Pennsylvania (BB 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE GILBERTS AND MARSHALLS-Continued still in progress on the northern end of the island, where the .laps were slowly being driven, and the PENNSYLVANIA had a front row seat. During the day shell fire, dive bombing, and strafing were clearly visible from the ship, and at night 'there were con- tinuous streams of- tracers criss-crossing over the island, while fire support ships lay close inshore and maintained starshell illumination. All this was to become commonplace to the crew of the PENNSYLVANIA in later opera- tions, but now it was novel and exciting. With the success of the Kwaialein Opera- tion ensured, the PENNSYLVANIA proceed- ed to Maiuro Atoll, which had iust been occupied, to replenish ammunition. On the afternoon of 9 February an ammunition ship, the MAUNA LOA, was alongside to star- board, and I4 powder tanks were being received on the forecastle and then struck below. Suddenly one tank, which had just been received aboard and which was sitting with about twenty others on the starboard side of the forecastle, exploded and burned furiously. Within a few seconds hoses from the MAUNA LOA and the PENNSYLVANIA were brought into action, and after a short period the fire was extinguished. There were several men burned or other- wise injured by the accident, but there were no fatalities. That the heat of the fire failed to set off the surrounding powder tanks was amazing, and it undoubtedly saved the PENNSYLVANIA and MAUNA LOA from dis- aster. Shortly after midnight on the eleventh, 14 powder tanks were again being taken aboard, this time from a lighter alongside to port. One tank had been struck below to the handling room of Turret One and was being lifted across the coaming of a door into the right ready service magazine when it exploded. Flame swept over the powder cans stacked in the magazine. Again, by some sort of mir- acle, no other powder charge ignited. The magazine and others adiacent were promptly flooded. On this occasion there were numer- ous casualties, of whom four died. With the necessity after each of the pow- der explosions of condemning all of that lot of powder already received on board and of transferring it off the ship and then receiving another load, it looked very much as though the PENNSYLVANIA would not complete loading ammunition in time to take part in the next operation. But, by the afternoon of the l2th, after more than seventy-nine hours of almost continuous work, the job was fin- ished. Forty-five minutes later the ship got underway. The operation against Kwaialein,Atoll had proved so successful that the operation against Eniwetok Atoll, the westernmost in the Marshalls, was undertaken earlier than originally planned. At 0910 on the I7th of February the PENNSYLVANIA steamed boldly through Deep Entrance into Eniwetok Lagoon, her entire 4Omm. and 20mm. batteries blaz- ing away at the enemy-held islands of Jap- tan, to starboard, and Parry, to port, each about IOOO yards away. She proceeded up a swept channel in the lagoon to a position off Engebi Island and at Il25 commenced bombarding enemy installations. This action was continued throughout the day. The PENNSYLVANIA and TENNESSEE were assigned the duty of protecting the recon- naissance boat teams, and when they made their approach to the landing beaches at I700, the PENNSYLVANIA covered them with main and secondary battery fire. They com- pleted their mission without interference. On the morning of the I8th the PENNSYL- VANIA bombarded Engebi before and during the approach of the assault waves to the beach. During approximately eighty percent of the bombardment the beach areas were enveloped in heavy smoke and dust, and this cover drifted down on the ship, making it extremely difficult and at times impossible to pick out targets. When Engebi had been secured, 'the PENN- SYLVANIA moved southward through the IUQOOH to the vicinity of Parry Island. On the 20th and the 2lst she delivered preparation

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fire on this island. Parry, which is iust over a mile long and less than 500 yards wide, was subjected to a naval bombardment that fo-2' volume of fire per square yard has never been equalled elsewhere. At the beginning of the bombardment the island was covered with a dense growth of palm trees extending Clown to the water's edge, and at its conclusion not a single tree remained standing. The ground was littered with broken tree trunks and palm fronds. The air spotter of the PENNSYLVANIA reported that all visible installations were de- stroyed, trenches demolished and unservice- able, and areas he designated as containing Jap troops covered with blood upon comple- tion of the firing periods. He further reported that the Japs appeared to become hysterical during -the bombardment and ran ,frantically up and down a trail on the far side of the island, into the bushes, and out into the water. On the morning of the 22nd the PENNSYL- VANlA'S secondary and 40mm. batteries de- livered supportinggfire prior to the landing of Parry. During the assault LCI 440, which had an observation party aboard and was lying off the landing beach, received a direct hit by a medium caliber projectile and suffered numerous casualties. With most of his crew in desperate need of medical attention,'the skipper of the LCI steered his craft for the nearest large ship, the PENNSYLVANIA. When the LCI came along the starboard quar- ter of the battleship, her decks were literally running with blood. Casualties were promptly taken aboard the PENNSYLVANIA, and the iniuredt given medical treatment until they could be transferred to a hospital ship later in the day. Three officers from the COLO- RADO, who had been in the observation plarty aboard the LCI, were returned to their s I . p A SYDNEY BOUND g While the LCI was still alongside, the PENNSYLVANIA was taken under fire by an enemy shore battery and was later straddled in range and deflection. From the size of the splashes and the II fragments discovered aboard later, it was estimated that a 75mm, gun or mortar was firing. There were no casualties. After the conclusion of the Eniwetok Op- eration there was a lull of almost four months before the next amphibious operation in the Central Pacific. The PENNSYLVANIA steamed to Maiuro and then southward to Havannah Harbor, Efate, in the New Hebrides. There she lay through most of March and April. At one time, when the Japs had been surging toward Australia, Efate had been one of our most advanced bases, but now, with the front lines far to the northward, Efate was in the backwash of the war. There was little activity of any kind. Life aboard the PENNSYLVANIA settled into an inflexible routine. Recreation Parties were sent to Pennsylvania Beach, where two cans of beer were doled out to each of the men and where they could go swimming and hunt for cat-eyes, or barter with the natives for coconuts and grass skirts. Capt. Corn was relieved by Capt. C. F. Martin on April the 23rd. Shortly before this time scuttlebutt had begun to circulate that the ship would make a visit to Sydney, Aus- tralia, and for once the scuttlebutt was right. The PENNSYLVANIA, NEW MEXICO and IDAHO arrived in Sydney on the 29th and stayed exactly one week. To their crews, Syd- ney turned out to be iust about what Paris was to our troops in France during World War I. The sailors had a little difficulty in dealing in pounds and shillings and in under- standing certain Aussie expressions, but they had no difficulty at all with the girls. The PENNSYLVANIA gave two dances, one for each watch, at the Sydney Town Hall. Half the female population of the city must have been present. TARGET PRACTICE After this brief vacation, which was the only thing of the sort that the crew of the PENNSYLVANIA received during a period of seventeen months, the ship returned to Efate for a short while and then continued north- ward into the Solomons. She steamed west- ward along the north shore of Guadalcanal, past the beaches where the first landings had been made two years before, past Henderson Field, and then across Iron Bottom Bay, named for a good part of the U. S. and Japanese fleets, to Port Purvis, Florida Island. Using Port Purvis as a base, the PENNSYLVANIA sortied three times to bombard simulated tar- gets on Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal, and to take part in a practice amphibious assault. She then returned to Efate to replenish am- munition, after which she' proceeded north- ward again to Roi.