Matthew Lynch Oral History Interview
JAMES LINDLEY: Today is the --
MATTHEW LYNCH: October 28th.
JL: Right. All right. This is Dr. James Lindley, and this is
an oral history interview that is being collected over the
telephone. The purpose of the National Museum of the
Pacific War Oral History Project is to collect, preserve,
and interpret the stories of World War II veterans’ home
front experiences, the life of Fleet Admiral Chester W.
Nimitz, and the old Nimitz Hotel, by means of audio and/or
video recordings. The audio and video recordings of such
interviews become part of the Center for Pacific War
Studies, the Archive of the National Museum of the Pacific
War, and the Texas Historical Commission. These recordings
will be made available for historical and other academic
research by scholars, and members of the interviewee’s
family. We, the undersigned, have read the above and
voluntarily offer the National Museum of the Pacific War
full use of the information contained on the audio and/or
video recordings, and written text of these oral histories,
for the purposes of research. In view of the scholarly
value of this research material, we hereby assign rights,
title, interest pertaining to it to the National Museum of
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the Pacific War, and the Texas Historical Commission. And
I’d like you at this point in time to indicate your
approval of this statement.
ML: I’m in agreement with the statement.
JL: All right. And the next statement is: I give permission
for excerpts of my oral history to be used in the Nimitz
Foundation publication, The Nimitz News; the programs; the
publications; and exhibits of the National Museum of the
Pacific War.
ML: I do.
JL: All right, very good. This interview is Mr. Matthew James
Lynch. Mr. Matthew James Lynch. And Mr. Lynch is being
interviewed on the telephone. Mr. Lynch lives in
Wilmington, Delaware. And, again, this is the 27th of
October, 2011. We certainly thank you for your time this
afternoon, and we appreciate your service to our country
during the Second World War. Would you please begin by
telling us a little bit about yourself, and then tell us
your experience during the conflict in World War II?
ML: Okay. Leading up to the travels of the USS Conner, DD-582,
during World War II, the year was 1941 --
JL: Let’s start by telling us a little bit about yourself,
where you were born --
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ML: Okay. I, Matthew J. Lynch, was a happy senior at La Salle
Academy, looking forward to graduation in June 1942. I was
born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and happily
planning my future college career. However, December 7th
changed all my well laid out plans. The war, in the
beginning, did not seem to affect my plans right away, but
in July 1942, all 18-year-olds had to sign up for the
draft. Since I lived all my life around the ocean, I
started to think Navy. On September 8th, 1942, I joined the
Navy and headed for boot camp at Newport, Rhode Island.
After a short stay at Newport, where we took a battery of
tests, I was assigned to gunnery school, where we learned
to repair and clean all types of firearms, gear. After 15
weeks, some of us were selected to attend advanced electric
hydraulic school in Washington, D.C. And we then proceeded
for 15 more weeks of training. We concentrated primarily
on the 5”/38 multipurpose gun, found on all ships in the
fleet. I was promoted to third-class gunner’s mate, and
assigned to new construction. That turned out to be the
USS Conner DD-582, being built in Boston, Massachusetts.
The USS Conner was a new type destroyer of the Fletcher
class. Destroyers are built for speed, and are built of
one quarter inch steel, with no armament. The Conner was
constructed in the shadow of Old Ironsides, and was soon to
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live up to the fine tradition of that great ship. The
Conner is a story of ships built after Pearl Harbor. It is
the account of the new Navy, which wrested -- W-R-E-S-T-E-D
-- control of the Pacific from the torturous enemy, which
won temporary advantage by that infamous attack. Her
track: the route of the triumphant advance upon the
Japanese empire. Her history is studded with the scenes of
American victories at such places as Tarawa, Kwajalein,
Majuro, Eniwetok, Kavieng, Hollandia, Philippines Sea, Iwo
Jima, Saipan, Guam, Okinawa, Leyte, Luzon, Brunei Bay, and
Balikpapan. The USS Conner DD-582 was placed in full
commission June 8th, 1943, after a shakedown cruise to
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the crew was motored into a
fighting unit. The Conner returned to Boston. It was
during the return to Boston the Conner saw its first
action: trailing an enemy submarine and dropping depth
charges, before being relieved to continue back to Boston.
