The Destroyer - Fletcher class ship / WW2 Documentary US navy / WHD

[Music] throughout the bloody battle for the Pacific one class of fighting ship was always in the thick of the action its Creed was to go in harm's way and its motto kill or be killed from protecting the capital ships and bombarding enemy troops to sinking submarines and bringing down the dreaded kamikaze it took on the full ferocity of the Japanese and one always fighting at close range they were the eyes ears and teeth of the American Navy the destroyer their damn ship in the Navy thank God for the Fletcher's cos I think the Fletcher's were vital in many more using extraordinary archive film and color reenactments battlestations takes you into battle with a machine whose name says it all the destroyer [Music] April the 9th 1942 Japanese troops capture the Philippine peninsular of Bataan more than 70,000 Filipino and American troops are taken into captivity it is the largest US Army in history to surrender and one of the blackest days of the war army commander General MacArthur vowed that one day he would return to retake the islands but that day seemed a long way away with the loss of Bataan Japan appeared unbeatable poised to sweep across the whole of the Pacific a shudder of fear reverberates throughout the free world but on that very day a ship with a radical new design was undergoing trials for the US Navy it was the first of what would become one of the most successful fighting ships of World War two the new fletcher-class destroyers the destroyer had his Genesis as far back as the 1870s when motor torpedo boats were used as a means of attacking battleships relatively small but extremely fast they were usually armed with a single torpedo tube and some form of rapid fire machine gun by the outbreak of World War one the torpedo boat had evolved into the destroyer and had become the backbone of navies throughout the world but in the 1920s cautious eyes were beginning to be turned east when the first of Japan's new class of destroyers was launched these fast heavily armed ships with 5-inch guns were more than a match for anything that the West had as Japan's expansionist policies increased so did her fleet soon mighty battleships carriers and cruisers were all coming off the slipways Germany and Italy were also hell-bent on building up their fleets as ship after ship took to the Seas but in America very little was done to counter these threats the design of the American destroyer really was static into the 20s and early 30s no move no ships were built many were decommissioned so basically the type of destroyer that the Navy US Navy had into the 20s and 30s was the World War one emergency program fleshed Decker's as the world entered a crazy race to rearm American naval designers finally took a hard look at these new battle fleets what they saw was alarming the message was clear as a counter to these new ships they had to come up with a fast and heavily armed destroyer of their own the designers also faced an added problem aircraft as planes became faster and more powerful a new breed of destroyer would have to be able to carry enough firepower to protect themselves and to destroy the aircraft slowly a new design evolved and in 1939 plans were laid down to build a new class of American destroyer the fletcher class these would be the largest class of destroyer ever built for any nation its design was an engineering achievement of balancing ruggedness and seaworthiness armament and speed on a classically proportioned steel hull at three hundred and seventy-six feet long and nearly two thousand nine hundred tons when fully loaded the Fletcher's were significantly larger than any previous American destroyer they had five 5-inch guns ten 21 inch torpedo tubes seven forty millimeter and 720 millimeter guns [Music] they were also armed with 56 death charges [Music] the destroyer would also be the first to be fitted with surface and air warning radar with their 60,000 shaft horsepower engines delivering a speed of over 36 knots the destroyer was destined to be an awesome fighting machine and world events would soon prove it in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland at World War two began by 1940 the war at sea had intensified and German u-boats began decimating British convoys in the Atlantic while still neutral one incident would bring America one step closer to war [Music] on September the 4th 1941 during a routine convoy patrol an American World War one destroyer the Greer had two torpedoes fired at her by a u-boat the u-boat fired torpedoes at the greer which in turn responded with depth charges beer of course had been shadowing the submarine and so the german u-boat skipper in defending his ship fired torpedoes [Music] although the greer was not hit in a fireside chat President Roosevelt sent a chilling message to Germany with millions of Americans listening in on the message he issued a shoot on sight order to the US Navy on any German vessel found in American waters but let this warning be clear from now on if German or Italian vessels of war into other waters the protection of which is necessary for American defense they do so at their own peril shortly afterwards another US destroyer the USS Carney was badly damaged by torpedo with the loss of eleven American sailors these were the first US deaths by Germans America had been blooded in a war that it was not part of and the US Navy's destroyers had fired America's first shots of the war little did anyone know that this was just the beginning and full-scale world war was soon to erupt with the destroyer at the tip of the spear on Sunday the 7th of December 1941 Japan held its aircraft at the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor [Music] within 55 minutes the fleet lay in ruins America was at war [Music] immediately the might of us industry mobilized behind the war effort its Pacific Fleet have been severely damaged and it needed ships to take the fight back to Japan along the length and breadth of America shipyard sprang into action to build the hardware that would avenge Pearl Harbor eleven shipyards were given the task to build these new destroyers [Music] a ship