The Deadliest Duty
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N a v a l O r d e r o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s – S a n F r a n c i s c o C o m m a n d e r y Mission: History Studiorum Historiam Praemium Est 3 April 2000 HHHHHH Volume 2, Number 4 1945: The Deadliest Duty Destroyermen Suffer Stiffest Okinawa Cost Kamikazes Kill 1,800, 13 Destroyers are Lost Most histories of the second world war in the Pacific and the few written on the April 1945 invasion of Okinawa fo- cus on the landing of Marine Corps and Army forces and the action of those troops ashore, and with some justifica- tion, since Okinawa was Japanese real estate, and the fight on land was a long and bloody sample of what would hap- pen if the Jap homeland were invaded. SMALL BOYS AND SMALLER BOYS form an anti-submarine screen in the transport area. Here, a Where the U.S. Navy is mentioned, it FLETCHER class destroyer and two LC S (L) s patrol the transport area while Okinawa is shrouded in is usually in connection with shore bom- the fog of battle. In their grim humor, destroyermen came to call the smaller craft “pall bearers.” bardment, attacks on carriers and the sinking of the Jap super-battleship Ya- 1941: Niblack is First U.S. Navy Vessel mato as she made her suicidal run. Securing Okinawa cost around 12,000 To Take World War II Offensive Action American lives, and about 5,000 of them were sailors, most of them victims of Before the second world war, Iceland Danish government accepted German Japan’s sacrificial kamikazes. It was the was a free and sovereign state, but was occupation of their country. Denmark, most expensive operation in the Navy’s nominally under the King of Denmark despite maintaining until late 1943 that it history. and its foreign relations were handled by was neutral, was a de facto ally of Hitler. If the Navy’s role, other than that of Denmark. Icelanders weren’t the only ones the battleships and aircraft carriers, has In the spring of 1939, long before watching their foreign policy fall under been reported too lightly, that of its de- Hitler invaded Poland, Denmark ac- the thumb of the Germans. Six weeks stroyers has been virtually ignored. Of cepted the German chancellor’s offer of after German troops marched into Co- the 5,000 Navy dead at Okinawa, some a non-aggression pact, the only Scandi- penhagen, British troops landed in Ice- 1,800 were destroyermen. navian nation to do so. land, to pre-empt a takeover by Hitler. For the 1 April 1945 invasion of Oki- On 9 April 1940, German forces oc- A glance at any map of the North nawa, the largest armada in history was cupied Denmark, brushing aside token Atlantic shows that if Hitler had Iceland assembled—1,450 American ships resistance, and within two hours the there would have been no convoys to manned by more than a half-million (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 2) Page 2 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y 3 April 2000 Okinawa Ships Within Easy One-Way Kamikaze Range - Destroyers on Lonely Picket Duty Were Tempting Targets One-Half of Destroyers Committed at Okinawa Were Sunk or Damaged (Continued from page 1) bluejackets. There were 18 battleships, 40 aircraft carriers, too many cruisers to count, submarines, minesweepers, patrol craft, landing craft and the gunboats cre- ated by arming landing craft and calling them landing craft support (large and small). All these classes suffered in the operation, but none suffered like the 148 destroyers and destroyer escorts that were there to protect the others. Eleven destroyers and two destroyer escorts were sunk, 42 received major damage, 16 received minor damage and three more got something in between. That is just about half of the ‘small boys’ committed. Okinawa was known to be the most heavily defended of the Ryuku Islands, but the strength of its defenses was badly RADAR PIC KET STATIONS were at first manned by single destroyers. After it became apparent that underestimated. The island is only 350 the pickets were a favorite target of Jap Kamikaze’s, a second destroyer or ship with similar anti- nautical miles south of the southernmost aircraft capability was added. Eventually, armed landing craft were added, but the sinkings went Japanese home island of Kyushu and on. The landing craft became known as “pall bearers.” C hart from G reat American Naval Battles was considered an excellent base from edited by Jack Sweetman. which to bomb Japan. It is only 330 nau- ing gasoline from wrecked airplanes