WWII navyman joins destroyer Boyd in Pacific Newspaper Clipping

(Philip Schneider of Hampden joined World War II veterans from Ludlow and other communities at last month's veterans' discussion group at the Ludlow Senior Center. Schneider was a "tin can sailor," seeing action in the Pacific aboard the destroyer Boyd. Here is his story -- edited from his own wartime notes, from research by daughter Kim J. Neumann, and from conversation with The Register's Durham Caldwell.)

SCHNEIDER: I joined the Regular Navy when I was 17. This was just before Pearl Harbor. But because of a mix-up in paperwork, I wasn't called up till Jan. 2, 1942. I had three weeks of boot camp -- at the Fargo Building in Boston. A week of radio school. I was the only one who passed. They sent me as a signalman to a converted fishing trawler, the U.S.S. Ave Maria

We did submarine patrol from Boston to Casco Bay. There were eight of us aboard -- a warrant officer was the skipper. Thank God, we never saw a sub. We were armed with a one-pounder and a couple of .50-cal. machine guns and had depth charges on the fantail.

I was on the Ave Maria from February 1942 till December 1943. On March 18, 1944, I sailed from San Francisco aboard the U.S.S. Boyd, a 2100-ton Fletcher class destroyer. (The Boyd had been in port for repair of heavy damage from Japanese shells at Nauru Island.)

At Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, we joined Task Group 58.1. The task group made strikes in support of Army occupation of Hollandia and other points along the New Guinea coast.

(On April 25, the Admiralty Islands, the Boyd rescued four men from a Japanese "Betty" bomber which had been shot down by U.S. carrier planes. On April 28, the Boyd was with Task Force 58 carriers which attacked the supposedly impregnable Japanese fortress at Truk in the Carolines. On April 30, the Boyd took part in the shelling of Satawan, near Truk. What was believed to be a torpedo wake passed a few feet astern of the destroyer.

In early June, the Boyd rejoined Task Group 58.1 and performed picket duty for the Fast Carriers, whose planes were softening up Guam, Saipan, and Tinian for landings by U.S. amphibious forces.)

We were the flagship for Destroyer Division 92, and I was assigned to the flying bridge as signalman for the commodore when his signalman got sick. While we were shelling a Japanese troop transport (June 16, 1944, while taking part in the first raid on the Bonin Islands), he had me signaling, "We're going to sink you." While I was signaling, I was standing in the way of our gunnery officer. He gave me hell.

We did sink them. The water was full of Japanese sailors and soldiers. Many of them wouldn't come aboard when we tried to rescue them. They wanted no part of us. (The ship's official history says that Boyd and a sister destroyer "recovered 112 of possible 150 survivors. The others evinced no interest in being picked up.")

On June 19 and 20, we were part of Task Force 58 in what became known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. (U.S. carrier pilots in the Battle of the Philippine Sea shot down 370 Japanese planes. At least another 30 were destroyed on the ground. The Boyd's history reports, "A few of them snuck in... The Boyd did some fancy shooting on its own that night and although we didn't get any 'sures,' we loused up several torpedo runs and gave them a pretty bad time. Later that night we were attracted by a flashing light off our beam and fished one of our pilots out of the sea... who had been adrift in a life raft for about eight hours." The battle eliminated Japanese naval aviation as an offensive threat -- except for kamikaze missions. U.S. planes also sank a carrier and two Japanese tankers. The U.S. lost 26 planes. )

The Boyd was one of the destroyers sent out in front of the task force on picket duty to help guide our planes back to the carriers. They were coming back in, many of them running out of gas. We had our searchlights on. Every ship in the task force lit up. We were lit up like a Christmas tree. We spread out and dropped off life rafts in case any planes had to ditch.

We had lookouts on the bridge with glasses, whose job was to search back and forth over the water. The glasses were not Navy issue -- they'd all been donated and carried a little sticker identifying who had donated them. On June 23, 150 miles off Guam, we picked up Lt. Cmdr. Price. He had been in the water for 11 days. ("One of our alert lookouts, a fellow by the name of Escalante, spotted a little yellow object bobbing around on the surface about 6000 yards distant and when we came around to investigate saw a tiny rubber liferaft with a weatherbeaten, half-starved pilot crouched in it. He didn't have the strength to wave, just kept grinning away at us.") I can still see him, paddling toward us in a small rubber raft with sharks all around him. We rescued him on his son's birthday. It was written up in Time Magazine.

On July 7, we picked up a pilot from the Bataan. On July 8, I went out on a small boat to pick up five Japanese from an Emily patrol plane. I extended a hand to help one of them over the side into the boat. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my fanny. The chief in charge of the boat had knocked me over. "Don't ever help 'em!" he told me. "You never know what they're gonna do."

On July 10, we picked up a radioman off Guam and took part in shore bombardment. We supported the invasion of Guam on July 12. On the 14th, we and the Bradford did shore bombardment -- 100 rounds apiece. ("While making fueling operations on 17 July and making main transfer to the Bradford, a plane was seen to crash in water. Delivery was broken off, and Boyd rescued the crew.")

We took part in the raids on Palau, Yap, and Ulithi (late July 1944). In early August, we sank a landing craft in the Bonins and later in the month joined Halsey's 3rd Fleet for action against Palau and the Philippines as part of Task Group 38.1. In October, we hit the islands south of Japan -- Okinawa and Formosa. (It was the first U.S. strike against Okinawa. "Didn't have much trouble in the Okinawa area but ran into a hornet's nest at Formosa. The Jap raids came 'round the clock.")

We were at general quarters 36, 40 hours at a stretch. On Oct. 13, there was a large Jap air attack. The Canberra (a cruiser) was hit by two fish (torpedoes) from a Betty. (23 Canberra crewmen died.) Our formation shot down eight Bettys. The Connor (a destroyer) was hit by AA fire and suffered 15 casualties. I said many extra prayers. (The Canberra was taken under tow by another cruiser.)

(Phil Schneider's personal diary: "10-14-44. Still hitting Formosa. B-29 hit there also today. In 72 hours we've had six hours of sleep. Bogeys all around. Everybody hoping we leave here tonight. We are the only group here and expect it bad tonight. 1830 they came in. Bettys with two fish each. Houston hit bad. Two cans and ourselves drop back to assist her. They are abandoning ship. It was hell. Men screaming all around. A small group of men stayed aboard her... We shot down two planes last night. We have 381 survivors aboard.")

The second night, the cruiser Houston got hit. We pulled 380-odd survivors out of the water after they got the order to abandon ship. This we did in the dark while under attack. We'd pick up a few, have to move, then come back. We went to our lockers to get shirts and dungarees for them to wear. Their clothes were soaked with oil.

(The Houston stayed afloat and was taken under tow by the cruiser Boston. The Boyd was one of the destroyers assigned to accompany the crippled cruisers back to Ulithi. Schneider diary: "10-16-44. Jap fleet 200 miles away. We are so-called bait. This afternoon we had an air attack... Houston took another fish. Shot eight planes down. Took more men off the Houston. We are only 280 miles off Formosa making good three knots. We checked our torpedoes. Expect to intercept any Jap ships that are headed for us... 10-17-44. Well, they didn't show up. Admiral Halsey said we were safe now. We were the streamlined bait, so he told us."

SOURCE: By DURHAM CALDWELL - EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR FOR THE REGISTER, (Issued 18 July 2001) PAGE 9 INTERVIEW, page 9 "WWII navyman joins destroyer Boyd in Pacific". THE REGISTER was founded in 1946 and is published by Turley Publications at 24 Water Street in Palmer Massachusetts.