LST 446

[bearridge]

At Guadalcanal they got their first try at droppin' the anchor without help. They didnt know how ta stop the ship 'n let the bow anchor down. In Purvis Bay they never figgered out where ta stop the ship. A fella on shore blinked too fast fer 'em ta read agin. They cruised up 'n down the harbor. They fussed with the anchor. Without the shipyard workers who started 'em off 4000 miles ago, they didnt know how ta stop the ship.

That same day the Japs dropped bombs on 'em fer the first time. They seen 'em explode 'n watched anti-airplane guns shootin' back in the dark. They tole the Lone Wolf ta lay off on their triggers so they didnt lite it up 'n make a target fer the Japs. Cooper wuz in the shower when the klaxon went off 'n scairt the crap outta him. He grabbed a towel 'n ever time he yelled, the towel fell off 'n there he wuz standin' stark ravin' naked. Roger got fouled up, run into the spud locker 'n near bout knocked hizself out....had a big lump on hiz head fer a week. Shaw went forward like he wuz supposed ta, but he fell over everthin' on the way. Folks went ta the wrong stations. They wuz scairt 'n excited. Everthin' they done that first nite wuz wrong, even tho they wuz tryin' like the devil ta do stuff rite.

Cutler wuz topside with hiz spyglass.....watchin' the exhaust frum the Jap planes when they come over. They wuz tole not ta shoot, but Cutler would yell at 'em ta shoot. Roger sez "No". Cutler let it slide. Cutler's first name wuz Roger too 'n evertime someone on the intercom sez "Roger 'n over" he would yell "Dont Roger me, god damn it! That's my name.

Culter wore khaki shorts 'n bedroom slippers. Cooper wore white tennis shorts 'n bedroom slippers. Everbody on the 446 wore what they wanted. Once upon a time Cooper went over ta visit a pal on a destroyer. He had on very dirty tennis shoes, shorts 'n a sun hat. We they come alongside, the destroyer boys had on full uniforms, black neckties, etc. Hiz pal acted like he didn't know Cooper. Hiz skipper wuz so reglar Navy, he wuz scairt he mite git in truble jest fer knowin' Cooper. He come over 'n apologized later.

They welded five park benches cross the bridge fer good seats out on the ocean. Regulations sez no portholes, but they cut holes all round the quarters, took the top off 40mm ammo cans 'n screwed 'em inta the holes ta make portholes. Shaw warned 'em it wuz bad truble fer unauthorized holes in a Navy ship.

Pt. 11

 

[bearridge]

The Japs still held the north end of Guadalcanal. Crook wuz all over the ship tryin' ta git guns unjammed 'n ready ta fire. McWilliams set up a schedule 'n a plan ta move the wounded. Both men done that on their own. They had a 21 year old boy on the ship who got shot thru the chest. He wuz jest along fer the ride. The doctor operated with a spinal, so the boy wuz awake the whole time. It wuz a long one cuz hiz intestine wuz shot up purty bad. The doc asked him if he wuz okay 'n he smiled 'n sez "sho am". Finally the doc put hiz hands on the table 'n shook hiz head "He's gone". Cooper sez a fella kin be brave on the battlefield 'er on the hospital table.

They picked up Henderson, a radio man, at Pearl Harbor. It would be better with a radioman......so they kin check in with headquarters ever now 'n then. They spent two weeks in Purvis Bay at Guadalcanal. Then they got the word they wuz gwine ta help take the Russell Island, bout 20 miles due north of Guadalcanal. On a clear day they seen the volcano over there. First they had ta practice some cuz nobody had ever seen a LST before. They had ta run some tests with the Marines. The Army had jest took over after the Marines had civilized most of Guadalcanal. Now the Marines had ta go take Russell. They had been eatin' K-rations fer quite a spell.

**********

The Army wouldn't give them supplies because the Army wanted to save what food they had for themselves. We had the Marines go through the chow lines three or four times. It was the first food they had had in months. Again we were novelties. No one had ever seen this type ship. There started a lasting friendship with then Rear Admiral Tip Merrill. He was head of Cruiser Division and one of the outstanding Naval officials in the whole South Pacific. In glamor he was second only to Halsey. He was the first combat admiral to come aboard our ship in that area. He came aboard with his shirt open. We didn't have a normal gangway that he could walk up, so we slung a rope ladder over the side. Crook was on deck. The boat came up and the admiral climbed on board. The ship was a horrible mess. He was horrified and asked for gangway watch. There was no gangway watch. He asked for Officer of the Deck. There was none. Crook said "Boss,we ain't got none of those things." Then Crook said "I think Cooper's around some place, but he's asleep and I wouldn't wake him up." Instead of being critical, as so many admirals would be, he took it all in stride and said he guessed the kids were doing the best they could and what could he do to help them.

