All Hands Naval Bulletin - Dec 1943

8/4/2019 All Hands Naval Bulletin - Dec 1943

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. N A V Y BEACH BATTALION A T SALEWO


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BUREAU OF

DECEMBER 1943 N U M B E R 321R E A RA D M I R A LR A N D A L L J A C O B S , U S NTh e C h ie f o f Navul Personnel

R E A RA D M I R A LL. E. D E N F E L D ,U S NT h e Assistant Chie f of Navul Pemonnel

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Table of ContentsPage

Last Battle of the Battlin g B. . . . . . . . . . . 2They Deliver the Goods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

VERSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Navys Second Year of W a r . . . . . . . . . . SU. S. Naval Vessels Lost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Medal of Honor Winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Chronology of Year . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . 14Graphic Highlights, First War Year. . . 16Strategic Maps . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 18GraphicHighlights,SecondWarYear. 2 01918-1943: A Comparison. . . . . . . . . . 22

Light Cruiser With a Heavy Wallop. . . . 24After a Ship Goes Down-. . . . . . . . . . . . 26Training Tip: Fractures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31The Knockout at Midway. . . . . . .. . . . . . . 32Editorial . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36Letters to the Editor . . . . . .... . . . . .. . . . . 36News of the Month . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Th e W ar a t Sea (Communiques) . . . . . . . . 41The Finest Man I Ever Knew. . . . . . . . . . 46What Is Your Naval I. Q.?. . . . . . . . . . . . 47Decorations and Citations.. . . . . . . . . . . 48BuPers Bulletin Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3CUMULATIVE NDEX, 1943 ISSUES. . 6s

SPECIALECTIONARNNI-

Thismagazine is publishedmonthlynWashington,D. C., by heBureau of Na va lPersonnel for the information and interest ofthe Naval Service as a whole. By BuPers Cir-cularLetter 162-43, distribution is tobeef-fected oallowal lhands easyaccess toeachissue. Allactivities houldkeep heBureauinformed of howmanycopiesare equired.All original material herein may be reprintedasdesired.

PASS THIS COPY ALONGAFTERYOU HAVE READ IT


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THIS DRAWlNG of the USS Bories encounter with manhitby an empty shell case hurled bya U . S.a U-boat was prepared bya Coast Guard combat Navy gunner. Atight another Navy gunner,artist on the basis of oficial reports amd eyewitmess unable to depresshis gun enough to bear on theaccomts. Caught in the searchlight beam i s the Ger- sub, fires through a hole cut in its spray shield.Last Battle of the Battling B

USS Borie Sinks U-Boat in Hand-to-HandEngagement-Cited with Entire Task Unit

I n a savage hand-to-hand battlewith a huge U-boat, in which crewmenused shotguns, pistols, empty shellcases and even knives, the over-age de-stroyer us s Bo&limped awayhevictor. Then,eraged plates crushedinamminghes u b m a r i n e , theBories crew wasremoved and shewas sunk by planesfrom her own taskgroup carrier.

F o r destroyingmore U-boats hanLt. Comdr. Hutchinsany team in navalhistory, he entire ask unit of whichthe Boric was a member received thepresidential Unit Citation upon its re-turn from theAtlantic. This i s the firsttime a taskunithas received such acitation.

I t was about three months ago, whenthe U-boats reappeared in the AtlanticPa e 2

shipping lanes with heavier armament ,prepared to battle it out with planes,that Task Unit 21.14 launched its epiccampaign. In the uni t were the escortcarrier Card, one of t he new babyflat-tops; Composite Squadrons 1 and9, each composed of Avenger torpedobombers and Wildcat fighters;ndthree over-age destroyers of 1917 vint-age, the Borie, G o f f and Barry.The log of the Card indicates thather commander, Capt. Arnold J. Isbell,USN, believed he could best carry outhis mission by simplywading into apack of submarines and fighting it outat close quar ters . And thats exactlywhat his unit did.One night he Borie, known in hefleet as the Battlin g B, ranged fromthe Card on a nigh t foray. She hadbeen gone only a few hours when thisterse message came back to the Card IScratch one pig boat. . Am searchingfor more. What happened when theBorie encountered a second U-boat anddrove herprow completely over it isbest described by her commanding of-

ficer, Lt. Comdr. (then Lieut.) CharlesH. Hutchins, USNR.We held him therendtartedshooting with everything we had, heexplained. Some men fired shotguns ;

the executive officer grabbed a tommy-gun nd tarted shooting fromhebridge;others used pistols. One boyeven took a signal pistol and fired a tthe sub.The angewas so short one gullcouldnt be brought to bear on the sub-marine, so the un aptain tartedthrowing empty shell cases and heknocked one man off the deck of thesub. Another fellow threwhis knife.He said later hed never been able tostick a knife n he floor before, butthis time he hit a man on the sub andknocked him overboard.One othergun crew couldnt firebecause thei r shield was n he way.They cut a hole in the shield and firedright through it.

hand-to-hand ighting, the sub brokcAfter about ten minutes of virtual


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END OF THE BORIE: Mortallywounded in a uic-torious battle with a U-boat, theUSSBorie i s shownhereustbefore she was sunk byNavy orpedobombers from the USS Card. Theskipper of theouer-age destroyergave the order o abandon shipthe day after she rammed and sank a German sub-marine in the Atlantic. Survivors were picked up bytwo other destroyers of the task unit .made a beautiful strafing run, givingthat sub a methodical going over withhis machineguns. Butas I followedhim in, I got some AA in my fuselage,puttingout my inter-plane communi-cation and electrical systems and alsodam aging the vertical fin of my planeandheudder.verythingap-pened so suddenly, and the dam age tomy electr ical system prevented the re-lease of bombs on my first run .I pulled upandout or a secondattack,with myengine popping andcut ting out. Meanwhile, Sprague

Ofticinl U . . N a r y Photographs.BORIE SURVIVORShonor heirdeaa27 officersand me n- at memorial services aboard the USSCard. On thebridge,conducting he service overthe ships loudspeaker system, is Lt. (jg) S . W . BellChC, USN. Beside him are Capt.Arnold J. Isbell,US N, commanding officer of the Card alzd (nearestcamera) Lieut. Comdr. (them Lieut.) Charles H.Hutchins, USNR, commanding officer of the Borie.

was making another excellent strafingrun on theother sub. When I wentin on my second run, I g o t hit againand the wing burst into flames. HOW-ever, I made my drop and lookedback to make sure my bombs explodedin heproper place. The explosions,which seemed to go off right under thesub, covered it with water.My wing was now burn ing badly,so I dropped my remaining bombs andmade a water landing. It put out .the.fire inhe wing. I gotout of theplane and saw that the turret gunner,

ANTISUBMARINE FLEETET UPOrganization wf the Tenth Fleet, to boats, ( 2 ) protection of Allied ship-exercise unity of control over the ping in he ea rontie rs concerned,Navys war against the U-boat in the (3)upport of other ntisubmarineAtlantic,was publicly announced la st forcesoperating n heAtlantic, (4)month. It had been functioning se- control of convoys andshipping hatcretly f or six months. are U. S. responsibilities, and (5) cor-In addition tohisother duties, Ad- relation of U. S. antisubmarine e-miralErnest J. King, USN, comman- search andpersonnel nstruction.der-in-chief of the U. S. Fleet, nd The Tenth Fleet has four principalchief of naval operations, re tained he divisions-operations, anti-submarineimmediate direction of an tisubmarine

operationsndshe Commander,measures, convoy andouting,nd aTenthFleet. Rear Admiral Franc is s. Scientific Council. Throughhis 01hw, S N, assistant chief of staff ganization theenthleet makes(antisubmarine), U. S . Fleet, s chief available latest nform ation on anti-of staff of theenthleet. submarineevelopments, intelligence,The new fleet is assigned the fol- training ndoperating procedures t olowing tasks: (1) destruction of U- otherAtlantic commands.

OHagan (James H. OHagan, AMM3c,USNR) was outall ight,but saw nosign of theadio perator, Downes(John D. Downes, ACRM, USNR). Iswam nto he plane o look fo r him,but got only half way into the tunne lwhen theplane sank. I looked up t osee Sprague going n for another at-tack, and then OHagan and I got thelif e raf t inflated. I didnt see or hearSprague again.Afterpaddling heirway hroughthe stricken U-boats oil slick, so newwe could smell fresh oil, Lieutenant

Sallengerand OHagan were pottedby planes from he Card and pickedup by the Barry after spending sevenhours in the water.Ensignprague, it wasearnedlater, aw is teammates plane godown andersisted in histtackagains t he emain ing U-boat whichwasusingheavy caliber ant iaircraf tguns. Badlyity flak, EnsignSpragues planerashedntohewater . An extensive searchwas con-ducted, buthewasnot ound, ndboth Ensignpraguend Downesare listed as missing in action.While the ota l number of subma-rine inkings credited toTaskUnit21.14 cannot be disclosed, at least fivewere definitely sunk n his hree-dagperiod.

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N e w York Daily ATen7sPhotographs.H O L D of medium-sized cargo uessel contains oil trucks DECK of cargo uessel at an EastCoast port carries(lef t) , ambulances, water supply ruck (right). All locomotiue. Clearance between life raft past cab ofspaces between vehicles wi ll be filled with broken engine and the quarter-deck inront was fourstowage. inches.

