Salt Lake City (CA 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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passed powder bags from hand to hand, For a few minutes, turret three had to fire liigli capacity ammunition. The difference in the shell splashes befuddled the laps, who thought they were being bombed and they fired round after round of anti-aircraft ammunition into the harmless overcast. Then apparent disaster again. Sea water had seeped through shell-ruptured bulkheads into the after fuel tanks, con- taminating the oil. A hiss of white steam came from the Salt Lake City. At ll47 her engines stopped. Captain Bertram l. Badgers, USN., whose expert conning had saved the cruiser time and again, turned her broadside to the enemy, so all her guns could bear in her final moments. Then he ran up the signal of tragedy, My Speed Zero . The smoke veil had hidden from the enemy the desperate- ness of the Salt Lake City's plight. Destroyers were ordered to make a torpedo run to gain a few moments for the big ship. Three raced forward, an attack of Davids against Goliath. Their men expected to die. At first, their high speed saved them. They closed until their five inch guns could range and their fifty-five pound shells thrummed against lapanese hulls. Then, as it had to eventually, the picture changed. The laps made eight inch hits on the Bailey and she began to go through a Gehenna of her own, comparable to that on the Salt Lake City. In the expectation that she would be blown out of the water in another minute, the skipper of the Bailey ordered her torpedoes fired. From a distance of 9,500 yards, their bubbling wakes streaked toward the lap heavies. Aboard the Salt Lake City, hard pressed men had managed meanwhile to shift the fuel supply and new uncontaminated oil was fed into the cruiser's power plant. Her engines took on lite and she edged forward again, while her sailors laughed weakly and slapped each other's backs in the welter ot emo- tions of men back from the thin edge of death At 1200 the cruiser was making 15 knots Then miracle piled on miracle One of the Baileys tor podoes tired in desperation is believed to have found its mark The others threw the laps into a consternation apparently out

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of all proportion to the cause. They circled wildly, then headed West. They were retiring. They had aloandoned plans to re- inforce Attu. They had given up the tight, licked by an enemy halt their size, whose principal ship was lying helpless. ii i if Aw 'xxx gfflfl WX lei iw Xnlllj tl T lgjrl, T J' . . T T it , f Hill l'lrgi,tQ J!! f'l fl X I, T l JIT' lil l, ll X Vlhcgos X ff X ffl f i il X I U T if T 1 iiii T ff ff! X If 4 Their damage rniist have loeen extreme. Both heavies and one light had suffered hits, and the men from the Bailey, who got close enough to see, said that on one enemy heavy cruiser, only one ol tive tiirrets was in operation. 1 Q l