Merrill and I started swapping about "Who do you know?" We were both from Mississippi. When he was a young man he was engaged to a girl in Natchez who fluffed him, and later I was engaged to the daughter of this girl, who fluffed me. He became a frequent visitor to our ship. He said it was the only holiday he had in the Pacific. He got so tired of having to do the things expected of an admiral on the cruisers. He enjoyed coming to our ship where he could sit around in his underwear and shorts and relax. He got a kick out of going through the ship and finding everything wrong. Right from the beginning Cutler called him "Tip".

Pt. 12

 

[bearridge]

They had ta figger out how ta work the Lone Wolf inta the Russell Island plan. The Marines wanted ta see how the ship worked. On the first test the Marines put up a big marker on the beach at Guadalcanal 'n they wuz ta land at it. They got over there but never done no beachin'. They aimed fer the marker, but not knowin' how ta handle the ship that good, they messed it up, then the tide set 'em down. Screwed up agin, but it saved their lives cuz they had picked the wrong marker 'n wuz headed fer a Jap torpedo that ended up on the beach. Somebody had marked it with a flag too. They done their best ta land on that torpedo, but come up short.....by near bout 150 yards. [They didnt know it wuz a torpedo til after they walked ashore 'n seen it.]

Next day they tried it agin. They drifted agin 'n missed the marker. Admiral Fort, wearin' shorts 'n a cork helmet, come over 'n sez "For Christ's sake, what do you think we put this mat down for?" Clark sez "Take it easy Shorty, we can't park this like an automobile." Someone sez "That's Admiral Fort". Clark run off 'n hid in hiz bunk til the admiral left.

When they wuz on the beach, it wuz near the Teneru River, so they went lookin' fer stuff layin' round. They waded cross the river with their clothes on their heads. It wuz dead Japs layin' everwhere 'n a heap a gear. Next mornin' there come a message that some unauthorized Navy folks had been messin' round the battlefield 'n they better keep out if they knew what wuz good fer 'em.

Then they got inta some more serius truble. Back at Purvis Bay Cutler heard that one of hiz pals frum Boston wuz a Air Corps Admiral over at the Henderson Field Army base. Cuz he always had a bottle of scotch 'er two, they rigged up a small boat ta pay him a social call. Everday there wuz an attack, plus a heap a Jap boats in the area.....kinda like a "No Man's Land" in the Army. Cutler, Cooper, Roger, Crook 'n Vittora went clean cross the bay. They went ashore 'n found some Seabees. They traded fer some 30 cal. machine guns.....Cutler's idea. It wuz agin all Navy regulations. They seen Cutler's pal 'n made it back with a bottle of scotch. Trip took all day 'n part of the nite. There wuz anuther Jap raid while they wuz gone. If that motor had quit on 'em, they woulda been way out ta sea before anyone missed 'em. Word of this got out 'n they all got anuther purty good Navy ass chewin'. That made it harder ta git stuff cuz they had got off on the wrong foot agin.

Things begun ta pick up a bit fer the Russell Island trip. They begun ta look fer guns 'n other stuff fer the ship agin, but the Navy still didnt have 'em on the official list. They went back ta beggin' fer stuff 'n stealin'. Then come their first break. Since they wuz part of the Russell Island plan, they would have Marines on board 'n ya gotta feed the Marines. They had a few hunerd on board, but they tole 'em they had a thousand. They stocked up purty good.

Pt. 13

 

[bearridge]

At Russell Island Cooper wuz tryin' ta run the ship in ta the beach. Cutler wuz jest happy cuz they wuz finally in the war......fightin' back. Cooper snuck up a inlet, too narrow ta turn round....'n it wuz snafu agin. They had never tried ta land at nite before. It wuz coal black, no lites nowhere. Marines wuz on board.

********

It looked like we were on the damn land, but nothing ever touched. Roger was on the foosle and we kept yelling back and forth to one another. I kept asking Roger "Have we hit the beach yet?" Roger would say "No!" I would say "We're moving ahead." Roger would say "I don't know what your part of the ship is doing, but my part's backing away from the beach." The men in the engine room were by now on the point of utter exhaustion from reversing the motors. The Marines were beginning to wonder whether this type of ship was such a good idea after all.

