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swim and watch movies on the Ship's Fantail each night.- big deal for us.
After the awfull carnage the Marines took taking Tarawa, about December of 1943, we went in for another breather at Eniwetok. We changed Task Force Numbers from 38 to 58(Halsey relieved by Spruence) and we were told that our next big push would be taking Guam, Saipan and Tinian. This was to provide Air Fields for our B-24 Bombers to start the bombardment of all the Islands of Japan. Spruence wanted to form us up ( a lot of new ships had joined- up with our Task Force), and have a practice invasion (without the actual landing of troops)on one of the Jap bypassed Islands. He picked Nauru, about on the Equator, which had an airfield(now demobilized) and with an unknown number of Jap troops and anti-aircraft/ shore battary emplacements on the Island. The exercise began, as usual, with all the carrier strike groups bombing the Island; and, then by the Battleships, Cruisers and DDs passing by the Island and bombarding it with their main battaries. During the Airstrike, there was a noticiably heavy antiair fire from the island and one plane shot down. A life raft was reported in the water near where the plane went in, but the report on the raft didn't indicate that there was anyone in it. Admiral Spruence called Olie (the BOYD was his favorite messenger and anytime there was Guardmail on the Flagship that needed to be highlined and passed to another ship (even when we were proceeding at high speeds), the BOYD would get the call- knowing that Olie was an outstanding ship handler) on the TBS (All ship communication) and asked him to take the BOYD in to see if the crash Survivors was aboard the raft. I know Olie wasn't comfortable about going in so close to the Beach, even though he knew Admiral Spruence probably felt that after the complete pasting the Task Force had given the Island, there certainly should'nt be anything "shootable" left standing and the BOYD wouldn't be in danger. As he should, Olie put all of the Ship at General Quarters (Battle Stations) as we approached the beach. I had all the main battery (5") on director control and trained on the beach near the raft. I had my head out the hatch above my Gunnery Control seat, using my binoculars to scan the beach in the vacinity of the raft. Nearing the raft, Olie slowed the ship to about 5kts. and we could see that there was no one in the raft- it had probably been dropped by one of the downed aviator's accompaning flyers when he saw him go in. At that moment, I saw a flash of fire from the left of the raft and we were immediatley bracketed by a three gun salvo. I took the location under immediate fire as Olie tried to bring speed up to the ship and to "chase salvos" by radical maneuvers. I am convinced that by his calm and cool maneuvering through the whole engagement, lasting about 20 minutes, he saved the BOYD from being sunk. In the first salvo, one of the rounds hit the ship, below the waterline, entering the forward Fire Room and detonating on the bulkhead of the forward Engine Room rupturing the main steam lines in the areas. Instantally killied were the 15 Sailors in those spaces plus Tom Malone, the Chief Engineer of the ship. The other two rounds of the salvo, one went over the ship (probably right near where I had my Head out of the Director and
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the forward Stack (smoke exit for the Forward Fire Room) and splashed about 25 yards behond the ship , and the other one splashed about 25 yards short of the ship- it was a perfect salvo spread. By "chasing salvo", the theory is that the firing battery pointer and trainers are making corrections to their aim as salvos miss the target. If you chase the last salvo splashes, you should again cause a miss by the amount of corrections that was entered from the aim of the previous miss. Olio, coolly, and only having one engine (the After Fire Room and Engine Room running the starboard screw) to bring us up to full speed , he miracously zig-zaged us away from the salvoes- with no further hits- until we got out of range of the battery (I must have hit 2 guns of the Battery in our firiing; because there was only one splash coming from the last few salvoes as we got out of range (I could only use the 3 -5" Guns aft to fire on the Battary because the two forward 5" Guns could not bare on the target. Admiral Spruence (I am sure) regretted his decision of sending us in to inspect an empty life raft which cost us 15 sailors, including 1 Officer, and a badly damaged Destroyer. He recommended Olie for the Navy Cross for his performance during this engagement and I got a 'WELL DONE" from Olie and I am sure it affected my next Fitness Report.