The Navy Delivers the -GoodsConvoy and Routing System Gets Through More Ships- ith More Goods for Allies- han Ever Before

By HOWARD G. BARNESEnsign, U S N R

( O n duty in the ofice of the port director,Third Naval District ) .From the moment a ship enters theport, n act rom he moment sheleaves any other por t bound f or NewYork, she becomes a candidate for aconvoy leaving New York. Dispatchesfromports of departureand advicesfrom the War Shipping Administrationand shipping agents keep the port di-rectornformed ofutule arrivals.Fromsuchadvance istings heportdirectors office makes up tentative con-voy lists.The ist ssubject ochangeuntilsailing time. A ship may develop engi-neering difficulties, may not be loadedin time, may not arrive in New Yorkon schedule, may have crew difficulties,o r other troubles.If the vessel requires repairs inNewYork, hese requently an be madewhile shes loading. Once repairedand loaded, she moves away from herpierwhichs needed fornotherloading ob) o an anchorage desig-nated for outgoing vessels. Meanwhile,many things have been taking place inthe port directors office.The ships master has reported to aconvoy andout ing officer. He asturned n his old routing nstructionsandother confidential pape rs of thevoyage just concluded. He has sub-

The convoy and routing sys-tem today is getting through,supplies to war fronts over thew orld-getting t hroughnoughand on ti me. Th e operating agentw ithin the Navy fo r convoy androuting activ ities is the port di-rector. One o f the busiest portdirectors handles the Port ofNew Y o r k , w hich at t imes hascleared as much as 60 per centof t he total shipping fro m theU. . By 24 July , o f 12,276 shipsthat hadsailed fro m New Y o r kaf t er Pearl H arbor, only a smallpercent w ere unk . Thi s articleexplains how New Y o r k f o m sand sends out her convoys.

itted nformationabouthis vesselher argo, es tination, peed, rma-ment, special equipment for use incon-voy, merchant crew, Navyguncrew,draft, height of mainmast, speed, andmany other things.The information has been examinedand classified, the vessels fitness forinclusion in convoy has been deter-mined, and she has been placed in the

convoy for which she is best suited andwhich will takeher ohe rport ofdestination.Then the convoy and rou ting officersetsout o solve the problem of the

formation of the convoy, its shape andsize, and the location of each ship in it.He weighs all the factors that makef&hedesirability of placing achship in her particular spot in the con-voy formation. Heplans he orma-tion of ships o make it leastvulner-able to submarine attack.Beforesailing, themaste r of eachvessel attends a masters epartureconference. Presided over by the por tdirector or his routing officer, the con-ference s attended by the commodoreof the convoy (who will be responsiblefor the internal discipline and maneu-vering of the convoy) andhe com- .mander of the escortgroup respon-sible for the safety of the convoy andescort).Every mallestdetailpertinent tothe convoy, its organization nd de-portment is discussed by the presidingofficer. Questions by themastersareanswered.The commodore andescortcommander give final instructions.Eachmasterattending he confer-ence gets a sealed envelope containingsailing orders, a schedule of departureof all ships in the convoy and a seriesof minute nstructions covering manypossible contingencies, a diagram ofthe convoy formation, the communica-tionplan, nstructions orprocedureincasehis vessel straggles (becomesseparated from the convcy) , a detaileddescription of theapproaches o all

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History FootnoteConvoys were used in the lastWorld War, but they were neveroperated on thehuge scale ofpresent operations. Although theorigin of convoys is obscure, theRomans and Phoenicians prob-ably employed the technique dur -ing their great campaigns in the

Mediterranean.

ports the vessel is scheduled t o enter,as well as those she might enter shouldshe straggle.

One highly important operation cov-ered in the conference is the departureor sortie of the vessels in the convoy.Because of t he large area covered byNew York harbor , because of the manydifferent locations at which ships in-cluded in aingle convoy may befound, and because of the gre at num-ber of ships to go in one convoy, a de-tailed schedule for hedeparture ofeach vessel is worked out.

Each ship is assigned a specific tfmefor weighing anchor,or undocking.To assist pilots andmastersnreaching the ocean rendezvous pointaccording t o schedule, a number of ref-erence points en route are designatedwith the times each vessel should passeach point to arrive at the rendezvouson time and nproperorder t o formup according t o plan.

Shore-based patrol planes and/orblimps have been in he air from hemoment the irst vessel has eft heharbor. They sweep ahead of andaround the convoy searching for enemysubmarines or surface vessels, pre-

pared t o deal with them elentlessly.When the convoy is completely

formed up at the rendezvous point, thecommodore gives the ignal orheconvoy to proceed and it moves of f asa body at the designated speed.

An important activity is the properuse of communications. Very efficientandighly detailed communicationssystems for convoy and independentlyrouted ships have been devised so thatships anywhere may have proper com-munication with shore authoritiesaswell aswith ther United Nationsships. The system permits ships t o ob-serve the maximumrecautions inmaintaining radio silence and yet ob-tain he mostcomplete coverage pos-sible in being warned of danger.

The convoy route will have consid-ered latest reports on submarine activ-ities, weather conditions, ice fields, allhydrographicmatters. To assist inrouting, a planning room is maintainedinheor t directors office whichshows theeneralituationnheocean to be traversed for a period ofthree days, as well as the enemy sub-marinesituation or hecurrentdayand two days previous.

Theobject of every rou ting officeris t o send convoys (and independentlyrouted ships)hroughwaterswherethe enemy is not o r where he is likelynot t o be when the convoy gets there.He must pool a knowledge of shipping,submarineactics, seamanship andnavigationo make his predictionsright.n addition, he musturnishstraggler outesand diversion routesfor convoys whose routes are hreat-ened by enemy action.

The ort directoresponsible formakingup a convoy mus t be, in es-sence, a shipping company executive

PersonnelToday the naval personnel en-gaged in convoy work, and nactivities directly related thereto,exceeds by fa r the tot al person-nel in the U. s. Navy and NavalReserve before Pearl Harbor.

as well as a naval officer. He must bethoroughlyonversantithanydiverseactivities within he Navy, aswell as those governmental agenciesdirectly concerned with he hippingbusiness. Hemust be a diplomat,good seaman t o command therespectof themerchantmasterswith whomhedeals, and a good executive t o oilthe machinery of the argeorganiza-tion required in convoy and routing.

The Axis has straddled our shippinglanesithubmarines, super-sub-marines, wolf packs, surface aidersandai rarmadas; he Axis hassunkships, many laden with valuable warcargoes. Buthe significant fac tsthat from Iceland t o Guadalcanal, ou rforceshave been andare beingsup-plied. At irst herewerequantitiessufficient for holding actions; nowthere are quantities t o permit the nec-essary tremendous reserves of stores,munitions and equipment for offensiveaction. Besides allhis,he UnitedStates helps t o feed, clothe and supplya large percentage of U. S. armedforces in theritish Isles, NorthAfrica, China and Russia. Behind allthis, behind North Africa, Stalingrad,Munda, Sicily, Italy, Kiev, behindthousands o f lessspectacular actionspaving the road t o victory, behind allthis tandshe convoy and outingsystem.

N e w York Daily News Photograph. Time, Inc., Phntowxph.I IN PORT, eck of vessel i s packed with planes. AT SEA, convoy gunners sight at patrol plane.

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The Navy abruptly changed roles asAmerica nteredts second year atwar. On themorning of 1 December1942 i t disperseda Japanese fleet offGuadalcanal nwhatwas o be theNavys lastpurely defensive action.From hat point on theNavywa stransformed nto a crushing offensiveforce, operating in four %jtrheatersandeveral lesser ones. , ,

The Navy spearheaded inva!hh% inthe Mediterranean, Pacific and Gulf ofAlaska. It seized initiative and controlinheAtlantic. It was a powerfuloffensive suppor t she Allies cap-tured ndecapturederritories onboth sides of the globe. It developedits newborn strength in manpower andequipment to a point unprecedented inhistory. It girded itself forutureoffensives while still engaged in earlierones.High points of massnaval actionduring heyearwere he arefullyrehearsed invasions of Sicily and Ita ly.These utilized all known and some newmethods of seaborne attack . Of the3 , 266 ships which bore down on Sicilyin hedawn of 10 July, more than1,500 were U. S. naval vessels. Theyranged from cruisers to small landingcraft, from familia r ships of the inetonew amphibiousugly ducklings.Theywere manned by 40,000 officersand men who had pentmonths ofspecialized training at home bases andin nor th Africa.

The Sicilian nvasion was he finaltest or he ater invasion of Italyproper. It wa s a masterpiece of timingand coordination. Pa rt of the fleet wastransported across the Atlantic. Othersections converged from widely sepa-rated ports and bases. Upon reachingthe invasion points, these fleets foundthat minesweeping andreliminaryassignmentshad been carriedout othe letter by still other units.From he naval standpoint, he in-vasionwas a triumph orhe newtypes of landing raft. It wa she

completely offensive seagoing weapons.One of, the nitial waves ofU. S.troops was transported entirely acrosstheMediterraneanyundreds oflanding cra ft. They were escorted onlyby PCs and SCs, smallsubchasers

andatrolraf t which sometimesshowed half their bottoms a s theyleaped and rolled. Experienced officersmarveled a t the seamanship displayedby the crews, many of whom hadnever seen an ocean a year previously.Someof the new landing craft laidtheir o*n smokescreens and launchedtheir own planes, innovations whichmade naval history. Quickly establishedunits .speedily repairedand salvageddamaged cra ft withou t removing themfromheatt le zones. Operationallosses were at a minimum. Within 48

hours he original landing fleet madea round tripo,Africa,eturningloaded t o the gunwales with men andmaterials.Meanwhile, theadhreetherduties. It protected the landing forcesfromurfacendnderseattack,maintained an tia irc raf t protection andsupported the troops ashore with long-range barrages.This invasionprocess was repeatedon an even more extensive scale atSalerno on 9 September.Again theNavy was a major pa rt of an Alliedfleet which covered 1,000 squaremiles. In the faceof bitter opposition,the Amphibs came ofge-and theNavy found work fo r each and everyvariety of its vessels and speciallytrained men.

The heavy cruisers and bigger shipsstood offshore and poured barragesonto the Nazi troops dug into the hillsabove the beach. Planesatapultedfrom fighting sh ips and launched fromcar rier s traf ed nd bombed enemypositions. On every ship he ack-ackguns shared in the toll takenf attack-ing German planes.Meanwhile, the and ing raft dis-gorged their men and cargoes on the

LST s wun g open. Tanks nd arsrolled forth o upport nfant ryandmachine-gununits. The low, armoredLCIs ran a gantlet of withering de-fensive fire t o reinforce beleaguerecipositions with resh troops. Afte r afew bitter days, the beachhead wasirrevocably established.But he Navys jobby no meansended with the establishment of invad-ing forces. Each Americanoldierlanded in the African and Italian cam-paigns needed one and one-half tonsof supplies per month t o keep himgoingafter he nitial equipment of10 tonspermanwas ashore. 0 x 1 abusy day, the Allied ai r forces in theMediterranean may use as much as1,500,000 gallons of high-octanegaso-line, al l of which must be convoyed intankers.So, as the American armiesstrikecloser and closer tohe Europeanfortress, heNavy continues a vitaloffensive force in every land action.In he southwest Pacific, theyearalso was one of almost continuous of-fensivection. Striking ver orth-ward, heNavyattacked he Russellislands and Arundel, in the Solomons,and took Nanumea,south of Hawaii.Naval vessels carriedand landed thesoldiers and marines who have wrestedthecentral Solomon islands rom heJaps.Navyplanes joined Allied ai rforces to blastncessantlyhe Japbases on the ladder to Tokyo.Latest offensive is the Gilberts land-ing begun 20 November.In twelvemonths theNavy asdone its part in eliminating the Japsfromheentral Solomons. TheJap stronghold at Rabaulwasbeinghastily reinforced l ast month as Alliedleaders predicted that it would of-fe rbitter esistancebu twasclearlydoomed. Rabaul is the last Jap strong-hold in the area. To the north, acrossan expanse of ocean which will even-

tually occupy the Navy, ies th e Ja pisland base of Truk.During he irstyear of war heNavyhad revealed some of the sur-prises thad nstore or Tojo. TheSouth D a k o t a , previously identifiedonly as Battleship X, had blasted 32J a p planes rom he skies in one en-gagement and had sunk three cruisersoff Savosland in nother (see IN-FORMATION BULLETIN,February 1943,p. 2) . This indicated thatigger,newer and ougherfighting machineshad arrived in the Pacific.

