All Hands Naval Bulletin - Apr 1945

8/4/2019 All Hands Naval Bulletin - Apr 1945

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Merewith)ughwech ahadheepwereIrop-i we

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;he trap-ia wouldhis own:antailident


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PINNED DOWN bat water's edge foiOfficial U. S. Marine Corps photographwines hugged a sand duneI ought their way inland..

?s were iso-the base of

; one nightne mortar"Cease fir-

iound charge in a cave at the


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t cOfficial U. S.Marine Corps photographIEN of 5th Division race across field swept by Japset up communications between front and rear.

Guard photographup on Futat-m a toehold.

Official U. S. Coast Guard photographset UD on the beach Durnrx shells into JaDI ,so t h i t Marine infantry can inch forward.

THE HOTTEST FLAG-A Jap picked it up I guess you could say we caughtset it outside the cave, then hell, said soft-spoken platoon Sgt.around and start ed batk in. Thomas, who led the group of marinesmarines shot him and put the in raising the national colors overit belonged.A JaP scrambled out of a Pillboxoff with a marine hot On hisa bayonet a t his rear.

a Browning automatic [email protected] D. Jones spoke enought o tell a wounded JaP toa pillbox. The Ja p re- caves.t o use aower. The Ja p, second pris-a grocery in

Firs t Lt. Harold H. Stirling and his 0toon met a dawn attac k by 40 or 5060 minutes la ter the pla- out of the pillbox-he didnt know the thfi,TI

Suribachi.In my platoon we lost 17 men outof 46 one time. That was whenour platoon leader was wounded andI had to take over.After that, continued Thomas, Idont remember much. I think I ledsome tanks t o fire into pillboxes andI ?wm dJer a JaP Coming out ofa Pillbox and setting UP a Nambu(machine gun) on top of it . I thinkabout 60 of us shot him a t once.A marine climbed up on a pillboxwith a demolition charge. A Ja p came

marine was there-and start ed to runaway. This marine leaped on his back,and killed him with a knife.


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INSIDE JAPANEnemy Home Front Is Tough and Well Organized;Despite Privations, It Shows No Sign of Cracking

B l a c k m a r k e t . At a meeting inMarch 1944 to discuss the black mar-ket problem, a high Japanese officialwas reported as inquiring seriously:How would it be if someone experi-mented t o learn if it were possible tolive on ones ration without blackmarketinp?IVILIAN hardships are increasingC in Japan, the Office of W ar Infor-mation reveals in a report on theJapanese home front, but even afteryears of war, and in the face of in-creasing privations and the mountingtempo of Allied attack, the 75,000,000Japanese remain solidly mobilized be-hind their government.United States Government officialsagree, OW1 said, that although vic-tory over Jap an is certain, there is asyet no indication of a crack in Japa-nese civilian morale.Facts for the report were obtainedfrom the Foreign Economic Adminis-tration, which makes continuous stud-ies of Japans social and economic po-sition; the Federal CommunicationsCommission, which monitors Japanese

domestic and foreign broadcasts ; theOverseas Branch of OWI, which main-tains a staff of regional specialists o hth e Far East, and other officialsources.Joseph C. Grew, Under Secretary ofState and former United States Am-bassador to Japan, said:Japanese civilians, although under-going privations and living undersevere restrictions, are doing so will-ingly and energetically. Japanesemen, women and children are organ-ized for war to an extent that weAmericans, with our democratic tra-dition, find hard to understand.Japans low standard of living, strin-gent diet, and the long working hourst o which her people are accustomed,make home front conditions that seemlike privations t o us appear only dis-comforts to the Japanese.The Japlanese are a disciplined andregimented people. We must realizeth at behind the Japanese fighting manwhom we are even now in process ofdefeating stands a determined foe, theJapanese civilian, with whom we mustalso reckon before achieving eventualvictory.Some highlights of the report fol-low :Rationing and ShortagesFood. Not a single item of food canbe freely bought in Japan. kice, salt,eggs, fish and other staples have beenrationed since 1941; sugar since 1940.Luxury foods such as bread, meat,milk, candy and cheese, popularamong city dwellers before the war,are virtually unobtainable.The yearly rice consumption hasbeen cut from 370 pounds per personto 40 pounds. F o r an adult male doinglight work, the daily ration is 3/ a of apin t of d ry rice. Fish, second mostimportant food in the Japanese diet,s also difficult.to obtain.S u p p l y of race and f i sh has been re-uced by the war . Never self-sufficienthe shortage of ships has cut off im-s from the south. Fish supply is

fisheGen, and because fishermen lackboats and fuel. Since the Japanesecoast is heavily mined, many fishingboats have been accidently sunk. Morethan 80 boats and about 900 fishermenwere lost in two years off Kyushu.Fishing boats have only enough gaso-line to operate 4% days a month.Food rat ioning . The entire produc-tion ofaaple foods is bought up bya central food corporation, which pro-vides first for the armies and sells theremainder to local food corporations,administered by local governments.Food rations are delivered to con-sumers through neighborhood associa-tions. Each association serves 10families.W h e n di s t ri b u t io n f a i l s . One Jalsa-nese village stretched a 15-day supclyof rice rations f or a month-eventhough fish was almost unavailableand there was no meat. Transpor ta-tion system, dislocated and overbur-dened by freight movements, hadbroken down. Adults in Aichi prefec-tu re went an entire month withoutsugar rations.

Buyingofood from the black markethas become a common practice. Pricesfor yamatorihiki (bargaining in thedark) may be four times as high asceiling prices. Officials radio speechesindicate that the black market rulesthe wart ime economy of Japan. Rice,however, cannot be obtained on theblack market.Although it is punishable by finesup to 1000 yen ($230), many Japa -nese claim ghost relatives to obtainextra food rations. Secret bart er,hoarding and bootlegging of food havealso appeared.Clo th ing . Nearly every item ofwearing apparel was rationed inJa pa n as long ago as 1942. The situa-tion has deteriorated even fur ther since

quality, most of it made from sufu,a synthetic cotton fabric that shredsafter two o r three washings; (3)available cotton has been earmarkedmainly for war purposes.


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have been closed by the thousands in Japanter manpower. Pictured is Tokyo's largest theater. CRABS are part of fish diet Japan reaps from the sea.Sea food has been cut by gasoline shortage and Jap mines.


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WOMEN comprise 8 3 % of Japans textile workers. Her eone displays vegetable fiber used for synthetic cotton.they a re needed as labor gangs o r un.skilled factory hands.Wages and Living Gods

Wages in Japan ar e low by westernstandards. But the wages are supple-mented with bonuses, sickness allow-ances, holiday gifts, dormitory orhousing accommodations, living outallowances, retirement and dischargePay.One survey reported that the aver-age wage of Tokyo factory and officeworkers was $16.10 a month, and thata few married couples earned as littleas $9.20 a month. Higher wages werepaid in heavy industries and to sea-men. The wage scale pegged by theGovernment in 1941 provided 22 to 76cents a day for male workers in fac-tories and mines, 13 to 27 cents a dayfo r women.To promote further savings andcheck a trend toward inflation, the Fi-nance Ministry installed a systemwhereby 30% of salaries and 70% ofall bonuses of h igher officials earningmore than $34.50 a month were paidin national bonds o r promissory notesdeposited in sav ings accounts. Thissystem was recommended to privateenterprise.Increased living costs. According toofficial figures, however, wages are notkeeping pace with the increasing costof living. Although runaway inflationhas been avoided, the cost-of-living in-dex in 1942 was 54% higher than in1937. Between 1937 and 1943, realearn ings of Japanese workers (i. e.,the amount of goods and services the irwages will buy) declined more than4 0 % , thus reducing their standards ofliving sharply. -All Japanese prices were frozen atthe September 1939 level a t the sametime as a wage-stop decree was pro-mulgated in October 1939. Officialprices of many important items havebeen raised, however, in response toPaae 10

pressures. Some goods ar e availableonly on the black market a t pricesfour times those listed officially. Thequality of Japanese consumer goodshas deteriorated markedly.Air Raid Defense

Japanese civilians, especially thoseliving in highly industralized areaswhich American B-29s have bombed,and such metropolitan districts asGreater Tokyo, are prepared forenemy air raids at any time, day o rnight. Wa r workers ar e expected t oreport f or work in wa r plants, regard-less of ai r raids. Drills, both in indus-trial and residential areas, are re-ported being held regularly.In January 1945 the Japanese Cab-inet voted a $460,000,000 air defensebudget to expand fire-fighting facili-ties and construct permanent under-ground shelters f o r key governmentoffices. The size of this appropriationmay be measured by comparing it withthe en tire war expenditures of the1941-42 budget- 1,122,400,000. Ap-proximately 4 1 % .In no part of Japan is civilian de-fense more elaborate than in Tokyoitself. Japanese living in the Tokyoarea are required to wear standard-ized identification tags around theirnecks, giving name, address and bloodtype. Air defense moats have beenbuilt in 35 sections of the city. Shel tertrenches have been dug along side-walks. Essential materials, such asfoodstuffs, supplies for infants, cloth-ing, fuel and housing materials, havebeen stored in places considered safefrom ai r attack. Rice porridge can-teens have been set up in Tokyo mu-nicipal mess halls.Evacuation plans. Compulsory evac-uation of non-essential civilians hasbeen carried out in the principal Japa-nese cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe,Kyoto, Yokosuka and the industrialareas of Kyushu and Nagoya. Ap-


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Icom-arer l l ynentndedrealtion.? forsma,operuatewise

T h e a r l c l e oncerpt from th e 5annual report 1precerliltg page).ECAUSE 19 iB invasions, tl

' lem ib caring imen in the Nataking medicalThe solutionamphibious meevolved a chainreaching from 1beachhead to aidpitals, thence to,and finally to f l lPage 12

Impany-one corps-nty-five men in thelanding craft on thelrst aid by the boatled and equipped forreturned to the shiple.