Our post-shakedown overhaul was completed on August 23rd,
1942, and we left Boston for good, with two other destroyers, headed for the Panama Canal and San Diego. The
Conner arrived in Pearl Harbor on 9/24/42. Forty days out of Boston the Conner was in an antiaircraft screen, protecting aircraft carriers whose plans were neutralizing
Jap-held outposts. After a daring raid on Wake Island, the
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USS Conner returned to Pearl Harbor. The Conner started
training for the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. During
this invasion, the Conner experienced extensive (pause) air
raids, and warding off submarines. The Conner assisted in
shooting down one plane. After the Gilberts, the Conner
bombarded Narm Island, N-A-R-M, celebrating six months in
the warzone. On Christmas Day, a large group, including
the Conner, swarmed Kavieng, K-A-V-I-O-N-G [sic], New
Ireland, and that night was under heavy attack from Jap
planes, with no damage to any US ships. About January
1944, the USS Conner joined Task Force 58 and headed for an
attack on the Marshall Islands, in preparation for
invasion. The next action for Task Force 58 was set for
March 22nd. Raids were made on [Blav?], B-L-A-V, [Yapa?],
Y-A-P-A, and Woleai, W-O-L-E-A-L [sic]. After working over
the islands, the Conner and Task Force 58 provided for the
Marshall Islands, where we remained until June 6th in training. The Conner proceeded westward, with Task Force
58, for strikes on Guam, G-U-A-M, and Rota, R-O-T-A, islands of the Marianas group on June 16th and 17th. This
operation was in support of a greater operation of Saipan,
Tinian, T-I-N-I-A-N, and Guam. During this action, the
Conner picked up a plane’s survivors from the USS Hornet.
Again, on June 18th the Conner recovered 18 Japanese
5 soldiers whose transport had been sunk by American subs.
The first battle of the Philippines Sea began on June 19th, and the Conner was in the thick of it. On the night of the
20th, with all running lights on, the Conner dashed about looking for downed US pilots that had run out of fuel, and luckily we were not able to find any floating pilots. On the 23rd of June, the Conner rejoined the Task Force, and headed for Iwo Jima for a sweep of the islands, then headed for Eniwetok, and some baseball. After three days at
Eniwetok, the force headed for Saipan, and then made a fighter sweep over Iwo Jima to neutralize the airfield. On
July 4th, strikes were made at Iwo Jima, Hahajima, H-A-H-A, and Chichi, which is C-H-I-C-H-I. That afternoon, the
Conner used real firepower to celebrate the 4th of July, blasting the airfield on Iwo Jima. In addition, the Conner drove off three Jap Zeros, which were attacking our spotter planes. A few well-placed shells soon convinced the Jap pilots we were for real, and they left in a hurry. On July the 15th, the Conner joined the USS Lesuth, L-E-S-U-T-H, and the USS Claiborne, C-L-A-I-R-B-O-R-N-E [sic], to escort them to Eniwetok for boiler repairs. And once we did, the three cans joined Task Force 38 and spent several days in training. Task Force 38 made strikes on Palau, P-A-L-A-U, and Mindanao, M-I-N-D-A-N-O [sic], to provide coverage for
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landing on [Thailand?], T-A-L-A-N-D, and [Loro?], L-O-R-O-
T-A-I. These operations were carried out to maintain
control of the eastern approaches through the Philippine
Islands, and the Formosa/China coasts. On September 13th,
the Conner rescued two pilots who had been found to land --
who had been forced to land their plan in the water. One
pilot was from the USS Wasp, and the other was from the USS
Boston. On September the 14th, the Conner was assigned to the fleet to assist in landing on Morotai, M-O-R-O-T-A-I, and the Conner joined Task Force 38 the following day. On
September 21st, the Conner shot down a plane attacking the
USS Hornet. On the 24th of September, the Conner rescued
the crew of the Bunker Hill plane, after it crashed off the
port bow, as it was returning from a strike against
Corregidor. On October 2nd, the Task Force 38 proceeded to
strike shipping and installations in Okinawa, Jima, and
then proceeded Formosa and Luzon, to support the capture
and occupation of Leyte Gulf, and Negros areas, N-E-G-R-O-S
areas. The Conner then proceeded to Seeadler Harbor, S-E-
E-A-D-L-E-R, for rearming and provisions. One of the
outstanding performances participated in by the Conner
while in actual contact with the enemy took place during
the Fast Carrier strikes on Formosa on October 13th and 14th.
The Conner was operating with a group which was subjected
7 to attacks by some 129 Japanese torpedo planes during the strike. On the night of (audio breaking up; inaudible), the USS Canberra, in the adjacent screening station to this vessel, approximately 1,700 yards distance, was torpedoed by a low-flying Japanese bomber. During the torpedo run, the Conner was caught in the fury of the Canberra’s guns.
The cruiser put up a terrific barrage of antiaircraft shells in desperate attempt for survival. The shrapnel sprayed on the decks of the Conner, resulting in the injury of 26 men, six seriously wounded, two of whom survived the next few days. Immediately following the torpedoing of the
Canberra, the Conner and the USS Burns stood by the stricken vessel, now dead in the water, circling clockwise at a range of about 2,000 yards, while the remainder of the
Task Force continued on in evasive tactics. The Task Group remained in the same area of the Canberra throughout the next day, and was subjected to another furious attack at dusk on the 14th. In an attack similar to the night before, the USS Houston was torpedoed and severely damaged. During this attack, the Conner shot down one enemy torpedo bomber and received credit for assisting in two others. On
October 20th, the Conner picked up the pilot and the crewmen of the USS Wasp plane, which had crashed. The task group proceeded on October 23rd to Ulithi, U-L-I-T-H-I, Island, in
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order to rearm and re-provision. The next day, while the
group struck at Yap, Y-A-P, Island, shortly after the
strike the group was ordered to head westward at the best
possible speed, due to reports of enemy surface contacts,
indicating movement of enemy combatant ships. The
resulting action was the second Battle of the Philippine
Sea. After the famous victory in that battle, the group
returned to Ulithi, arriving there on the 29th of October.