Duringhe second year of war ,anothernasty olt or heJapswasthe appearance of the Hellcat ighterplane developed by Grumman aircraftengineers.This big brother of the famedGrumman Wildcat made its appearance

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over Marcus island on 1 Septemberand downed 2 1 Zeros against a l ossof two Hellcats. After one orwomore engagements he plane officiallywas reported as having shown markedsuperiority to the Ja p fighters.In July, a naval battle in the Kulagulf followed the 1943 pattern of vic-tory. TheJaps lost five cruisersandeightdestroyers.Thisbattle cost usthe 9,700-ton cruiser Helena (see storyon page 24 of this ssue). The Navydoggedly continued offensive tacticsand sweeps in the Northern Solomons.It turned its searching eye everywherefor Jap troopand supplyshipments,blasting and cutting a t these shippinglines. Before the summer was over itwas evident that he ap fleet waslosing its taste for nava l battle.By last month, as the siege of Rabaulimpended, Navy leaders in the Pacificwereopenly inviting he Jap fleet tocome out and fight.I hope they do come out, said Ad-mira l Halsey. Were ready t o givethem everything weve got.In the far nort h, the Navy also didits share in removing a Japanese thornwhen theas taparrisons wereslaughtered o r drivenfrom he Aleu-tian islands.Formonths previous toactual in-vasion, naval planes blasted the islandsof Kiska and Attu. Navy ships addedtheirheavyguns t o the almost con-stan t bombardment, softening esist-ance t o the scheduled invasions. Thesepreliminaryttacks were executedunderhe most difficult conditions.Heavy blankets of fog made observa-tion and reconnaissance dangerous andoften impossible. Wind, rain, sleet andice usually were present ina variety ofcombinations.

After ix months of this ort ofbombardment, however, theavylanded U. S. troops on Attu on 1.1May. In a bittertrugglehe Japtroopswere practicallynnihilated.Outflanked, the enemy on Kiska sought

, , IIts Second Yea r o f G l o b a l Wa rtoevacuate by submarineand rans-port. To quote Rear Admiral ThomasC. Kincaid :

We go t quite few. Enough t omake it hurt.Meanwhile, theNavywascarryingon another offensive inhe Pacific.The latestesults of thisunningaction only recently were made known.This widespread offensive is our con-stantlygrowingsubmarine campaignagainst Japanese merchant shipping inall par ts of the Pacific.Figures announced in November putthe otal of Japanese vessels sunk o rdamaged by U. S. submarines at 490.American subs have crep t close enoughto he apanese shores t o send t o r -pedoes into harbor targets, and on atl e a s t one occasion a U. S. sub shelleda coastal town on the Japanese islandsproper.The second year o f theBattle ofthe Atlantic also had a brighter aspectthan ts orerunner.From hipyardson the home front came new weaponsto combat U-boats. These soon provedtheir deadly efficiency.The new Navy weapons includedthe destroyer escort, a fas t, small, de-structiveship able t o scout andskirtaround a convoy like a well-trainedsheep dog. New-type blimps gave con-voys a protectiveoverhead eye. Sogood was his eria l protection andthe thr eat of sta tionary depth-charge

bombing that the Navy nnounced thatnot a ingle merchantmanhad beenlost from any convoy which had blimpprotection. Converted merchantmenbecame escort carriers which pro-vided uninterruptedaerial protectionfor the ent ire crossing of the Atlantic.The success of these antidotesosubmarine ttack can best be illus-trat ed by the figures (seepictographabove for monthly sinkings of U. S.ships). nJuly,Secretary Knox wasable t o announce th at not ingleAllied merchant ship had been sunk in

thenorthAtlanticnhree months.In May, Juneand uly at least 90U-boats were sunk. Las t month it wasrevealed that 60 more Nazi raiders hadbeen destroyed duringAugust, Sep-tember and October.Meanwhile, our announced Atlanticmerchant shipping losses had droppedfrom 3 1 last December t o threenOctober 1943. The back of the U-boatcampaign appeared t o be broken.But the problems of merchant ship-ping continue t o form n enormousnaval responsibility. The U.S. is ship-

ping food and equipment t o at least32 different fronts, ome of them 17,000miles from he point of origin. Apartfrommili tary needs, the U. S. andGreatBritainreransporting be-tween 40,000 and 50,000 tons of sup-

plies monthly or civilians in northAfrica alone. Coal and oil productsaverageanother 40,000 tons monthly.Locomotives also are being shipped.Among thesere special five-foot-gauge locomotives destined for the re-captured Russian rail lines.All these supplies mustunhegantlet of Germansubmarines,minesand aircraft.

On the home front, the year foundnaval production eeping pace withoffensive progress a t sea. By midsum-mer a $5 ,300 ,000 ,000 shipbuilding pro-gram had been completed. Some 15,000new naval rafthad slid down theways, with more to ome.Such was the unprecedented growthof the Navy during the second year ofwar (INFORMATIONULLETIN, ovem-ber 1943, p. 2 ) that by SeptemberSecretary Knox was able to announcethat our Navy was the greatest in thehistory of the world. Today it com-prises more than 14 ,000 vessels and18,000 planes. By the end of anotheryear of warfare, it was announced, theNavy will have an unprecedented totalof 41,179 vessels.

Operating hishuge new fo rce onall faces of the globe, the Navy founditself facedwith problems of globalmaintenance and salvage. Today shipsof the line get new parts, repairs andreplacements in stations housands o fmiles from home drydocks. Par ts andmachinery a re assembled a t advancebases. If such a basehasnt what acrippled ship needs at the moment,that part is soon delivered.A l s o , special alvageand reclama-

I 1E A C H F IG U R ER EPR ESEN TSABO U T 325,000 O F F G E R SAN D EN L ISTED PER SO N N EL .

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U.S.NAVAL VESSELS LOST INWARTh e fo l l ow i n g is an alphabetical list (as o f 20 Nov e m be r1943) o f U. S. warships andnaval vesselsannounced since 7December 1941 as sunk, destroyed to prevent capture, or over-due and presumed to be lost.

Nam e an d Ty pec t ionA a r o n W a r d , destroyer..........Bombed, Guadalcanal, Sept. 1943Acacia, C . G. cutter..........Shelled by sub, Caribbean, March 1942Alexander Hamilton, C. G. cutter..........Torpedoed off IcelandArgonaut, submarine Pacific, estroyed to prevent captureAmberjack, submarine Pacific surface action.......................................Arizona, battleship..............At Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941Ashevil le , patrol vessel............................ Java sea, presumed lostAstoria, heavy cruiser ........................ Guadalcanal, October 1942Atlanta, heavy cruiser ..........Battle of Guadalcanal, Nov. 1942................................Beatty, destroyer Underwater explosion, MediterraneanBarton, destroyer Torpedoed at GuadalcanalBittern, minesweeper Destroyed at Bataan to prevent captureBenham, destroyer Jap cruisers, Guadalcanal

..................................................Blue,' destroyer...................................... Undisclosed Pacific actionBorie, destroyer............... ........By USN after Atlantic sub battleB z ~ c k f estroyer................Underwater explosion, MediterraneanCanoQpls, sub tender....................................estroyed at BataanCassiA;'destroyer .................... At Pearl Harbor,7 December 1941Chevalier, destroyer................................ Battle for BougainviPleChicago, heavy cruiser ..................Torpedo planes, GuadalcanalColhoun, transport ...............At Guadalcanal, 5 September 1942'Cashing, destroyer............................ Guadalcanal surface action'Cythera, patrol vessel...................................... Lost off AleutiansDe Haven, destroyer...................... Surface action at Savo IslandDe w e y Dr y doc k , floating dock.................... Destroyed at BataanDorado, submarine.......................................... Action undisclos-dDownes , destroyer.................... Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941Duncan, destroyer........................................ Battle of Savo IslandEdsall, destroyer...................................... Java Sea, presumed lostEdward Rutledge, transport................orpedoed at CasablancaEscanaba, C. G. cutter......Undisclosed action in North AtlanticFinch, minesweeper.................................. Bombed at CorregidorGannet, tug...................................................... By sub in Atlantic

Bristol, destroyer..........Underwater explosion, Mediterranean

George F. Elliott, transport.................... Bombed at GuadalcanalGrampus , submarine.................................... Pacific surface actionGregory , transport............................ Guadalcanal surfacebattleGrenadier, submarine...................................... Action undisclosedGrunion , submarine.............................. In Pacific, presumed lostHammann, destroyer................................ Torpedoed at MidwayHelena, light cruiser.................................... Battle of Kula GulfHenley , destroyer.................................... Battle for BougainviPleHouston, heavy cruiser .......................... Java sea, presumed lostH u gh L. Scott, transport................By submarines at CasablancaIngraham, destroyer.......................................... Atlantic collisionJacob Jones, destroyer.................................... By subs in AtlanticJarvis, destroyer..................Bombed at Guadalcanal, Sept. 1942Joh n Pe nn , cargo transport..............By torpedoes, GuadalcanalJoseph Hughes, transport.................................. By subs at RabatJuneau, light cruiser.................................. Battle of GuadalcanalKanawha, tanker............................ At Guadalcanal, March 1943L f f e y , destroyer.................................. By planes at GuadalcanalLeedstown, transport........................................ By subs at AlgiersLexington, aircraft carrier .................... Torpedoed in Coral seaLittle, transport.............................. Undisclosed Solomons actionLuzon, river gunboat............................ Destroyed at CorregidorMcCawley, transport.............. y subs, planes at KolombangaraMcKean, destroyer-transport ........By alrcraft off BougainvilleMaddox, destroyer............................................ By planes at SicilyMeredith, destroyer.......................... Unknown Solomons actionMonssen, destroyer.................................. Battle for GuadalcanalMoonstone, patrol craft ................................... Atlantic collisionMuskegat , C. G. cutter........................ Unknown Atlantic actionNapa , tug........................................................ Destroyed at BataanNatsek, C. G. cutter................Unknown North Atlantic actionNauset, tug .............................. Undisclosed Mediterranean actionNavajo , tug ............................ Undisclosed South Pacific actionNeches, oiler............................ Torpedoed in undisclosed actionNeosho , oiler.................................................... Battle of Coral seaNiagara, auxiliary pa:rol .................. y planes in South PacificNorthampton , heavy cruker....................Battle of Guadalcanal

G w i n , destroyer............................ Undisclosed Kula Gulf actionHornet, aircraft carrier........Destroyed by USN after Battle ofSanta Cruz Islands

Langley, seaplane tender .................................... Battle of Java sea

Mindanao, patrol vessel.......................... Bombed at Corregidor

I II U. S. and Japanese Ship Losses* IProbablySunkostotal U. S. Jap U. S. Jap U. S.** JapBattleships 1 2 0 2Aircraftarriers 4 0 1 7Cruisers 8 2 44 9 2 8Destroyers 33 62 4 18 38 80Submarines 2 6 1 1 14 7Others 52 126 16 63 142

Totals 10 02600 129 266'' Figures are those announced inNavyDepart-ment communiques in 23 months rom 7 December1941. Japanese losses include some inflicted by Mar ineCorps and Army forces.** U. S. totals include a destroyer, a submarine andseven other cra ft destroyed to prevent captnre.