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WO'trans40 b

Official U. C. Coast Gua rd nhotoaraah

wim well rrainea surglcal zeams ariuhospital corpsmen and are equippedwith the latest surpical equipment andsupplies. The ships may include as-sault transports ( A P A s ) , LSTs, hos-pital carriers (A P H s ) and hospitalships ( A H s ) . Each tvoe has its oar-ticulusuaceivcdemifromtheirserioin thospbefoito bhosptypetranslastTha SIfOllO1sionsthe 1the 1sel aship.its Fcasu2routetheboar(examhospiThhandsingllshortof W(ment,the Ihaps,fleettask.menoff-loarapidtheirFreqities PcomplearlieA s swhich the ship Drought to tne oeacn-head was out of the way the LSTbecame both an operating theater anda casualty-carrying ship on its returntrip t o England.

D-pl

wour

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Low Mortality RateIn the Normandy operationcare during the assault phase w a aexacting because of the nature andthe severity of the wounds. Definitivelife saving surgery was practiced ona large number of cases aboard LSTsand the majority of the wounded

reaching England for hospitalizationwere in excellent condition. The re-sult: an extremely low mortality rateof three-tenths of one per cent amongthe wounded reaching England.These LSTs handled 41,035 woundedas their contribution to the Normandy

ar'role.' The hospkal ships ( A H ).lly arrive in the combat area onus-one, during daylight, and re-: fresh casuaIties, if the situationmds, or take aboard wounded menI other ships which have reached' casualty-carrying capacity. Thelusly wounded are given priorityransfer t o hospital ships. Theita1 ships depart from the areare nightfall, taking their woundedase hospitals in the rear. Theita1 carrier ( A P H ) is the secondThe assaultsport ( A P A ) and the LST are theships t o leave for the rear areas.le LST has proved invaluable aslip for the evacuation of theided. It was first used in thery-up t o the Sicily and Italy inva-and later in the Pacific. Atpresent time it is being used in?acific as a casualty control ves-nd, in one instance, as a hospitalThe casualty control LST takesposition near the beach and alltlties from the beachhead are~d o it fo r distribution. Some ofwounded men are retained on1 while others are sent, afterlination, to assault transports,tal carriers and hospital ships.e LST bears the distinction ofling more casualties during the44 invasions than any othere type of ship. It is ideal forhauls where the early dischargeiunded is possible. The arr ange-s made to handle wounded fromVormandy beachhead were, per-the most interesting. A specialof LSTs was designated for thisThey were loaded with combatand equipment which could beaded on the beaches with speciality, quickly freeing the LSTs forassignment as evacuation ships.iently in the early phases casual-qere loaded before the ships wereletely unloaded, affording thest possible care of the woundedoo n a s . tee combat equipme$

of ship t o depart.

(Corntiwed om ; age 72)


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BOTTLEDBLOODNavy Flies 1,000 PintsA Day to Pacific Area

ITHIN 48 hours after it hadW rained from donors veins atfive West Coast Red Cross centers,whole blood was reviving woundeamen in the Philippines. When the Ma-rines clawed out a beachhead on IwoJima, whole blood went right alongwith them in special landing craftthat carried no other cargo.Approximately 1,000 pints of theprecious fluid are being flown out t othe Pacific area each day by NavalAir Transport Service, the amountvaryi-ng as needs change, and medicalauthorities declare tha t fatalities havebeen and are being sharply reducedby the availability of whole blood insizable quantities.Although the life-saving value ofplasma cannot be minimized and itis still the most widely used restora-tive-the No. 1 item in each hospitalcorpsmans front-line supply kit-many wounded need whole blood.Its probably the greatest singlefactor in the saving of lives since thedevelopment of sulfa drugs, was thecomment of Capt. C. P. Archambeault,(MC) USN, division surgeon of the3d Marine Division, as he watchedquanti ties of whole blood moving rightup to company medical stations atIwo.In the Iwo operation, blood collec-tions at donor centers in San Fran-cisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diegoand Portland were timed with the de-parture of fleet transports from theMarianas. NATS planes flew the bot-tled blood to Guam, the Pacifics blooddistribution center, where it wasloaded aboard special craft in specialcontainers that required daily ice re-freshing . Additional small containerswere used t o take it ashore. Properlypacked, whole blood after 21 days stillhas 75% of the efficiency of freshlydrawn blood.The special lightweight refrigerat-ors used to store the blood on NATSplanes contain 16 pint bottles and arecapable of maintaining the propertemperature for more than 60 hours.While the Army is responsible forEuropean distribution, the Navy han-dles Pacific distribution. A blood bankfacility has been set up at Guamwhence whole blood is supplied toArmy field and evacuation hospitals,Marine field hospitals, Navy base hos-pitals and hospital ships, amphibiousforces and major ships.One of the chief benefits of bottledblood is that it reduces the need ofseeking donors among other fightingmen. Fo r example, a soldier wasabout t o give a direct transfusion toa badly wounded sergeant near theOrmoc-Limon line on Leyte when thefirst bottles of blood reached the ArmyThe home front bloodwas used . . . and the would-be soldierdonor returned to his duties.


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The Sub Cre w W at ch ed Through Gun SightsAs the Rescue Crew

AI? bullets were winging over theJ deck of the uss H a r d e r . The sub-marines skipper was talking to thecrew. He was a 38-year-old Texan,Comdr. Samuel D. Dealey, USN.I want you to know, he said, ifyou go in there, heavy fire from theshore may force us t o cut away andback down-and we may not be ableto come back after you.He paused to let it sink in. He wasasking for volunteers and he wantedthem t o know what they were letting

themselves in for.And another thing, he added, theJap s may be setting a trap, just wait-ing for more men to get further in.It could be a trap. That was thehell of it.They were lying off an island-aJap-held island. They had watched aman crawl out of the surf on to thebeach. Now he was on his feet, lean-ing on a pole, waving to them. Butwas he an American? He didnt havea helmet, a life jacket, o r anythingthat could be identified as U. S. Navygear. His flying suit was wet andlooked black. His face, too, was dark,maybe from sun, maybe from rising-sun. Another funny thing was a sec-ond figure on the beach, a native whojust squatted and watched.How many Japs were watchingfrom behind the palms was the ques-Page 16

Paddled to Jap Isletion. It was in .the back of t he cap-tains mind. It was in the crews. Butwhen the captain asked who was goingin to bring the flyer back, every manwanted to go.The Rescue Party

The captain had no trouble pickinga rescue party. His gunnery officer,Lt. Samuel M. Logan, USN, a Ken-tuckian who was No. 2 man in hisclass at Annapolis, headed the expe-dition. With him went Francis X.Ryan, MoMMlc, USNR, 20, of Shenan-doah, Pa.; Freeman Paquet Jr., GMlc,USN, 25, Milford, Conn.; and J. W.Thomason, SClc, USNR, 24, Daniels-ville, Ga.

Thesurf w as kicking up. The rescuershad hardly shoved off from the sub-marine when the seas capsized theirrubber boat. A second boat had tobe launched. In this the four menfought their way toward the beach.From the H a r d e r , eyes followed therubber boat as it bobbed across thereefs. Many of the eyes watchedthrough gun sights, for every gunaboard was trained shoreward, readyfor Ja p trickery.As they watched, the man on theshore looked a s though h e were u p tosomething. He was. He had a rubber

Getting ashore was no cinch.

raft of his own. He inflated it andpushed off weakly into the water. Itlooked as though he might be tryingt o elude the men from the submarineas he swung away before the currentand the wind. But the rescue pa rtybore down on him and finally closedand grappled with him and his raft.

He was an American flyer all right-Lt. (j g) John R. Galvin, uSNR, 24,of Burlington, Iowa.Lt. (jg.) Galvin had taken off fromhis carrier, the uss Bunker H i l l , be-fore dawn for an air strike at Woleaiin the Carolines.The flyers thundered over the .targetabout 0730, and as they dove to at-tack, the Japs filled the sky with flak.It clipped Lt. (j g) Galvin. Smokefilled the cockpit and flames shot outaround his legs. Yanking back on thestick, he pulled the plane up to about1,000 feet so he could bail out. Ashe went over the side a hose connec-tion of his anti-blackout suit caughtand he crashed into the tail of theplane. His back and right side werewrung with pain. He fell away fromthe plane and just had time to tugthe ri p cord before lapsing into a daze.