The group remained at Ulithi, awaiting orders to carry out
further offensive strikes against the enemy, until November
2nd, when it was ordered to commence a high-speed run
towards Luzon for strikes against aircraft and shipping in
northern Luzon on the 5th and 6th, and on Leyte Island on the
10th. After refueling, the group returned to the Task Force
of destroying enemy aircraft and shipping in Luzon. The
mission against Luzon Island was completed on the 19th of
November, and the Conner was ordered to proceed to Kossol
Roads, K-E-S-S-O-L [sic], in the Palau Islands, and report
to the Commander of the Seventh Fleet for duty. She
anchored in that anchorage on November 21st. While at
Kossol islands, the Conner became a unit of DesRon 51 and
Des Division 102, in accordance with the Pacific Destroyer
Reorganization of December 1st. On November 27th, the Conner received orders from the Commander of the Seventh Fleet to
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proceed in company with the USS Portland to Leyte, to
arrive before noon on the 29th. On the 29th, the Conner reported to the Task Group in Leyte Gulf, having operated almost exclusively with the Fast Carrier Task Force of the
3rd and 5th Fleets previous to this time. At 19:30 on that
date, the task group commander ordered Comm DesRon 22 to
carry out a sweep of Camotes Bay -- that’s spelled C-A-M-O-
T-E-S -- and with emphasis on the destruction of targets in
Ormoc, O-R-M-O-C, Bay, to be conducted by four destroyers.
The Conner, along with the USS Waller and Renshaw, was
chosen to participate in the sweep. By 22:00, the Conner,
the third ship in column, was rounding the tip of Panaon
Island, P-A-N-O-A-N [sic], en route to Ormoc Bay, at a
speed of 34 knots, heading through the narrow, treacherous
waters at the south end of the island. For 24 hours, the
men of the Conner stayed at their battle stations, running
a gauntlet of enemy bombers throughout the night, and into
the following day. On 09:00 this next morning, the Conner
had traveled 400 miles, swept the Camotes Sea, and
eliminated and fired on a number of visible surface and
shore targets around Ormoc (inaudible) Bay. During the
trip, there were five near misses from enemy bombers.
However, no damage was done to the ship, and there were no
casualties. On completion of the mission, the ship was
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proud to receive a very well done from the Captain R. H.
Smith, Commander Destroyer Squadron 22, for its action.
The Conner remained in Leyte Gulf, covering landing
operations, until December 4, when she returned to Kossol
Passage. On the 10th she left Kossol Roads with a heavy
covering, and with the heavy covering and carrier group of
the Mindoro Attack Force, whose task it was to destroy
enemy surface forces encountered, and to provide air
coverage for the landing on Mindoro Island, M-I-N-O-D-O-R-O
[sic], in the Philippines on December 15th. The group
passed through Surigao Strait, S-U-R-I-G-A-O, during the
night of December 12th to 13th. The following day, the group
was subjected to a suicide attack in which the USS Haraden,
H-A-R-A-D-E-N, stationed next to the Conner, was struck by
an enemy dive bomber, with the loss of several men killed
and wounded. On December 15th the Conner shot down a Kate,
K-A-T-E, during an attack in which the USS Marcus Island was attacked by two enemy suicide dive bombers. Following the attack, the Task Force proceeding on a retirement course through the Mindanao Sea, having been relieved of responsibility in connection with the Mindoro operation.
After refueling at Kossol Roads on the 19th, the group
continued on to Manus Island. The conquest (audio breaking
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up; inaudible) on January 2nd, 1945 (audio breaking up;
inaudible) --
JL: Your phone is breaking up a little bit.
ML: Oh, really? How about that?
JL: There you go. Yeah, that’s better.
ML: Landings at Lingayen Gulf -- that’s L-I-N-U-A-Y-A-N [sic] -
- in Luzon, scheduled for January 19th. After that
invasion, the Conner returned on the 15 to the Port of San
Jose in Mindoro for provisioning, before covering the
landings at Subic Bay, Luzon on the 29th of the month. With
60 months of hard fighting, fast action, and high-speed
steaming behind her, the Conner on February 1st headed for
Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, with her
division for a navy yard overhaul. After the modernizing
overhaul, the Conner got on the way from the Puget Sound
area for San Diego, California on April 15th. Four days
later, she entered San Diego Channel. The following day,
on the 20th, the Conner proceeded to Pearl Harbor. The
Conner remained in Hawaii, conducting shore bombardment and
antiaircraft firing exercises for April 26th until May 1st.
