas did her share in destroying enemy air forces who at- tempted to disrupt our invasion. This was a furious phase of the war, one which we all vividly re- member. Shortly after Japanese resistance crumpled in the Leyte area, we continued the victorious advance up through the Philippines. The Nicholas was in the covering force as our flag returned to Luzon Island in the landings at Lingayen Gulf. After backing up several additional landings she played an active part in the landing at Mariveles on Bataan and the occu- pation of Corregidor. The recapture of Corregidor was probably the most interesting and spectacular operation of the Philippine campaign. The Rock, as the island is known, guards the entrance to Manila Bay, lying be- tween the Bataan peninsula and the southwestern side of Luzon, where our forces had driven to the Cavite naval base. Mariveles, on the southern tip of Bataan, lies directly opposite the northern end of Corregidor. It was here that the first landing was made. Corregidor itself, resembling a giant polywog, rises sharply from the water, its sheer rocky cliffs giving it an impregnable appearance. The extreme southern end consists of a single high peak, which is joined to the main fortress by a long, narrow strip of hilly land, heavy with trees and undergrowth. It was on this center strip that the amphibious units would go ashore. The cliffs of Corregidor were marked with scores of caves and tunnels bored deep in solid rock. In these caves the Japs had mounted heavy caliber guns ranging from 3 to 8 inch. It was our job to knock out these emplacements. On top, Corregidor was flat and dotted with buildings, storage tanks, large guns and cave entrances, already in poor condition due to the consistent bombings of the army air forces. For two days the Nicholas, with other destroyers and cruisers, went in to point blank range to draw enemy fire so that we could locate and knock out japanese gun emplacements. Long linesf of tiny minesweeps cut loose hundreds of mines in Mari- veles and around Corregidor and we were kept quite busy exploding these obstacles. On the second day the japs began to open up and it was necessary to bore in closer and fight it out. The Nicholas knocked out several batteries and es- caped without damage. On the third day we landed on Bataan, where, due to accurate firing by our ships and heavy aerial bombardment, there was little op- position. The morning of the fourth day saw an all out attack upon the rocky fortress. At 7:50 a. m. heavy bombers came over in waves to unload tons of bombs. This was followed by low level strafing at- tacks. Our group moved in close and poured shells into the caves, and around the landing beaches. At times the entire rock was hidden behind thick clouds of smoke and dirt. At exactly 8:30 long lines of transport planes appeared and lumbered slowly over the rock. As the smoke from the bombardment cleared away, the huge planes dipped lower, one by one, and army paratroops tumbled into space. The sky was filled with red, white, green and black um- brellas, dropping men, supplies and equipment to the flat surface of Corregidoris rooftop. Some men missed their target, dropped past the steep cliffs to the water where PT boats quickly came to the rescue. Corregidor was soon littered with abandoned para- ..15--

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7fne saw, af me af. 5. 5. fva By ROBERT E. TAYLOR, RMQC On June 4, 1942, the U.S.S..Nicholas, named after Marine Major Samuel Nicholas and bearing the num- ber 449, hugged the docks of the Boston Navy Yard as a green crew of officers and men stood in a drenching downpour to witness a brief ceremony which commissioned her 2,100 tons of steel into the naval service of the United States. ' Entering the South Pacific in September 1942, the Nicholas commenced her combatant activities in the Solomon Islands area, taking part in the defense of Guadalcanal. The Nicholas spent seemingly endless days off that long finger of death. Her powerful guns showered tons of explosives upon the blood- stained beaches, blasting gun positions and scattering concentrations of the monkey-like men from Nippon. On February 1, 1945, she fought with fury as enemy dive bombers pealed off and thundered down- ward in their attempts to send the Nicholas to a watery grave. This was her first real taste of warg and although an accompanying destroyer was blown to bits, the Nick, herself riddled with shrapnel, two men killed and others injured from a near miss, managed to drive off the enemy. The Japanese navy was still very strong and ag- gressive. It was well entrenched in the Solomons area and determined to stay there. The Nicholas acquitted herself with honor and distinction in many clashes. Time and time again she met the best the japs could offer under their favorite conditions of darkness and landlocked waters. It was a difiicult and hectic period and all hands on board worked hard to perfect her as a fighting ship. As American forces moved up through the Solo- mons, driving before them the japanese forces, the Nicholas played a part in almost every action. She was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for her actions in the battle of Kula Gulf in july, 1943. This award is the most coveted of all decorations in the navy, and is the mark, not of individual bravery, but of fighting ability, courage, and the teamwork of all members of the crew. Much has been written about the first battle of Kula Gulf, and the victory that came to our small task force is now history. Outnumbered nearly three to one, our battle fleet pushed its way to victory in one of the most vicious engagements of the Pacific war. Who can ever forget the magnificent barrage our cruisers thundered through the black, early morning hours, the ring of fiercely burning enemy ships, the fantastic patterns of red and white tracers that poured endlessly from the powerful guns of our task force. The destroyers sped in to point blank range to loose their torpedoes, then turned away in a blaze of yellow fire from their five inch guns. The Helena survivors who came aboard, cut and bleeding, from the oil soaked waters, lent a hand in the magazines as the Nicholas and a sister ship sent a Japanese cruiser and two destroyers to their death in a series of violent explosions. In October, the Nicholas joined the newly organ- ized Fifth Fleet and participated, as a part of the greatest armada ever assembled up to that time, in the occupation of the Gilbert Islands. After backing up the landings on bloody Tarawa and Makin, she saw action in the December fourth carrier strike on the Marshall Islands. On December 15 a happy crew stood topside, bell bottom trousersv flapped briskly in the early morn- ing breeze as the Nicholas steamed under the Golden Gate. That long awaited dream had at last become a reality-liberty and leave in the good old U. S. A. The time went by too rapidly and before we knew it, it was January 21 and the Nick was headed out of San Francisco Bay towards Pearl Harbor. Many of the old faces were gone and new ones had taken their places. We spent a month in Pearl whipping into shape for combat. During this time we made an eventful trip to the Marshall Islands on which we succeeded in damaging an enemy submarine. Finally in March the Nicholas left Pearl Harbor for her old haunt, Purvis Bay in the Solomons. By this time, the Japanese had been cleared out of this area, and the Nicholas soon received orders to re- port to the Seventh Fleet then operating in New Guinea. The Nicholas first went back into combat with the occupation of Aitape, New Guinea in May. Our bombardments and the subsequent landings were in phase with occupation forces driving ashore at Hol- -14...