Swimming for ItGalvin came to in the water, abouttwo miles from land. Fi rst thing hedid was free himself from his chute.His pack gone and life raft, too, he .had t o swim for it.I could not unzip my anti-blackout


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suit f ar enough to get out of it, Gal-vin wrote in his report later. I wasable to open the chest zipper, but theleg zippers were tight and refused tobudge . . . hat zoot suit made swim-ming extremely difficult, not only be-cause of the weight but because ofthe interference, from the danglinghose.He lightened himself by discardinghis pistol, cartridge belt, knife andone shoe.I am not an expert swimmer,Galvin relates, but I found that byswimming on my back I could makethe best headway. I swam on mystomach only occasionally to take alook around to get my bearings . . .After three hours and 1 5 minutes inthe water, I finally made the outerreef of Tagaulap Island where Icould rest. I removed my life jacket.I could not s tand up because of myinjuries and because I was exhaustedfrom the long swim. However, aftera short rest, I managed to cover the400 yards to the beach by crawlingand scooting on my left elbow. I wasnot able to use my right arm o r leg.His face was bleeding heavily fromcuts on the coral when he pulled him-self cautiously up on the beach.I expected to see a bunch of Ja psnipers come out of those palms a ndeither shoot o r capture me any min-ute. But there ju st wasnt anythingI could do about it.I did not see the H a r d e y until itwas heading my way as I was lyingon the beach. With the aid of a pole,

b,= L C C l .Meantime, a TB F had dropped mea r af t in response to my request writtenin the sand. I inflated the raft andpushed off from shore. However, thetide and wind carried me in the oppo-site direction. I sighted three men ina rubber boat coming toward me fromthe sub. This boat capsized in therough water, however, and a fourthman in another overtook the threeand this rescue par ty soon reached me.They put me in their boat and by wad-ing and swimming managed to get meback through the reefs. It was toughgoing, but by very strong swimmingand with the help of a line they madeit back to the H a r d e r and lifted meaboard.But thi s wasnt the end of the res-cue story, of which Fleet AdmiralChester W. Nimitz, USN, Commanderin Chief, Pacific Fleet, said: I con-sider the performance of the com-manding officer, the officers and crewof the uss H a r d e r one of the outstand-ing rescue feats accomplished t o datein the Pacific Area and in keepingwith the highest traditions of theentire submarine force.N e w C r e w M e m b e r

The H a r d e r was on war patrol. SOGalvin became a member of the crewof one of the Navys most gall ant sub-mannes. It wa s a new kind of warf o r a carr ier pilot,.but the days th atfollowed. some of them full of excite-ment, were the most pleasant in m ywhole life, for Galvin.The Harh r s executive officer, Lt.Comdr. Frank C. Lynch Jr., USN, 30,Bf Devon, Pa., gave up his bunk tothe flyer, while food prepared byships cook Rober t Moore he1 ednurse the wounded man back to hearth.Later, Lt. Keith Phillips, USNR, 26,Los Angeles, the Harders chief engi-neer, gave up a lower bunk for anupper so Galvin with his injurieswouldnt have to climb. The subma-rine really had a chance to put on adisplay of hospitality when Galvinsbirthday came around. Somewhereunder the Pacific, the commissary de-partment baked a cake.The H a r d e r was also cooking withgas dishinff out death and destruction,


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SEAGOING CRADLESTime Was When a Ship Went to Drydock-N ow Drydocks G o to Ships in Forward Areas

HEY call it an ARD, and from anT esthetic viewpoint it may be themonstrosity of the U. S. Navy; butits presence in the forward area hasenabled huhdreds of damaged shipst o be repaired nea r the front lines andhustled back into the fight.The ARD-auxiliary repai r drydock-is a ponderous, mobile hull that canbelly down into the water, virtuallyscoop up a crippled destroyer, pumpitself dry and rise to cradle its ailingoccupant for repairs.Service Force, Pacific Fleet, em-ploys more than a score of thesestrange ships. They have no individ-ual names; only numbers. They arepart of the Navys answer t o the for-In many respects they are cheaperand more practical than the land-based drydock. Most important of all,they ar e mobile. They rely on dryland in only one respect: they mustoperate in sheltered waters wherethey can moor securely and operatewithout interference from a swelling,stormy sea.The ARD is not a wartime inven-tion; but the war has brought t olight its extreme practicality and af-.forded a lot of practice in its use.Most ARDs can dock anything upt o an LST, which is larger than a de-stroyer . Their tanks are flooded fo r

submerging, an operation which low-ers the great hull into the water withthe gate in its after end open. Whenthe inner bottom of th e hull is belowthe hull of the ship to be docked, thepatient is floated into the enclosure.The gate then is closed and the waterpumped out. This raises the hull andleaves the occupant, which has beenbraced and secured on each side t oprevent tipping within the basin, highand dry for repair work.The ARD has no self-propulsion,

ward area rapid-repair problem.

its mobility depending entirely upon atowing vessel such as a fleet tug. R u tin many other respects it resemblesany large vessel. It ha s a pointedbow and a bridge and pilot house top-side forward, together with comfor-table living quarters and wardroomfor officers. Most of the crews quar-ters, along with the crews mess, arein the compartments of the hull oneither side of the repair basin.The ships normal complement isabout five officers and 120 men. Amachine shop with facilities for fairlyextensive repair work is part of thevessels equipment.. F o r the big jobs,however, a repair ship generallyworks in conjunction with the ARD.One of the hardest-working veter-an s in Service Forces fleet of ARDs isA R D 2, the Navys first floating dry-dock t o go outside the continentallimits. Commissioned in April 1942,she left the Staxes to complete fittingout at Pearl Harbor, where the crewwas given much practical training.Twenty-five destroyers were docked inher basin du ring her sta y there, most-ly for improving and modernizing.In October 1942, towed by the uSSPrometheus, a repair ship, A R D 2 leftPearl Harbor on the long voyage. t oNoumea, New Caledonia, passingthrough the then Jap-occupied Elliceislands well within enemy submarinepatrol range.

There was a lot to be done a t Nou-mea, and for 20 months A R D 2 andher industrious crew did it, increasingthe number of ships docked to a totalbelieved t o be a record for floatingdrydocks in this war. For the firstsix months the work proceeded on a24-hours-a-day basis, with the crewworking in shifts. She was the onlydrydock in the forward area, and theneed f o r her facilities was both exten-sive and urgent.On one occasion during those trying

months the ARD 2 cradled three smallcra ft in he r basin a t once. The largestsingle ship she handled was the Del-phinus, a 4 300-ton cargo vessel whichhad grounded. Fo r 17 days the Del-phinus had ripped her bottom on areef, and thus required extensive sur- veying and trimming under waterprior t o drydocking. This is the mostdangerous phase of an ARD crewswork. The jagged edges of buckledpIates and holes t o r n in the hull of avessel must be trimmed off before itcan be floated into anything operatingon so narrow a margin of depth as anARD. The diver must do his work inoil-blackened water where it often isdifficult fo r him to see his hand infront of his face. The sharp, jaggededges of protruding steel are a con-stant threat t o his life lines, the cut-ting of which means almost certaindeath.A R D 2 had the uss Wote.rs, a de-stroyer, in her basin when a 90-mile-an-hour hurricane struck Noumeaharbor. Having no self-propulsion, theARD would have been completely a tthe mercy of the sto rm had she brokenfrom her mooring. Another thre atwas the possible failure of the side-bracing, which would have allowed thedocked vessel t o slip, rol l and smashat the sides of the basin. But A R D 2submerged t o within a few feet of herrail to present the least possible windresistance, reinforced the bracing ofher occupant, dug in and rode out thewind and the fury-alone. All theother vessels in the harbor had headedfo r shelter upon receipt of the stormwarning.The need for floating drydocks inthe forward area was painfullybrought t o light early in the war bythe loss of the destroyer uss OBrien.After receiving considerable battle .damage, the OBrien limped to thenearest port, where efforts were madet o patch her up as well as possiblewithout benefit of drydock. Enr outeback to the States, where she plannedt o get complete re?pairs, the OBrienbroke in half and sank; her weakenedhull couldnt stand the st rain of thelong trip . The presence of a drydockat either Noumea o r Espiritu Santowould have saved the OBrievz.

Of f ic ia l U. S. Navy photoflrapliGATE by which ships enter ARD (auxiliary repair drydock)i s in stern. Note port and starboard traveling cranes.

18BASIN OF ARD i s large enough to accomodate LSTs. Thisinboard view, looking forward, shows how basin looks ernpfy.


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During a strafing attack on theuss Princeton, which since has beenlost, Lt. Otto K. Olander, (ChC)USNR, helped a badly hurt bluejackett o the emergency treatment room. Thesailor turned grateful eyes to thechaplain, then grinned broadly andbegan to laugh.Lt. Olander was puzzled that a manso wounded could find anything atwhich to laugh. Whyre you laugh-ing, son? the ,,chaplain asked.Its funny, the wounded mangasped between chuckles. Its awfulfunny. You see, youre the chaplain. . . .and you st ar t the Sunday serv-ices all the time with Holy, holy,holy! . . . and, boy; that sure is meall over!

