In Every Battle There Comes a Time When Even
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A 2,000-ton Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned in December 1943, Morrison is seen underway in the Pacific late in 1944. She demonstrated her grit by shooting down three enemy planes during her first engagement in the Marianas, then by rescuing 400 survivors from the flaming carrier Princeton (CVL-23). She also sank a Japanese submarine and several enemy landing craft before meeting her untimely end. ifty-two destroyers were lost in the Pacific during World War Two. Of the In every battle there comes a time F52, 21 were sunk by Japanese aerial when even prodigious amounts of attacks. Few suffered a more devastating guts and bravery cannot save the attack, in such a short period, as did the USS ship. Such was the saga of the Morrison (DD-560). destroyer whose star shone bright Promptly opening fire on a group of 40 to 60 Japanese planes that attacked her during her brief-but-spectacular radar picket station off Okinawa, the USS wartime career. Morrison fought off her attackers and shot down seven to nine aircraft before they could complete suicide dives. Morrison maintained a steady barrage against the overwhelming force and gallantly continued in action despite severe damage from four suicide planes and two bombs that struck her in rapid succession. She sunk by the stern just after the last hit. USS Morrison earned eight battle stars and two Navy Unit commendations in her short 1.5 - yr of service. Destroyer men everywhere may recognize parts of her history as typical of their own experiences. She was but one of many of the “small boys” that were the destroyers of the United States Navy in WW II.. Ladies and gentlemen....this is “her” story. The USS Morrison, a Fletcher-class destroyer, was built by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Company, Seattle, Washington. She slid down the ways on 4 July 1943. At the launching ceremony, Margaret Morrison, daughter of Coxswain John Morrison, for whom the ship was named, acted as sponsor (Coxswain Morrison was commended for meritorious and heroic conduct while his ship, the Corondelet, engaged the Confederate ram Arkansas in the Yazoo River on 15 July 1862), The Morrison crew gathered at the Bremerton Navy Yard receiving station throughout the summer and fall of 1943 and helped with commissioning on 18 December. There was good affordable off-base housing for married members of the crew in Port Orchard and other nearby communities and good liberty in Seattle, Tacoma, and elsewhere around Puget Sound. Upon commissioning, Cmdr. W. H. Price, USN, became the ship’s first CO. Shortly after her commissioning, Morrison left on her shakedown cruise to San Diego. Rainstorms and squally in the Straights of Juan De Fuca provided her crew with a rapid initiation to the ways of a destroyer in heavy seas. Later, in sunny southern California, gunnery exercises and maneuvers around. San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands climaxed the shakedown cruise. The destroyer then returned to Seattle for final preparations for overseas duty. Morrison got underway from Seattle and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 March 1944, then quickly continued on to the Marshall Islands. After a brief stay at Majuro Atoll, she joined the fleet to participate in a raid on Palau. DES Div 110, composed of Morrison, Laws, Longshaw, and Pritchett, was assigned to tanker escort, an un-glamorous and routine, but nevertheless important task. In a few days the fleet, having made a successful raid, returned for fuel and proceeded back to Majuro. One bomber, a Betty, was shot down over the formation with an assist by Morrison’s main 5-in batteries. Next came the raid on Hollandia, New Guinea, with DD-560 continuing to escort the tankers. The landing was successful and Morrison was sent back to Manus Island in the Admiralties for further escort duty in the Bismarck Sea. Later, during the big raids on Truk, Satawan, and Ponape, Morrison served as tanker escort and then returned to Manus when these operations were complete. There were leisurely and lazy days just a short distance from the equator but a typical day usually included a snooping bogey or t6wo somewhere around the huge anchorage. They were usually just recon aircraft and were of no immediate threat. Nevertheless, a bogey in the area meant going to general quarters regularly, a fatiguing nuisance. At least in one instance, however, there was a real threat. As related by Don Mize, former Coxswain on the ABSD-4 (Advanced Base Sectional Dock), two torpedo-bombers made successful torpedo runs on both the ABSD-4 and ABSD-7 which were inside the anchorage at Manus. Both docks were damaged, but not too severely. The leisure of Manus soon ended