after ship started to roll off the production line the call went out for seamen to man them I was 17 years old and I enlisted one eight days after turning seventeen and about three days later I was sworn in and on my way to San Diego I'd been a Boy Scout camp but it was a far cry from that because it was everything went by the book he went by the Bell went by the whistle and the chief made us March up him down and we had to go to bed at a certain time and get up at a certain time take a shower every day and shave or 17 years old shaving anything to share straight from boot camp these men some as young as 16 years old were sent to the US Navy's most advanced destroyers for many it would be love at first sight I felt that I was going to be assigned to a small carrier which I didn't want and then when I saw a destroyer I thought well now this is what I want and there's luck turned out that's what I got well I loved it immediately that's called the dungaree Navy all one crew really officers and men were one group together destroyer is a special thing unto itself it has the speed and it throbs and you know you're at sea on those things so it was something I found exhilarating meanwhile the bloody fight for the Pacific intensified Japan had conquered all before it American forces had to take control of a sea before they could start to retake the islands and the destroyer would be in the thick of the fighting in June 1942 came Midway [Music] in an unforgiving battle the US Navy's aircraft sank four of Japan's frontline aircraft carriers but it came at a price the carrier USS yorktown was also son at the same hour seven time zones to the east the first of the new breed of destroyers was ready to enter the fight for the Pacific but its crewmen would soon find out the conditions aboard a US destroyer were a far call from the Comfort enjoyed by those sailors aboard the bigger capital ships complement of the ship was slightly over 300 May officers and crew and the officers they lived to to a stateroom and the enlisted people lived 5060 you know in a compartment and the bunks were just big enough for one person you didn't turn over too much because you'd fall out they were stacked either three high or four high I was on the bottom bunk so I was maybe this high off the deck which man I could get up easy just roll out and then start going when everything you own goes in a little footlocker that big you know what it doesn't seem like you're needing space you know he's got plenty of room and long as you got you bunting and mattress while you're in pretty good shape he was tremendous of course you were constantly soaking wet in the tropics and on deck it was always well into hundreds and you had trying to keep in the shade if you were away from the landmass and moving at a fairly good clip it wasn't too bad because you had to air hit me but once you got into the channel there on Guadalcanal the heat was just terrible there hotter than blue blazes and most of us have went up on deck to sleep and I can remember clearly being on the deck and when the guy 5-inch gun would go off I'd come up off the deck and bounce down and then go right back to sleep the food you know of course we had good food you got a little bit tired of it though I'm saying used to be that they had the best food in the world till the Cook's got it and then they changed it all but they did good job in we ate real good most of the day and the food was horrible you know I think we had a bad cook you know nobody ever gave three cheers for the cook on our chef I'll tell you they called out which watch was ready that's for lunch or dinner or whatever and of course I just call it chow and you got in line went through with a metal tray and they threw the food on the tray and then you sat down hey I can't remember having but one or two good meals oh yeah for the officers life on board a destroyer was much more comfortable the officers live pretty darn well by tradition they had Filipino mess boys in white jackets war drum with a wardrobe table in a couple of places to sit down we were served on China and silver but it was the washroom facilities which were the harshest after where I lived we had two showers and or maybe two dozen lavatories and in six toilets and the toilets were were a trough with planks across the trough to sit on and see water running in one in and out the other and of course the ship rolled all the time and pitched and it was always water on the deck so you feet always got wet when you went into a shower booth there be four other guys that are already in there I see what you did there was kind of lather up and gets splashed from these other falls and then hopefully you get enough water on you to get brothers so so there's always maybe eight or ten naked men standing around either getting wet or soap in there getting rinsed or whatever it was it was an experience but within the washroom there was one place that no one wanted to be on the red seat back then during World War two and before sailors who had a venereal disease they were considered to have stolen time from the Navy because they couldn't have certain duty and they were set aside and whatever time that they lost they had to tack it on at the end of the enlistment so that they the government didn't lose anything and so rather than have them use the same facilities that everybody else had because you might catch something which of course you couldn't we didn't know that they had a separate toilet for that sort of thing by the autumn of 1942 fletcher-class destroyers had arrived in Guadalcanal and were formed into an elite fighting unit known as the cactus strike force but the US Navy it wasn't a moment too soon Japanese forces were continuing to advance the technology engineering and armament of the destroyer had to pay off lives depended on by early 1943 the first five fletcher-class destroyers had arrived in the Pacific ready for action known as the cactus strike force their first role was to target and smash the Japanese supply convoys that were ferrying troops needed to continue that invasion of the Pacific Islands it's something that's hard to describe you have no life not any ship as a light showing