A CASE OF PREVENTIONThe landing craft had to scootthrough a veil of uiolent Ja p mortarfire. Somehow it hit the LingayenGulf beach without a single casualtyam ong its Coast Guard crew o r theinvasion troops it taxied. Late r, how-ever, a crewman suffered a hand in-jury and opened the boats first-aidcase.Only then did the crew ,learn howclose death had come. Embedded inthe chests tightly packed supply ofcotton, gauze, adhesive tape andsplints was an uglv five-inch hunk ofsteel. It had slashed through the

boats plywood side, only to have itsforce smothered in the first-aid case.Without even being opened, themercy kit had saved lives.THE PLANE IS HERE TO STAYThey did the craziest things withthose nine-year-old SOCs. Even freshout of the factory, the old Curtissscouts never have been expected todo anything more than hover over atarg et and spot fo r a ships guns. Butthe hardy little band of cruiser-basedairmen under Lt. (j g) Austin J. Trin-kle, USN, frequently flew the ancientbiplanes out of this comparatively

LUCK OF THE IRISHThe Petrit z family of Rockford, Ill.,has heard a lot about the luck of theIrish. The oldest son, Joseph, waspublicity director for the University ofNotre Dames football team before heaccepted a commission in the NavalReserve. But the so-called luck ofthe Irish of which Notre Dame gridopponents might complain could nevercompare to the good fortune whichfollowed Josephs younger brother,George, also a Naval Reserve lieuten-ant, through more than two years ofimprisonment by the Japs and whicheventually led him to safety.At the s tar t, of course, it didntlook at all like Lt. George Petritz,USNR, who was an ensign in commandof a patrol craft in the Philippineswhen the war broke out, could ever beconsidered lucky. Af te r fighting dur-ing the bloody, dismal days of Ba taanand Corregidor, during which he wonthe Navy Cross, Lt. Petritz was cap-tured by the Japs. Then occurred thefirs t of his good breaks: ne escapedthe infamous Death March of Bataan.Soon after came his second goodbreak: he was sent to deadly Cabana-tuan Camp No. 1 but, after a fewdays, was transferred from this hell-ish hole, where so many fellow Ameri-cans perished, to the somewhat morecivilized Cabanatuan No. 3. There hewas held until last mid-October. Withabout 1,600 other Americans, he thenwas moved to Bilibad near Manilawhence, on 13 December, they weremarched aboard a Jap transport forshipment t o Japan.American bombers, unaware of thepathetic cargo carried by the ship,bombed it off the Bataan coast thenext day and, within 24 hours, it sank.Then came Lt. Petritzs third break:of the 1,600 prisoners, only he and anArmy private escaped death or recap-ture.(If the bombs had not sunk theship when they did, Lt. Petritz re-called upon his rescue, (90% of USwould have died of suffocation in thefilthy, airless holds.Conditions aboard ship, he said,were intolerable. He had been crammedwith about 800 men into a hold nolar ger than a tennis court, barely highenough for a man to stand erect andvirtually without air. Another 800were divided between two smallerholds. Thirty men died in his hold

A sudden lurch of the sub-chasersent the seaman plunging into blackPacific waters. The alarm: Man

overboard! was given. Seldom in war-time do large vessels stop for a manoverboard in dangerous waters, butthe uss A j a x , a repair ship cruisingnearby, hove to and began gashing thenight with its searchlights.Fifteen minutes . . . a half-hour . ..three-quarters of an hour passed. ThePC queried if the search should con-tinue. Yes, answered the A j a x sskipper, Capt. John L. Brown, USN.And so the search went on for anotherhalf-hour before a sharp-eyed signal-man on the A j a x s bridge finally spot-ted a mans head bobbing in the water,a quarter-mile off the port quarter.Minutes later, in the warm, welcomewash of a spotlight, friendly handshauled the sodden seaman aboard.Well, he wisecracked, its abouttime!AFLYERATSURQERYThe Filipino guerrilla was in greatpain and grave danger. The bullethad lodged in his spine. It had to beremoved. But medical aid was fa raway from this isolated spot on SamarIsland. So , even as the earth shud-dered f rom the shock of enemy bombs,the Navy Catalina pilot went to work.With sulfa powder and in the flameof a cigaret lighter, he sterilized theinstruments. Next, he administeredmorphine from a first-aid kit and laidthe wound open with a scout knife.Then, by the eerie glare of flashlightsheld by two squadron mates, and as twoFilipino guerrillas kept the incisionopen with bent safety pins, Lt. (jg)Darwin R. Day, USNR, successfully re-moved the bullet with a pair of long-nosed airplane pliers.

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H E significant role played by ou rT mphibious forces in bringing aboutthe gr eat succession of Allied victo-ries in both the European and Pacifictheaters was stressed by Fleet Ad-miral Ernest J. King, USN, Comman-der-in-Chief, U. S. Fleet, and Chief ofNaval Operations, in a comprehensivereport to the Secretary of the Navyon the manner in which the Navyhas carried the attack to the enemyduring the 12 months from 1 March1944 to 1 March 1945.Pointing out that within one yearthe ba ttle of the Pacific has been car-ried westward more than 3,000 miles

t o the very approaches of Tokyo and,in the same period, the invasion ofEurope was accomplished, Fleet Ad-miral King declared that these suc-cesses have been made possible onlyby the strength and resolution of ouramphibious forces, acting in conjunc-tion with the fleet.The report, dated 12 March 1945,covers in considerable detail the majoractions in which the Navy took art.The narrative sta rts with the la ngn gsin Hollandia, carries through the Nor-mandy invasion, th e seizure of theMarianas, the recapture of the Philip-.pines and ends with the a ttacks on theinner circle of Japans defenses-theconquest of Iw o Jima and the carrierplane strikes on Tokyo.Abouthalf of the report is givenover to accounts of combat operations.(Verbat im excerpts from some of thoseaccounts will be found liter in thisarticle.)Some of the other many featuresof the report are:PACIFIC SCHEDULE: We haveheard much of things being ahead ofschedule in the Pacific. Actually, wehave had no schedule, except to go asfa r and as fast as the means in handwould permit. It can be said that thewar today is ahead of o u r expecta-,tions of last year.THE BATTLEQHIP: Battleshipfire provides the only gun ( o r weaponfor that matter) that is sufficientlypowerful and accurate t o knock outreinforced concrete pillboxes 8 t o 10feet thick .and other similarly strongland gun emplacements. . . The newapplications of naval gunfire in am-phibious operations, as well as infleet actions, have demonstrated that

the battleship is a versatile aftd es-sential vessel, far from obsolete.TEAWORK IN BATTLE: Thereis no such thing as a dispute as to


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As soon as essential points in theMarshall Islands had been securedpreparations were made for the Mar i -anas operation. . .Enemy airbases on Marcus andWake Islands flanked on the north ourapproach. Consequently, a detach-ment . . . from the 5th Fleet attackedthese islands almost a month beforethe projected landings in order t o de-stroy aircraft, shore installations andshipping. . .From about the beginning of June,land-based aircraft from the Admir-aldes, Green, Emirau and Hollandia,kept enemy bases, especially at Truk,Palau and Yap, well neutralized. Thefa st carriers and battleships of the5th Fleet . . . prepared the way forthe amphibious assault. Carrier planesbegan attacks on the Marianas on 11Ju ne with the object of first destroy-ing aircra ft and air facilities and thenconcentrating on bombing shore de-fenses.. .

Initial Landings on SaipanSaipan, the first objective, was the

key t o the Japanese defenses; havinbeen in Japanese hands since Worl%War I, its fortifications were formi-dable. Although a rugged island un-like the coral atolls of the Gilbertsand Marshalls, Saipan was partly sur-rounded by a reef which made landingextremely difficult. To prepare forthe assault scheduled for 15 June, sur-face ships began to bombard Saipanon the 13th . , . minesweepers clearedthe waters . . . underwater demolitionteams (cleared) the beaches. . .i Ea rly on the morning of 15 June,the transports, cargo ships and LSTs. . . came into position off the westcoast of Saipan. . . The first troopsreached the beaches a t 0840 andwithin the next half hour severalthousand were landed. . . In spite ofpreparat ory bombing and .bombard-ment, the enemy met the landing forcewith heavy fire from mortars andsmall calibre guns . . . The strong re-sistance at Saipan, coupled with thenews of a sortie of the Japanese fleet,delayed landings on Guam.Battle of the Philippine Sea

This sortie . . . promised t o developinto a full scale action. On 15 June. . . Admiral Spruance received re-ports that a large force was headedtoward him. . . As the primary mis-sion of the American forces . . . wasto capture the Marianas, the Saipan

With further air attacks againstSaipan by enemy aircraft unlikely . .our fleet headed to the westward hoping t o bring the Japanese fleet to action. Search planes did not makecontact until the afternoon (of the20th) and, when heavy strikes fromour carriers were sent out, it wasnearly sunset. The enemy was so fa rto the westward that our air attackshad to be made at extreme range.They sank 2 enemy carriers, 2 de-stroyers and l tanker and severelydamaged 3 carriers, 1 battleship, 3cruisers, 1 destroyer and 3 tankers.We lost only 16 planes shot down . .low gasoline . . . and darkness cut theattack short. . . 73 planes were lostdue to running out of fuel and landingcrashes, but over 90% of the person-nel . . .were picked up. . .The enemy continued retiring on thenie ht of the 20th and during the 21st. . .Admiral Spruances primary mis-sion precluded getting out of r ange ofthe Marianas, and on the night of the21st, distance caused the chase t o beabandoned. The Bat tle of the Philip-pine Sea broke the Japanese effort t oreinforce the Marianas. . .Conquest of Saipan

During the major fleet engagement,land fighting on Saipan continued . . .bitterly. . . The Japanese, exploitingthe terrain, resisted with machineguns, small arms and light mortarsfrom caves and other almost inaccessi-ble positions. . . On 4 July the 2d Ma-rine Division captured Garapan, thecapital city . . . and all organized re-sistance ceased on the 9th. . .