*********

The whole time at Russell the Japs bombed the snot outta 'em. It wuz the second island captured in the Southern Pacific, but they had ta git on the beach 'n git back out tween dark 'n sunrize. There wuz bout four ships totin' Marines 'n supplies. The Navy didnt worry bout Japs on the shore. They wuz worried bout Japs in boats 'n airplanes. The cruisers 'n the destroyers wuz all bout 20 miles out. Jap planes come after the landin' boats. Whilst they tried ta unload, bombs wuz fallin' everwhere. In the past unloadin' stopped when it come an attack. They had nuthin' but airplane gas ta unload 'n wuz danged lucky one of them bombs didnt hit 'em.

The Army crew went on strike 'n refused ta unload the gas while the bombs wuz fallin', but the longer they stayed there on that beach, the more likely a bomb would find 'em. They had a "hell of a big fight" with the Army crew. They ordered the Colonel ta git off the ship 'n they unloaded it theirownselves. They had ta leave their guns, but figgered it wuz better ta do that than jest sit on that danged beach with all the bombs fallin' til the strike wuz over. Later the LST 448 wuz lost in that same kinda spot. The green crew done a fine job in a tuff spot that nite. Even Cutler pushed off some barrels of the "damn gas" too.

When they first come out, the Navy figgered a LST wuz good fer bout 10 landings, then ta the junk pile, but the 446 made over 200. After Russell Island, they went back ta Purvis Bay 'n set out ta make some changes. They come up with a new unloadin' plan. They didnt care fer the 20mm guns cuz the Jap airplanes flew too high fer 'em to do no good. They aimed ta steal some new guns cuz there wuz no legal way ta git 'em.

**********

Halsey told us (via Cutler) that our purpose out there was to kill and defeat the Japs. He couldn't approve unauthorized alterations, but said for us to do what was necessary to kill and defeat the Japs and not to tell him anything about it. There were only two ways to get guns. Either from the Marine Corps or the Army. We started trading oranges and everything we could accumulate from a storage angle. We started mounting 40 mm guns on our ship. Other LST's that came out later got sunk one after another. The explanation was that we had armed our ship but the other characters who were honest and kept the 20 mm guns were getting the hell knocked out of them. It was a result of our particular thievery that the design of the LST's were changed from the gunnery angle.

We put the guns on board and then came the problem of "You've got a gun but what's going to stop the Jap planes from killing the gunners?" We couldn't get steel, so we went ashore and got thousands of sand bags. We became the laughing stock of the Pacific. Tip Merrill said later it was the only Navy ship he ever saw that looked like the infantry Battle of the Bulge. We increased our firepower from six 20's and 1 3" 50 up to sixteen 20's, five 40's, 15 50's and four 30's.

Pt. 14

 

[jimsong]

Bre'r Bear,
You have really screwed up story tellin' for the rest of us!
I have lead a pretty adventurous life, But I ain't NEVER kidknapped a ship, and sailed into combat, with folks just along for the ride. And not even knowin' where I was goin' nor how to get there.
And it's seldom, that I steal a battery of triple A!
Pray tell, do continue, I will bad mouth, further, you at a later date.
(After you finish this fasinating saga!)

 

[dangermouse01]

This is like 4 parts McHale's Navy, 2 parts M*A*S*H, 2 parts Forrest Gump and 1 part The wackiest ship in the Army.

Wonderful reading, amazing story.

DM
mike

 

[bearridge]

Thanks fellas. Az I already tole ya'll this aint my tale. I am jest tellin' it, but sometimes ya jest gotta read it the way Cooper wrote it. If typin' on this dang laptop didnt hurt my wrists 'n I wuz a lickety split fast typin' fool, I would jest let him tell the whole dang thing. Like most folks in the war, he never woulda spent the time ta write all this down if the Navy didnt ask him to 'n he didnt agree it wuz a good idea fer the reserves.

Family knew bout some of this stuff, but whilst he wuz alive, I never knew all this. He didnt go round tellin' folks bout the war. While he wuz alive he didnt give out any copies of hiz notes fer the Hollywood folks. I am waitin' ta see if he tells 'em bout the beer. [It haz been a while since I read it.] That wuz one of the things we all knew.....'n usin' the Standard Oil map.

regards
bearridge

Cooper wuz a lot like Ted Roosevelt. When ya play, play hard. When ya work....dont play at all.

 

[bearridge]

On April 7, 1943 come a "Condition Black". Jap surface boats been seen close by. It scairt the devil outta everbody. Somebody seen 'em (with hiz own eyes 'er radar). The U.S. didnt own the skies back then. On the ocean it wuz touch 'n go. The first 3-4 months the 446 wuz there, the Japs owned the skies. They had 10 bases, whilst the U.S. had only one. All the destroyers 'n cruisers hauled tail outta Purvis Bay when the Condition Black come in. They got the news before the Lone Wolf figgered it out. The Navy aimed ta save the surface ships cuz they had near bout run out. They tole the Lone Wolf ta git covered up, hide 'n hope the Japs dont see ya. They run up in a little creek 'n cut down trees 'n stuff ta cover up the ship, but the ventilator sucked up ever skeeter fer 10 miles. After they sucked skeeters thru the whole ship they give up...."better dead than eaten alive." They figgered sunk wuz better'n eaten by bugs.