and there were all sorts of navigational hazards which you thought of as a matter of fact we were using some charts that dated back to the 17th hundreds we got very close within 60 miles of the Japanese airfields so that's why we had to do it at night and they were coming down mainly to resupply their troops and they had a sophisticated marg system that would go hug the shoreline and go at night so our job was to intercept them and try to cut them off and their job was to get Bias already the role of the destroyer was changing once looked on as a defense for the capital ships the new Fletcher's were now being thrown into the furnace of battle [Music] if there was a strong point you wanted reduced you called for for fire from the ship's offshore and many times it was a destroyer that provided that they would screen the larger ships battleships carriers cruisers performing such duties as lifeguard say if a pilot went down or a plane crashed the stern of the ship the destroyer would be there to pick the pilot up usually rewarded by the carrier with a gallon of ice cream or two for their for their efforts they performed convoy escort in short any duty that needed a fast ship to go in harm's way that usually were the Fletcher's ended up a destroyer was a floating gun platform and the five 5-inch guns with their devastating firepower with its main armament the 5-inch 38 could fire a 54 pound projectile 18,000 yards which is about nine nautical miles but ten and a half statute miles had a ceiling of over 35,000 feet four antiaircraft then of course it could be used rapid-fire for beach invasions and that sort of thing I munition from the magazine's belowdecks was fed to the guns as fast as they could use them we find three every three seconds but they had to qualify that because that if everything goes properly these men lay in these big projectiles in the tray they can't hold up to long loading that fast I was three to four seconds was pretty good for five or ten rounds after that your fire slows down it's dirty you'd be surprised that every time the gun fires you have grease flying around and gunpowder then you come out you just peppered with grease all over your face and close and very smoky very noisy the fletcher's 40 and 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns could put up a shield of Steel against enemy bombers and fighters the 40 millimeter rate of fire was a hundred and sixty rounds per minute and the 20 millimeter are staggering 450 per minute enough to shred an aircraft in seconds I was a loader on the 40 millimeter gun which was a good position to be in the problem was he was so busy loading that you couldn't you couldn't really look look at the plane that was coming in and if you did there was always a chance of you losing your concentration I get that gun look so I tried not to look at the planes coming controlling all this firepower was a command center deep within the ship packed with the latest electronic radar that could locate the enemy up to 40 miles away it was known as the CIC CIC is the combat Information Center and all communications in all the radar returns all the radar equipment and most of the radio equipment - was centered in the combat Information Center and all during any action of any sort that's where everything was kept track with its radar tracking anything that moved above the surface the Fletcher's also had the most sophisticated sonar that enabled them to hunt down anything that was below the sea as son Armand my assignment was to go up on the bridge where the sonar equipment was and we sent out a signal underwater a sound signal and it went out until it hit something and we could tell by the time that the signal went out in the echo came back we would get the distance and so we knew where it was then the officer says to the telephone talker fire one Mundi goes out then fire to fire three times and so they're going out on both sides of the ship three side racks of depth charges and you have two stern racks and two of them are going off at a time the side racks are 300 pounds of TNT and the stern is 600 pounds each so you're putting a lot of a lot of explosives down there and it doesn't have to land on deck it just has to get close because it'll open seams and watch over seam in the submarine is not much else you can do sink and sink they did the fletcher-class destroyers sank 29 Japanese submarines but just sinking us up was not enough you had to have proof of a kill to determine the kill while we put a whale boat over the side and sent a crew around see what they could pick up and pick up a lot of flotsam sometimes we picked up about body parts the second submarine we sank we found a piece of lung and the doctor aboard examined it and said the man had tuberculosis almost an advanced stage but because the destroyers were always in the thick of the action fighting at a close range their losses were beginning to mount on the night of February the 1st 1943 the USS DeHaven was spotted by enemy aircraft off the coast of Guadalcanal fearing that they were an interception force sent to block their evacuation the Japanese held a full squadron of dive bombers at the DeHaven I remember hearing knowing that there was conversation over the TBS to talk between ships that there were bogeys in the area and they were suspected of being Japanese planes but our captain for some reason decided to to wait to wait to wait to see if further identification of these flames could be made and he waited I guess too long and I stepped out on the starboard wing in the bridge and looked back aft across the the top of the stacks and I saw the first bomber come in and I just watched the bomb being released from beneath the plane it was that that was that close and I could see it it's still a burnt orange color in my mind looked like the size of a large ball and I at that instant I said I shouldn't be out here in the open hi so I jumped inside very quickly into the sonar room and a moment later the explosion [Music] I think the second bomb that had knocked out the engine room and of course the third one would had to be the one that hit the number two gun mount went down and set off the powder magazine