While the campaign ashore went on,it was constantly supported by surfaceand air forces. Surface ships were al-ways ready to deliver gunfire, whichwas controlled by liaison officers ashorein order to direct the fire where it wouldbe of greates t effectiveness. Carr ieraircra ft likewise assisted. Supplies,ammunition, artillery and reinforce-ments were brought t o the reef bylanding craft and were carried ashoreby amphibious vehicles until suchtime as reef obstacles were cleared


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In order to cut the enemy overwaterlines of supply and reinforcement andto separate enemy ground forces onLeyte, an additional amphibious land-ing was made at Ormoc Bay, on thewest coast of the island, on 7 Decem-ber. Naval forces . . . put Army troopsashore 3 miles southeast of Ormocaga ins t sporadic resistance. The de-stroyer Mahan and destroyer transportWard were, however, so heavily dam-aged by enemy aerial torpedoes thatit was necessary for them t o be sunkby our own forces. Several days priort o the landing the destroyer Cooperwas lost in a night action . . . and on11 December the destroyer Reid wassunk during an enemy air attack ona supply convoy . . .Landings on Mindoro

In 15 December . . . forces landedon the southwest coast of Mindoro . .The landing was without oppositionfrom shore, but sporadic air attacksresulted in the sinking of a few LSTs.In moving from Leyte to Mindoro, ourforces obtained the advantages of morefavorable weather for . . . aircraftoperations.Occupation of southwest. Mindoropresented a more serious threat toManila and to Japan's shipping lanesthrough the South China Sea. . Car-rier planes of the 3rd Fleet promptlybegan making Manila Bay untenable. .. n attacks on 14 ,15 and 16 Decem-ber o u r carrier aircraft sank or de-stroyed 27 vessels and damaged 60more, destroyed 269 Japanese planes,and bombed air and railroad facilities.On 17 December sea conditions be-ga n to deteriorate east of Luzon wherethe 3rd Fleet was scheduled to refuel;a typhoon of severe intensity developedwith great rapidity along an erratic

course. Although the main body of thefleet escaped the center of the storm,the destroyers Hull, Spence and Mon-aghan were lost.Landings a t Lingayen Gulf

The mid-December ca rrie r strikes onManila Bay had led the enemy t o ex-pect further landings in that area.When we by-passed southern Luzonand landed on the south and southeastcoast of Lingayen Gulf on 9 January,the enemy was again taken by sur-prise.Luzon . . . s generally mountainous,but is cut by two large valleys. Thecentral plain, extending from Lin-gayen to Manila Bay-about 100 mileslong and 30 to 50 miles wid e-con tains. . . the major concentration of the

Landings in Lingayen Gulf werescheduled for 9 January. During thepassage of the attack force t o Lin-gayen there was no enemy surfaceopposition. One Japane se destroyerput out from Manila Bay, and wassunk . . . Intensive air attack bothduring the passage and the prelimi-nary operations . . . resulted in theloss of the escort carrier Omma neyBay, the fast mine sweepers Long,H o v e y and Palmer, and considerabletopside damage to other ships. Forthree days prior to the assault . . .battleships, cruisers and destroyersbombarded the area , while mine sweep-ers were at work and beach obstacleswere being cleared. Immediately priort o the landings the bombardment . . .and air strikes . . . were intensified;'the assault waves were preceded byrocket-firing and mortar-ca rrying land-ing craf t . ..

While the troops were going ashore,the 3rd Fleet carrier task force wasstriking Formosa . . . As a result ofthis operation there was little enemyair interference with the . . . andings:the 3rd Fleet in addition netted 15enemy ships sunk and 58 damaged . .3rd Fleet Covering Operations

In continued support of the Lin-gayen operations, the 3rd Fleet fastcarrier task force made a thrust intothe South China Sea, especially seek-ing the destruction of any majo r unitsof the Japanese fleet . . . None werefound, but the air strikes of 1 2 Janu-ary. . . between Saigon and CamranhBay achieved much shipping destruc-tion. One enemy convoy was entirelydestroyed and two others were se-verely mauled : the shipping tallytotaled 41 ships sunk and 31 damaged.112 enemy planes were destroyed, anddocks, oil storage and air field facili-ties were heavily damaged . . .Formosa was struck again on the15th . . . while fighter sweeps andsearches were made t o Amoy, Swatow,Hong Kong and Hainan.

harbor. additional amwhibious land-ious assault force put the . . . Army. . . ashore in the San Narciso area.Island in Subic Bay . . . and this fineharbor was made available for furtheroperations against the Manila en-trance.An assault force landed elementsJanuary . . .On 13 February . . . ight cruiserst o Man"i1a Bay and on the followingta an peninsula. Mine sweepers beganclearing Manila Bay. On the 15th . . .troops landed a t Mariveles on Bataanagainst verv light omosition and onIThe abilitv t o da ce trootx ashore insweewine of mines in the channel be-

forces had covered th e ko un d tha t hadrequired more than four months for theJaDanese in 1942. In comparing the 1cases the attacking forces had control

' of the sea and air. The Jawanese re-dor. Ou; method -employed navalstrength as the spearhead of amphib-ious assault, thus allowing the groundforce commander flexibility in select-ing the time and place of the attack.

i111111111111i11i111illlllillllllillilllllllllllililllllllllllllllllllillllilllllllIll~llHlullllllll~lnlllllullllIlllllllulllllillllllllllllllllllll~llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllHl


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The date . . .was determined chieflyweather and tide conditions. Theo r early summer presentedmost favorable weather prospects,o u r airA spring tide was desir-so that as many as possible of theexposed a toated f a r up the beach a t high tide.of day was determined sos to allow some daylight f o r prelimi-ry bombardment . . .and a half-tide. . t o enable landing craft to passJoint Army-Navy training began in1943. In the spring of 1944

. . .The general scheme ... rovided forS. troops in U. S. vesselst o betook the eastern half. The naval

S.) Task Forcethe Eastern (British) Task Force.. . .U. . nd a follow-up force.By 1 June, when the loading of2,493 U. S. Navy ships. ..

On 3 June all troops had been. . .but . . . iming of the oper-of good weather were needed,

5 June. It was appar-3 Jun e that unfavorable weather4 Junea postponement of 24By the evening4 June, much improved conditionsf the

The Assault on Omaha BeachForce 0, he larger of the twoAmerican assault forces, had as its

target the Vierville-Colleville sector. . . called for the pur;pose of theselandings beach Omaha. On it s east-ern flank was Port-en-Bessin, whichmarked the dividing line between theBritish and American areas. On itswestern Rank was the Carentan estu-ary, which separated it from ForceUs beach, Utah, on the Cher-bourg peninsula . . .Convoys began moving on 5 June ..No enemy action hindered the move-ment, but a choppy sea with a 20-knotwind . . .made landing operations dif-ficult. . . Mine sweepers cleared chan-nels, and Arkansas , T e x a s and othercombat ships opened their scheduledfire on shore batteries. Unfortunate ly. . . the planned air bombing washampered by weather conditions, andcertain LCT (A) s (landing craft armedwith M-4 tanks) and amphibious tanksfailed to reach the beach on schedule.In addition, the 352d Field Division ofthe German Army happened to beholding exercises in the area, and im-mediately joined the coastal defensetroops . . .The tanks, infantry and demolitionparties . . were subjected at once toa heavy cross-fire . . . losses weresevere. Troops continued . . . owardthe beach and by 1030 the e ntire land-ing force had been committed, thoughnumerous personnel . . . were pinneddown on the beach just above highwater by enemy fire. Destroyers andgunfire support craft stood in as closeto the beach as the depth of waterwould allow and engaged all enemyguns which they could observe. Thefirst encouraging news came at 1100when German soldiers began to leavetheir posts and surrender . . .B y lateafternoon . . action against the beacharea had ceased, and the work of or-ganizing the beaches for further un-loading was progressing . . .Our heavy ships had no trouble inputting the enemys major shore bat-teries out of action promptly. Our