When we got out of range of the Shore Battary, Olie slowed the ship to make an analyses of our damages and deaths. The Shipfitters quickly plugged the hole in the hull of the ship from the one hit we took, using personal bed mattresses, and pumping out the flooded Forward Fire and Engine Rooms. We then started the grim process of removing the dead from those two spaces. (I often have had nightmares of that part of my War Days),
The Shipfitters designed a harness that could be used to strap around the dead bodies and hoist them up the verticle ladders to the Main Deck from the two Engine Rooms. We all had to participate in this procedure, laying the bodies on the Fan Tail (stern) of the Ship. The next day we had services on the Fan Tail, held by Olie while the ship was dead in the Water, and slipped each body off the stern of the ship to his Ocean Grave. It was a grim occassion for all of us on the BOYD- that 8th day of December 1943 ( allmost on the 2nd Anniversary of Pearl Harbor and another day of infamy in my WWII days- 9/6/42-GREGORY sunk ; 12/8/43-BOYD hit).
We received Orders to proceed to Pago Pago, in the Somoa Islands, where the Navy had positioned a Dry Dock to handle casualties such as ours. About 2 weeks before our hit, the Cruiser Denver was in a Task Group that went though a terrible Typhoon near Formosa and had lost its Bow. It was in the Pago Pago Dry Dock to install a temporary bow before returning to a US Shipyard for permanent replacement. Also, during that Typhoon, 3 Destroyers had tipped over, drowning all hands. These DDs were very low on fueling and had their tanks unballested in trying the refuel in the storm.
In a few days, we reached Pago Pago, just as the Denver was being removed from the Dry Dock. We then entered it where the workman put a permanent patch on
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the hole in our side and removed the Port Screw which was inoperable without the Forward Fire and Engine Rooms to operate it, and was just a drag to our foreward motion. With the Dry Docking work finished, we were ordered to proceed, with the Denver, to the Mare Island Shipyard via Pearl Harbor to refuel. At Pearl Harbor we took aboard a large number of Mare Island Ship Yard Repair Technicians, who had been flown out to make the estimates, and planning, for our repairs during our passage from Pearl to Mare Island. They came up with an estimated period of 3 months to remove all the ship's deckhouse above the Forward Fire and Engine Room, pull out all the equipment, wireing, pipeing from those space and replace it with all new equipment- a monstrous job.
When we reached Mare Island Shipyard (it is located in North San Francisco Bay at the small town of Vallejo) in early January 1944, the Crew was divided into two leave sections for 15 days leave. I selected the first section since Joan was about 7 months pregnant and I could bring her to the Mare Island Ship Yard to deliver our #1 at the Vallejo Civilian Hospitla since Mare Island Shipyard had no Navy Hospital, I went home and came back from Ontario with Joan. We were assigned 1/2 a Quonset Hut to live in. Spartan living it was with all navy equipment (2 gallon pots and 20 inch frying pans etc.) outfitting the Quonset Huts.
Working around the clock shifts, and replacement equipment being ready available from the Fletcher Class ship construction Program, the shipyard finished our repairs a month ahead of schedule. We were ready to return to the Fleet which was desparate for new Destroyers. Joan was ready for delivery and not able to make the trip back to Ontario, put us in a quandry. She wasn't able to have her Mother Zella come to be with her because she wasn't well at the time, so my Mother Montie came. I went to the Captain of the Shipyard and got permission for Joan and Montie to stay in our Quanset until after Joan's delivery.
The BOYD left the Ship Yard about the first week in March and I got notification, while we were having refresher training out of Pearl Harbor, that Judy had arrived on the 23rd. Mother and Child were doing fine and what a relief and Joy that news was for me.
We again joined the Pacific Fleet just prior to the Invasion of Guam, which was another all Marine Force hitting the Island after several days of continuous bombardment of the Island's startegic positions by surface and air unit. The Japanese high command knew this would be our first island, if taken from them, that could provide airfields for our new B-24 long range bombers which would be in range to begin bombardments of their main Japanese Islands. They assembled in the South China Sea (Brunei Area, which they still held and provided them the necessary oil to operate their Fleet) all the ships they could bring tegether- 4 aircraft carriers, several Battle ships, and Cruisers and about 30 Destroyers and took off with the purpose of stopping our Guam Invasion by an all-out battle (and their last chance to stop our movements north to Japan.) Our submarines picked up their entry to the Philippine Sea and tracked their progress toward our location. When they reached the
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