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USS BOYD (DD-544) departed Manus on 2 OCT 1944 with Task Group 38.1 which conducted first strike against Okinawa in Ryukyus.
Schneider diary:
"10-8-44 Hit Islands south of Japan.
10-10-44 'Formosa' Heavy Jap air attacks.
10-11-44 Heavy air attacks.
10-12-44 Japs still hitting us. Still hitting Formosa."
BOYD joined Admiral Halsey’s Carrier-based Task Force 38 (CTF 38) for the strikes against Formosa. The Task Force closed the Island of Formosa and conducted strikes against Japanese shipping, airfield facilities, and industrial plants on the island of Formosa. The attacks by the task force’s four carrier groups with its battleships, cruisers and destroyers were planned to destroy any potential Japanese air opposition prior to the allied Leyte invasion to retake the Philippines from the Japanese occupation. The Japanese forces retaliated against Admiral Halsey’s task force with heavy and repeated air attacks by Japanese aircraft. The Jap raids came "round the clock", they hit us night and day, and there was hardly a moment when we weren't at General Quarters because of "bogies" in the area.
10/12 Thu. United States naval vessel damaged: Destroyer PRICHETT (DD-561), accidentally by United States naval gunfire, Formosa area, 21 d. 08'N., 123 d. 19'E.
Schneider diary:
"10-13-44 Large Jap air attack.
CANBERRA hit by 2 fish from Betty.
Formation shot down 8 Jap Betties.
CONNOR hit by AA fire 15 casulties.
Said many extra prayers."
The night of Friday 13 OCT 1944, approximately ninety miles from Formosa 22 d. 48'N., 123 d. 01'E., BOYD was under constant attack and in one of the heavy raids the heavy cruiser USS CANBERRA (CA-70), which was only a few hundred yards off BOYD's bow, was hit by an aerial torpedo. The torpedo opened a huge jagged hole in the CANBERRA's hull amidships between the two fire rooms below the armor belt at the engineering spaces and killed twenty-three men instantly. Flames flashed as high as the mast-head. Before damage control could isolate the compartments, about forty-five hundred tons of sea water poured in to flood her after fireroom and both engine rooms. CANBERRA was dead in the water. Damage control parties worked frantically to seal off the affected compartments and control the flooding. Within ten minutes after the torpedo hit, the cruiser WICHITA (CA-45) was alerted to take the disabled CANBERRA in tow in an attempt to get it out of range of another expected Japanese air attack. USS STEPHEN POTTER (DD-538) was assigned as one of their escorts.
10/13 Fri. OTHER United States naval vessels damaged, Luzon, P. I., and Formosa area: Carrier FRANKLIN (CV-13), by suicide plane, 22 d. 55'N., 123 d. 12'E.
Schneider diary:
"10-14-44 Still hitting Formosa. B29 hit there also today.
In 72 hours we've had 6 hours of sleep boggies all around.
Everybody hoping we leave here tonight.
We are the only group here and expect it bad tonight.
1830 they came in. Betties with 2 fish each.
HOUSTON hit bad.
2 cans and ourself drop back to assist her.
They are abandining ship.
It was hell. Men screaming all around.
A small group of men stayed aboard her.
Tugs came and took her in tow at 1000 next morning.
We joined up with CANBERA.
We shot down 2 planes last night.
We have 381 survivors aboard."
During the strike on Formosa Light cruiser RENO (CL-96) shot down six enemy planes. 14 OCT 1944, one suicide torpedo plane crashed and exploded on the RENO's main deck aft. Though Turret Six was partially incapacitated by the explosion, the turret captain succeeded in maintaining his fire against the attacking planes and ships. 22 d. 30'N., 124 d. 50'E.
At 1845 on 14 OCT 1944, approximately eighty miles south of Sakishima Gunto 22 d. 27'N., 124 d. 01'E., the light cruiser USS HOUSTON CL-81, which had just assumed the CANBERRA’s place in the screen of Task Group 38.1 as the point ship in the northwest sector of the formation, was even more severely damaged after being hit by an aerial torpedo amidships on the starboard side, just above the keel. All four-engine rooms on the HOUSTON became completely flooded to the overhead leaving the ship without power. A short time later a fire ignited in the after steering compartment and caused a complete loss of rudder control, jamming the rudder in the left full position. The impact of the torpedo left many hatches and doors warped and leaking. The main longitudinal beams of the ship were also found to be warped and bent and the keel was thought to be cracked or broken. The HOUSTON appeared to be breaking up. After receiving conflicting reports of the damage from damage control parties, the skipper, Captain William Behrens ordered the crew to abandon ship. The BOYD closed HOUSTON to approximately 300 yards and launched a whaleboat which was later swamped after rescuing approximately 30 of the swimmers who were delivered to COWELL. BOYD used cargo nets, knotted lines and swimmers to rescue 385 of the HOUSTON personnel from the water. Entire rescue was performed on moonless night while under enemy air attack. Both before and during rescue, BOYD fired on enemy planes, at least one of which was shot seen to blaze into the sea. The BOYD crew did a bang up job in sticking to their rescue stations in spite of the fact they were still under attack. BOYD remained close aboard to serve as a communications relay for the HOUSTON. The destroyer USS GRAYSON DD-435 rescued 194 men and the USS SULLIVANS DD-537 picked up 118 men. The USS COWELL (DD-547) rescued 195 men and received hull damage by collision, 22 d. 27'N., 124 d. 01'E.