On the latter date, the Conner proceeded to Manus Island,
stopping off en route at [Majuro?] (inaudible) for fuel on
May 6th. Upon her arrival on Manus on May 9th, the Conner
reported to the Commander of Transport Squadron 11. The
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next day, as an escort for the transport, the Conner
continued on the Leyte Gulf, where she anchored in San
Pedro Bay on the 16th. On the 5th, the Conner got underway
to assist in covering a simul... (laughs)
JL: Simultaneous.
ML: Yeah. Attack, landing on the Australian military forces at
Brunei Bluff -- that’s B-R-U-N-E-I -- in Muara Island, M-U-
A-R-A, and Victoria Town, and seizure and securing Brunei
town, and in [Lebrun Aidrome?] in the Brunei Bay sector of
northwest Borneo. Three days later, the Conner led the
Task Force into Brunei Bay, and spent the day bombarding
the landing area, the Conner supporting the Brunei Bay
operation on various fire [qualt?] stations until June 17th,
when she left for Tawi-Tawi, T-A-W-I-T-A-W-I, Bay. The
Conner remained at Tawi-Tawi from June 19th until June 24th,
before proceeding to Morotai Island in the Halmahera group.
On June 28th, the Conner left M-O-R-O-T-A-I to cover the
landings in Balikpapan, Dutch east Bornoe. The Conner was
on several fire support missions from July 2nd until July
8th, when she left for Subic Bay. During the period of July
31st through August 4th, the Conner conducted, in support of
the intercepting, boarding, and taking prize of the
Japanese hospital ship, Tachibana, which is spelled T-A-C-
H-I-B-A-N-A, Tachibana Maru in the [Panda?] Sea area.
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Tachibana, a prewar Jap liner, and a wartime transport
masquerading as a hospital ship, was seized when the
boarding party from USS Conner and the USS Charrette
discovered her cargo marks, which red crosses contained
hundreds of rifles, small arms, and (audio breaking up;
inaudible). All (audio breaking up; inaudible) 1,562
(audio breaking up; inaudible).
JL: Your phone is breaking up again?
ML: Huh?
JL: Your phone was not...
ML: How about now?
JL: Now it’s clear, yeah.
ML: Okay. (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) --
JL: How about repeating those numbers? Because it was those
numbers, when you were giving the numbers, that it...
ML: Okay. Also aboard were 1,562 Jap soldiers, veterans of the
New Guinea campaign, who were being transported back on
this fake hospital ship as patients. Two destroyers
brought their prize into Morotai Harbor, M-O-R-O-T-A-I, in
the Halmahera group on August 6th. At Morotai, the
Tachibana was given a thorough cleaning, and the contraband
removed before continuing on to Manila, where the Jap ship
was turned over to the Commander of the Seventh Fleet on
August 21st. The Conner entered Buckner Bay, Okinawa
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September 2nd. On the 4th, she sortied with the USS Shields,
[Hart?], and Metcalf en route to Korea to rendezvous with
other units of the Seventh Fleet, and to provide firepower
for landings at Jinsen, G-I-N-S-E-N [sic], Korea on
September 9th. The Conner remained in Jinsen until
September 26th, when she proceeded to Tsingtao, China --
that’s T-S-I-N-G-T-A-O -- to support US forces in the China
theater, in the enforcement of the surrender terms imposed
on the Japanese empire. During the latter part of October
and early November, the Conner made the omnibus run between
various Yellow Sea ports, stopping at Jinsen, Shanghai,
[Wuhan?], [Chefee?], [C-H-E-F-E-E?], and Taku, before
returning to Tsingtao November 11th. I would like to close out this review by stating that during my time on the USS
Conner, the ship traveled over 330,000 miles, and as gun captain on gun one, I fired over 35,000 rounds of 5-inch ammunition. I left the Conner in Tsingtao, China, on about
November 20th, and headed back to the USA for discharge in
Boston. In February 1946, I was discharged. Using the GI
Bill, I returned to college, graduating in June 1950, and
became a research pharmacist for Abbott Laboratories and
AstraZeneca, and have been awarded over 100 patents, and
have published many scientific articles on my research.
The GI Bill was the single greatest act of the USA as a
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part of World War II. The Conner was awarded the following
medals: the World War Victory Medal; the Asiatic Pacific
Theater Medal, with 11 Bronze Stars; the American Theater
Medal; and I rate the Good Conduct Medal. Signing off.
Matthew J. Lynch.
JL: Well, I thank you very much for the story. Let me ask you
if you can recall any of your personal experiences during
this incredible period of time, things that you think were
unusual, maybe humorous, or not so humorous, that occurred,
maybe when you were picking the individuals, the pilots out
of the ocean, or anything during any of these battles. Any
stories that you might like to share with us?