*******
Radio Guadalcanal went off the air for security reasons. A radio in Purvis Bay was on. We couldn't read the messages. Finally we threw all of our camouflage off the ship, backed out of the creek and headed out of the harbor into the ocean.

********

Word had it 60 torpedo planes wuz comin'. This wuz the last sho nuff Jap air raid in the Guadalcanal area. 96 planes wuz in the raid. The Japs kept tryin' ta bomb the crippled boats. Lt. Dan come topside fer a spell. He wuz "off hiz nut", but he tole the boys ta jest hold their fire. Firin' called out ta the Japs. Lt. Dan wuz rite. The boys had begun ta figger it out too after Russell Island....they had been under bombs near bout 30 times now. The LCT wuz hid up a little river. Cookie Thompson knocked a bomber down with their gun. The Japs flew rite over him. Not many LCTs ever shot down a Jap plane.

Pt 15

 

[bearridge]

The USS Kanawah, a oil tanker, wuz the first ship hit by the first wave of Jap planes in Purvis Bay. Smoke come outta ever hole in her. Then more Jap planes went after her. Flames begun ta rize. Bein' a tanker, she mite blow up any minute.

***********

She had a million gallons of fuel on her. In addition to the natural hazards of gas, you have all the ammunition boxes around the guns which were on the verge of going off. There was a tug in the vicinity and they apparently had communicated with the Port Director (we were only 12 city blocks away from land) and decided it was too dangerous to go alongside the Kanawah. A good part of the crew had abandoned ship and were swimming around. Perhaps no sane crew, at least a regular Navy crew that recognized the danger, would have come alongside the Kanawah. The Navy ships all went away.

Cutler said "Alongside the Kanawah we go". He was determined to go down in a blaze of glory right then. We pulled alongside the Kanawah. Lt. Dan came topside again. We made one pass at the Kanawah and missed her and Lt. Dan went below again. It was hard as hell to get alongside. We tried about three times. We had to approach through burning oil to get to her. After 3-4 tries we finally got alongside. Topside of our ship had been organized into a boarding party. Roger was in charge of it and he was asking for volunteers. Crook, McWilliams, Vittoria--people like that volunteered. We were trying to get the ship alongside without sinking both ships. Cutler was hurrying us up. The tug was standing off blinking "get away....watch out for exploding ammunition". Cutler was saying "Go on in....get the hell alongside the Kanawah."

The smoke from the Kanawah was like a smoke screen. It was hard as hell to tie up to it. We came in with our bow to her stern quarters. it took us maybe 15 minutes to get alongside. Everybody was throwing lines and there was nobody on the other ship to catch them. We had to get enough speed ahead to make contact and have our crew jump from one ship to the next like a boarding party. The Kanawah was drifting about three knots. She had been dead for half an hour so far as power was concerned. The main deck of the Kanawah was about ten feet lower than our bow. To get aboard we had to climb down the anchor and then jump over the rail. There were several life jackets lying on the ammo racks. They were burning on the ready boxes. We wet all the ready boxes down with a hose. We had taken our hoses aboard the Kanawah.

We secured our lines and tied our ship and split up into two groups. Roger had two others with him. He put Breeze on the hose crew and had him go down the superstructure to put hoses into the compartments. The ship was listing about five degrees to starboard at the time. The whole after superstructure was on fire. The water that lay in the scuppers was so hot you couldn't stand it. Roger took McWilliams and two or three others and went up the starboard side. We could hear men below decks screaming for help. We yelled and said "Where are you?" The fellows in the engine room were yelling "Help!" Our crew couldn't get down the hatch. They retraced their steps and went over to the port side. They had found a ventilator that had no ladder but made direct access to the compartments the men were in. We rigged some ropes and sent a crew down the shaft to bring the men up. There was an enlisted man who had in the past been assigned to the Kanawah who told us how to get down. He said he knew the way and to let him go down. He said there were two men in the burning after structure that might still be alive. Roger took McWilliams and Crook and went aft. They looked in on the starboard structure first. About fifty feet down the passageway they could see a fellow. The passageway was full of smoke. In the center section was a big compartment that went all the way down into the engine room. It was all blown out. It was burning but acted as a kind of chimney. It was filled with fire.