down in the bottom of the ship to blow the bow off and just blasted the the pilothouse and the superstructure pushed it back I managed to pull myself loose I just lowered myself about three feet into the water swam away I saw no one no other person until I was farther away from the ship then I realized there were other heads bobbing around in the water and I looked back perhaps a few minutes later and watched the ship slide under the water there were 167 and killed and 38 or 39 wounded the DeHaven was the first destroyer to be lost and the 15th American ship to be sunk in the bloody Guadalcanal campaign but unknown to the men of the destroyers it was just the beginning darker days were coming for the ships of the Pacific and their crews by the spring of 1943 the fletcher-class destroyer had established itself as a relentless multi-role attack machine against the Japanese constantly ready to go into action each man's nerves were on edge for the dreaded call to General Quarters a little bit scary you know you've grabbed usually you left your helmet up at the gun at your battle station you know what's hooked on oh the gun up there so you just grabbed if you addressed you went like you were if you weren't dressed you'd try to throw a pair of pants on and get there as quick as you could and you go up and man your station and then just wait come in and see what was going to happen next with the call to General Quarters and never knowing if they might be sunk the men of the destroyers had a special way of protecting their valuables the few little valuables we had you know we were always thinking what to do we would put them in a rubber we called him in those days and today they call them condoms but anyway we would put all our little valuables in there and then tie a knot in this thing and keep it in her pocket on every front they were involved in close contact battle using every one of their weapons to destroy the enemy [Music] but perhaps one of the strangest weapons they used was on the night of April the 5th 1943 the USS O'Bannon and the other destroyers of the cactus strike force were returning from a mission bombarding Japanese shore positions when the O'Bannon picked up a large Japanese submarine on her Sunnah everybody looked at you're not there with the submarine sitting on the surface we had a Commodore aboard and he wanted to ran that submarine and the captain didn't want him fearing that a collision could cause an explosion the O'Bannon's captain ordered a hard change of course as the two ships came within feet of each other the Japanese suddenly woke up to the situation he got right up to them and they paid no attention to us and we were running right alongside of them when they woke up and jumped up and started running around it nobody could find anything our smallest guns put enough comes down to them to fire on the submarine either so some of the fellas picked potatoes out of the bins which were right and yet started throwing them because there they were you know and the Japanese evidently thought they were hand grenades and so they ran and started throwing them back and throwing them off the submarine well there was a blow-up and in that period of time they did not get to their gun and we were able to pull away from them and start firing then we came back and made a run on him and evidently we learned later that we actually did think the summary a fitting tribute to the men of the O'Bannon was delivered in the form of a plaque it was sent by the potato growers of Maine a relentless fight for the Pacific continued through 1943 and by 1944 the destroyers had been involved in some of the bloodiest battles of World War two but it was during the Battle of Leyte Gulf that the fighting men of the tin cans became legends on October the 25th for fletcher-class destroyers were on escort duty protecting a task force that was involved in landing operations at Leyte Gulf two of these destroyers were the USS Johnston and the USS hull when the Johnston had been commissioned her captain commander Ernest Evans made a speech to his crew that typify the destroyer man's Creed this is going to be a fighting ship I intend to go in harm's way and anyone who doesn't want to go along her better get off right now I said he had more courage than was good for the rest of us believing that they were screened from any surface attack by the ships of Admiral Halsey 7th fleet the johnston and whole were completely surprised when heavy shells started to land around them the two destroyers the johnston and the whole were in the gun sights of the Japanese Navy's center fleet there were four battleships in that Japanese fleet eight cruisers and 11 or more destroyers and the Yamato was the largest battleship in the world to head eighteen point one inch guns and they had nine of them and one projectile weighed about 3400 pounds compared to our 54 pounds for a 5-inch projectile captain Evans who had promised his men that they were going into harm's way led his ship in a david-and-goliath heroic attack the first order I heard him give was all ahead flank and which meant was as fast as you could go we begin making smoke zigzagging so he told our gunnery officer to pick out one of those lead cruisers and we did and we made the torpedo run on it and I know I stood over on the starboard side and watched all ten torpedoes as they will fire [Music] we completed our run and then we turned and we was trying to retire into our own smoke and then we was hit for the first time with the three four teenage projectors mostly a midship the ship just completely rose up out of the water and came down with a thud that projectile it's got a whoa well like that and it's a terrible noise for some reason I just turned and started walking forward and I only got just a few feet and as a round came in and killed most of those guys that that standing with and I looked back and I recall it I still see it today one of my friends from about half up and his arms are still moving help it's in the water and pounded by the Japanese heavy guns the Johnston turned to help its fellow destroyer its young crew members began to think the unthinkable and I truly believed that that was the