Japanese broadcasts by Radio Tokyo, monitored continuously by Admiral Halsey's staff, indicated the Japanese believed Task Group 30.3.1 or "CripDiv I" as it was nicknamed, was the last crippled remnants afloat of Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet. With this erroneous information, Admiral Halsey attempted to lure the Japanese fleet into the Philippine Sea using the disabled cruisers as bait in hopes of drawing the Japanese into a sea battle. A Japanese attack force departed Sasabo, Japan on the Inland Sea on 14 OCT 1944 with a mission to find a remnant of the American fleet and center the attack on its weak points.
10/14 Sat. OTHER United States naval vessels damaged, Luzon, P. I., and Formosa area: Carrier HANCOCK (CV-19), by horizontal bomber, 23 d. 30'N., 121 d. 30'E. Destroyer CASSIN YOUNG (DD-793), by strafing, 22 d. 30'N 124 d. 50'E.
After seven to eight hundred men had abandoned ship, the HOUSTON's damage control officer Lieutenant Commander George Miller convinced Captain Behrens that the ship could be saved and to rescind his abandon ship order. The HOUSTON signaled a request for a tow. At 0007 on 15 OCT 1944 USS BOSTON (CL-69) approached and maneuvered to pass the towing cable, took HOUSTON in tow and BOYD with COWELL formed screen about them. With the HOUSTON in tow the BOSTON set a southeasterly course for Ulithi Atoll.
Wryly designated "CripDiv 1." at 1200 on 15 OCT 1944 the group joined group towing CANBERRA and formed Task Unit 30.3.1 designated as "Streamlined Bait Unit" by Admiral Halsey. We were told that if an expected Jap surface raid which was supposed to be on its way down to stymie our landing in the Philippines, were to come off, we, "us cripples", were to go out and head them off. BOYD and her companions, playing up erroneous reports issued by the Japanese as to the degree of damage inflicted on "the defeated and fleeing" American force, hoped to draw out the Japanese in chase, so that the carrier task force could destroy them.
The Fleet tugs USS MUNSEE (ATF-107) and USS PAWNEE (ATF-74) received orders from Commander Third Fleet to stand by and be ready to respond rapidly when the call came for their services. Both fleet tugs were instructed to come about and proceed to the scene of the disabled cruisers. The MUNSEE was the first fleet tug to arrive on the scene and assumed the towing of the CANBERRA from the cruiser WICHITA.
Schneider diary:
"10-16-44 Jap fleet 200 miles away.
We are so called bait.
This afternoon we had an air attack.
Planes were from carriers.
HUSTON took another fish. Shot 8 planes down.
Took more men of the HUSTON.
We are only 280 miles of Formosa making gook 3 (three) knots.
We broke radio silence to tell of air attack and HUSTON.
We checked our torpedoes.
Expect to intercept any Jap ships who are headed for us."
At first light of an overcast dawn on 16 OCT 1944 the USS PAWNEE sighted the USS HOUSTON at the eastern approaches to Luzon Strait. When the PAWNEE arrived on the scene, the HOUSTON was rolling in long oily swells fifty miles long and listing fifteen degrees to starboard. At the top of the foremast, the SK search radar antenna was hanging at a precarious angle, jarred loose by the concussion of the exploding torpedo. The long barrels of the four six inch gun turrets pointed at various angles, frozen there when power was lost. On the fantail of the HOUSTON, which housed the seaplane hanger and crane, one of the Vought OS2U Kingfisher observation planes was hanging off of the starboard catapult. The PAWNEE assumed the towing of the HOUSTON from the USS BOSTON. Both fleet tugs with their tows continued steaming on a course toward Ulithi Atoll within a mile of each other and at a speed of approximately three and a half knots. Circling around the two fleet tugs and their tows at about one thousand yards were three cruisers, USS BIRMINGHAM CL-62, USS SANTA FE CL-60, USS MOBILE CL-63 and nine destroyers including the USS BELL DD-587 and the USS MORRISON DD-560. These ships provided a defensive screen against any Japanese attempts to sink the two disabled cruisers. The sixteen ships became Task Group 30.3.1 under the command of Rear Admiral Laurance DuBose in the SANTA FE. About fifteen to twenty miles toward the northern horizon, Admiral Turner Joy's screening force with the light carriers CABOT (CVL-28) and the COWPENS (CVL-25) provided the combat air patrols for the task group.