ML: Well, one experience I can recall right away is that on one
occasion we picked up two Japanese airplane people -- I
think one was a pilot and the other was a gunner -- and the
pilot had been wounded in the head, severely. And our
ship’s doctor saved his life, removed these pieces of skull
that were causing him difficulty, and it was told to us
unofficially that he was so thankful for the US fixing him
up that he revealed that the Japanese would shut down their
radar when they got in a dogfight. And this provided
unbelievable strategic advantages to US pilots, because
they knew that. Now, that’s one story I remember. We had
an awful lot of good times crossing the Equator. We
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crossed the Equator many, many, many times. And we would
initiate any new people that came aboard. And, as you
would expect, pretty soon everyone on the ship was a
shellback, and they had very few polliwogs to work on.
(laughter) So it got to lose some of its fun then. And so
that’s another story I can think of. Actually...
JL: What did they do to you when you crossed it for the first
time?
ML: Terrible. (laughter) I’ll tell you a funny... That’s
right, I can tell you a funny story about that. I was sort
of a ringleader, and we, the polliwogs, outnumbered the
shellbacks the first time that we went over the Equator by
a significant number. And it just occurred to me, what the
hell are we doing? And I said, “What do you say we take
over these guys?” (laughter) So we decided that we would
take over these shellbacks and beat the hell out of them.
And about the time we got started in this endeavor the
skipper came on the loudspeaker and indicated to us if we
didn’t ship up, shape up and take what was coming to us, he
would pull alongside a carrier, and get 1,000 shellbacks
(laughter) to come over and work us over. So that changed
our mind pretty quick. So we just subjected ourselves to
it. But it was kind of a hilarious experience when it
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first started. Didn’t end up too good, but that’s another
thing that struck me as being something never to forget.
JL: How was the food?
ML: Well, not very good, as you would expect. I don’t think...
We had a what we called a spud locker for potatoes, and
that’s what we used as a brig for the Japanese officers
that we took off that Jap hospital ship. We put ’em in the
spud locker. And so we never had potatoes for way over a
year. That’s kind of a sign of one thig we never got. And
another thing we did with the Japanese that we would pick
up, we would give them, as a treat, genuinely as a treat,
we’d give them maybe some ice cream, but they couldn’t
tolerate it. They would get very sick on it. So we quit
doing that. Yeah, a destroyer’s kind of a rough ship, in
that it bounces around a lot, and people would tend to get
very seasick when they first came onboard. So these poor
suckers would really be hurting pretty bad. So --
JL: What did you --
ML: -- we’d try and entertain ’em a little bit. But it was a
failure. They didn’t appreciate the ice cream.
JL: Yeah. What did you generally do with the prisoners? Were
they transferred to another ship, or did you keep ’em till
you --
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ML: Yeah, we would keep ’em onboard in the spud locker, but
they would complain about that, because the spud locker was
right around one of the stacks, so it was kind of hot and
uncomfortable. And so we would get rid of ’em, put ’em on
a carrier. We’d pull alongside a carrier and transfer them
over when it was convenient for us, and safe. You know, we
had to pick a good time to do that. And we would fuel up
these carriers and battle wagons and cruisers, because we
couldn’t carry enough fuel to be at sea as long as we were.
I think I was at sea for a solid year one time. So we
always fueled and got ammunition and food from these bigger
ships. They would provide the cans with enough to get by.
And at that time, the food would kind of slip pretty bad.
But then they eventually tried to make it up. So it wasn’t
all that bad. You have any other questions?
JL: Well, tell me about the gun. You were gun captain for
number one gun. Tell me --
ML: Yeah.
JL: -- what was your --
ML: The 5-inch-38 gun is a multipurpose gun, in that it can be
used for surface craft, and it also can be used for planes,
antiaircraft. The shell would weigh 54 pounds, and the
case -- it was semifixed ammunition. There was a brass
case. You would load that on the tray first, and then put
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the projectile in front of that case, and then I, as the
gun captain, would keep an eye on this, and then ram that
home into the chamber. Now, once you closed that breach,
let’s say the bullet didn’t go off. This was the scariest
part of the whole setup, in that, you know, when you take
that gun out of service, that reduced your firepower by
25%, almost, and your mean battery. And so the captain
didn’t like to have that gun laying idle, because you were
supposed to let this thing lay idle for a half hour before
you open that breach, because you had a lot of delayed
firings, where -- because it didn’t go off in the first
shot doesn’t mean it’s not going to go off; it's just
delayed. So you had to make sure that it really was a
misfire before you opened that breach. Once you opened the
breach, you would’ve blown that tarp right off the ship.
So that was the most dangerous thing, and --
JL: How often did that happen?
