RECOLLECTION

James Hurtz 1989

“Introduction to War!”

I joined the Navy on September 9, 1942 and went though the Great Lakes Naval Training Center which is near Milwaukee. I was assigned to the U.S.S. Swanson DD443 and reported on board on October 23, 1942. The next morning we were underway for the invasion of North Africa. There were 158 ships in the convoy including the battleship Massachusetts.

There were nine other guys who reported on board with me. One was Albert Johnson from Illinois, and a guy by the name of Knothe. I was sea sick all the way across the Atlantic. Knothe was so seasick they fed him through the veins on the way back to keep him alive.

On the morning of November 8, 1942 when we arrived off of Fedhala, North Africa, my battle station was on number two 20mm gun right next to the forward smoke stack. A guy by name of Pete Petronio a gunner’s mate was with me. All at once a big shell hit the water about sixty feet away from us. The next shell hit the water about 20 feet away. The next one went about three feet above our heads and hit the water on the starboard side just barely missing the main deck. A guy by the name of Eastburn, a torpedo man was standing right next to the forward stack. He could feel the wind from the shell. We all were lucky that time! This was my introduction to war!

We got back to New York, refueled and took on some stores and made another trip in November across the Atlantic to Casablanca, North Africa. The sea was rough on both trips. In December we made another trip across the Atlantic and came back to New York. Then we went to New London, Conn. on a practice firing run. Then on to Portland, Maine, where I went to gunner’s school for a week. It was awfully cold, some where around 30 degrees below zero!

I got tired of the deck force was sent down into the fireroom. I thought it would be better than freezing to death!

We were escorting four oil tankers from New York to South America. There were three other destroyers in the escort screen. When we were approximately 100 miles off the coast from Miami, Florida and I had just completed the eight to twelve watch and was standing in the darkness on top deck, when suddenly our 36” searchlight spun around and put a beam right across the water. Here we were broad side to a big German submarine. We couldn’t have been more than 4 thousand yards from it. Our radar had the submarine but thought it was a fishing boat. I saw it as plain as day. As soon as the searchlight beam hit the submarine conning tower, it started to submerge. The first thing I thought of was my life jacket on my bunk which didn’t take long to get. We turned towards the submarine all at once to attack. We kept on dropping depth charges on it for a long time.

The convoy and the other three destroyers kept on going but we remained in the area searching. We kept searching and at day light a navy bomber came out from Miami and about eight o’clock or so dropped some depth charges on it. At the time and for several years afterwards some of the men thought we had sunk the submarine, however German war records after the war revealed that the U-129 under the command of Captain Witt eluded the Swanson after being frustrated in his attempt to attack the fat oil tankers.

We caught up to the tankers and stayed overnight in Aruba, South America. Then we went along the coast all the next day and night. The following day we met up with 2 big supply ships loaded down with meat from Argent. After that we kept on going till we met up with a convoy. Later we would travel through the Straits of Gibraltar to Oran, North Africa. I helped unload some that meat. In fact I worked three days on that ship. They sure hold a lot of stuff.

When the ships were unloaded, they embarked German and Italian prisoners of war. In fact, we had 16 ships loaded down with prisoners of war and headed back to the States.

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RECOLLECTION

James Hurtz 1990

A Hell of a way to meet a neighbor!

While stationed directly ahead of a convoy we were escorting from Casablanca to New York, we passed right by a submerged German submarine running silent, before obtaining a sonar contact. The Swanson immediately turned 180 degrees and headed for the contact, which placed us in between two columns of the troopship convoy dropping depth charges , as the convoy sped past us in the opposite direction.

A guy I went to school with was on one of the troopships and saw us dropping depth charges while we were

going past them. After the war he said to me: “Were you there?” and I replied: “Yes, I was there!”