last day of my life with a Johnston dead in the water captain Evans had no option but to abandon ship it was the a bad feeling first of all you know you've never seen anything like you you saw it that day and he was one of those that thought this can't happen to me you know yeah it's but a good feeling at all as the survivors huddled together on life rafts they thought that rescue would come swiftly it's the day wore on and the evening came on and began to get dark well then you began to wonder now where in the hell are they and why are they appear you know to retrieve us within two hours the Johnston the hull and the escort ship Roberts had been sunk and the survivors were scattered over miles of ocean but the US Naval Command was fearful that if one ship should find them and stop it would be a sitting target for enemy submarines they issued a terrible order permission denied to save survivors our task force commander knew exactly where we were he knew we were in the water other ships were asking permission to come back and get us and it was denied the men had sacrificed themselves to save the carriers and protect the landings at Leyte Gulf but for the crew of the Destroyers abandoned in the sea the horror was far from over we saw our first shark about three o'clock that somebody would scream out when one of them had to hold up and we had a chief petty officer that one of them got him in one of these spies and then just a few minutes afterwards got him in the other night and so when they'd scream out he knew that shark was hitting somebody for the next two days the men fought the Sharks and the elephants the water was cool at night but the Sun was hot in daytime and of course we were here up you know wood getting burnt real bad this little float wasn't very big that we had and we put the wounded most wounded inside that which was a couple of guys that was burnt real bad and couldn't see them darker just a little bit after dark both of them died so we let them slip though leave the surface [Music] when finally rescued out of the combined crews of over 600 only 147 survived from the johnston and 86 from the hole the heroism of the destroyer crews who had helped to win the Battle of Leyte Gulf was summed up by the official naval historian in no engagement of its entire history as the United States Navy shown more gallantry guts and gumption [Music] following this victory the Philippines were successfully recaptured General MacArthur had fulfilled his promise to return and a destroyer was there to help fulfill that farm but for all its armament the destroyers were small and vulnerable warships and it was not only from the hands of their enemies that the men of the destroyers faced death sometimes nature would unleash itself with devastating consequences by late 1944 the fletcher-class destroyers were now coming off the slipways at an incredible rate of for each month as soon as they had their shakedown cruise they were hurled into the bloody battle for the Pacific as American forces slowly recaptured each Island the pricing lives kept going up with the Japanese refusing to surrender it was a case of kill or be killed but for the men of the Destroyers death sometimes came from forces which even they could not fight during the autumn storms of 1944 the USS Spence was part of the escort for task force 38 if you was watching the ship it put it clear out of sight where we've been below the waves you know and you think well it's gone then next time they'd be up above you it'll be 60 feet from war sometimes wind was so strong if you into the wind you couldn't breathe the next day the weather became even worse and then the storm became a typhoon in winds of over a hundred miles per hour huge quantities of water swamped the Spence I was on the watching when that I had Alma all kinds of rain gear on and everything and the earphones and you know it seemed awful funny like when you ship later over on the inside you're walking on the side of it then all of a sudden it turns all the way over and towed me out in the water then I didn't dream there be a storm enough to seek any ship any man a warship anyway at about 11 o'clock in the morning with winds now reaching over a hundred and twenty knots the Spence capsized of the 330 men aboard only 24 survived everybody was below deck in the engine room and the fire rooms in that they they never had a chance this ship upside down there's no way in the world that can ever get out two other destroyers also sank in the typhoon and the mighty carrier the Hornet had its flight deck ripped apart in total approximately 790 officers and men lost their lives during the storm but for the men of the destroyers another far more deadly onslaught was about to face them by late 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf the Japanese desperate to defend their positions turned their fury into a new form of attack the kamikaze again it was the Destroyers that were in the front line of battle their mission was clear target and kill any kamikaze aircraft that came within the vicinity of an aircraft it's total suicide effort first time I saw it I couldn't believe it they came in and we were in a big formation we had destroyers in a circle in the middle of other big ships and they had to fly over us to get to the big ships and I would see these planes coming in and see the the shells going out and we fired the 5-inch guns they'd say the proximity fuze which meant they would explode and traveling all over the place and 40 millimetres going out the 20 millimetres going out when you get close enough and you just sit there saying well how can he get through it there's so much metal up there that they bound and run into something but it didn't hit the right place then it's the same thing still flew so we just grit your teeth you keep shooting bang bang bang finally you did it or it would fly over you'd go look for something else but sometimes the kamikaze pilots targeted the destroyers on April the 6th 1945 the USS Bush was on picket duty off the coast of Okinawa when CIC his radar picked up a large formation of enemy aircraft we first spotted about 50 miles away we saw a pretty large group probably 10 to 20 