On 16 OCT 1944 BOYD transferred half the HOUSTON recovered personnel to USS BIRMINGHAM (CL-62) and was in process of delivering remainder to MOBILE when interrupted by enemy air attacks during which HOUSTON was again hit by an aerial torpedo.
At 1348 on the afternoon of 16 OCT 1944 three Japanese aircraft penetrated the carriers’ combat air patrols. A Kate torpedo plane released a torpedo narrowly missing the cruiser SANTA FE before it was shot down. The second was shot down by the destroyers of the task group, but the third, a twin engine Frances torpedo plane penetrated the anti-aircraft fire of several ships astern of the HOUSTON. The torpedo plane, at approximately three thousand yards astern of the HOUSTON and about seventy-five feet above the water, launched a torpedo that struck squarely on the stern of the HOUSTON, 20 d. 54'N., 125 d. 09'E. The impact blew a thirty by thirty-foot aircraft hanger hatch one hundred fifty feet into the air and then disintegrated, spraying the weather decks with shrapnel. The concussion caused about twenty men stationed in gun mounts to be blown overboard. Thousands of gallons of aviation gasoline stored in fuel tanks in the hanger bulkheads exploded, touching off a spectacular fire that engulfed the cruiser’s fantail and ignited the trailing oil slick on the water. After releasing its torpedo, the enemy plane continued to fly on a parallel course to the HOUSTON for about two hundred yards before intense anti-aircraft fire from the destroyer SULLIVANS finally shot it down. The captain of the HOUSTON requested and received permission to evacuate the remainder of the crew. Only a skeleton crew made up of the ship’s officers, chief petty officers and other volunteers with shipfitting or communications skills remained to continue fire fighting and damage control. Bucket brigades and submersible pumps kept the flooding in check while damage control parties worked by battle lantern and flashlight to shore up weakened bulkheads and sagging decks. Heavy seas prevented destroyers from coming alongside the HOUSTON to evacuate the crew. Men were forced to jump overboard in groups of one hundred and were rescued by the destroyers INGERSOLL (DD-652), STEPHEN POTTER (DD-538) took 83 on board. The SULLIVANS and the COWELL. The destroyer COWELL also stood by to furnish light, power and pumping facilities. The two torpedo hits caused the HOUSTON to take on an estimated sixty three hundred tons of seawater, over forty five percent of the ship’s normal full load displacement. No ship had ever survived that level of flooding without sinking.
Schneider diary:
"10-17-44 Well they didn't show up.
Admiral Hawsley said we were safe now.
We were the streamlined bait so he told us.
There were 2 crippled cruisers the BOSTON and about 7 cans and a CVE."
Final transfer of HOUSTON recovered personnel from BOYD to MOBILE was accomplished on afternoon of 17 OCT 1944 and Task Unit proceeded at the slow average speed of 4 knots toward Ulithi.
Halsey, later, referred to us good naturedly as "streamlined bait", and even though it didn't pan out, we didn't see anything funny. When the enemy sortied from the Inland Sea and located the ships of Task Group 30.3.1, air attacks from the rest of TF 38 roused enemy suspicions of the trap, and the Japanese force withdrew, their mission abruptly canceled. The Japanese began instead to send flights of fighters and torpedo bombers from the home islands, Okinawa and Formosa to attack Task Group 30.3.1 and its disabled cruisers. With the HOUSTON and the CANBERRA in tow we limped slowly back toward port with the Jap planes pecking at us night and day. The carriers’ combat air patrol aircraft shot down nearly ninety Japanese aircraft attempting to attack the cruisers.
Schneider diary:
"10-18-44 Well were with HUSTON and CANBERRA and 4 cans still 380 miles off Formosa 270 from Luzon."
At 1425 on the afternoon of 18 OCT 1944 CURRENT sighted the ships of Task Group 30.3. The destroyer JOHN D. HENLEY DD-553 closed CURRENT, exchanged messages and advised CURRENT to depart the area and re-establish a new rendezvous location because of the proximity of Japanese naval forces in the area searching for the disabled cruisers. At sunrise on the morning of 19 OCT 1944 at 0655 CURRENT once again sighted the CANBERRA and the HOUSTON at a distance of thirteen miles at coordinates approximately two hundred miles east of Cape Engano in the Northern Philippines. At 0815, CURRENT rendezvoused with the disabled cruisers and reported to the Commander Task Group 30.3, Rear Admiral Lloyd J. Wiltsie in the USS BOSTON who became the new task group commander after Rear Admiral Dubose and the USS SANTA FE were detached on 17 OCT 1944.