ML: -- I would usually pick a big guy to stay with me and empty
the gun, and he would usually help me in that I would
slowly open the breach, which would eject this case. And
he’d have the hatch door open, and we’d throw it into the
ocean. But that was the scariest part of shooting that
five-inch gun. It could five miles accurately. The gun
was connected automatically through the computers of that
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day to a director, which was on the top of the ship, and
that’s where the gunnery officer would sit. Now, he was
able to put the system into automatic, and when he did that
he would have control of all the five-inch guns so that he
could lay up a pattern for the planes to try to fly
through. And he decided when to close his firing key,
which would fire this five-inch pattern up there. Then,
towards the end of the war, we got what we referred to as
magnetic shells. Now, these magnetic shells were such that
they would become armed after they went through the barrel.
Once they reached 12,000 revolutions, the bullet would
become armed, and these magnetic shells would explode
within 50 feet of any metal. So you’d lay a pattern up of
five five-inch shells with these magnetic fuses on ’em, and
then no plane could ever get by that. So...
JL: What was your firing rate?
ML: We, on a five-inch gun -- we had 40-inch and we had 20-
inch, which were faster than a five-inch, but we, for a
very short period of time, we could fire 20 rounds a
minute. But you got fatigued very fast, because this
ammunition was extremely heavy. And this ammunition had to
be hauled from the floor of the ship. The magazine, the
major magazine for the gun, was on the bottom of the ship,
laying practically on the keel. So it had to come up to
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hoist. It had to come up into the upper handling room, and
then from the upper handling room up into the gun. There
were about 18 or 19 guys in a five-inch crew going all the
way down to the lower magazine. Now, those guys in the
lower magazine, they would dog down there. In other words,
the ship would go into watertight integrity once you went
to general quarters, which meant those guys were not only
down there, they were dogged down there. They couldn’t
really get out. So it was really not a very nice
assignment. But they would automatically -- when they went
to general quarters, they would immediately load that hoist
with a projectile and a case, a powder case. So they would
come up into the upper handling room, where there were
probably six guys, and they would be able to push this
ammunition up to me into the mount. There was a hoist for
the projectiles, and the hoist had the capability of
setting the fuse on the projectile. So we’d be changing
the setting on those fuses constantly, depending on the
range of the enemy. And so we would --
JL: Would the firing officer -- he would be the one giving you
the ranges to set it?
ML: Yeah, the gunnery officer would usually keep us informed as
to -- yeah -- as to what we were shooting at, and how far
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it was. And actually, he had a rangefinder, and so he was
pretty accurate.
JL: These were all optical rangefinders at that time.
ML: At that point, yeah, but they were very good. We didn’t
miss much. After this crew came back from shakedown in
Cuba, we were capable of doing some unbelievable things.
We could really hit anything. And we used to fire at
surface targets, and we got to the point -- I remember we
were supposed to be in training, and we went out, and we
started shooting at this plane that was kind of like a deal
that -- I forget what we called it now, but he would haul a
target, and we’d shoot at that. And (laughs) we were out
there about 20 minutes, and the commodore that was running
this training thing says, “Get them guys back in the port!
They’re going to shoot that plane down! (laughter) They’re
going to shoot the pilot down!” So we got pretty good,
there’s no kidding about it. We could hit... Well, you
know, the projectiles, those barrels had rifling in ’em,
and you might understand that. And so the projectile, once
it went through that rifling, it would travel pretty
accurately. It was like a football, throwing a football,
see.
JL: Yes.
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ML: And so you’d usually hit what you pointed it at. So you
get five five-inch guns throwing up a patter, that would be
pretty dangerous, pretty difficult to ever fly through. As
long as you had all five-inch guns going. You know,
sometimes something would happen to your gun. You’d have
to fix it. And the problem with fixing my gun was that it
got awful hot. We’d have to hose the barrel down, and we
have to do a lot of stuff like that, you know. And so in
the meantime the skipper would be raving mad. If he lost a
five-inch gun, he just went bonkers. So you had to get the
thing back in action as fast as you could, which we managed
to do most of the time. If something happened to gun two,
I’d help the guy. I’d go back there, you know, and find
out what was wrong. And then we all kind of worked, the
whole five-inch group. They were all five-inch gun captain
gunners’ mates. And pretty shortly after I went on the
ship I became second class, and all the five-inch gun
captains were second class, so we were pretty experienced
with what might go wrong with these five-inch guns. By the
way, a five-inch gun was an extremely, extremely reliable
firearm. That’s what I did in Washington, D.C. is they had
you strip those things down. You changed the hydraulics,
the oil, and you learned pretty thoroughly what made that
thing tick. But it was a very dependable gun. The 40s had
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some problems, and the 20s -- when you’re shooting a 20,
they’re making a landing on -- you know, it’s kind of late.
They’re in on you. But we were able to keep those five-
inch guns going at a pretty good... We always thought we
were pretty good, I don’t know, and I had nothing to
compare it to. (laughs) So...