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THE STORY OF THE U.S.S. NICHOLAS chutes, and as the troops began searching out Japs, still more silky puffs floated earthward. At 10:30 the amphibious forces moved in slowly to the center of the island as destroyers, cruisers and rocket firing craft moved to within 500 yards of the beach, laying down a shattering barrage. Aircraft bombed and strafed, and troops poured from land- ing barges. Our beachheads were soon established and Old Glory flew over Corregidor. The war'was moving at an accelerated pace now, and the Pacific forces ready for new fields to con- quer made plans for occupation of the southern and central Philippine Islands which had been by passed. The first of these bases was Zamboanga located on the southwestern peninsula of Mindanao which juts out into the Sulu Sea. Its harbor facilities and air- fields provide excellent bases for the isolation of Borneo and other East Indies islands. The plan of attack was typical of preceding Pacific operations. The Nicholas with other destroyers, cruisers and minesweeps carried out their bombard- ments and backed up the landing forces against lit- tle opposition. However, every operation seems to be marked by some unusual spectacle and the loss of one of our aircraft provided such for this operation. A group of army Liberators moved in to unload their cargos. One plane, apparently out of formation flying at a lower level was hit with the bomb load from a plane higher up. In a matter of seconds the plane exploded and fell in pieces. It was a horrible sight to see it falling in flames and we watched, holding our breath and giving a silent prayer that parachutes would soon open. At the last moment one parachute opened and came down near the beach. A cruiser plane landed under enemy fire and made a daring rescue. After Zamboanga the Nicholas participated in the landing on Cebu in the Visayan Group. As we lay off shore the retreating Japanese burned Cebu City, second largest in the Philippines. It was here that we could see the sort of enemy we were fightingg an enemy who when he can no longer wage war against an army must turn and spend his hate and violence upon the civilian population. ' When the Seventh Fleet moved into East Indies waters in May, the Nicholas was once again in the fight as she participated in the first landings on Bor- neo at Tarakan Island. With the occupation com- pleted the Nicholas returned to Subic Bay, Luzon, with hopes of a journey home. Days dragged by. The fighting at Okinawa, the most furious the navy had ever encountered, was slackening. Finally or- ders came through and the Nicholas joined the Third Fleet. She became part of an escort carrier force operating off Okinawa making air strikes against the Sakishima Group. The absence of enemy aircraft made the operation uneventful. Before long the bat- tling on Okinawa was over and we were back in port once again. But there was still work to do, as the Third Fleet was preparing for an all-out assault on the japanese homeland. . Early in july, the Nick joined a group of de- stroyers who together with tankers, ammunition ships, and cargo vessels would act as a replenishing force for Task Force 38. For forty days we steamed through the waters of the western Pacific some 300 miles from the japanese homeland while the power- ful task force shattered Jap installations and de- stroyed the remnants of a once powerful navy. On August eleventh the Nicholas with two other ships of her squadron received orders to join the fleet carriers. The Nicholas made her first strike with Task Force 38 on the thirteenth of August. The carrier planes took off just after dawn and roared in toward japan. Our fighter cover kept vigilant watch and during the day broke up concentrated attacks of enemy planes. By the morning of the fifteenth we heard that the Japanese radio had broadcast their surrender but as no official word had reached us, our strikes prepared to carry out their assignments. Sev- eral hours after our planes had taken off, we received word of the surrender, and our aircraft were re- called. However, the .laps were still fighting and we remained alert as our planes were shooting down snoopers most of the day. The following days were long and filled with sus- pense. We spent much of, our time dodging ty- phoons while waiting for the surrender plans to be put into effect. Marines and sailors were taken from the task force to make up a landing party, and the Nicholas was assigned to escort the Missouri into japanese home waters and receive emissaries from a Japanese destroyer. I On August twenty-seventh, the Nick went to general quaters just before daybreak and steamed in M1-6,