The boys on the outside were beginning to get the compartments on the outside under control. They finally got to the fellow lying in the passageway. Roger reached down and took hold of his arm. When he did he could tell he was dead. The flesh came off in his hand. Roger took hold of his belt and asked Crook and McWilliams to give him a hand. He took him topside and McWilliams identified the body. They laid it to one side. Then they got around to the port side and saw a fellow lying in the back end of that passageway. They had difficulty getting to him. They had to cross over a hole in the deck and finally succeeded in doing that by hanging on to a rail. They hung on to that and worked their way past the hole. When they got to the fellow they saw he was dead. He was dressed only in his shoes. Concussion had blown his clothes off. They got him over the hole and out on the deck and tried to identify him. The crew went into every compartment that they could get in. They saw several bodies but they couldn't get to them the fire was so intense.

We succeeded in recovering about 7 or 8 bodies and two survivors who were standing in water up to their chins. Both of them were injured, but not too seriously. One had a shrapnel hole about as big as your thumb in the small of his back. They were both enlisted men. Standing in the oil and water up to their chins had made them desperately sick from drinking oil.

We had all the ready boxes wet down. We were beginning to get some semblance of control. The tug came back in again. They boarded the ship and when they came aboard we gave them the indentification of the bodies. Our boarding party went back and jumped to our ship over our port bow. While this was going on we received conflicting orders. We kept receiving positive orders to cast off and kept disobeying orders. Our crew was on the Kanawah and if we cast off they would get burned up. I was conning the ship and Roger was aboard the Kanawah and he was my buddy. I wasn't going to leave him. He had my shoes on! There was a tremendous fight on our ship topside to keep disobeying orders and not to leave our crew aboard the Kanawah to sink.

[Roger's Viewpoint]

When we formed a boarding party the rest of the ship's crew were ordered back of the superstructure. To begin with, everybody who came up on the boarding party knew that if any of those ready boxes went off they would have had it. Galloway and Wise went below decks to find survivors. We went aft into the living compartments. We sent the man down who had been on the ship before and he made our throw ropes fast and we just pulled men up. All of the boys that went over on the boarding party were cool and efficient. It was the first time they had ever seen anything like that. More than anything else they were mad. They all had about ten chances of dying to one chance of living. After the Kanawah the morale was low as hell.

[Side Note: Bonaparte is a member of the boarding party that goes to the rescue of the Kanawah. As described, two men are saved, but it is later learned that Bonaparte is lost. The ship is also subsequently lost. As a consequence the morale aboard the 446 is low until the Bonaparte letter is read and the situation acquires a new meaning.)

************

A few days after the Kanawah burnt up, orders come ta head fer Australia to make the first invasion ever in the Southern Pacific under MacArthur.


Pt 16

 

[bearridge]

About this time came the next LST in the Pacific and the man who was to become our Commanding Officer--Captain Chick Carter. We got off on the wrong foot with Captain Carter. He immediately, like all Navy people, concentrated first on quarters and second on what he had to do. He got a couple of Seabees and built himself the cutest little cottage you ever saw on the beach. It received the name "Carter City". It was close to the beach--typical tropical setting.

We got a message to come in to the beach. We hit the beach full speed, and Captain Carter was out waiting for us. The ship kept going and we went half the length of the ship onto the beach. Coconut trees were uprooted and fell all over the captain's house and made a mess of it. It was the last of Carter City.

Carter and Cutler got to know each other pretty well and got gloriously drunk. Carter passed out and Cutler and another guy tried to bury him. "Poor Old Carter's Dead". A Filipino kept trying to dust off Carter's stomach and still be diplomatic about it. He didn't want to tangle with the gold braid.

Both during and after the war I considered Capt. Carter one of the best Naval Officers I have ever known, and one of my best friends. He had wonderful patience, organizational ability and understanding of the Reserve Problem, and I think contributed more to the ultimate success of the LST's than any other high ranking Naval Officer.

(Before we left Guadalcanal we swiped a jeep and later on, in Australia, we were riding along in it and a group of MP's stopped us and checked it with a list which they had compiled showing the motor numbers of all the stolen jeeps in the South Pacific. It was a long list. We thought we were really caught. They checked the list and finally ended up saying "Well, I'll be God damned. You swiped this jeep before we made the list"; so they let us go. Jack Clark and Pops Packard stole the jeep. Pops knew all the angles. One reason we stole it was because we thought we were going to Brisbane, but our orders were changed en route.)