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Nam e an d Ty pe Act ionOahzd, Patrol vesse1............................... Destroyed at CorregidorPC 496, sub chaser Underwater explosion in MediterraneanO'Brien, destroyer Undisclosed SolomonsactionPC 696, ub chaser.......................... By planes in Mediterranean

................................PC 694, sub chaser.......................... By planes in Mediterraneanpeary, destroyer................................................ Battle of Java seaPecos, oiler.................................................................... In Java seapenguin, minesweeper.............. earl Harbor, 7 December 1941Perch, submarine...................... Southwest Pacific, presumed lostPickerel, submarine.......................................... Undisclosed actionPillsbury, destroyer.................... Unknown action in BaliStraitPlymouth, gunboat.......................... Surface battle in Bali StraitPope, destroyer.................................... Unknown action o f f JavaPorter, destroyer........................................ Battle of GuadalcanalPreston, destroyer...................................... Battle of GuadalcanalPT 34, motor torpedo boat................Grounded in PhilippinesPT 35 , .................................................. Destroyed in PhilippinesPT (no number) .................................... In Pacific, presumed lostPT (no n u m be r ) ................Guadalcanal patrol, December 1942PT (no number) ................Guadalcanal patrol, December 1942PT (no n u m be r ) ................Guadalcanal patrol, December 1942PT (no number) ................Guadalcanal patrol, December 1942

Pigeon, minesweeper............................ Destroyed at CorregidorPollux, cargo vessel........................ Grounded at Newfoundland

Q z 4 minesweeper.............................. Destroyed at CorregidorQuincy, heavy cruiser.................................. Battle of GuadalcanalR-12, submarine.................................................. Action unknownRedwing, sub rescue vessel........Underwater explosion,Medi-R ow an , destroyer Underwater explosion, Italian watersRunner, submarine............................................ Action unknownS-26, submarine.................................................... Action unknownSealion, submarine........................................ Destroyed at CaviteSeminole, tug.......................................... By destroyers at TulagiSentinel, minesweeper................Underwater explosion at SicilyShark, submarine............................ Pacific action, presumed lostSims, destroyer.................................................. Battle of Coral seaSkil l , minelayer...................... Underwater explosion at SalernoStewart, destroyer..............Destroyed at Surabaya, March 1942

terranean............

Strong, destroyer............................ Torpedoed off New GeorgiaSturtevant, destroyer............Underwater explosion in AtlanticTanager, minesweeper.......................... Destroyed at CorregidorTask er H. Bliss , transport........................ By subs at CasablancaTri ton , submarine.................................................... Presumed lostTr u x t u n , destroyer........................ Grounded at Newfoundland.Utah, target ship .................... PearlHarbor, 7 December 1941Vincennes, heavycruiser .......................... Battle of GuadalcanalW a l k e , destroyerattle of GuadalcanalW a k e , riverunboat Captured at BataanWasmuth , minesweeper........By depth charges, Aleutian islands

..............................................................................W a s p , aircraft carrier ........................... By subs in South PacificW i l c o x , C. G. patrol................................ Foundered inAtlanticY o r k t o w n , aircraft carrier............................ Bombed at MidwayYP -3 8 9 , fishing craft................................ Shelled by Atlantic subUnnamed, small harbor craft ............. helled in Tulagi harbor


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NavysMedal o f Honor Heroes

Thiswar, because it ishegreatest nhistory ndhas in-volved more naval personnel thanall our previous wars combined,has produced untold thousands ofheroes.. Americanmen,lungedintowar,have oughtas alwayswith the courage that built a na-tion from the wilderness.Listing-even acknowledging-all these heroes has become almostimpossible. But hrough hepasttwo years certain deeds have stoodout so much that the country hasawarded hese heroes itshighestpossible recognition.Here are he forty-one men oftheNavy, Coast Guardand Ma-rine Corps-from Pear lHarbor,Guadalcanal,Fedalaandall heotherbat tle scenes -who havebeen awarded the Medal of Honor.

The U. S. Marine Corps claimsthirteen of these heroes, two ofwhom aredead; he U. S. CoastGuard: one man, dead. Of theremaining twenty-seven, from theregularNavy o r Naval Reserve,eighteen are dead ; two are miss-ing.Many stories of their deedshave been written,but none ofthem can describe thevalor ofthese heroes more clearly than thestatute providing for he medalitself: That the President of theUnited States be . . . authorizedtopresent n he name of Con-gress, a medal of honor to any per-son who . . . shall . . . distinguishhimself conspicuously by gallant ryand intrepid ity at the risk of hislife above and beyond the call ofduty. . .

L i e x t c m m t C o m m a n d e r , i SNJOHN D. BULKELEYH i s PT boatserrorizedJa phipping ,ircraft .

FRANCIS C. FLAHE RTYElzsig?~,USlVRDiedholdingightorm ento escape as shi pw as s inking.

H O WA R DW .G I LMO R EOrderedhi ssn5marine downC o m m a n d e r . U S Nashe ay wounded on deck.

DANIEL J. CALLAGHANK i l l e di rec t ~ng rout ofRear A d m e a l , GSSJa pleet larger han his.

RICHARD E. FLEMI N GDriving ablazing ship,heCaptain , U S M Cattacked,henrashed.

WI LL I A M ED WA R D H A LLLiclctr,lallt ( i q ) , GSIVRhelped destroy 3 a i rc ra f t .Hi t one c arr ier ;a t er he

GEORGE H. CANNONWounded by ho stile ire,heF i r s t L i e n t e n a n t , GS.I/Cdiedrganizingis post.

JOSEPH ACOB OSSMajor , U SMC RHitsp li t n em y m d a i r ;hi sscoreshows 23 planes .

EDWIN J. HI LLIn he lp ingweighnchorC h i e f Boatswain , U S Nhe was bombed overboard.

KENNETH D. BAILEYJ f o j o v , G S A I CFighting hand ohandwiththe nemy,he osthis ife.

Liclltc.llullt Cuio,wi, c.s.1rcHAROLDW.BAUERShot a honnher, 4 fighters;fuelexhausted, hot 4 more.

ME RR ITT A. EDSONCoio,lel. USiVlCDefended isidgenac eof viciousnemyhrusts.

L i e u t e n a n t C o m m a n d e r ,U S NSAMUEL 0 . FUQUADirectedire,escueorkdespitentensetrafings.

HERBERT C. JONESEns ign, USA-RMortal lywounded; efus ingaid, he entm en t o safety.

JOHNBASILONEScrgeaut , USMCRisked ife obring upshellsunderenemy fire.

MER VYN S. BENNIONCaf i taix , USlVB e a r i n g a mortal wound, hisconcernwas f o r his ship.

JO H NWI LL I A MFI N NPainfully wounded, exposed(nom) Lielctcnalzt ( j g ) , GShto fire, he stood by guns..

ROBERT E. GALERA t5 , 0 0 0e e t , h ecoredM a j o r , U S M Con 11 bombers ndighters.

R o ut sx o i l i s Matt l c . 1 , h . lREINH ARDT J. KEPPLERMortally wounded, foughtfire till he collapsed.Page 12


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ISAAC C. K l D DRear Admiral, U S Nbridge ill hit.

BRUCEMcCANDLESSCommuuder, CS.Vled task force to victory.Criticallyounded,e

Siynaimarr I C USCGDOUGLAS A. MUNR O

marineparty romJap ire.He gave his'life to shleldEDWARDH.O'HARELieutenant, U S NAttacking at close ange heshot 5 bombers, hit sixth.

MI TC H ELLPAIGEDelayed,hen eversed la pF i r s t L i c l r t e l um t , U S d l Cassault bymannmguns.

C h i ef W a t e r Tender , U S NOSCAR V.PETERSONfurnseceived inclosing ulkhead aives.JOHN J. POWERS

". if I have to la y it onLir ir tcaant, G S 5theirlight deck." He did.. .THO MA S J. REEVESChie f Radioman, CS,VHoistsdamaged,hepassedammunitionhrough fire.

M I L T O N E. RICKETTSL i c u t e m n t , L-S.Yt o preventpreadingires.Dying from wounds, he tried

A LB ER TH A R O LD R O O K SCaptaiit, U S NWithstanding fiveattacks,he returned; sank cruiser.

DONALDK.ROSSE I l S i , f / l ~ , :.s.\-by dl-namosmoke, he held his station.

HERB ERT E. SCHONLANDCu~7zr?ralrdcr,-s.\'As C.O.,workednloodedccmpartment to save shlp.NORM AN A. SCOTT

Killed directing close-rangeRear Admiral, CS.Voperations off Guadalcanal.ROBERT R. SCOTT

Compressor station bombed,M o t o r .l.lurh. 114utr. I C, USNhe stayed to save shipmates.JOHN L. SMITHM u j u r , U S M CIn 26days:16 applanes;hisquadron'secord: 83 .

N O P H O T O -G R A P H I SAVAILABLE

but on page 46a p p e a r s a storyw h i c hp i c t u r e shim better thanany p h o t o g r a p hcould ever do .

JAMESE.SWETTCaptoix, USMCTed 4 planes gainst ap's1j; result: 7 Nipsdowned.CLYDETHOMASON

Entered aphideout lone;Sergcalrt, I iSAlCRlater diedeadingssault.C h i e f Water Tender . U S NPETERTOMICHinamagednginelant.Diedrotectingquipment

Licutenant Ge ne ral , U S M CA. A. VANDERGRIFTfirst months on Guadalcanal.Commanded ou r forcesn

'irst Class, U S Nhipwas bandoned.a light f o r shipmatesJAMES R. WARD CASSINYOUNG

Blownntooil-burning sea,Captain. US.Vhe returned to guidehip.

F. VA NVALKENBURGHOn bridge o direct abandonCaptain USL\-of ship,until hit b y bomb.

NAVY HONORS 6,031 FORHEROISMMedals awarded to date by the Navy during the current warto personnel o f the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army andto personnel of foreign nations:MedalofHonor ........................................ 41Navy Cross........................................... 1,205Distinguished Service Medal. ........ .-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Legion of Merit.. ..................................... 432SilverStar Medal.. ................................... 1,462Distinguished Flying Cross. ........................... 817Air Medal............................................ 1,357NavyandMarine Corps Medal.. ....................... 636

Total ............................................ 6,031-Page 13. . . . . .


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DECEMBER 19421: Navysinks nine Jap ships near Gua-4 : NazisecautureTebourba, 2 0 miles5 :8 :

dalcanal.

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JANUARY 19432 : Three Jap destroyers re et f ire1: Russ ians ecapt ure Velikiye Luki.