planes and here's another group behind that and then almost immediately a third group and then a fourth group and so we knew where this was gonna be a bigger within a few minutes the bush knew that they were the target we had a plane coming in at low on the water on our bow right before us we fired everything to come loose the 5-inch the 40s the 20s all were firing and didn't stop in a very skilled pilot and he knew what he was doing and he hit us exactly right in the spot the most perfect spot possible that is right between the two stacks right at the waterline then about a half hour later another one came in a little higher and peeled off and came in and hit us on the other side exactly the same way and then about a half hour later a third one came in and crashed into the fourth right but the fo'c'sle and that was the most damaging hit in terms of people killed because we had people out on deck there and he sprayed gasoline flaming ass all over that forward forward deck with its hull almost torn into the bush sank taking 87 of its crew with it in the weeks that followed the Destroyers faced more than 1,500 kamikaze attacks and by the war's end had fought in nearly every naval battle in total over 1300 battle stars were awarded to the Fletcher class but a bigger accolade awaited them in August 1945 Abril bull Halsey ordered the three destroyers the USS Nicholas O'Bannon and Taylor should accompany the mighty battleship Missouri to accept Japan's surrender because of their valorous fight of the long road from the South Pacific to the very end we met the Japanese destroyer that came out of Tokyo Bay with the harbour pilots and peace emissaries and we sent our whale boat over there and picked them up and then transferred to them to the Missouri and to other ships in the fleet it was quite an honor by the end of World War two a hundred and seventy-five of these tough destroyers had been built and sent into battle but at a price twenty-five had been lost the howls of Steel are long gone but for the men of the destroyers the fighting spirit lives on thank God for the pledges it was the finest destroyer that was ever built the captain of a destroyer your King in your own world [Music] oh I'd probably seen a John Wayne movie or something in I was 17 years old and I enlisted one eight days after turning 17 and about three days later I was sworn in and on my way to San Diego when a winna board first went aboard Lysa mentioned I was signed to the deck force in the forward part of the ship which is the first division and then later I went was assigned to working in the laundry which was good duty he made a little extra money and working in the laundry and and he had pretty regular hours so for the at least the last two months maybe a little bit longer I was assigned to the to the laundry that the ship was a float I had worked in the laundry on the night of the 24th and I secured about 4:00 a.m. on the 25th and went to my bunk in the mess hall in about 6 o'clock General Quarters sound of which wasn't unusual because it would did that if we were underway and I went to the my battle station and we were there only a short time and we secured and I went back bellowing and gotten my bunk again and then about five minutes to seven that the General Quarters alarm sounded again and someone passed the word that the Japanese fleet was 15 miles astern of us well that does something to quicken you face when you hear something like that and so we again went to our battle stations and I know when I got topside I imagined the captain got on the bridge just about the same time I got to my battle station because the first order I heard him give was all ahead flank and which meant as fast as you could go and then he said left full rudder and we began making smoke zigzagging and headed back I didn't know at that time that we were headed on a torpedo run but we were and so he told our gunnery officer to pick out one of those lead cruisers and and we did and we made the torpedo run on it and I know I stood over on the starboard side and watched all 10 torpedoes as they were fired and then I don't know why but I felt better by going back to the port side of course they could just shot all the way through the ship anyway and but at least I felt better being on that port side and we completed our run and then we turned and we'd never been hit yet and we was trying to retire into our own smoke and then coming out of the smoke and in a rain squall and then we was hit for the first time with the 314 each projectiles mostly a midship and then followed by three 6-inch one of at least and hit the bridge killed and wounded several and then from then on it was a constant hammering of one right after the other when when you were being hit with those it was terrible it was a terrible sound and I know I it finally got the ship was shot up so bad in my area that it was burning and you could no longer step there so I I went to the main deck and I was amidships and was standing kind of under a gun tub which was affording some protection I thought from shrapnel and then for some reason I just turned and and started walking forward and I only got just a few feet and there's a round came in and killed most of those guys that that standing with and I look back and I recall a time still see it today one of my friends from about half up and his arms are still moving and and I thought well you know it's you now but it'll be me in a minute so that's the way I handled that I guess knowing that I was about to die too you know and I don't guess I thought too much about it except my main feeling was the hammer was my mother's gonna handle this you know I knew I was about to lose my life but I just I wonder how she'd handle it I know not really you you didn't see any any panic going on people are just conducting themselves normally over normal this you can get in a case like that I suppose and I know when when I abandon ship one other man and I swam off of the port quarter and probably 75 or hundred yards and we were about probably 20 or 25 feet apart and it was a round came in and hit between us and we didn't know where it came from right at the time but we thought they're shooting