To get from Guadalcanal to Australia you have to go through the terrific Great Barrier Reefs, the graveyard of all the old sailing vessels. As we approached the reefs we got into another serious storm and got hopelessly lost. We cruised around, hoping to get in during the daytime. We actually paralleled the reefs for a while. We weren't within even a couple of hundred miles of where the opening in the reefs was. If we didn't hit it we were sunk. The reefs would vary anywhere from 30 feet under water to two feet under water. We argued about where the opening was and it was literally decided by a flip of the coin. Cutler kept saying "For God's sake, go on in!" We didn't know whether to go port or starboard. Everybody had a different idea. We couldn't take any star sights because of the storm. We had no radar. The crew was let down as hell because they thought we were going to Brisbane and our orders were changed to Townsville. Our one chance of liberty was shot to hell. The coin flipped right and we made the entrance by sheer luck.

Pt 17

 

[bearridge]

We got to Townsville and put on a show up there. These Australian girls had never seen corsages and presents in their lives, but they got lots of them. There were trenches in the street and all women and children had been evacuated with the exception of WAC's. Cutler went ashore and rounded up ten girls, varying in ages from 55 years and up, that looked like Top Sergeants. Cutler showered them with gifts. It looked like a coming-out party. We were in town for about two weeks for the staging of the Woodlark Island invasion. This was shortly after the Coral Sea.

The Australians had a little dance hall and I was the only lucky guy to wind up with a good-looking girl. I got a Red Cross girl from Massachusetts. It was a great pick-up for the ship for the few days we were there. The first thing Cutler got was about $500 worth of liquor chits. They only charge about $.20 a drink and we damn near killed ourselves. Most of it was Australian liquor and it's the next thing to shellac. We all got drunk. The name of the beach where we were was called Kissing Beach. We thought that was very appropriate.

The first night we went in Roger and I got back on board ship first. About two o'clock in the morning up comes Cutler. Cutler was 6'3" tall. He got about half way up the gangway. Roger and I got three other drunks and tried to pull Cutler through the gangway. We pulled his clothes off but he kept on sliding down. He was limp. We finally got him in his room. All he would say was "Junior, can you do it?" Roger said "Do what?" Cutler: "Don't ask me what. Can you do it?" Roger finally said "Sure, I can do it." We never did find out what he was supposed to do.

Across from Townsville was a little island called Magnetic Island which had beautiful beaches, and we would get our dates and go over and have marshmallow toasts, drinking parties, etc. It was really complete relaxation.

We got ready for our first invasion. Two days before we left the first LST's, I think there were six, came out. We were the flag ship. We figured we would probably never get back to civilization again. I was really courting the Red Cross girl seriously. The invasion was supposed to shove off at 12 midnight. I was late getting back to the ship. Our LST kept getting blinker signals to join the others. Roger manufactured every technical breakdown he could to save the day. About 1 o'clock I finally arrived with date driving a little cruise commander car. The Skipper almost missed the invasion.

The Navy said no shorts because of flash burns. None of us took shorts with us. All the Aussies wore shorts that were very good looking, comfortable and cool. We went to a store and asked for shorts. We had to have clothing chits. We each got a clothing coupon and said we would take three pairs of shorts apiece. The salesman said we were limited to one pair, but because we were Americans he said we could have anything we wanted. This fellow made us feel pretty good.

The new LST's that had just come in couldn't get up on the beach. Cutler was ashore drinking and bragging that his boys could get on the beach, anywhere, anytime. Somebody took him up on it. It was just after midnight. We protested when Cutler sent us a message by a little boat that he would hold up two lights for us to get in on. We came in. Cutler was on the beach with his lights, but he kept moving. We would get the lights lined up and they would move. We went into the beach with reefs on both sides of us. it was just luck. We had to go full speed due to stiff current and had we missed, there would have been one less LST in the Pacific War. There were twenty seaplanes in the harbor and Harvey, the opera singer, reacted slow mentally. He was sitting on the conning tower and our ship started to drift toward the planes. He just sat there. I happened to come up and said "Harvey, we're drifting." He said "I thought maybe we were moving," and kept singing and doing nothing else. We just barely hit the seaplanes, without much damage.

Pt 18

 

[bearridge]

Just before the invasion one LST got stuck on a reef. The operations officer for Admiral Kincaid came aboard and told us to get it off the reef. The tide was out and there was no possible way to do it. If we had waited a few hours we could get it off easy. The Commander usurped all the powers of the Skipper by giving orders to the Quartermaster. We had cables out trying to jerk the LST off and parted a couple of cables. What he was doing could very easily have killed five or six men on our ship. It got so bad I told him to either get off the damn ship or relieve me of command or we would put him in the brig. He got off. I felt it would be better to get a court-martial than have the men killed. He went ashore and was going to recommend me for a general court-martial. He had our ship sitting in the mud. I told him we were hitting the bottom with our screws. He said to shut up. As a result we had half of one of the blades gone for the rest of the war. Cutler was ashore, but interceded later, taking my part of the argument. Instead of me getting a court-martial, I heard later the other officer was relieved of his duties. Even though we were junior reserve officers and recommended for court martial by Naval Academy Officers, when it got up in a little higher echelon the Navy sided with us. That gave us another big boost in morale.