5 : U. S. FifthArmy nAfricaactivatedin air raid on Rabaul.underLt. Gen. MarkW.Clark.NavyshellsMunda. U. S. planes bomb Jap

7 : NazisadmitfallingbackbeforeRus-ships at Kiska.sian offensives andshortening de-1 415182 02 32 4273031

fense lines.President Roosevelt and Prime Minis-Russiansssert 1,500 Nazioldierster Church111 meet n Ca bb la nc a.are tarving nd ying of exposuredaily in iege of Stalingrad.Australians akeSanananda, n NewGuinea. Kusslans ift Lenmgrad siege.Britishdestroyers ink 1 4 Axis hipsinMediterrane an. Chile break s ela-Tripoli alls oBritishEighthArmy.tions with Axis.Casablancaonference ends. FD Rsays Alliesillemanduncondl-Fortressesiberatorsttackavaltiona l surren der of Axls.bases a t Wilhelmshaven andEmdenin first U. S. raid on G ermany proper.u s s Chicago sunkby aps.Russlanscapture Maikop, Caucasus oil center.Moscow announcesdest ructi on of theNazi Sixth Army at Stalingrad.FEBRUARY 1943

1 : AxisNorthAfricanorcesepulse4 : Fighting a t Stalingrad eases.Rus-U. S. a t Fa id Pass.sians Dut German osses a t 500.000.5: Navy eports hat poradic eaandair battles continue near Guadalcanal.9 : Japs admit loss of Guadalcanalan d

11 : Dw ight D. Eisenhower elevated to fullBuna, NewGuinea.general, given supreme ommand ofAllies n North Africa.

14 : Rostov and Voroshilovgrad retaken byRedArmy. Germans reakhrough15 : GermanNorthAfr ican ro ou s oCCUUYU. S. lines ncentralTunisia. -. .~~~~~~ ~ ~16 : Russians retake Kharliov.2 0 : Navv shells Attu. Germans ake Kas-

Gafsa.Rabaul bombed.

23 : hTazi counteroffensive n North Africa25: Allies driveRommel romKasserine.

serine Pass.broken after hree bitter days.

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MARCH 1943Japs reinforcing positions in northe rnSolomons. RAFaid on Berlin 1sheaviest to datewith 9 0 0 tons of

: Battle of Bis marck Sea costs Japs 1 2bombs falling n 30-minute attack.transports, 3 cruisers, 7 destroyers, 59planesand 15.000 troops.Every hipin Jap convoy of 2 2 vessels is sunk.Nazis lose 5 0 tanks, etreat o, highground near Mareth Lme In Afrlca.RAFains lockb usters on Munich.FourteenthAirForce reatedunderplace ormerChinaAirTaskForce.Brig.Gen.Claire L. Chennault o e-Kiska Japs bombed six imes n day.Nazis etakeKharkov.Anti-U-bo at conference has beenheldin Washington.Fortslastabaulirdromes.Americansak eGafsa. ritishallback n Burma.El Guettar falls toAmericans in Africa.U. S. planes bomb 250 Japplanesa tJap.einf9rce ment convoy, of fou rRabaul.

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crulsers Tour aestroyerswoargoships diiven from Aleutians by Navy.RAF raid s Berlin starts great fires.British Eighth odcupies MarethLine.APRIL 1943

One hundred Forts bombCagliari.raid to date., Chinese drive Japs fromSardinia in largestprthfricanYunanrovmcent oBurma.Navywest of Guadalcanal.planesge t 1 8 of 30-40 Zeros nor th -RAFrops 900 tons of bombs onKruppworks. U. S. Forts ain 2 0 0tons of bombsonNaples. U. S. fight-Nazis thrown back at Wadi el Akarit.ers get 4 8 Nazl planes near Paris.U. S. an dBritishElghthArmleses -tablishcontact.Navv announces downing 39of 9 8 J a u..plan ks~ in raid off Guadalcanal.One hundredFlyingFortressesblastItalianships a t Sardinia,sinkcruiserTrieste an ddamage Bolzalzo. Britishcapture Sfax.Eighty-fourtalian lanes estroyedat tw oSicilian fields. Navy esumesblasting of Kiska,Kolombangara.Off NorthAfrica U. S. nlanes hootdown 8 8 Axislanes. 58 of themii-anspo>is.-Over-Bremen, U. S. raid-ers get 63of95 Nazifighters.Navy reveals that carr ier H O Y W t wasShangri-La takeoff for Tokyo.

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Navyists 2 4 moreaids on Kiskaand Kolombangara. FDR reveals hatJaps executedokyoaidersho tU. S. has occupied Fun afut i in ElliCeS.down n Japan .Navy, ships shell Attu.Russ lans ear ills of Novorossiisk.M A Y 1943

1-31: USAAFRA F in ull-scale aids onStett in ,sostock, Duisburg.Wilhelms-havenssenmden St. Nazaire,Do rtn hnd , Tbionville, Gerlin, Antwerp,

3 : Amerlcans capture Mateur.TheHagu e, Abbeville, other argets .4 : Navy announces occupation of Russellislands nFebruary.Thunderbolts in6 : American,Britisharmies aunchall-firstactionoverEurope.7 : British First Army drives 1 4 miles oout at tack s on Tunis, Eizerte.take Tunis.American econdCorpsandre erenchaptureizerte.Navy Seabees and Army have occupiedAmchitka and Adak n Aleutians.

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Axis rout ends African camuaign.UIS.-troops land on Attu . -One U,. S.Presldent Roosevelt and Prime Minis-su b h a s torpedoed 1 0 more Ja p shlps.ter Churchillmeet a t WhiteHouse.Fourundred Alliedombers rain~~~destruction on Sicily.R A Fbla sts open largedams inGer-manys Ru hr and Wess er valleys.300 U. S. ulanesbatterSardinia.Tokyo admits loss of Attu.Nine ships of Fren ch fleet oin Alliesat Alexandria, Egypt.JUNE 1943

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Press Associationhotograph.Official U. S. Armyirorceshotograph.January:Stalingradmadegraveyard of Nazi offensive. March:Japanese convoyannihilated in Bismarck sea.Page 14


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2 2 : Without osing a plane, U. S. flyers2 5 : One hundred Forts itMessina,ge t 1 4 of 25 Zerosover Lae.2 8 : U . S. subs have sunk 8 more Jap ships.2 9 : U. S. andAustralian roops and on

Sicily.Rendova sland inSolomons.

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JULY 1943NassauBay. NewGuinea, nvaded.Rendova aken. aps lose 1 0 1 planes.Viruarbor NewGeorgia,ccupiedjected to eight air raids in single clay.byMacArtLursorces.Kiskaub-Secreta ry Knox calls Solomons actionsa realoffensivewhich will ncrease.Ja p fleet of one cruiser, three destro y-er sdriven romRendovaby Navy.launch summ er offensive in Russ ia.Ba ttl e of Kul a Gulf begins. NazisFirsteport s reveal Japsostou ru s s Helena, 9 . 7 0 0 - t o n cruiser,sank.cruisers, five destroyers n Kula Gulf. /,I1Sicilynvaded. Navyhellslska.Our subs have sunk 1 0 more J a p ships. Allies drive nto Sicily, bring n ein-forcements.Syracuse is firstmport-ant Sicilianityoal lo Allies.Russians counterattack and advance.Russi an ines hold.Navy sinks another Jap cruiser, hreemoredestroyers nKulaGulf.U. S. forces advanc e on, Munda.Red Army opens offenslve.Jap base in New Guinea, falls to U. S.I talyets Allied ultimatum. Mubo,and Auss~es.FlyingFortresses knockBerlinadmits fiercedefensive ight-down 5 0 Nazi ightersoverGermany.ingeainst Redrmy.orty-nineJa pplanes downed nSolomons.by 5 0 0 Alliedplanes,mostlyAmerl-Military objectives in Rome areombeclcan. Navy planes from Aleutian baseshombaramushiru.n Jan Kurileislands or irst time.

!7 : Fourteenth TJ. S. AirForceshootsAmerilans akePalermo, Sicily.Stalin saysNazisummer offenslve sdown 5 7 Ja p planes over China.,completelyhattered. RA F drops2 300 tons of bombs on Hamburg.kort s aid Trondheim,Norway.Mussolini emoved as Ita lia n premier.ArmyLiberatorsai dWake secondstraight ay.RAF a ins 2 , 5 7 6 tonsof bombs on Hamburg.RAF rops 2 ,300 tons on Hamburg.

AUGUST 19431 One hundred seventy-five U. S. Libera-tors, nbiggest low-level raid n hic-3 : RAF gaindropsgreatweight oftory, smash Ploesti, Rumania, il ficlda.5 : Russiansetake Ore1 and Belgorod.bombs on Hamburg.6 : Yanksconquer Munda.British akeCatania, Sicily.8 : Japanese cruiser, two destroyers sunk

1 0 : RAF drops 1 , 6 8 0 tons of bombs nby Navy in hour battle inVellagulf.Nuremberg.

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RedArmydrives ntoUkraine.Axisorcesieeing Sicily. Kurile is-U. S. planes bombRomesecond ime.landsagainhi tby U. S. bombers.FDR, Churchill announce one U-boat aU. S. an dCanadianrmies occupyday unk inMay, Juneand July.Kiska. Japshave fledsland.Allies destroy 1 2 3 Jap planes atWewak.Ou rubsaveentevenMessina captured,Sicilycampaign atmore Japmerchant hips tobottom.an end.ella Lavel la in Centra lArthurs forces.Solomons has beenoccupied by Mac-Navy shells Italian mainland for firsttime.Axis prisonersnicilyotdl135.000.

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U. S. warships shell Palmi and GioriaTauro, talian oastal owns.Sixty-seven Jap lan es destroyed a tWewak.Russians etakeKharkov, riventoDonetsasin.evenundred RAFBerlin.Allied wars hips hellFinsch-planes rop 1 , 8 0 0 tons of bombs onhafen, NewGuinea.Japsbandoneweorgiaslandafter 64-day U. S. campaign. RAEU. S. occupies Arundel Island InSolo-drops 1 , 5 0 0 tons onNuremberg.37 Jap lanes estroyed a t Wewak.mons.ed Armyakesagenrog.SEPTEMBER 1943RAFtartsgreat firesnBerlin.Alliesnvade Italy.U. S. Navy attacks Marcus sland.JapsabandonRekatabay in CentralSolomons. RAF rops 1 , 5 0 0 tons ofMacArthursolatesae ,alamaua.bombs on Mannheim, Ludwigshafea.RAFhits Munich.One of largestparachute andings inhistory dooms Laeaps.ussianscapture Stalino, free Donets basin.Americansand a t Salerno.ritishItalysurrenders unconditionally.Largepart of Ital ian fleet surr end ersmoveup eastern Italy from Taranto.inAlliedports.to GermanyNazisrescueMussolini, removehimParamushir;,urileslands,gainNazis regain ground a t Salerno.Snla-bombed. Germans hold a t Salerno.BacksoeaYanksto pNazis atmauahas fallen.Salerno. Allies des troy 6 9 Jap planesa t Wewak... . . ~ ~ .Red Army akes Novorossiisk. Ameri-Allies capt ure Lae, NewGuinea.cans open wn ffensive a t Salerno.Navynnouncest now has 1 4 , 0 7 2vessels 1 8 , 2 6 9 planes.Salern;leared of Nazi s.ussiansAllies land near Finschhafen, beginnear Kiev. RA F

bombsHanover.slege.Russians at Dnieper ine.Smolensk etakenby RedArmy.