JL: Who -- what company made those things? Do you know?
ML: I did know. I believe the 5-inch-38 was made down in
Washington, D.C. in that gun factory by the US Navy.
JL: Yeah, the Navy [Gun Works?]. Huh.
ML: Yeah, I believe that was the Navy Gun Factory. They made
16-inch guns there, too, for the battleships, and so...
And we operated, of course, in these Task Force 58 and Task
Force 38 -- they had all the battleships in that group.
And you know what happened, as I indicated in the story
here, when you got transferred into the Seventh Fleet, your
ship was beginning to be a little bit worn down, and they
were more concerned with getting new construction coming up
to screen for them. So the Seventh Fleet was the
amphibious fleet, and that was kind of the dregs. I mean,
it was bad news when you got assigned to the Seventh Fleet.
That was MacArthur’s force. So I was with the Seventh
Fleet for quite a while at the end of the war there, so...
He was kind of a show-off kind of guy. I can tell you one
25
story. I saw him -- he was going ashore, and the kid that
was running this little landing boat wanted to make a good
landing to put ’em on the beach right away so it wouldn’t
get wet. (laughs) And so he was probably -- I watched this
thing -- he was probably pretty proud of his landing. And
you know MacArthur made him back off so he could walk
ashore in the water, (laughter) get his picture taken. So
that I saw with my own eyes. So it was... (laughter) And
--
JL: Well, he had to have the right photo opp.
ML: Yeah, he had to have the right photo, right. And at Iwo
Jima -- you might appreciate this -- at Iwo Jima we were
providing bombardment for the Marines, ’cause they didn’t
have artillery, and so we would kind of fire over their
heads. We were so close to the beach at Iwo Jima, we could
not fire all our 5-inch at once, because the concussion was
so great the bottom of the ship would hit the bottom of the
ocean there. So we had to fire one, three, and five, and
then two and four, so that we wouldn’t bump the bottom. So
that’s how close we got. So I saw that flag go up on that
mountaintop. You see that famous picture all around about
those guys putting -- it didn’t look anything like that
shot, believe me. That’s a posed deal. It didn’t look
that way at all. But they posed for one afterwards, I
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guess. Somewhere they posed for one. That ain’t the
picture that I saw, with that --
JL: Was this --
ML: -- flag going up. Those guys were struggling and having a
hell of a time getting that flag up on that mount, whatever
it was.
JL: Mount Suribachi.
ML: Yeah.
JL: Now, there were two flags that were raised. The first one
was small, and they then sent a big one from somewhere --
I’ve forgotten where -- and sent a bigger one out there.
Which one did you see?
ML: I saw the little one.
JL: Oh, okay.
ML: I didn’t see a big flag.
JL: Well, the little one was too small, and some admirals sent
’em a big flag to... (laughs)
ML: I see. Well, I didn’t see the bigger one go up. And maybe
they did that in a much more organized manner, and maybe
that’s the one they took the picture of, but...
JL: I think it might be.
ML: All right, very good.
27
JL: That would be a very -- if you could send a copy to me,
that would be very interesting to put with your stories,
because that helps to get everything clarified.
ML: Yeah, especially the dates are here and that kind of... I
was having difficulty trying to figure out how to not be
repetitious too much, you know.
JL: Right, right.
ML: But...
JL: Well, I think, you know, this is a wonderful story, and I
personally like it because I served aboard a destroyer.
ML: Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
JL: And I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was
intrigued with the life aboard the destroyer. It was
interesting. I loved it, because it was a relatively small
number of people. I think we had about 300 men aboard --
ML: Yes, we had 320. We had 320 men. We had 16 officers, and
we had 16 chiefs.
JL: Oh, yes. Yes.
ML: Is that about the size of your ship?
JL: Exactly. Exactly. So --
ML: And when we went through Ormoc Bay there, I’ll tell you,
one of those bombs hit right off my -- I was in gun one,
which was the bow, and the mud hit my gun mount with such
force, I was never able to sand that mud out to paint it.
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JL: Good heavens.
ML: That mud remained ingrained in that metal till I left the
ship, (laughs) so... And actually, that Ormoc Bay run was
probably the most treacherous thing, I think, we did. It
was terrible. (laughs) Oh, man, oh, man. It was just
between islands, and we were going top speed all the time.
We made a big U-turn, and shot out torpedoes, and we had
ten torpedoes, and we lit depth charges. You see, we were
the only destroyer in the fleet. When we first started out
on that shakedown cruise we had a firing run, and (laughs)
we had a kid that was on the K-gun. You probably know what
the K-gun was --
JL: Right.
