Pennsylvania (BB 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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UPPER LEFT Chief Shlpfltter R F Smith, USNR, receiv mg commendation from Captain William M Moses for diving operations following torpedomg UPPER RIGHT Enlisted men awaiting awards fleft to right-1 Chief Shlpfltter R F Smith, USNR W A Cun nmgham, SF2fc, USNR, fletter of commendatlonj O R McLeod, Slfc, USN D O Judy Flfc USNR E L Olson, Cpl USMC R E McFarlane, Cpl USMCR J H Kephart, MM2fc USNR Chief Machinist Mate A A Kane, USN CENTER LEFT Captain Wm M Moses awardmg Purple Hearts to flett to rlghtj, Lt A W Wilson, USN Lt flgj R W Schroeder Ens J F Malek R E McFar lane, Cpl., USMCR, E. L. Olson, Cpl., USMC, D. O. Judy, Flfc, USNR, O. R. McLeod, Slfc USN. CENTER RIGHT: The Captain congratulates Machinist Mate A. A. Kane, USN, and J. H. Kephart, MM2fc. LOWER RIGHT: Capt. Wm. M. Moses commending Lt. L. D. Williams and Ch. Elec. Scharn for electrical damage control work accomplished following the torpedoing. 36

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An airplane from the light carrier CABOT photographs the PENNSYLVANIA steaming toward historic Wake Island, July, 7945. Y LATE SUMMER OF T945 the defeat of Nazi Germany was history and the pitch of the battle with Japan had risen to white fury. Iwo Jima had fallen, our monster air attacks were relentless, Russia had entered the con- flict and on the sixth of August President Truman announced to an amazed world that Hiroshima had been virtually wiped out with a new weapon more devastating than anything ever before devised-the Atomic Bomb. Meanwhile the PENNSYLVANIA put in at Saipan where she remained for several days while the Powers at CINCPAC on Guam pon- dered whether or not to use her as flagship for the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas should he be required to put to sea for a surrender which seemed imminent. Once the decision was made to fly Fleet Ad- miral Nimitz's flag in the SOUTH DAKOTA and to conduct ceremonies should they be necessary upon Admiral Halsey's flagship, the MISSOURI, the PENNSYLVANIA was ordered on to Okinawa after replenishing the am- munition she had expended at Wake. On the morning of August the twelfth she entered Buckner Bay and went alongside the TENNESSEE, which was at anchor, to receive Vice Admiral Oldendorf and his staff. When the shift had been made, the PENNSYLVANIA cast off and proceeded to her own berth. At 2045 that evening, as the PENNSYL- VANIA lay quietly at anchor, a Jap torpedo plane somehow slipped in over Buckner Bay without any warning and launched its tor- pedo at the indistinct silhouette of a large warship. One of the crew of the PENNSYL-

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OKINAWA - Continued VANIA later wrote home, We didn't get the Jap plane, but we sure busted hell out of his torpedo! The torpedo hit well aft on the PENNSYL- VANlA'S starboard side and did extensive damage. Many compartments were flooded and the ship settled heavily by the stern. But, by the Herculean efforts of the ship's repair parties and the prompt assistance of two sal- vage tugs and an LCS, the flooding was brought under control. ' Nineteen men in a living compartment iust inboard of the scene of the explosion and one other man were killed by the force of the blast. Ten others were iniured. The following day the PENNSYLVANIA was towed into shallower water where salvage operations were continued. On the night of the I3th of August, I945, the PENNSYLVANIA saw her last action of the war. An enemy suicide plane made a run on the ships in the harbor and crashed in flames on the deck of a cargo ship about 1,000 yards off the starboard beam of the PENNSYLVANIA. The secondary battery of the PENNSYLVANIA tracked the plane by radar and fired thirteen rounds. The 40 mm.'s fired thirty. On the morning of the I5th Capt. Moses spoke to the ship's crew over the loudspeaker system and informed them that the President had iust announced Japan's acceptance of the Allied surrender terms. There was no wild cheering as there had been a few nights be- fore, when Japan's first offer to surrender had been reported. Instead there was a minute of utter silence as the men paid homage to their shipmates who had lost their lives so very near the end. The PENNSYLVANIA remained in Buckner Bay a little over two weeks, while salvage operations proceeded. All compartments not open to the sea were pumped dry and the ship was made as seaworthy as possible. On August the I8th the ship departed from Oki- nawa, towed by two tugs in tandem, another tug standing by to assist if needed. The group proceededitortuously toward Guam, making as little as two knots when the seas were heavy and never more than seven. On 6 September the PENNSYLVANIA ar- rived in Apra Harbor, Guam. The next day she entered ABSD 3. In drydock a large sheet steel patch was welded over the torpedo hole and repairs sufficient to permit her return to the United States under her own power were completed. The ship left drydock on Cctober the second, moored in the harbor to take on I000 Navy and Marine passengers for transportation to the States, and shoved off on the morning of October the fourth. Commander Kaufman relieves Captain Moses as C. 0., Bremerton, 5 November, 1945.