2 7 : Allies destroy 5 8 planes at Wewak.British take Foggia, Italy, and 1 3 im-2 8 : Allies blow up Wewak munitions dump.portant airports nearby.2 9 : Navy andsmarlnesatNanumea is-land, in Ellice group, south o f Hawaii.3 0 : HitlerordersDnieper iver ineheldat all costs : The Stalingrad psychosismust disappear.OCTOBER 19431:2 :4 :

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1 3 :1 4 :1 5 -2 0 :

AlliesenterNaples.Finschhafen alls oMacArthur.Britishwarshipsnd 1:. S. carrierraid Norway. Free French and Corsi-Navy ask orceblastsWake. U. S.cans clea r Cors ica of Nazis.occupiesKolombangara.Russians force D nieper in three places.Ja p cruiser , wodestroyers unkbyNavy inPacific.RussiansclearCau-casus. U. S. bombers, n deepest pene-trat ion of Germany,blasteastPrus-sla. FDR-Churchillayinklngs yU-boatsontinuedight in August,Americans ndAussies mop UP Ko-September.lombangara.Britishmidgetubma-Bigges t Allied air fieet ever assem bledrineshi tTirpitz in Norwegian jord.in PacificmashesRabaul, estroysor damages 1 7 i Ja p planes, 1 2 3 ships.Italydeclareswar on Germany.Portugal grantsAllies bases in Azores.Schweinfurt,Germany, azed nbig-gest air battle nhistory. Allies re-port 6 0 FlymgFortresses ost.1 6 : Alliesag 1 0 4 planes off NewGuineaHull m den and Molotovbegin three-powkr onference n MOSCOW.NOVEMBER 19431 : U. S. marinesnvadeBougainville.Moscow onference ndswith gree-mentmong U. s., Britain,Russlaan dhinand war-and-peaceo-operation.RedArmyeals ffGer-

1 - 2 : U. S. warshipssink Jay cruiserandman s n Crimea.four estroyersttemptlngo blockBougainvillenvasion.2 : Fifteenth U. S. ArmyAirForce Setup n Algiers.5 : Allied strategists concludeive-dayconference nChungking.6 : Re dArmy etakesKiev, in Germanhands slnceeptember 1 9 4 1 , an dpushes on toward Old Poland.9 : U. S. an dBritainnnounce 6 0 U-boatsunknhreemonths, 1 5 0 insix-month perlod.13-15 : u. . Army bombers rad Jap basesinMarshallsandGilbert slands.1 8 : Germans aptureLeros sland.Thou-

two-ton bombs on Berlin.sandRAF eavy bombers rain 3 5 02 0 : U. S. marinesan dArmy roops andinilbertslands.ermans,fterfalling back slowly under steady Pres-sure rom U. s. an dBritish rmies,lines below Rome.dignlong new winte refense

3 an d 1 7 : U. S. warships shell Buka.

Oflicial U . S. A r m y Air F o ~ c w hotograph.August: Liberators raid oil fields at Ploesti, Rumania,

-1:ritiah Ofiicial Pho tog raph .September: Italy surrenders t o Gen. Eiselzhower (r ig ht ).

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Richelieu, largestFrenchbattle-Feb. 1943 ship, arrived n New York for e- .March 19 4 3 open (above : NorthAtlantic pa-While keeping global supply linesfitting t o fight Axis following Allied occupation of French trol),Navy-aga in shelled enemy a t Kiska and SolomonsNorthAfrica. u. S. planes enewed raids on Kiska,and and drove Jap reinforcement convoy from Aleutians. AlliedNavy announced conquest of..Guadalcanal completed. bombers destroyed 22 Ja p ships in Battle o f Bismarck Sea.

AmiI 19 4 3 creased atate where completions May 19 4 3 N a w command and DrotectionAs production of naval cra ft in- U. s. amphibious forcesnderin &st half o f this year would surpass total 1942 butput, invadeiand wiped Japs f r o k Attu island in Aleutians.Secretary Knox revealed theNavywasoperating seven (Photograph shows escort carrierwith invasion convoy.)war fleets as against three at start of the war. -0Wcial U. S. Navy Photographs.


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On 15 December 1943 the urren tWorld War wiil be fouryears, hreemonths and 15 days old. A t tha t dat eit will have been in conflict for heexact length of time consumed by thefirst World War.This wardwarfs its forerunner nscope, finds the idvolved nations dras-tically realigned, and at he end of&ur ears is still far rom ended.Yet gistory will record many compari-sons between the two struggles andeven now it is possible to find simi-lari ties in the overall pat tern of bothconflicts.AgainGermany andheCentralPowers form the foe in Europe. AgainAmerica is. aligned with Great Britainand, this time, a , eaten but uncowedFrance.Again Russia-a new and

stronger Russia-wars on the Eas ternFront.But ere ll comparisons ofallies and alignments end.Japan, an ally in the last war, todayis sucha dangerous opponent on theother side of the world that the cur-rent conflict is in many ways two sep-aratears.taly,notherormerally, has onlyecently been beateninto unconditional surrenderandhersoil is still a battleground against us.

1918 . . 1943:China, virtually unconcerned with hefirstwar, s odayan mportant and,fortunately, active lly.Turkey, for-merly a foe, is currently non-belliger-ent and a potential ally.

Yet the course of both wars, com-pared a t the conclusion of four years,bear striking similarities. Historiansgenerally greeha the first warturned on fourmajor battles. Thesewere theFir st Marne, Palestine, heBattle of theAtlantic,and he nte-grated allied offensives a t Soissons.

Today, many observers are con-vinced that the history of the currentconflict ultimately will show four simi-larbattles ohave been the urningpoints. Thesewere theattles ofBritain, El Alamein, Midway andStalingrad. On one othervital countcan thewowars be compared. Inboth instances the enemy made all hisgainsat heoutsetand hen appliedhimself to holding on.As t o America, out military historyand record in this war corresponds tothe earlier one.On both occasions wefound ourselves a t wa r before we wereready, mobilized or properly prepared.In each casewefaced a foe unham-pered by these shortcomings. The sizeof the job which faced us his time,

Then and NowPage 22

however, wasstaggering n compari-son t o earlier needs.The Navy, fornstance,oughtWorld War I with a peak complementof 12,840 officers andmen and 730ships. By theend i f . h isyear heNavys personnel will reach 2,815,200.Its floating strength oday s 14,072vessels and it isworking on a pro-gram which will triplehat figure.Ourearlierwararmywas 4,057,101officers .and men. Today the U. S.Army is nearing a goal of 7,700,000.The scope of this conflict is alsoindicated in casualty figures and ma-terial losses t o date. Tota l Allieddeathsn World War I numbered5,152,115.f these, 126,000 wereAmerican.The nemy lost 3,386,200.It is impossible t o calculate total cas-ualtiesyet orhe urrent trugglebut a ecent reportput he cost ofthe Russian-German struggle alone atmorehan 10,000,000 casualties. Sofar, 12,841 soldiers and 21,753 sailorshave been killed o r aremissing ora total of34,594 American deaths nthe first two years of war.

Asn 1917, America enteredhiswar at a time when the enemy was attherest of conquest and victory.England was reeling from the airblitzand Dunquerque. Francewas beatento her knees. Another juggernaut wasgathering in the Pacific, sweepingallbefore it and threatening Americasvery homeland. The foes, on their re-spectiveecords, seemed well nighinvincible.Yet today observers believe that thefirst turn ing point in he course ofthe war already had een passed whenthe Pearl Harbor attack thrust Amer-ica into the conflict. The turning pointwas he German failure n he Battleof Britain andcan be roughly com-pared o heFirst Marnedefense oftheearlierwar.In 1914 a battereduttubbornFrench army stopped the Boche at the-very gates of Paris. This stand, orig-inally looked upon by hefoeasan-othe r last ditch defense of Paris, was .actually t o mark the high point of theGerman advance. Similarly, the Battleof Britain was the first defense whichsuccessfully halted the Nazi sweep ofconquest.The next urning point, thebattleof El Alamein, which started 23 Octo-ber 1942, also had tscounterpart nWorld War I. In heearlierwar helegendary Gen. Allenby routed Ger-mans ndTurks in Palestine.Thistime Gen. Montgomery finally turnedthe ide of Rommels desert power inNorth Africa. With he 8Novemberlanding of the Americans a t Casa-blanca, the recapture of North Africaand subsequent clearing of the Med-iterranean were made possible.The first World War records only


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Rise and Decline of German Aggressionone pitched seabatt le of major pro-portions, the costly and much arguedBattle o f Jutland,1 May 1916.Whether or not this battle was in anyway decisive has long been a favoritemilitaryargument.But herecan beno doubt about the decisiveness of theBattle of Midway in the second WorldWar.

By June 3, 1942, lesshanixmonths after Pearl Harbor, the Japa-nese had poured down the China coastand overrun the Philippines, WakeIsland, Hong Kong, Malaya, inga-pore,Burma, theNetherlands Indies,and the Solomons. To thenorth heyhad established garrisons in the Aleu-tiansand hreatened Alaska.Thus hedanger of an ctual in-vasion of America was acute when theJap ask orcewassightedsteamingin the direction of Midway. Four dayslaterhis fleet washattered andlimping home (see The Knockout atMidway. p. 32).From hat point onJaportunes ave dwindled inhePacific. Two months after Midway themarines took Guadalcanal.Amonthafter hat he New Guinea campaignwas launched, ultimately t o drive theJsps o heircurr ent ast Solomonsstronghold a t Rabaul.Less than a yearafter hese cam-paignsheastapanese ad beendriven fromhe Aleutians, nd ourbases herewere sending ong rangebombers tostrike a t thevital KurileIsland strongholds of the foe.

