Warren (APA 53) - Naval Cruise Book

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i September l5, l944-Today the veteran First Ma- rine Division assaulted Peleliu Island, and the Japs came out of the caves and tunnels that honey-combed the coral ridge which overlooked our beach and the strategic airfield, and set up the most stubborn defense our forces had yet encountered. VVith mortars, artillery and small arms, the enemy laced our landing beaches with fire. Along the reef's edge, Where the VVarren beach party Worked to unload cargo and her corpsmen gave life-saving first- aid to Marine casualties, a continual barrage of mortars exploded, Whipping the Water With fragments. Pre- cariously the lWarines fought to hold their beachhead While the Navy struggled to maintain the thin flow of supplies and ammunition. Among the first of the transports to discharge her vital cargo, the Warreii once again becamela floating hospital as doctors and corpsmen Worked to sustain life in the battered wrecks of men evacuated from the beach. Each night, the crew Waited at battle stations, peering into the darkness Where the Jap Snooper plane made its regular provvl. Q On September 22, While the Marines fought on under a broiling sun, the Warren left the battle-bound island. Once again her men had come through Without casualties. But more than ever Were We avvare of the high cost We were paying on the road to victory. - B

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J.,-W F ,- .. 1. ..-,..a...JW,c... .A Time and again, the Warren corps- men exposed themselves to evacuate the Wounded Marines, and always, when the boat crews Went in to trans- fer to the amphtracs their precious cargo, the Japs blanketed the reef's edge with mortar tire. So perilous was the position on the Warren beach that supplies could not be landed there. Our beach party lay pinned in their fox- holes by the constant Hre. ' Un the ship, the doctors and corps- men made heroic efforts to patch and save the torn and broken bodies of the Wounded. Some died, and at night We buried the dead at sea. During the day We brought aboard boatload after boatload of the casualties. Cn July 25, We left the Nlariannas With full realization of the stark trag- edy of War.

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. A cla- ' ,X fx Q . . S 5 ... i ' A-XS I ' SQA 'QQ X X .r K --S fv--J An Q X WHITE WOMEN . . ,wwf ff-faff Qfv roof y October 22, l944l-Into landlocked San Pedro Bay, just off Leyte Island, the U.S.S. Warren sailed this morning With an Army artillery battalion ready to debark in support of lWacArthur's infantry who had . hit the beach two days before. Already the fighting had moved Well inland, and our beach party was not harassed by the usual enemy fire. The ship unloaded with all possible speed for there Were many Jap airfields wtihin striking distance. All day long the crew Worked in tense expectancy of air attack. Not until nightfall, just as the Warren put to sea, did the attack come. Our ship did not fire her guns for she Was hidden in the darkness, but hundreds of batteries on the beach and in the southern anchorage stitched the sky with red tracers of Hre until it seemed that an unseen hand had drawn a crimson curtain through the night. It was the next day, when the ship was Well on her Way to Hollandia, before we heard that the Jap battle Heet had attempted to enter Leyte Gulf the night we left and had been utterly routed by tiny PT's and mlghty battleships of the American fleet. i