That nite after dark we pulled away from the
beach and were on our way. The next morning found us heading east
thru the Phillipine Straits. About 10:30 AM four of us were playing
cards topside when three planes came buzzing low from an Island
on our right side (never could tell starboard from port side).
They were Jap planes and one of them flew right over us and dove
strait into a ship one lane over and one ship back. Amunition
ship - went strait up and mushroomed out - no survivors. By that
time we were standing at the rail. When it exploded one guy started
down the hatch way, I grabbed the rail and bent my knees. The
concussion knocked the guy all the way down the stairs.
The next 48 hours were the scariest 48 hours
of my 77 years. I went below grabbed my camera and mae-west and
spent the next 2 days staked out under a twin-40mm gun station
at the front of the ship. Went below decks only to go to the "head",
as the Navy called it. The Navy gunners, bless their Navy souls,
knocked 25 of them out of the sky. Three of them hit close enough
for me to photograph; but the crazy SOB's succeeded in sinking
8 ships out of our convoy.
The best shot of the trip, I missed. There was
one coming from my side headed right for our ship. You could see
the 40mm tracers going into the nose of that plane, and I had
my camera ready to grap the shot when it exploded. It did esplode,
would have made a beautiful shot, I tripped the shutter -- it
was already tripped. I was shaking so bad I tripped it and didn't
realize it. All I got was a plane in the distance. Oh well, you
win some you lose some and some are rained out.
About midmorning New Years Eve we made landfall
at Mindoro Island. By nite fall we had every thing out to our
camp site. Col. Richard Ellis, Gp. Commander (later 4-star Commanding
General of SAC Hq., Offut Air Base) called a Gp. formation. The
only part of his little speech that sticks in my memory was a
very blunt statement. It was pretty general practice when you
moved into a new place to get what you needed to fix a livable
abode by yankee ingenuity and midnite "rackuisitions". He told
us in no uncertain terms that he didn't care what we stole from
other outfits, but if he caught one Sq. stealing from another
Sq. -- he'd courtmartial you. We then prepared to spend the nite
on the ground under a shelter-half - and I expect it was one of
the best New Years Eves any of us have ever spent - we were just
damned happy and thankful to be alive.
My stay on Mindoro was short. Did help to get
the Photo Section in operation and got out to see a bit of the
area we were in. But our planes hadn't arrived as yet, were still
pulling missions out of Hollandia. My orders for rotation back
to the States came thru on Jan. 12, 1945, and the next day I caught
a C-47 back to Hollandia to await surface transportation back
to the good old U.S. of A.