With American attention riveted toour own problems, another crucialstruggle meanwhile was developing inRussia. Hitlerhad urned on Russia22 June 1942, invadingand tabbingdeep into Russian territory with ap-parent ease. The first few months ofthe Russian campaign promised thatthis conflict would be aduplicate ofother Nazi victory formulas.The blitzkrieg previously had subju-gated Poland,Norway,Denmark, theNetherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg

Wa rReaches Length o f First

and France between September 1939and June 1940. The British force hadbeen driven intohe sea a t Dun-querque and the air blitz against Lon-don was, the Nazi had every righ t tohope, graduallyearinghat ationapart.The Axis had itten off a largepiece of North Africa and 1941 alsohadbrought he conquest of Greeceand Yugoslavia. The firstmonths ofthe Russian campaign bid fai r to out-shine all these Axis gains. In Novem-ber 1941 the Nazi armies were only 40miles from Moscow.Then, slowly, theide turned.ARed Army counter attack ecapturedRostov. This action brought he firstNazi retreat in over two years of war-fare.Winter played itspart n heRed offensive as Nazi soldiers froze t othegroundand Nazi oil froze n hepanzer uggernaut.Whathadstartedas a routwas now transformed ntoone of theitterestnd bloodieststruggles in military history.

The keybattle, anddoubtless oneof the crises of the entire war, turnedon the epic defense of Sta lingrad.Fromhe original Nazi assault 26August 1942 to he complete defeaton 4 February he Germanswere re-ported o have lost 500,000 men. Thecity was and is a rubble, but it liveson a s one of the most important vic-tories n he history of the world.The Red Army drives which foi-lowed Stalingrad already threaten Po-landnd Rumania. Today Hitlersmain spur in whipping his people in tounityandextra effort is he hrea tuf theverearing Russian bearclawing its way oward theGerman,borders.

Meanwhile, the Americans and heBritish were writing a victory outlineon both land and sea. On 9 May 1943all Axisesistance in NorthAfricaended. On 9 July Sicily was invadedand fell 35 days ater. talyproperwas invaded3September and surren-

dered five daysater.From Salernothe American andritishrmiesstarted he longpush up he talianboot, a compagn whichoday hasthem ess than 100 miles from Rome.I n comparison to World War I, thecombined Russian and American-British offensives may, eventually,have he same importanceand ela-tion t o ultimatevictory shad hecorrelated American-French and Brit-ish offensives along the Soissons frontin July and August 1918.A more ready comparison, however,has been theBatt le of the Atlantic.Once against heaimsandstrategiesof both sides have been identkal. TheGermans again have sought to disruptsupply lines from America t o Britain.Still again the German eubmarine hasbeen throwndesperatelyagainst Al-lied shipping.In this ba ttle, as in o thers, the foesvictorieswere predominantly a t thebeginning. And againas n he astwar, new defensive measures havepulled the angs of the wolf packs.Merchanthipping losses, however,test ify o he scope of the Nazi cam-paign in the Atlantic.In he irst World War, Americalost 151 merchant ships and 409 lives.So far our merchant losses have been617 ships and 4,772 lives in his seawar.But hegraph of these losses hassteadily gone down (see p. 9) and thetoll of submarines has been disconcert-ing or he foes, Last Summer theAllies were able t o maintain shippingfor a 90-day period without loss whilesinking an average of one sub a day.Announced tota l of enemy subs sent t othe bottom is now 160. The supplylines are still open and America is stillable to function 4s the arsenal ofDemocracy as well as a fighting ally.The past year, too, saw Germany onthe receiving end of an ai r blitz. Theincessant bombing of mili tary targets(Contimed on Page 4 3 )

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The USSHelewa at a Sozcth Pacific base between battles.Official U. S. Navy Photograph.

Light Cruiser With a Heavy WallopHelena Fought in 13 Engagements and Sank 9 EnemyShips Before JapaneseTorpedoes PutHer DownWhen thenavalhis tory of WorldWar I1 is writt en, one of the brightestchapters will recount the exploits ofhe uss Helen a , one of the fightingestmen-o-war tha t ever scoured the seasto seek out and destroy the enemy.Inherbrief, hell-roaringife, shefoughtn3 engagements inhe

Southwest Pacific, including two of thebiggest navalbattles.Her heavy guns bombarded Lunga,oli and Kokumbona Points on Guadal-canal island; and Vila, Munda, Kolom-bangara,Enogainletnd Bairokoharbor in the New Georgia group. Shecame thro ugh two of the most fiercelyfoughturface actions with minormaterialdamageand he loss of oneman.Whenshe was not ighting, theHelena was escorting transports , sup-ply ships and aircraft carriers.Japanese propagandists unwittinglypaid a high ribute to the Helenasgun crews following the bombardmentof Kolombangara. The Tokyo radioannounced that U. S. navalorceswere employing a new secret weapon-a 6-inch machine-gun. That showshow fas t the cru ise r pumped salvos!Commissioned at theNavyYard,New York, on 18 September 1939, theHelena was at Pearl Harbor when theJapanesetruck.ernti-aircraftbat teries shot down six enemy planesduring he aid. Damaged, he wassoon repaired at, the Navy Yard, MareIsland, and sent t o theSouth Pacific.

Aftermaking two runso Guadal-canal, her next mission was t o escortthe uss H o r n e t . Later she joined theforce with the us s W a s p and was pres-ent when the carrier was torpedoed 15September 1942.When the wet, oil-soaked survivorsPage 24

of the W a s p were picked up and manyof them transferred t o the Helen a , hercrew broke out their seabags and dis-tributed their clothing until manywereleft with but one pair of dungareesand a pair of shoes apiece.Atabout his time a newskipper,Capt. Gilbert C. Hoover, USN, ofBris-

tol, R. I., came aboard. Hehad beencommanding the estroyer squadronescorting the Helena, and he cameaboard by the only available means-viaa coal bag rigged t o a line un-ning from his destroyer flagship t o thecruiser.Already the holder of theNavy Cross, Captain Hoover was t owin wo Gold St ars in lieu of secondand third Navy Crosses while servingin the Helena.Back at Guadalcanal, the Helen asailed into her first major engagement-the Battle of Cape Esperance. It

was one of the few nighturfaceengagements ever fought between rivalforces of virtual ly equal strength . It re-sulted when a strong forceof JapaneseThird USSHelenaUnd er Con struction

A new lightcruiser now underconstruction will be named theHelen a t o perpetuate hename ofthe famous criuser lost inheBattle of Kula Gulf, Secretary oftheNavyFrank Knox announcedlas t month. This will be the hirdHelen a , the irst one having beena 1,392-ton gunboatbuilt n 1893.The new Helena isbeingbuilt bythe New YorkShipbuilding Corp.a t Camden, N. J.

cruisers, destroyers and transports at-tempting t o reinforce Guadalcanal wasintercepted by a task force under thelate Rear Admiral Norman Scott, USN.The enemy was engaged a t 14minutesbeforemidnight; exactly 98seconds later the Helenas guns pausedmomentarily as the dest royer on whichshe had them trained caught fire. Ex-plosions rocked the J a p and she sank.The Helenas gun crews then turnedtheir attention t o a cruiser. Four-and-one-half minutesaterheruiser,flaming from bow totern, disin-tegrated.A Japcruiseran d a U. S. cruiserwere swapping punchesnearby. TheHelena turned er atteries on theenemy and he combined firepower ofthe two ships soon sank he enemyship. A Jap destroyer sneaked in andfired a torpedo at the Helen a , but herlookout spottedtndheruiserswung harply.Thein fish passedharmlessly 75 yards ahead.As the Jap destroyerattempted t oflee the scene, the Helena joinedanother U.S. ship which had it underfire. Their concentratedire lastedthe destroyer to bits.In the battle theHelenas gun crewshad fired at four ships and had eitherdestroyed o r helped t o destroy ourshps.She was not hit,nor did shesuffer any casualties.Duringhe following month theHelena ( 1 ) avoided a submarine a + -tack while escorting a convoy; ( 2 )bombarded Koli Point ; nd (3 ) beatoff an ttack of Jap dive-bombers.Four out of nine bombers downedwere credited t o the Helen a .On the ight of 12-13 November1942, a largeJapanese orce made a


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desperate, all-out effort to regain con-trol of the Solomons. The Helena wasthe irst t o sight he enemy force asit neared Savosland. She steamedbetween the enemys two columns be-fore heJapanese detected her pres-ence. Fina lly an enemy cruiser stabbedthearknesswitherearchlight,found the Helena and opened fire.The Helenas main battery, mean-while, had been trained on the samecruiserandhadgotten he ange. Afull salvo from her guns struck home.The J ap cruiser, a heavy one with 8-inch guns,burst nto flames. Rapid,continuous fire was mainta ined on thecruiser.Practicallyall he hotsap-pearedo score hits. Flamesagedforward nd amidships. The ruiserbegan to sink.The Helenas main battery subsided,but he secondary battery, which hadselected adestroyer, pounded its tar-get and hammered her into the sea.Fifteen minutes later the Helena ob-served six enemy ships on her tar -

board, retreating northward from thebatt le. One of these, itwas earnedlater, was a cruiser which had engagedthe us s San Francisco on which RearAdmiral Daniel J. Callaghan, U S N ,task force commander, had been killed.Firefrom he Helenas mainbatterysank this cruiser. The Helenas secon-darybattery ank a destroyer romthe six-ship formation. Th at gave theHelena four ships to her credit withina few minutes.Remnants of the battered Japaneseforce fled northward, some actuallyfiring at each other in the confusion..Then followed an interlude ofcom-parative calm when the Helena soft-ened up airfields in he New Georgiaislands, helping t o pave theway orsubsequent Allied landings ; shelledshore positions a t Munda, Vila, Kolom-bangara and Bairoko harbor; beat offdaylight attacks of Japanese aircraft.The Helenas final battle began at0155on 7 July, when a U. S. forcecaught the Japs landing troops to re-inforce Munda. Thiswashebattleof Kula Gulf which cost the apsfrom 9 t o 11 cruisersanddestroyers,and the U. S. one vessel-the Helena.