The assault on Utah beaches pro-as. .planned.ressed - substantially

phibious tanks and lanaing crancarrying troops ,. ..whjch were sup--.-a:-- ..-.-OLand Quincy had breachea me seawallin five places, materially aiding ou radvance inland . . . Nearly all of thebeach obstacles were exposed andArmy engineers and Navy demolitionteams were able to clear lanes . . .Although our concentrated ai r andnaval combardment had temporarilyneutralized the enemys coastal bat-teries . . . the enemy from 1100 on-wards brought the beach yn9er accu-were extremely har d t o knocK our, D U ~by early afternoon all but three hadbeen si!enced . : -During the first

7- .-bo L__._.._

plies.

them extreme. On the otner nana, t oattempt the assault of a continent over open beaches, affording no pro-tection from the vagaries,. of the

The solution . . . was one of the


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diers, sailors and marines so well of these may btcome the nucleus oftrained th at with only a month o r two whatever new democratic governmentTW O WEEKSOF RADIO TOKYO y Rob- fo r assembly and physical conditioning it will be possible to establish in Ger-er t Sherrod (Life, 19 Feb.). While at they could help defend this country. many, says the writer.sea with the 3d Fleet, Sherrod listened UNDERWHATBANNER?y John Scholtefor two weeks to radio reports from Nollen (Nation, 24 Feb.). The presi- VETERANSTokyo, broadcast in English every dent emeritus of Grinnell College m7r- mr r r r __ -~ - -_....-hl __ _~ --,-THE ENEMY

afternoon hour on the hour. Ameri-cans were always panic stricken o rin hasty retreat. Joy was expressedthat U. S. troops had invaded Luzonbecause now the Japanese can anni-hilate them in large numbers. Thewriter says his favorite phrase was,All the American ships w9fe instan-taneously sunk o r damaged.THE NAZIS NEXT12 YEARS y HorstHendershausen (Nation, 17 Feb.) .In the opinion of the Bennington po-litical economics professor, an effec-tive German counterforce with reason-able freedom of action will be neces-sary to defeat the Nazi postwar plansand loosen Nazisms hold on thepeople. He says recent AMG measurestend to suppress the very forces whichwould establish an qrder which is nota Nazi order. He warns that politicaldebacle is not insured by military de-feat, that Hitlers plans call for acontinuing war.AERONAUTICSAIR-SEARESCUE y Critchell Riming-ton (Yachting, Feb.) . Its story in thiswar, with a prediction that the crashboats will have an important role inpostwar aviation. The author is crit-ical of Army and Navy for maintain-ing two individual rescue services, inspite of the fa ct tha t a joint air-searescue advisory committee was estab-lished in Washington shortly beforewe entered the war. He sees CoastGuard air-sea rescue service as serv-ing both commercial and private avia-tion in the postwar years.HELICOPTG~~SLife , 26 Feb.). A briefarticle, with pictures, on the presentst at e of helicopters. Only ones inquantity production, says Life, areSikorskys. S o far 262 flyers have be-come helicopter pilots. Civilian useafter the war will be limited by thefact they will not be easy t o fly andthey will be expensive.WING TALK edited by Frederick R.Neely (Colliers, 17 March). Bluejack-ets, GIs and marines frequently writein to inquire about postwar opportuni-ties in aviation. This edition of WingTalk discusses some of the endlesspossibilities : nonscheduled operations,operational jobs at airports, fliqht in-struction, crop dusting and seed plant-irlp, flying fire engines in forestrypreservation work, etc.MILlTARY TRAININGSHALL ALL OUR BOYS HAVE ONEYEARS MILITARY TRAINING? byThomas M. Johnson (Readers Digest,Feb.). This article attempts t o setforth just what Army and Navy pro-pose. It is not a glorified CCC nora fruitless year of serving time inthe Army. It would be a year oftraining-three months on basic, therest on a specialty. All trainees wouldbe liable for about five years t o becalled to active service, but no re-fresher courses. In five years therewould be perhaps 5,000,000 citizen sol-

states his case against peacetime mili-ta ry conscription: i t would repudiateour expressed desire t o cooperate inworld organization; it is an outmodedmeasure, as obsolete as the Maginotline; and our adoption of it wouldonly serve as an added obstruction tothe gradual disarmament by other na-tions which must follow the enforceddisarmament of ou r present enemies.NEEDED: CITIZENSARMYby IrvingLipkowitz (Nation, 3 March). Theproblem, in the opinion of this Depart-ment of Justice economist, is notwhether we want compulsory militarytraining, but whether we shall have acitizens army o r a professional army.He tells why a citizens army is moredemocratic.CONSCRIPTIONOR PEACETIMEy Han-son W. Baldwin (Harpers, March).The N. Y. Times military analyst ex-amines arguments for and against it,says that he believes the only real is-sue is military necessity, and th at con-scription is only part of the broaderproblem of postwar defense. He rec-ommends a fact-finding commissionappointed by President, Congress o rboth, and made up of lawyers, scien-tists, educators and congressmen. Itshould have Army, Navy and AirForce advisers but probably no mili-ta ry members.POSTWAROCEANSd~ OPPORTUNITYy WarrenH. Atherton (American, Apri l). Apast national commander of the Amer-ican Legion, after a 30,000-mile tourof the Pacific, foresees a new Pacificisland frontier. A group of Navymen in New Guinea have a Big Idea-to start a trading company to buyand sell in the islands formerly heldby the Japs. They plan to buy anLST, deliver and take cargo anywhere,stimulate trade with thousands of for-merly isolated people. The authorpaints other opportunities which GIssee in Alaska, Pacific islands and thePhilippines.OURSECONDHANCEOR PEACEy Jo-seph H. Ball (Colliers, 10 March).The Minnesota senator analyzes theprobable senate line-up on joining aworld peace organization, tells why thechances are better now than in 1919.He believes that V-bombs and B-29s,which give some idea of the range andhorr or of World Wa r Three, are themost powerful argument for full par-ticipation in collective internationalefforts to maintain peace. Nationalisolation would be national suicide.STALINSLANSFOR GERMANYy EllaWintel (Colliers, 10 March) . Rus-sians a re able to c ar ry on reeducationactivities among German prisoners be-cause they are not signatories t o theGeneva Convention. which has beeninterpreted as forbidding such prac-tices. This article tells the history ofthe Free Germany Committee, whichhas made over tens of thousands ofGermans in the Soviet Union. Many

er, 17 Feb.). The New Yorker fearsthat Girls are receiving so many in-structions about pulling a manthrough the postwar marital adjust-ment period that they ar e going t o besomething of a domestic problemthemselves. Nothing could be worsefo r a returning veteran, the writersays, than the awful glare of an un-derstanding woman. They are beingover-indoctrinated on rehabilitationproblems. Better i t would be, he ad-vises, for the wife to forget the booksand mix her hero a drink, not forget-ting t o pour herself one first.YANKS AT YALE by Vance Packard(American, Apri l). The story of twoof the 112 veterans now studying forcivilian careers at Yale, under the G IBills provision fo r education. Authorcompares attitude of veterans to thepeacetime students o r non-veterans,and believes there is less nonsenseabout the veteran-he has a better ap-preciation of his education and iseager to acquire knowledge and beginhis career.SOLDIERNTO IVILIANy ChristopherLa Far ge (Harpers, March). A sen-sible discussion of homecoming read-justments, based on an orientationtalk recently by the author a t ArmyATC bases. He points out some of the.pitfalls the soldier-turned-civilian willface, stressing that the soldier wasonce a civilian and must and can be-come a civilian again: He must notlet anyone or any group persuade himto become a professional ex-soldier.These are the men t o help to fomentwar.

AR E W E CODDLING ITALIAN PRISOIN-ERS? by David G. Wittels (Sa tusdayEveninp Post. 3 March). Anothertoo well, Author points out that thesemen are the lowest-paid workers inour war effort, wear cast-off Armyuniforms, and are not prisoners-theyare non-fascist work volunteers. Hetells of the work they are doing forus, their attitude toward the U. S.,and the desi re of many t o fight theGermans to rescue their families.WHAT THE WAR REALLY DID TOFRANCEy Jefferson Caffery (Amer-ican, April). Devastation is fa r worsethan in 1914-18 despite rumors thatFrenchmen were well fed, theirwomen had smart clothes, andworkers were liberally paid. Tuber-culosis increased four times over dur-ing occupation; the birth rate de-clined; 900,000 homes and buildingswere destroyed. One million personsin the north of France alone arewithout homes. Transpor tation facili-ties are so dislocated that availablesupplies cannot be distributed. Hereare facts and figures from the U. S.ambassador to France on the realstory of Frances plight.

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O f f i c i a l U. S. Navy uhotoaranhBELOW! When Navy carrier planes raided Tokyo in February, they shot this landmark-with a camera.