ML: -- on the side of the ship, that fired a small depth
charge, 3 or 400 pounds, 300 pounds. Well, this kid had
the lanyard in his hand, and the 5-inch gun went off right
over his head, and he grabbed his head, forgetting he had
the lanyard in his hand, and so he pulled the lanyard. We
were the only destroyer in the fleet to ever fire a depth
charge at an airplane. (laughter) You know, that poor
kid... I remember he was from Maine. He was really a very
innocent kid. And he got court marshaled for that. But
the skipper, you know, he realized, what the hell happened,
29
you know? And so he let the kid go. He didn’t do anything
to him, so...
JL: I’m surprised y’all didn’t make a medal for him.
ML: We should have, (laughter) you know, that poor kid. I
mean, that barrel was right over his head. I’m saying the
distance was probably five, six feet.
JL: Oh my gosh.
ML: He was on the lower deck. The gun was on the upper deck,
right over his poor old head. He was a Swedish kid. I’ll
never forget him. He fired the K-gun, so that was funny.
JL: Well, Mr. Lynch, I certainly thank you for spending the
time this afternoon and telling us your story, and what
I’ll do is this afternoon I will download this to the
computer. I’ll make a copy of this, and I will mail this
to you. I probably won’t get it in the mail today, but
next week it’ll get in mail to you. Let me con--
ML: Okay.
JL: Let me confirm your address as 1200 Graylyn Road,
Wilmington, Delaware 19803.
ML: Right. I’m right down the road from your friend Charlie.
JL: Oh, okay. All right, very good.
ML: He lives right up the street.
JL: Well, he’s a very nice fellow. We certainly enjoy him.
30
ML: Oh, yeah. He’s quite a guy. I talk with him quite a bit.
You would appreciate this story he told me, and I didn’t
understand him, but one day we were passing each other --
we always talk a little bit when I’m walking, he’s walking.
And one day -- I think it was around our veterans’ holiday,
and he had maybe a flag on, or he had something on, and so
I suspected that he was a service man. And so I said, “Are
you in the service, Charlie?” He says, “No.” He said, “I
was in the Bastard Brigade.” And I says, “What was that,
Charlie?” And then I got closer to him and could hear him.
My hearing’s pretty bad. And he said he was in the Bastard
Brigade. And I said, “What’s that?” “Well,” he said, “I
didn’t want to go in the service, and I kind of got in
school, and I stayed in school, and I kept staying in
school.” And he said, “You know, I was able to get my PhD,
and I avoided the draft. (laughter) So I was in the
Bastard Brigade.” “Well,” I said, “I never heard that
before, Charlie, but if that’s what you wanted, I’m sure
glad you got it, you know?” So he’s a chemist. He’s a PhD
chemist.
JL: Right, right.
ML: So... Did you go to the same school as he did, Texas A&M
or something?
31
JL: No, I just know him. My sister-in-law is a cousin of his,
and that’s how I met him. My sister-in-law lives up on the
ranch where Charlie grew up. They’re in the next ranch
over. And I know his brother, who lives there on the
ranch, and that’s how I came to know Charlie.
ML: I see.
JL: So...
ML: I see. Well, he’s a very, very pleasant guy to talk with,
I’ll tell you. I enjoy our conversations so much. I knew
he was from Texas, you know, so...
JL: Right. Well, he’s a --
ML: Good conversationalist.
JL: Yes, he is. He’s a nice fellow. He’s done some wonderful
things, and we certainly appreciate his help steering you
to me. So I --
ML: Yeah, well... So this story is all right, huh?
JL: Absolutely. This is perfect. So what I’ll do is I’ll get
this taken care of today, and then early next week I’ll
mail it to you. I would expect you would get it toward the
end of the week next week.
ML: And what do you want me to do with it now?
JL: Well, it’s yours. It’s for you.
ML: Oh, that’s great.
32
JL: I will make a copy of this audio file, and I will make it
so it can be played on your computer. It’ll be an mp3
file, if you can do that.
ML: Oh, yeah, I see. Yeah.
JL: Okay.
ML: Yeah, I can.
JL: All right, well, I’ll do that for you, and --
ML: Okay, I appreciate that very much. And this has been a
pleasure, really. You forced me to sit down and think, and
search through all the papers that I have. And so it
forced me to take an opportunity to kind of try and tie it
all together. Years ago, when I was on the ship, in the
early days (audio breaking up; inaudible) I attempted to
write a history of the Conner while I was on the ship, but
that was in the very early days, when we hadn’t done
anything, you know. So it wasn’t much. But anyway, we
gave it out to the crew, and so... It was a happy ship.
We had a great crew. They were very, very good at what
they did. And...
JL: Well, you served the country well.
ML: Well, I’ll tell you what, I was only very happy to do it,
believe it or not. I was kind of a nitwit, I guess, but I
was very happy to do it. (laughs)
JL: Well, I think --
33
ML: James, what kind of a doctor are you?
JL: I’m a kidney doctor. I take care of, or took care of,
people who had kidney failure that were dialysis or
transplant patients.
END OF AUDIO FILE
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