Opening up her main battery on oneof the larger enemy ships, the Helenasank her. The secondary batt ery firedon a destroyer, sankher,shifted im-mediately tonother estroyerndsank her. Ju st as both batterieshadshifted to new targets and had nflicteddamage on two more shps, Japanesedestroyers closed in andaunchedtorpedo attack. Torpedoes crashed intothe Helenas hull. Shewent down 20minutes later.Capt. Charles P. Cecil, U S N , whowas hen commanding officer,won agold st ar n lieu of a second NavyC ros s for hiscalm, efficient directionof the abandonment of his ship. Hedirected subsequent rescue work froma small life raf t, and spent five hours

in the oil-covered wate r and ten moreon theraf t before reaching a beach.Shipmates say he refused toe rescuedby a destroyer,preferring to stay inthewaterand see that men not es-cued immediately would reach shore.On the following morning, when res-cue ships haddepartedwith most ofthe survivors, 166 of the Helenas crewfound hemselves wimming alone o rin small groups on a lonely, hostilesea.A B-24 flew over and droppedthree rubber boats, two of which weresalvaged. Two wounded men wereplaced in hem nd bout 50 othersurvivors slowly gatheredabout heirrims. Planes, enemy as well as friendlyones, frequently passed over the men,but they were not strafed.Next day it was decided t o attemptto reach Vella Lavella, which, althoughfarther away thanKolombangara, wasin he direction of the wind and cur-rent. With he help of an improvisedsail andconstant paddling,headwaywas made at about one and e halfknots. The men were beginning to tire,and occasionally a man would lose hisgr ip on the oat nd ot be seenagain. Happily, a case of potatoesfloated by, and he men found th atchewing on them helped t o lessen theirthirst. The water was warm and therewere no sharks.On the following day he survivorslanded on Vella Lavella, where riendlynatives guided them t o apicturesqueMelanesian village. The men were filthywith oil, and some were nearly naked.Makeshift clothes wereound, andthose injured grew strong on the sim-ple first-aid andnursing which theirshipmates ndhenatives provided.Since Japanese patrols and scoutingparties were on the island, a guard offive marines and a few sailors was es-tablished. The natives produced sevenold rifles, including one of Japanesemake, and a shotgun. he nativesassistedn rotectinghe camp byreporting Jap activities, It was re-ported on one occasion that four

Japanese approached too closely andwere disposed of by the natives.Within a fewdays communicationwas established withnaval orces atTulagi, and a bold and difficult schemewas nitiated osnatch hesurvivorsfrom the Jap-held sland. Capt. Fran -cis x. McInerney, USN, commander ofa destroyer squadron, was placed incharge of the rescue xpedition. Heordereddestroyer - transports (con-verted over-age destroyers) ohandlethe actual rescue work. They were tobe covered by an nner escortscreenof modern destroyers while tak ing offthe survivors and by an outer screenof destroyers, operating independently.Departing from Guadalcanal at noonon 15 July, the force approached VellaLavella aftermidnight on a brightmoonlight night. The ships inchedtheirway cautiously towardand,taking requent soundings. Althougheverything indicated thatnavigationhad been correct, no signal came fromshore. Precisely a t 0200, however, thesignalwas seen and he ransportsmoved shoreward.Covered by marines, who watchedfo r enemy patrols, he aggedsurvi-vors climbed in shore boats and weretaken to the transports. A few had t obe lifted over the side; some appearedas strong and hearty as they were be-fore heir arduous experience, but allwere suffering from coral cuts sufferedon the beach, for none had shoes.Japanese reconnaissance planes hadsighted the covering force and ha-dowed it throughouthenight,butthe enemys preoccupation with hisforce led him to ignore completely themain group.The return voyage toTulagi-Guadalcanal was uneventful ex-cept for he rescue of some enemysurvivors of the second Battle of KulaGulf, and he sigh ting of others whopreferred suicide to being rescued.Snatched from the sea and from theverycenter of a Ja p stronghold, hegallant Helena crew- early 1,000strong-is ready today to fight again.

Official U. S. N a r y Photograph .Helena survivors report on sister ship after Battle of Kula Gulf.

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What About S u m * m ~tRTse4 Records, Pay? W hat A reD u t k of Ol&ers? Hw e A re P d u r e J Suggestwm

Your ship goes down. Aft er float-ing bout or some while, you andothers rom he hipare picked up.Youre survivors now. What hap-pens from here on?For instance:W h a t a r e t h e d u t i e s of c o m m a n d i n gW h a t a b o u t c l o t h i n g a n d e f f e c t s l o s tWhat h a p p e n s t o y o u r p a y a c c o u n t ?W h o s e u r i s d i c ti o na r ey o uu n d e r ?W h e r e d oyouhe ad f o r , a n dw h a th a p p e n s w h e n y/ou g e t t h e r e ?m h a t c a n y o u d o o a id y o ur se lf ing e t t i n g r e e s t a b l i s h e d ?Whenever a ship goes down, dozensof questions ike these come up.The story of what actually happensfro m the re on can be divided, roughly,intoabout our main sections. Under

these all most of thequestions t owhich you, as a survivor, maywantto know the answers.They are: (1)the command and organization of sur-vivors, or whos supposed to do what?(2) your temporary rescue situation,( 3 ) your arrival a t a port, nd ( 4 )

oficers a n do the r s?by o f i c e r s and e n l i s t e d m e n?

those important Rs: reconstruction (ofyour pay account,serviceand healthrecords),eplacement or reimburse-ment for he oss of yourpersonaleffects) and eassignment.Separate sections will cover suchotherphases shevariationshatapplyo Armeduard personnel,crewsaboard destroyers and smallerships, and thoseanded on foreignshores ; also, special procedures affect-ing notification of casualties, and alisting of helpful tips for survivors.C o m m a n d a n dOrganizationof Survivors

Whathappens o he organizationof your ship if she goes down? Whileyou are aboard, you and theotherscomprise the ships company. If shegoes down, ou becbme survivors.How does that hange your statuswith reEard to he ship and ts com-mand?Actuallv. not a t all. Even whenyour ship goes down, the organizationof i t stil l survives.As Navy Regulations put it, Whenthe crew of any vessel of the UnitedStates are separated from their vesselby means uf her wreck, loss or de-struction, llhe command and u-thority given to he officers of suchvessel shall remain in full forceuntilsuch ships company shall be regularly

discharged from o r ordered again intoservice, or ntil a court-martial orcourt of inquiryshall be held to in-quirentohe loss of said vessel(Art 21).So the officers andmen remainmembers of their own ships company,even when taken aboard another ship.At hat ime, of course, they comeunder the disciplinary urisdiction ofthe new ship, but heirorganizationremains ntactuntil he ships com-pany is dissolved by SecNav, or is re-assigned.And how about the commanding of-ficer of the ship-what are his dut ies?Briefly, they are :1. In case of the loss of theship,toemain by her with officers andcrew as long as necessary and to saveas much life and government propertyas possible.2. If it becomes necessary o aban-don the ship, to be the last person toleave her.3. To make a report of the circum-stances o he Secreta ry of the Navyas soon as possible, and if wreckedwithin watersadjacent o heUnitedStates, to repair t o the nearest navalstation with the crew.4. If in a foreign country, to loseno time,aftermaking all efforts osaveproperty, n eturningwithhisofficers and crew to the fleet or squad-ron to which they belonged (or , if

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acting singly, t o theUnitedStates)and to take steps t o preserve the gov-ernment property saved, until disposedof in such manner as the Departmentmay direct.The executive officer looks aft er themuster roll. If pay accountswerelost, thedisbursing officer isauthor-ized, upon writtenrderromhecommanding officer, to reconstruct thepay accounts of the urvivors , romthe irstday of the month in whichthecasualty occurred, giving o eachperson thepay of the rating he heldat the ime he accountswere ost.It is the duty of officers of the Sup-ply Corps t o secure and preserve thepay accounts of officers and men andpapers elatinghereto particularlytheatest money lis t),he publicmoney, and such other public papers,and property, n heorder of thei rvalue, as circumstances permit.

Y o u r T e m p o r a ryRescue Situation

Ships in today's war zones travel infleets, squadrons or task orces, andusually the survivors of a casualty arepicked up by destroyers o r other ves-sels in their unit.If your ship has a sizeable comple-ment, there is little chance for enoughspare space on any single ship to takecare of al l survivors, so theymayfind themselves fairly well split upamong severalhips. Command ismaintained through the senior surviv-

ing officerof eachunit, who in urnis responsible to he senior survivingofficerof the originalship's company.However, you have now come underthe disciplinaryurisdiction of yourrescue ship. You are,o llntentsand urposes, a workingpassenger;your situation is much the same as ifyou had been assigned to that ship ontemporary duty.Food, clothing, medical care and payar eamong your first concerns. Foodand medical care are provided aboardthe rescue ship;ay accounts and

clothing are fixed up ater , or onlytemporary expedients ar e possible now.Since few people g o over the sidewith a full sea bag clutched firmly intheir hands, you probably arrivedaboard your escue ship clad only ina skivvy shirtanddungarees, or of-ficers' clothes, as the case might be-plus, in some cases, a light coat offue l oil. The problem of clothing maynow be handled in any of several ways.First , there is always the likelihoodof some aid from your new shipmates,who probably can dig up a spare item

hereand here.Naturally,anygreatinflux of survivors puts a severe drainon these random supplies and in sucha case they should not be countedupon too heavily.

The shipprobably will have somefoul-weatherlothingvailable fortemporary issue. Also, its ormalprocedure on thepa rt of a escuingship tobreak open the ship'suckybag and make its contents availablet o survivors.A fourth source is hat he com-manding officer of a rescuing ship maydirect the issue of minimum essentialsfromlothingnd small stores t omeet theemergency equirements ofsurvivors.One word o f caution-don't expectto o much. When the Wasp went down,f o r instance, there were some 2,000-odd survivors t o be taken off by ac-companyinghips. One destroyer,which normally carried a complementof about 200, found tself with some700 additional men aboard.Thepros-pects of get ting outfitted laSaksFifth Avenue under such circum-stances are accordingly diminished.Similarly, theremay be no provi-sions f o r opening pay accounts whileon the rescuehip. However, yourshopping opportunitiesrerettylimited for a while, and pay accountscan be straightened out quickly onceyou hit port.

Yo u r A r r i v a lat a Por t

Upon a rrivin g at a port, whether itbe abroad or within the ontinentalUnitedStates, you will come undercertain procedures setporhehandlingand eestablishment of sur-vivors. If,or instance, you foundyourself back in the United States, theprocedure would g o something likethis :In accordancewith regulations, heship's company is toemainntactunder ts ownofficers unti l dissolvedby properauthority.Afterarrival ata receiving ship o r station in the con-tinental United States, his provisionis regarded as no longer applicable, asprocedureestablished by BuPers hengoes into effect.Off icers of yourship report t o thecommandant of the naval district, whoadvises BuPers immediately of theirnames and ranks and retains them ontemporary duty pending receipt of or-

dersfrom he Bureau. In exceptionalcases leave is gran ted if the leave ad-dress is in the immediate vicinity. TheBureau.ortsart,ndeavors t o

Q U I Zfor S U R V I V O R SJ

I. C a n y o u b e r e i m b u r s e do r m o n e ylo s tn h i p a s u a l t y ?se e a g e3 0, o l u m n I )2. W h e n h i p o e s o w n , o e s h a tm e a n t h e h i p ' s c o m p a n y a s e e nd i ss o lv e d , o r d o e s it st i l le x i s t ? s e ep . 26, co l . 2 -3 )3. I f y o u l a n do na e s c u es h ip , d o y o ub e c o m ee m b e r o fh a th i p ' s

4. W h a t w o rd sh o u ld o m m a n d i ngc o m p a n y ? se e p . 2 6 , c o l. 3 )t i e s ? s e e p . 44, co l . 1 )o f f i c e r NOT u se i n e p o r t i n g c a s ua l -5. N a m e o u r w a y s t h a t y o u m i g h to b -t a i nc l o t h i n go na r e sc u e s h i p ? s e e

6. H o w m a ny o fh e o l l o w i n g r t i c

All Hands Naval Bulletin - Dec 1943

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Transcript of All Hands Naval Bulletin - Dec 1943