PACIFICo Is OursFleet Admiral Nimitz, in Pacifics been won. The United States

a base which is ast o us in o u r continuing for-itoff. . .Thus, after 26 days of the hardest

nese homeland, fell. The price :A m e r i c a n s killed, 15,380441 missing. Japanese deadtimes ours. Many of the

Marine wounded had returned to thebattlefields before the last Jap pock-ets were wiped out.The Iwo battle ended at 0600 on 1 6March when elements of the 3d and5th Marine Divisions pushed throughthe cave and pillbox defenses in thenorthern section of the island to reachKitano point. The 3d and 4th MarineDivisions had reported resistanceended in their zones several days be-fore; the 3d then joined in the finalpush with the 5th, which had beenheld t o slight advances over the lastJap defense line in some of the tough-est terrain in the Pacific.The fight for Iwo was tough fromthe st ar t. Seventy-four days ofbombing by Army B-24s and B-17sand carrier planes and intensive pre-invasion naval shelling left manypillboxes and gun emplacements un-

1

damaged. The island was coveredwith interlocking pillboxes and under-ground labyrinths, the results of yea rsof planning by the enemy. Enemy gar-risons on the island were especiallytrained t o utilize the defensive ad-vantages of the island, which includeda high volcanic cone, cliffs, deep gul-leys, hills and a series of terracesrising from the beaches. Despite suchobstacles, the marines, day by day,pressed forward, sometimes havingonly a few yards t o show for theirblood and sweat. In the first 10 hoursof the fighting there was a casualtyrate of 90 an hour. When elementsof the 3d Division landed on 21February, 60,000 marines had beenput ashore in three days. On thefourth day of the battle, with carrierplanes and nzval gunfire assisting,the marines held a slight advantage.By 25 February two-thirds of thenorthern strir, of the islands centralCASUALTY FIGURES

Casualty figures among naval personnel through 20 March totaled91,648. Total since 7 Dec. 1941:Dead CVounded Missing . Prisoners* Totalgr. S. Navy . . . . . . . 2 4 , 1 4 6 1 1 , 2 0 4 9 , 3 4 2 2 , 3 7 8 49 ,070U. S. Marine Corps. 1 0 , 4 4 2 2 8 , 2 6 2 8 8 3 1,88Y 4 1 , 4 7 6U. S. Coast Guard. 5 9 8 2 1 0 2 9 4 . . . . 1 , 1 0 2- - - _ _ -Total . . . . 35 ,186 41 ,676 10 ,519 4 , 2 6 7 9 1 , 6 4 8

* A number of personne! now carried in the missing status undoubtedly are,-prisoners of war not yet officially reported a s such.

airfield was in American hands. Twodays later half of the island wassecured and the third airfield (un-der construction when the Marineslanded) reached.A t the end of the first week inMarch 5,000 surgical masks wererushed t o Iw o to protect marines fromsulphur dust and volcanic ash. Theash, proving a valuable ally to theJaps, filled eyes, mouths and lungsand clogged guns and motor vehicles.


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By 10 March the 3d and 4th Mar-st coast of t he island while the

a small pocket a t theend. That day Army fightersOn 14U. S. flag was formallyd o n ,Iwo although there wasp resistance in a few pockets.

Secretary of the Navy Forrestal,at-

of the vital sea and ai r gates. . . F o r usoffers many offensive possibilitiesisfor fighter9s becomes more intense. Further-

ofBy the end of the month two of's three airfields were in opera-

. Nearly 100 B-29s, re tu rn ingo r fuel exhaustion.

nd airstrips. (F or picture storyttle for Iwo, see page 4.)e C atch Jap Fleet a t H o m e

Carrier aircraft of the U. S. Pacificto Japan las t month. On 25

. Numbered a t 600 by Japan,air, and no substantialourOf the 158 enemy planes de-

f the a ir. In addition 75 weren the ground. Five small

coastal vessels and five smallaf t were damaged. Radar installa-. ar ea were destroyed. The O t a

maged. To date, 75% ofildings a t the Ota plant nea r

Nine U. S. fighter planes and fourNone of the ships in the task

+h a n++onlra nlthfiirrrh

The Pacific Ica

a souncg day. Hachij170 land miles fCommandingR. A. f

command of theU. S. carrierthird attack on

U L l L l l l K bl ,G C I b bC I C RD , U'".."U~..was caused to twong retirement.rleet communique re-)kyo attack also an-rrier planes from thehanded the island ofI pounding t he follow-io, in the Izu chain, is;outh of Tokyo.the force w a s Ad-Spruance, USN, Com-et, with Vice Admiralher, USN, n tactical

b fast carrier force.planes came back forthe Jap homeland on

Official U. S. Navy photographippearance on the eve-ed iron superstructure.

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Other landings were made on Rom-in theSibuyan Sea, on Basilan Island, soutn

The Navy Department announcedthe sinking of 52 more Ja p vesselslast month by U. S. submarines.Twenty-five announced on 21 Febru-ary included an escort carrier, a con-verted cruiser and a destroyer. A

Off ic ia l U. S. Navy photographMANILA was gutted by Ja s who carried out spite demolitions when theyouldnt hold the city. Here tI: Quezon Bridge lies wrecked in the Pasiq River.

Two weeks later Lashio fell to Chi-nese 1st Army troops. MeanwhileBritish armored forces, after an 85-mile drive in 11 days, captured eightairfields in central Burma. The vic-tory cut off more than 30,000 enemytroops in the Mandalay area. Man-dalay itself was entered on 8 Marchby bearded Punjabi troops ofa the 19thIndian Division. Together with otherBritish units, they soon blasted theJaps from the caves and temples ofMandalay Hill and were battlingfrom house t o house in the city. On20 March, the city finally fell.The U. S. 14th AAF in.China, com-manded by Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chen-nault, tallied up its score last monthin operatiofis against the Japanesesince it went into action on 4 July1942. A total of 2,194 J a p planeswere destroyed with 854 more prob-ables. The shipping toll included 409vessels sunk and 169 probably sunk.The total shipping sunk, probablysunk and damaged was placed at1,950,000 tons. In China a Jap attempt t o land asmall force on the Fukien coast, 40-miles south of enemy-held Foochow,was frustrated by Chinese forces whokilled 100 Japs and drove the restoff. Two Jap warships covered theattempted landings.

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Red Army forces built up tremen-dous striking power almost withinsight of Berlin las t month while clear-ing their flanks t o the north and southto form a broad salient across horth-ern Germany. Seven Russian armieswere fighting along the eastern front,which spread from Danzig in the northto below Budapest in the south.As Russian forces reached the NeisseRiver a t two points and other unitswere 35 miles from .Danzig, MarshalStalin in an order of the day on 22February, announced that the Ger-mans had lost 1,150,000 men in theRed Armys 40-day offensive andstated that full victory is near.The following day Red Army troopscompleted the c a p t u r e of Posen,strongly fortified highway and railjunction in western Poland, after amonth-long siege. On 1 March theRussians broke through German linesin Pomerania and reached the Baltic,trapping 200,000 enemy troops in twopockets. That same day the 2d WhiteRussian Army reached the sea a tKoeslin, halfway between S tet tin andDanzig. The 1st White Russian Armyreached the Baltic near Koelberg afte ra 62-mile advance in four days. Koel-berg was taken on 18 March.A week later the Russians droveinto Danzig Fre e State. Troops beganclosing in on Danzig city from twodirections, driving a wedge betweenth at city and the port of Gdynia.Other units threw a 40-mile ringarqund Stettin.On 12 March Kuestrin, key fortressguarding Berlins approaches, wasstormed by the 1s t White RussianArmy and captured after 35 days ofbattle. Pa rt of Kuestrin, on the westbank of the Odei., is 38 miles .fromBerlin. To the nor th the 2d WhiteRussian Army cut the Danzig pocketin two and was within a few milesof Danzig and Gdynia.Italy: Advance Resumed

Allied gains were reported in theItalian theater for the first time inweeks. On 21 February the 5th Armyrecaptured Mount Belvedere and occu-pied other features and villages westof the Pistoia-Bologna highway. Later Italian units fighting with the 5th bArmy cleared the Germans from the *coastal woods north of Ravenna. By 2the end of the month the 5th Army,including Brazilian troops, was im-proving .it s positions and drivingtoward Bologna and Modena. 2. . .

Japans much depleted fleet, nowconcentrated in her homeland waters,is still a threat, her army remainsformidable and her civilians willfight fanatically to defend theirhomeland, Fleet Admiral Nimitz toldnewsmen last month when he was inWashington t o confer with Fleet Ad-miral King. ( F o r a suvvey of th eJapanese home front, se e p . 8 .)