While we were out there they requested information on Palm Island for a possible seaplane base. They wanted a flat, level, sandy beach with no rocks. They wanted to take the seaplane equipment in on the LST's. Roger said he thought he could go out and pick a beach. Next thing he had the Destroyer Hinley at his disposal. He went aboard and a full three-stripe Commander said "Okay boys, cast off and go here and go there". He sounded the beach and made his report. He got a tremendous kick out of it.

Our ship was completely loaded from stem to stern with beer. From here on out we served our crew with beer. This gives you a little insight into the unorthodox practices at Woodlark Island and thereafter.

This operation was under MacArthur and the Australians. On the way up we were attacked by one submarine, and again went through the experience of watching a torpedo go under our ship. You could literally steer a course through the Coral Sea reefs by not going wherever you saw a mast sticking up. They were like bouys set up. By this time we could pin point within 100 yards of where we wanted to go. Our navigation had been excellent.

Pt 19

 

[bearridge]

At Woodlark Island a heap a Jap planes come after 'em. They didnt have no air plane help ta beat 'em off. The Japs had 8-10 air bases close by, so they wuz droppin' bombs left 'n rite. Cooper seen one bomb comin' so he jumped inta a big bomb hole on the beach 'n lo 'n behold there wuz Willett Duckworth, a pal who lived next door a few years before back at Ole Miss. On the first load, they caught a bomb tween the bow doors.....near bout blew 'em off. They had ta cut 'em off with a cuttin' torch. It wuz over a year til they got 'em fixed.

After they got the soldiers 'n cargo ashore, Cutler, a Marine general 'n a Army general decided ta drive onta the beach. The tide had come in 'n the ship drifted out bout a hunerd yards. The doors wuz open 'n the ramp wuz down. Cutler 'n the generals got in a jeep, cranked it up 'n drove off the tank deck 'n settled in 8' of water. The three top dogs of the invasion sank.

When they pulled back off the beach the last time they got the hind end anchor hung up in some coral.

*******

I backed off the beach with a hell of a wind blowing. The ship was beached between two jagged corals to begin with. If you backed off slow enough for the winch to take up the stern anchor the wind would set us on the corals. Getting off fast the cable wrapped around and round the shaft and nicked the propeller. That put the ship out of commission and the convoy waited about an hour for us. It was ten o'clock at night. They decided it was better to lose on ship than 20, so they went off without us and we had to proceed as best we could. This was the only big argument I ever had with Cutler. It was cold as the devil and raining. We had a little shallow diving gear. Roger and I undertook to go under the ship and free the shaft. Two people can't do it, so we asked for volunteers. The same group as usual volunteered to assist. We were under water off and on for four or six hours. The waters were completely shark infested. We had to work with lights and that's the first thing that will attract a shark. No sharks came in, but when little fish came in and nibbled on our legs it might as well have been a shark. All we had was a face plate so we couldn't see anything behind us. The waves were about six feet. The bottom of the hull was covered with barnacles. Everybody was bleeding. We thought the blood would attract the sharks. We only had one helmet so two fellows could not work together. We stayed down 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Everybody was freezing to death. The whole thing too about six hours. They were also dropping bombs in the water. The mission was finally accomplished and the anchor cable cut loose.

It was pitch black dark as we started from Woodlark Island. Cutler had urged everybody on. He was so anxious to get us going that he had broken out a bottle of brandy to tide us over. The brandy had no effect. Cutler increased the speed of the ship to full because of the Jap planes. I said we couldn't go any faster because we didn't know where we were going. The channel was treacherous and winding, the weather foul, windy and raining.

Cutler, by this time, had gotten saturated drinking the brandy he was supposed to give us. We got into a terrific fight. I finally told him if he wanted to run the ship to run it and I'd go below decks. Cutler asked me if I was drunk! Then he went below decks, simmering mad. We would have gone high and dry if we had followed his orders. The next morning the Jap planes came in and we would have been grounded there like sitting ducks.