can- ons, 40-mm Bofors and 5-inch/38s, but tical miles north of Formosa and 400 not be considered light. many got to the ships. Seven destroyers from mainland China. All three dis- “Floating chrysanthemums,” the Japs and a destroyer escort were hit by a pilot tances are within easy range of kamikaze called it, which may have made a differ- bent on dying for his god-emperor and aircraft, whose mission requires one-way ence to those who floated off to meet two more were sent to the bottom. And it passage only. their ancestors after meeting a fiery death was just the beginning. In addition to their usual duty of as they splattered their airplanes against USS Bush Sunk the superstructure of U.S. ships or ex- screening larger ships, destroyers were USS Bush (DD-529), Cdr. R. E. ploding along with the Baka glide bombs employed as radar pickets at stations Westholm, had been placed on radar they were steering or drowning in the ranging from 20 to about 95 miles from picket station No. 1, but had been re- bowels of Yamato. the landing beaches. There was also an lieved on 2 April by USS Pritchett (DD- They came on 6 April, hundreds and outer and an inner anti-submarine 561). When Pritchett was damaged by a hundreds of aircraft. Post-war Japanese screen, and other destroyers were used in kamikaze the following day, Bush re- records revealed that 699 airplanes at- combination with landing craft to patrol turned to the station. tacked the U.S. fleet that day, and 355 of the transport area. Twenty-three destroy- On 6 April, she fought off kamikazes them were kamikazes. As they ap- ers were assigned fire support roles at from early morning until mid-afternoon, proached Okinawa, many were shot the invasion beaches. when a lone Jap suicide pilot skimmed down by American carrier planes, but For the first five days, Jap air attacks in on her starboard side, just off the wa- most got through. Some went for the concentrated on the transport area and ter. Despite repeated hits from the de- heavy ships and some for the transport the radar pickets, and were relatively stroyer’s guns, the plane kept coming, area, but the lonely destroyer pickets, light. Relatively light, that is, when com- crashing into the ship between her accompanied only by an LCS(L) or two, pared to what followed. To an individual stacks. Flaming gasoline spewed over bore the brunt of the attack. ship, an attack by suicidal pilots intent Bush’s decks and a bomb exploded in Plane after plane was shot into the on personally delivering 2,500-pound the forward engine room with sufficient bombs and spraying its decks with flam- water by the destroyers’ 20-mm Oerlik- (Continued on page 3) 3 April 2000 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y Page 3 like for Lt. George L. Way, one of 355 Suicidal Jap Kamikazes Attack on 6 April — Abele’s officers: Blown overside by the Baka blast, Bush and Colhoun Sunk; 9 Other DDs Damaged Way caught a line and clambered back (Continued from page 2) crew to be taken off by LCS-84. on board the sinking ship. One minute force to send a two-ton blower high USS Cassin Young (DD-793) arrived gone. He spent the next sixty seconds enough to knock off the radar antenna and was told to search for survivors of rounding up all able hands forward, and setting them to work cutting loose and before it crashed down on the port wing Bush. It took five hours for Colhoun to launching life rafts. Two minutes gone. of the bridge. Watertight integrity was die, and in that time 295 of her crew, A fraction of the third minute he spent maintained and the fires were brought including 21 wounded, were saved. One opening the hatch above the passage- under control, as USS Colhoun (DD- officer and 34 bluejackets perished. way to the plotting room—an exit for 801), Cdr. G. R. Wilson, drew alongside the men in that cubicle. Then he flung USS Mannert L. Abele Sunk to offer assistance. himself at the port hatch of the forward On 12 April 1945, President Franklin At about 1700, another kamikaze engine room. A dog was jammed. D. Roosevelt died, and the Japs sought attack of 16 planes took on the two Somewhere Way snatched a crowbar— to make capital of a possible distraction a hammer—something. Pounding and ships. Ten were splashed. Two hit Bush. by sending more than 200 kamikazes wrenching, he succeeded in breaking The first of these nearly broke the de- along with bombers carrying the Baka off the dog. Time was ticking; the main stroyer in half and the second finished bomb—a glider-bomb with a human deck was awash.