at us but they weren't it was ship after that still shooting at the our ship which was still afloat and one of the rounds just fell short and fell between so needless to say we relocated after that and we went more to the stern of our ship for most of the people were and that's then after they the Johnston rolled over and finally sank I had a feeling mixed emotions you know I thought well if it will go down maybe they'll get out here and leave us alone but on the other hand once it goes down and they won't have anything to do except director attention to us in the water and but when he did go down they one of their destroyers came up through the those of us that was in the water and I was probably 25 yards to port of the the Japanese destroyer and some were much closer than I was and no nobody was on the gun they were I distinctly remember people being in in khakis I don't know if they were Marines or what but they were lining the ship and of course shouting at you you know and saying something I didn't know what they're saying they didn't really care you know long as they got on out of there and left us alone and they did they once they cleared they slowed down real slow they probably wasn't running five knots and when they got through there people well then they kicked you too had you know and and went on of course a what's needed at the time - they had cruisers that were sinking and that's trying to get rescue you know the people that was going on that ship so they was needed somewheres else so maybe that's one of the reasons they didn't direct her attention to us that first night it was a long night we had we saw our first shark about 3 o'clock that afternoon I hadn't even considered sharks up until then and we saw one and he was pretty good-sized when he was working his way in on our group and came on in but he never hit anybody at that time but we never had anybody hit until after dark and I don't know whether he was one of them or not but we had people we'd love to be lives two sharks and some wounded very seriously from their shark bite but then morning came you know you're wondering well what the hell happened to him you know where are they and then about six o'clock the second morning there was two guys said they was going to try to swim to Samar and we was you could see the island very clearly but he was a long ways distant and so six more of us said well about six hours from now we will also depart and try to make it maybe some of us will make it there and to get some help and and we did and then about four o'clock that afternoon well I thought that we saw a couple of guys and I thought they were in a boat and I we got a little closer one of them said we have some water and I said well hell they speak English maybe maybe they're Filipino and then as we got closer I realized it was the two guys that started swimming earlier that morning and they didn't have a boat but they did have one of our life rafts that had been blown off the ship during the battle I suppose and but it was pretty well intact and so we joined up on that and we hung on to get them the rest of the way well I guess some people probably did but I thought well long as I'm breathing you know I've got a chance and the only way you'd know after he got real dark you know when there was a shark around when somebody would scream out when one of them had a hold of them and we had a chief petty officer that one of them got him in one of the his thighs and then just a few minutes afterwards got him in the other thigh and so when they'd scream out you knew that shark was hitting somebody and I know I had a guy that was I was right next to him and he got hit in the back and took several stitches in his back to close up the wounds but if he'd hand them in for that kapok lifejacket he had on it probably killed him but the shark got a good mouthful of that lifejacket and which helped him but and he just recently died last year so he he survived all these years well I've often said I guess people who have never hallucinate 'add can't really feel how real it is I think we all did fortunately we didn't all hallucinate at the same time I know after we were in the water and I had the feeling that I was drifted alongside a destroyer escort and he it seemed very real to me that I climbed aboard that destroyer escort there was nobody on board I went to the various drinking fountains trying to find water not being successful I got back on the raft and then a little bit later I it's so real to me I I said have we seen any ships and one guy said yeah we did see some DS well Gowell I thought well damn I knew that and then I got thinking now if I was ever up off for this raft and on that deck why did I get back in this water and so I ruled it out I knew that that hadn't happened at that time but it was so real to me that and it was to those other people too I'm sure and it's one of our survivors he's dead now he said some of those people that hallucinate it he said I don't think they ever came all the way back and I think he's right some of them didn't and they even today if they're still alive have problems with separating fact from the fiction or what they think happened the USS softly was a general-purpose 2,100 tonne destroyer of the fletcher-class equipped to provide anti-aircraft surface and Shore bombardment fire deliver torpedo attacks and furnish anti-submarine protection converted to a prototype anti-submarine warfare vessel she has undergone extensive changes in equipment improved and enlarged ASW facilities have been installed with marked reduction in anti-aircraft and torpedo equipment her war complement of 309 crewmembers has been reduced to 264 with consequent reduction in living accommodations but operating experience has demonstrated the need for additional personnel without additional living space being available a common occurrence on present-day ships the soft Lee's engineering plant controlled from this throttle board requires one third of the ships total crew to operate the machinery that provides the power to carry the ship's offensive weapons to the scene of action and to operate them while their propulsion equipment such as this fire room is