Pt 20

 

[bearridge]

Headed back ta Townsville they found some more Jap subs. Az usual they wuz all alone in the Coral Sea which iz always hard on the navigator. No radar. No nuthin'. The dang thing wuz fulla reefs. They had ta steer 20 degrees off jest ta go strait. George Shaw never got outta hiz bunk cuz he wuz bad seasick, but they hit all their aim points. That short navigator book done 'em a heap a good....but the steerin' gear went out agin. The first time took six hours ta switch ta hand steerin'. This time it only took 18 seconds. Two minutes woulda meant hittin' a reef 'n likely sunk.

After Townsville they made anuther run ta Woodlark. They run up onta the beach 'n set out ta unload airplane gas when here come the Japs droppin' bombs agin. Either cuz of the bomb 'er bein' careless, a drum come loose 'n rolled over Cooper, near bout broke hiz leg. He wuz laid up in hiz bunk fer four days. They went up in Milne Bay in New Guinea. It jest rained 'n rained the whole time. No matter where they went there wuz never any drinkin' water. The Lone Wolf didnt have no way ta make clean water. Later the Navy put water cleaners on the LST's, but it wuz a problem the whole time they wuz in the Pacific. They went on down ta New Caledonia on the way back ta the Solomon battle. Agin, they wuz the first LST in line. Some LST's wuz sent ta the fightin' part. The Lone Wolf wuz sent ta ever one of 'em. He seen it az a penalty fer runnin' a good ship with a good crew.

At Milne Bay some of our air cowboys crashed in the jungle 'n had a heck of a time gittin' out. Roger wuz down on the tank deck when lo 'n behold some big, near bout naked fellas come outta the jungle. They had a hibiscus flower behind the ear, which likely meant they warnt lookin' fer no truble. They seen a white fella comin' along behind wearin' a rag round hiz private part. Roger sent word it had ta be one of our guys who had crashed in the jungle, but it turnt out he wuz jest albino. He had infantile paralysis 'n he wuz staggerin' frum totin' everthin' but the kitchen sink on hiz back. The four big fellas didnt tote a dang thing.

They run inta more subs 'n wuz tracked fer a day 'n a half. An Aussie destroyer leader wuz with 'em this time. They "bombarded" the Lone Wolf with messages bout the Jap sub, but they never blew the danger horn cuz they figgered he wuz jest nervous. The sub wuz sunk that nite.

They had a sailor frum the Midwest who wanted ta marry a native gal while they wuz in Numea in New Caledonia. The captain gotta sign off on a deal like that. Once upon a time that place wuz a French prison island 'n a leper island too. Round 1900 they turnt all the prisoners loose 'n they become a reglar French colony with a heap a lepers. Cooper 'n one 'er two others went ashore ta talk ta the gal's folks.

All hell broke loose. There wuz a big commotion. The gal's ex-boyfriend 'n two of hiz pals showed up 'n decided to beat 'em ta the punch. They warnt scairt of these fellas, but they left anyway. The boy went back that afternoon 'n they beat the snot outta him. He finally did marry the gal. He wuz transferred off the ship ta the Navy shore base. Three months later they pulled up alongside a destroyer 'n there he wuz. He tole 'em hiz wife wuz first rate, but her boyfriend wuz still so dang jealous it wuz hard ta stand.

Cooper aimed ta go see Sydney, so him 'n Jack Clark faked some orders 'n off they went. A few days after they made it back he got a package with a note 'n three pairs of fine lookin' drawers. He never got ta wear 'em cuz the crew made signal flags out of 'em.....'n give Cooper a purty hard time over them colorful drawers.

There wuz sportin' women in Numea. Best place wuz the Pink Palace. No officers allowed. Folks wuz lined up fer blocks. It wuz near the lepers. Two of the crew got mixed up with the lepers 'n had ta stay on the island fer seven years.

Pt 21

 

[Kayak Jack]

These're fine tales, Br'r Bear. I don't care if they ARE half true. They're still good.

When does the cavalry come in? Hop Along Cassidy or Roy Rogers? I already saw John Wayne in the background. Nice graphics in those tales.

 

[wrhester]

Thank you

Thank you..fine story telling and I thank Mr Cooper too. I'm not a great story teller, but it's like a musician. I'll never be a great one, but like trying and appreciate those that can very much. That is truly a great story!

 

[Wannabe]

Bard Bear,
I keep waiting for the rest of the story. Is that all there is or or you just resting up so you can finish it?
Bob

P.S. Have you seen Jason anywhere? I can't find him.

 

[bearridge]

Wannabe San,

I aint fergot. I caint figger out where all my time goes each day. I used ta know where it went. My roundtoit list gits longer ever day.

Thanks fer askin'.
bearridge

 

[bearridge]

Cooper iz on the right.

 

[Wannabe]

Man, he did like to sell brooms.
Bob