Pennsylvania (BB 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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FTER numerous practice shoots, including a bombardment of Kahoolawe, and then a rehearsal assault landing on Maui, the PENNSYLVANIA left Pearl Harbor on November tenth for the Gilbert Island Cam- paign, our first assault on Japanese positions in the Central Pacific. The PENNSYLVANIA carried the 5th Amphibious Force Command- er, Rear Admiral R. K. Turner, and was a part of the Northern Attack Group, whose ob- iective was Makin Atoll. This atoll lies slightly north of the equator, but the route of the task force, in an attempt to confuse the Japs, led to the south of the equator and then north- ward from the vicinity of the Phoenix Islands. The task force, composed of four battle- ships, four cruisers, three escort carriers, trans- ports and destroyers, approached Makin Atoll from the southeast on the morning of the 20th. Ukiangong Point, the southernmost point of Butaritari Island, was picked up by radar at 0248 at a range of twenty-three miles. At 0436 the task force deployed, the fire support ships proceeding to their assigned areas and the transports to the transport area At 0640 Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner Commander Amphibious Forces, . Pacific the PENNSYLVANIA opened fire on Butaritari Island with her main battery, initial range l4,200 yards. At 0700 the secondary bat- tery ioined in, and the bombardment was continued until 0821, when it had to be bro- ken off abruptly for an air strike which com- menced a few minutes earlier than scheduled. During. this brief shoot the main battery ex- pended,-in two, three, and six gun salvos, 403 roundsiof high capacity ammunition, and the secondary battery, 246 rounds of A.A. common. In general, all the target areas were well covered, and the bombardment was con- sidered fully effective. ' The heat was a decided handicap. Tem- peratures in the after magazines mounted to as high as II5O, and during the bombard- ment seven men in the magazines fainted and several others were temporarily incapacitated from the combined effect of the heat, ether fumes from the powder bags,,and their own exertion. ' As flagship of the 5th Amphibious Force the PENNSYLVANIA carried 24 radio trans matters and 4I receivers The communications I

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ning of June the second, while the ship was in drydock, a second explosion occurred in the gasoline stowage compartment. Two men on fire watch duty were iniured, one seriously and one fatally. U On I August the PENNSYLVANIA departed from Bremerton for Adak. She waited there six days, and on the I3th of August the Kiska Attack Force got underway. Again the PENN- SYLVANIA was serving as flagship for Ad- miral Rockwell. However, she had not also been assigned the duties of a fire support vessel in this operation, as this would reduce the efficiency of the ship as a command ship, particularly by restricting her freedom of movement. If needed, though, the ammuni- tion was ready. By August the weather in the Aleutians was considerably milder than it had been in May for the Attu Operation, although it was still cool by ordinary standards and the area was as always, covered by patches of dense fog. Assault troops landed without opposition on the western beaches of Kiska on the morn- ing of August I5th and pressed inland. By the evening of the I6th it was evident that the island was completely uninhabited, that the Japs had evacuated under cover of fog sometime prior to the landing. The only living creatures found on the island were tworag- ged, lonely dogs. As a memento of the opera- tion, shipfitters aboard the PENNSYLVANIA made and presented to Admiral Rockwell a miniature fire hydrant. The PENNSYLVANIA cruised off.Kiska for a week and then returned to Adak. From there she steamed, southward for Pearl Harbor. In September, with no other iob to do at the time, she was assigned the duty of transport- ing 790 men from Pearl Harbor to the West Coast and of bringing another draft out. The ship remained at San Francisco only five days. She was not to see the States again for over I7 months. The PENNSYLVANIA at Bremenan r I I

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on Dog Day and thereafter until retirement from the area required the manning of all this equipment plus about 25 remote oper- ating positions. 127 radiomen were used, standing watch-and-watch. At no time during the entire operation was there a casualty which disrupted communications. LISCOMBE BAY TORPEDOED Just before general quarters on the morn- ing of the 24th of November, as the PENN- SYLVANIA was returning to a screening sector off Makin after her usual night retirement, a tremendous explosion took place off her star- board bow. At almost the same instant a screening destroyer reported a sound contact. The disposition immediately executed an emergency course change. For several min- utes after the explosion a large fire lighted up the entire area. It was not at once appar- ent to those aboard the PENNSYLVANIA what had happened, but word soon came through that the LISCOMBE BAY, a CVE, had been torpedoed. She sank shortly with great loss of life. On the 25th and 26th the task force was taken under determined night air attack by torpedo planes. It was estimated that at times on the evening of the 25th there were as many as fifteen torpedo planes inside the destroyer screen of the disposition. None of our ships, however, were damaged. On the 30th the PENNSYLVANIA left the Makin area for Pearl Harbor. During the first part of January, 1944, she conducted various practice shoots and took part in another prac- tice assault on Maui. On January the 22nd she shoved off from Pearl Harbor for another major operation, this time against Kwaialein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Kwaialein is the largest atoll in the world, its lagoon meas- uring sixty miles in length. The assault force was divided into two parts, one to strike at Roi and Namur Islands at the northern end of the atoll and one at Kwajalein Island at the southern end. The PENNSYLVANIA was assigned to the southern group. At 0618 on the last day of January the main battery of the PENNSYLVANIA opened fire on Kwaialein Island. It was still dark at the time, and as the first salvo thundered out, a sailor standing topside yelled in the direc- tion of the island, ReveiIIe, you slant-eyed s--s of b--s. The secondary and 40mm. batteries ioined in, and the bombardment continued through- out the day. During most of the firing, the ship, discovering that at short ranges enemy guns and fortifications could not only be neu- tralized but actually destroyed 'by using the individual guns and fortifications as points of aim, was held between 2000 and 4000 yards from the beach. By this method Jap guns, blockhouses, pillboxes and the blockading sea wall built along possible landing beaches were demolished. Ammunition dumps and fuel stowages were seen to blow up and burn. large numbers of enemy troops were killed. At one time the 14 high capacity proiec- tiles being used seemed to be taking no effect on a blockhouse built into the seawall. The Gunnery Officer ordered a shift to armor piercing proiectiles. The first one fired hit the blockhouse, penetrated the thick concrete wall, leaving a hole some three feet in diam- eter, and burst inside. It seemed reasonable to assume that everything and everyone inside the blockhouse had been destroyed, but iust for good measure, one more A.P. was fired. That, too, burst inside the blockhouse, after passing through the hole left by the other proiectilel ' LANDING AT KWAJALEIN At 1000 and again at 1600, high and low tides, four reconnaissance boat teams ap- proached to within 100 yards of the landing beaches, taking soundings, studying the reefs, currents, and landing facilities, and getting all other available data. The PENNSYLVANIA and MISSISSIPPI were assigned the task of covering these boat teams from close range, but the boats were not fired upon by enemy guns. y The PENNSYLVANIA'S air spotters did out- standing work during the Kwaialein Cam- paign. They were invaluable not only in spot- ting fall of shot but in picking out targets that could not be seen from the ship. On the morning of the first of February, the PENNSYLVANIA carried out her scheduled bombardment before, during, and after the landing on the island by army troops. AI- though Kwaialein Island was heavily fortified, all troops made the landing unopposed. On the evening of the third, the PENNSYL- VANIA entered the Lagoon and anchored near Kwaialein Island. Heavy fighting was