CURRENT immediately came alongside the HOUSTON and sent a salvage party of four men to evaluate the damage and passed over a pair of high-capacity submersible electric pumps. They quickly began diving operations to close hatches and scuttles in flooded compartments that had been left open when the crew of the HOUSTON abandoned ship after the first torpedo hit on 14 OCT 1944. Another salvage party of three men boarded the CANBERRA to investigate the extent of salvage work needed and began diving operations to shore up bulkheads. Additional salvage equipment, pumps and lengths of hose were passed to both ships. The HOUSTON was so flooded and listing that any extra weight topside that could be pried loose or cut by acetylene torch was thrown overboard. This was an attempt to lighten ship and get the ship on an even keel. Everything from the superstructure including the starboard catapult, the starboard motor whaleboat, the damaged Kingfisher observation plane, anti aircraft directors, winches, davits, two 36-inch searchlights, twenty-five tons of ordnance equipment, ready lockers, useless five inch ammunition, and radio equipment was jettisoned. More than one hundred twenty tons of gear was thrown over the side.
18 OCT 1944 Aircraft from three task groups of the Third Fleet (Adm. W. F. Halsey), including 13 carriers, attack Japanese installations and shipping in northern Luzon and the Manila area, P. I. Cruiser task group (Rear Adm. J. B. Oldendorf) bombards enemy shore installations on Leyte, P. I. Army troops land on Homonhon Island at the entrance to Leyte Gulf, P. I.
Fleeing Toward Foe, Halsey Tells Nimitz
The New York Times, Friday, October 20, 1944
By The United Press.
PEARL HARBOR, Oct. 19 -- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, said today:
"I have received from Admiral Halsey the comforting assurance that he is now retiring toward the enemy following the salvage of all the Third Fleet ships recently reported sunk by radio Tokyo."
On 20 OCT 1944 CURRENT made an attempt to go alongside the cruiser BOSTON to receive lumber for additional shoring of bulkheads on the CANBERRA. Heavy seas and the danger of collision made that attempt impossible. CURRENT instead received the needed shoring material by highline from the BOSTON’s starboard quarter. Three more ships eventually arrived on the scene, the rescue tug ATR-50, the merchant rescue tug WATCH HILL and the fleet tug USS ZUNI ATF-95.
During the salvage operations on 20 OCT 1944 CURRENT was informed that its assistant salvage officer in charge of salvage operations onboard the CANBERRA drowned while conducting heroic salvage work in the flooded engine room of the ship. CURRENT’s diving officer was then sent aboard to take charge of the salvage and diving operations on the CANBERRA. On 21 OCT 1944 both CANBERRA’s and CURRENT’s colors were lowered to half-mast and with both crews mustered, a memorial service and burial at sea was held aboard CANBERRA for CURRENT’s assistant salvage officer Ensign Philip Criblet, USNR.
Additional salvage equipment and material was shuttled to both ships. At 1600 on 21 OCT 1944 both fleet tugs PAWNEE and MUNSEE were relieved of their tows. CURRENT and ZUNI assumed a tandem tow of the HOUSTON while ATR-50 and WATCH HILL began the tandem tow of the CANBERRA. CURRENT was designated the lead towing vessel and guide for ATR-50, WATCH HILL and their tow. During the course of the towing operation, CURRENT’s motor whaleboat continued to deliver shoring material and supplies to the HOUSTON.
Schneider diary:
"10-24-44 Left cruisers.
Joined 38.1."
SECOND REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
Covering combat operations 1 March 1944 to 1 March 1945
By FLEET ADMIRAL ERNEST J. KING
COMMANDER IN CHIEF, UNITED STATES FLEET
AND CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
(Issued 27 March 1945) SECOND REPORT, pages 119-120
"Preliminary Strikes by Fast Carrier Task Force"
"At dusk on the 13th, part of the task force was skillfully attacked by aircraft and one of our cruisers was damaged. Although power was lost, the ship remained stable, due to prompt and effective damage control, and was taken in tow. With a screen of cruisers and destroyers, and under air cover from carriers, the slow retirement of the damaged ship began. At that time the group was 120 miles from Formosa and within range of enemy aircraft on Okinawa, Luzon, and Formosa. Enemy planes kept the group under constant attack and succeeded in damaging another cruiser on the evening of the 14th. She also was taken in tow, and both vessels were brought safely to a base for repairs.
In order to Prevent further air attacks while the damaged ships retired, the carriers launched repeated fighter sweeps and strikes over Formosa and northern Luzon on 14 and 15 October."
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