The Japanese have lost over halfof their medium and heavy ships, hesaid, a t least three quarters of theirdestroyers, quite a few of their sub-marines, and a large part of theirnaval air force.The remainder of the enemy fleet,if concentrated and used a t the righttime, could threaten o u r operations,but we would welcome an attemptat interference with o u r operationsat the earliest possible moment be-cause we believe we are fully pre-

pared to meet such -a threat. . . .Every move we have made, we havedone with plenty of force, and wepropose to continue t ha t until we aresure that the remainder of the Jap-anese Fleet caa no longer be athreat.The Bri tish Pacific Fleet, he added,will be used in a manner to con-tribute greatly in defeating Japan.In discussing th e invasion of Iwo,Fleet Admiral N h i t z emphasizedthat the U. S. Navy is strong enoughto go anywhere in the Pacific, thenobserved that we need a broader

base-a series of bases-from whicht o attack Japan.Earlier he said that in planningthe final assault on the Empire, weeed more than one position fromk ich to attack. We need a number

Commenting on the strength ofthe Japanese position, he declared:As long as Japan can maintain seacommunications with that part ofthe Asiatic continent under her con-trol, she can draw whatever suppliesthe continent can give her-coal,minerals and food.Then the Japanese army is stillvery powerful. While I do not knowthe strength of the Japanese army,I do not believe th at much over lo %,if that much, of the army has beencommitted in the various islandoperations up to date. The armyconstitutes, I believe, her principalstrength factor. That, with her for-tunate geographic position, ,makes itvery difficult t o insure her early de-feat.Three days earlier Secretary ofthe Navy James Forrestal had esti-mated at a press conference that theJapanese still possess an army of 70combat divisions.To defeat Japan ultimately, he

said, we and o u r allies must beprepared to deal with this force, allof which will be concentrated againstus in whatever theater the finaldeath struggle of Japanese militar-ism occurs.To date, the United St ates hasnever deployed against the Japs inone operation more tha n 12 divisions,which General MacArthur used inthe Philippines. Obviously, therefore,the task still ahead of us is immense.In the final stages of the task, themajor burden will be borne byground forces with the Navy in a

supporting role.Both Secretary Forrestal andFleet Admiral Nimitz emphasized theimportance of Iwo Jima and the pa rtits airfields will play in providing airbases for direct attacks on Japan.Page 47


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President Roosevelt submitted to1 3 March a request for$23,719,153,050 forof 1946. The request compared$28,500,-for 1945 and $23,000,000,00(For 1944. Differences are largely ac-

a reduction of approx-$2,000,000,000 in previous es-$4,000,000,000 for theprogram. This reductionpartially offset by increased ad-and increaseda larger Navy.

a Navy of 3,389,000, Marine Corps478,000 and Coast Guard of 173,165.of which approximatelyisnued available from 1945. Of thebudget, about $4,500,000,000 isfor contracts previously auth-d. Included in the recommenda-is $402,012,624 for use in theU. S. for ship repair

ilitation establishments, These80 0ge in size from $20,000 in some$43,000,000 at Hunters Point,The budget request came a week

8 4636,860 tons.a total1,532 combatant ships, assuminga total tonnage6,485,823 by the end of 1947. Th e

In a letter written.during the firstNavy carrier-plane attack on Tokyo,16-17 February, Chinas president,Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, con-gratulated Fleet Admiral Nimitz .onthe part the U. S. Navy was playmgin the war against the Japanese. Hewrote: . . . The series of brilliantvictories won by the United StatesNavy under your able command havenot only disheartened the arrogantJapanese, but have also opened a newand shorter p ath t o the final defeat ofthe enemy.. . Fleet Admiral Nimitzreplied: . .. t is our steadfast pur-pose to attack Japan with increasingpower and frequency until the suffer-ing peoples of Asia a re liberated andJapans capacity to fight is destroyed.We shall drive home this attackagainst the enemy homeland, againsthis vital lines of supply, and agains this forces in lands occupied by vio-lence . .*The period 2 2 June to 7 July hasbeen designated for the Navys Inde-pendence Day extra cash war bondsale. All Navy war bond purchasesduring this period will be credited tothe Seventh Wa r Loan Drive. Lastyear the Independence Day sale netted$47,843,122.Navy war bond purchases in Feb-ruary totaled $34,289,563.25, an in-crease of 11.3% over February 1944.Payroll savings plan purchases ofcivilian personnel of $17,568,133.75and allotment purchases by uniformedpersonnel of $13,487,268.75 repre-sented the major portion of the Feb-ruary 1945 total. Grand tota l sincethe beginning of the Navys programis $1,056.419.923.50.

GM2c, while on leave in the nationscapital, spotted something small andblack crawling on the original of theConstitution in the Lib rary of Con-gress. Quickly calling a guard, a tinyblack carpet beetle was removed fromthe glass case with no harm done.There was no evidence of sabotage re-ported; in fact, the insect wasnt evena Japanese beetle.o Four destroyer escorts recently de-stroyed a U-boat in a coordinated at-tack in th e mid-Atlantic. Detecting the submarine, the four ships imme-diately closed in and began a depthcharge attack. The enemy submarinezigzagped in an effort t o elude thetrap, but was soon blown t o pieces.The DES were: uss Otter, USS Hub-bard, uss Vurian and uss H a y t e r .o Vice Admiral William W. Smith,USN, has assumed command of theService Force, U. S. Pacific Fleet,relieving Vice Admiral William L.Calhoun, USN, whose new assignmentwas not immediately disclosed. Theservice force, grown 10-fold in lessthan four years, comprises 70 0 shipswith a total topnage in excess of4,000,000. These ships include fuel,provision and stores ships, ammuni-tion, salvage, repair and hospitalships, transports, patrol craft andsub-chasers. Vice Admiral Sm it h wasdirector of Naval Transportation Serv-ice in the office of C N O before assum-ing his new command.0 In greetings t o the Navy of theUnion of Soviet Socialist Re ublics onthe 27th anniversary of the ge d Armyand Navy on 23 February, Secretaryof the Navy Forrestal stated: TheRed Army and Navy celebrate their27th anniversary at a moment whentheir glorious achievements havearoused their brothers in arms

JAPS: Admiral William F. Halsey Jr., Com-was caught by camera on barge thathim from fbgship to Pacific base for a conference.48

Official U . S. Navy photographsHUNTING TURKEYS: Back in U. S. on leave, Admiral Hal-sey tried his aim on wild turkeys in Georgia as a changefrom Jap warbirds. Rear Admiral A. S. Merrill holds result.


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t ofervent admiration . . . Fleet Ad-miral King also sent greetings andcongratulations.8 As a resu lt of an agreement betweenthe Army and Navy, all Selective Ser-vice inductees 18 to 20 years old, in-clusive, will be acquired by the Armyfor a period of three months begin-ning 15 March, with the exception ofinductees who qualify and are ear-marked for special Navy programssuch as radio technicians and combataircrewmen. The arrangement wasmade in order to satisfy the Armysneed for young infantry replacements.During the three months period mostNavy inductees will be taken fromthe 21 to 38 age group.Q A group of Navy officers and en-listed personnel will soon begin asearch for 10,000 former civilian em-ployees of naval establishments onGuam and the Philippine Islands whowere interned by the Japanese. Leav-ing Washington last month, thesearching party will attempt tosquare the pay accounts of thosecaught when the Japs invaded thePhilippines and Guam in December1941. Many of the group will be en-titled t o more than three years backpay. Two-hundred and fifty of the10,000 are U. S. citizens, but all areentitled to be;efits under the MissingPersons Act. Although some of th eemployees were moved to internmentcamps in Japan many were liberatedby U. S. forces in recent action in thePacific.e The following nominations to flagrank have been confirmed recently bythe Senate:To be rear admiral:John Perry, USN.Ezra G Allen USN to be director ofBudget ahd ReGorts, Navy Department,fo r a three year term.William J. Carter, USN, to be PaymasterGeneral of the Navy and Chief of BuS&A,for a four-year term (see p. 50 ) .Horace D Nuber US N while serving asAssistant Ch ef of Bu S& kRobert D. Workman, USN, wh.ile servingas Chief of Chaplains (see p. 51).To be commodore:Henry M. Briggs, USN, while Chief of

HALF A HELLCAT i s better than none, this Navy piloi proved when his shoi-up ship broke in two in landing on carrier.Staff to the Commander Caribbean SeaFrontier.Davenport Browne US N while AssistantChief of Staff (pers 6nne lj to CommanderWestern Sea Frontier.Paul F. Foster, USNR, while AssistantNaval Inspector General.Expenditures totaling $1,500,539,500for the development an d establishmentof the following Navy projects havebeen granted by Public Law 13 (79thCongress), which was signed by thePresident on 1 March 1945: ship re-pair and laying-up facilities, $230,-222,000; fleet training facilities, am-phibious and operational, $12,000,000;aviation facilities, $59,416,500 ; stor-age facilities, $19,950,000; MarineCorps housing and training, $14,190,-

000; ordnance facilities, $65,500,000 ;personnel training and housing facili-ties, $40,022,000 ; hospital facilities,$28,519,000; shore radio facilities,$3,230,000; Naval Research Labora-tory, $225,000; miscellaneous struc-tur es and facilities, $41,265,000, andadvance base construction, materialan d equipment, $986,000,000.8 Twenty-four enlisted men, first ofmore than 100 to be assigned as fleetcorrespondents, have reported a t Pa-cific Fleet headquarters. All are ex-perienced newspapermen who havebeen engaged in some phase of publicrelations during their service in th eNavy. Their prim ary duty will be totell th e individual stories of the men

Official U. S. Navy photographsFIRST FIVE nurses commissioned in New York under the Navys new speed-upnurse recruiting system were sworn in 8 March by Comdr. Thomas A. Gaylordtdirector of officer procurement in New York. The candidates are (left to riahtlMarion H. Bendix,Adele L. Bruce, Barbara J. Zeigler, Phyllis M: Daley (firs;Negro nurse Commissioned by the Navy) and Jane A. Belanger.

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THE MONTHS NEWS

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All Hands Naval Bulletin - Apr 1945

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