particularly costly in space and weight in combatant types this is the price of speed communications with other units are coordinated by radio central messages both manual and teletype are transmitted and received and voice and visual traffic is serviced and filed this is considered a commodious space in a destroyer the combat Information Center receives and displays all types of information necessary to support command decisions this compartment illustrates the increasing cost of this service in space men and equipment the 5-inch plotting room shown here in operation is typical of the complex gunnery installations which make heavy demands on manpower and space within the ship's hull this elaborate underwater battery plotting room exemplifies the soft Lee's primary mission of anti-submarine warfare the installation of this complex equipment improves the ship's ability to deliver killing attacks but the necessary space has been obtained at the expense of the crews living quarters moreover the number of personnel required to offer and maintain this equipment has greatly increased over that of earlier gear also additional space and weight is utilized by the air conditioning installation considered essential for the efficient performance of personnel working here to handle ever-increasing paperwork and records this ship's office accommodates files and working space for for yeoman however space limitations here and in other offices require much of the ship's paperwork to be performed and retained in the officers rooms the ship's laundry contains a washer extractor dryer and presser which must be operated on a 24-hour basis to provide weekly laundry services the ship's sickbay has facilities for routine medical treatment while the engineering log room adjacent provides office space for the largest Department aboard this then is how the crew works now let's look at their living spaces this is the e division berthing compartment before revelry 70 men with all their personal effects and miscellaneous ship's equipment are accommodated in eight hundred square feet of area 11.5 square feet per man but increases in personnel necessitate the use of cots shops and passageways are pressed into use for deck space and sea bag substitute for lockers with dubious effects on sanitation and morale traffic problems approach a maximum at revelry even the bosun's mate occasionally gets trapped in the narrow passageways as mentioned earlier this compartment has 11.5 square feet per man a reduction of two square feet below the standard of 13.5 prescribed by the bureau of ships notice what this means in the way of individual privacy and dressing convenience - this must be added the confusion occasioned by ship's motion the possible presence of additional foul weather gear whenever adverse weather conditions exist the ever-present high level noise from machinery and blowers and the orders resulting from such confined living each transom Locker Shoen accommodates one man six cubic feet of storage space for all his personal gear every bunk and Locker in this space is occupied Speight 10% or more of the crew being continually away at school or on leave restricted passageways and bladders add to the difficulties experienced by the crew on route to the washrooms and topside especially in rough weather notice the large Locker in the background containing electronics spare parts this utilizes space which would otherwise be available for personnel lockers or peacoat lockers this is the passageway at the top of the same ladder shown in the previous scene all the after living compartments funneled traffic up through this space into the heads and washroom Ford or out onto the main deck through the door shown in the background this crews head has one urinal for 41 men and one seat for 21 men when all equipment is working the after crews washroom has installed one wash basin for sixteen men and one shower for 49 men these figures are very close to beYOU ship standards and these two spaces are considered better than average for destroyer types even when occupied the after crews head is considered large for a destroyer and far superior to the Ford crews head normally the after crews washroom can accommodate the number of personnel assigned tattoos and all however during periods of maximum utilization the presence of excessive water vapor indicates the need for improved exhaust ventilation this space serves two-thirds of the crew and is considerably superior to the forward crews washroom which was too small to be photographed notice that no provision exists for hanging gear or for drying towels to increase the available berths the mess hall also serves as a berthing space for 31 men folded mess tables and benches are visible in the foreground and the storage of clothing and shoes thereon is a common occurrence considerable difficulty is experienced in access to the lower bunks the passageway shown comprises one of the two available routes from all forward berthing spaces to the forward crew's head which is a bath and one deck above this space the dual use of this space prevents late hammocks for the mid watch since all bunks must be secured for meals also access to lockers is impossible during mealtimes in addition to the inaccessibility of the lockers shown some are unusable due to steam fittings located inside the ship has a total of 264 lockers for the crew with the majority being the standard transom Locker shown here personnel in excess of this number must use sea bags or share lockers as 19 are doing it present

Channel: WAR - HISTORY - DOCUMENTARIES

Views: 1,464,971

Rating: 4.7323661 out of 5

Keywords: History of wars, world war, documentry, battleship, wwII warships, warships documentry, war history, documentry films, Battlefield, warships, warship ww2, battleship ww2, battleship ww2 documentary, battleship ww2 footage, the destroyer ww2, ship destroyer, ship destroys dock, ww2 movies, flecher class, flecher ship, WW2 Documentary, ww2 warships in action, war, history, United States Navy, us navy, Korean War, vietnam war, warfare, warfare ship, ww2 warfare

Id: raEtQ3l0dFU

Length: 65min 37sec (3937 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2019