and Morrison returned to Pearl Harbor to practice for the invasion of the Marianas. The ship went through the usual routine of a Pearl Harbor training period and then set forth towards Saipan, Tinian, and Guam with two escort carriers under her protection. Extending 385-mi from Pajaros in the north to Guam in the south, the Marianas are the southernmost volcanic peaks of a gigantic mountain range rising about 6-mi from the ocean bed of one of the deeper parts of the Pacific. The island peaks of this range form a series of stepping stones from Guam to Japan. They are all high and volcanic, unlike the flat island atolls of the Marshalls and Gilberts. The carriers of Task Force 58 began their softening up process of Saipan on 6 June. Carriers Enterprise, Lexington, Yorktown and Princeton launched fighter sweeps across Saipan, Tinian Rota, and Guam. Japanese snoopers harried the task groups, carrying this to the extreme of dropping flares throughout the night and early morning hours. Guam was struck on 14 June and then the fleet moved back to Saipan to support the landing on 15 June. Saipan brought Morrison her first real taste of action. Enemy aircraft attacked the fleet and the CAP’s (combat air patrols) were successful in shooting them down, usually several miles out from the task forces. On occasion, Morrison got in a few shots. During the landings, Morrison was tasked to provide fire support. She was assigned an area in the vicinity of the sugar mill at Garapan. A report came from troops ashore of troublesome snipers in the sugar refinery - they were thought to be up in the smokestack. Several rounds from Morrison’s 5-in/38s, one of which scored a direct hit on, and took off several feet of, the topmost part of the stack. Finito snipers. Sugar Mill at Garapan before destruction. On another occasion, Morrison participated with other ships, guided by spotter aircraft, laying shells in the midst of a Japanese tank attack on Marine positions. At night, Morrison provided starshell illumination when needed or continued in escort duties at sea. On one cloudy night around 10:30, a bogey was detected at long range by the The Sugar Mill after the Morrison helped out the more-powerful radars of the larger ships. ground troops...I do believe the stack was Morrison was steaming as tail-end Charlie of shortened just a tad. a small column of ships, including two escort carriers that were newly arrived from the states. Reports were exchanged via TBS radio an soon most of the ship were tracking the target. The bogy approached from ahead and to starboard, its track opposite of the column of ships. As it flew down the column, each ship, more or less in turn, opened up with their AA fire as the bogey came into their range and abreast. The sky was lit from the crisscrossing tracers of 5-in, 40mm and 20mm shells arcing up and out. Morrison, being the last in line, had ample time to track and obtain a good fire control solution. The operators in PLOT so notified the gunnery officer, Lt. Madden, in the main battery director, who then passed the word: “Stand-by to shoot.” By this time the bogey range was down to within a few thousand yards, well within effective range of the 5-in main battery. On the off chance he could see the target, the rangefinder operator (T. L. Alexander, FCR 3C) glanced through the eyepiece of his 12/24 power optical rangefinder and, at the same instant, both heard the gunnery officer’s command to “stand by” and visually observed the moon to break out from behind cover. There it was! Right on the crosshairs! Silhouetted against the moon, a twin-boom fighter type aircraft with a long-nose fuselage in the center! Alexander instantly recognized it as “friendly,” a new type aircraft similar in silhouette to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning but, momentarily, he could not think of its designation. Knowing that the gunnery officer was within seconds of saying “Shoot,” and concerned that a friendly plane was about to be shot down, Alexander shouted “Cease fire! Cease fire! P-38! P-38!” Needless to say, the gunnery officer wanted an explanation! Later it was agreed this action probably saved a U. S. Army Air Force P-61 Black Widow night fighter from being blown out of the air. He apparently had forgotten to turn on his IFF (Identification Friend or Foe equipment). This was confirmed the next morning when word was passed to the fleet that new P-61 Black Widow night fighters had arrived two-days before and were flying out of newly captured airfields on Saipan. The Navy passed the word to the USAAF to encourage their pilots to toggle their IFF equipment switches to the “on” position when flying near the fleet! Black Widow Generally things were fairly quiet; the planes from the carriers when in every day and bombed and strafed and fought the war.