James Henry Bishop 1989
“Life in Gun one 5”/38 mount.”
We were operating with the fast carrier task force 38 in the Pacific and my battle station was in number one gun. We were at general quarters during an attack by Japanese torpedo bombers. Mike Smith was the powderman, Mac Peters spademan, James (Goon) Rollins was the Gun Captain and I was the loader. I do not remember the names of the others. We were at rapid fire and Mike had just put his powder in and I threw my shell in and hit the spade before the spade had time to get all the way back to its fixed position so Mac Peters could drop it into the proper position. We loaded and I hit the spade lever and the spade returned back on the top track. Then I looked at the shell and powder lying in that rack in the gun mount.
I became very frightened and my first thought was that the load we had just injected into the chamber of the gun had not fired and when it did fire, where would the hot powder casing go? Then I realized the breech was down and what I had done! I released the spade lever and the spade went back to its fixed position. Mac Peters dropped it into the lower position and I rammed the lever back forcing the shell and powder into the chamber of the gun, and the gun fired, ejecting the hot powder casing. I felt great relief. But for a split second I was very frightened. From then on I made sure that the spade was dropped into its lower position before we loaded and I rammed the lever to carry the powder and shell into the chamber of the gun.
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While still operating with the fast carriers task force. I had a midnight to 0400 watch in Gun one but at that time they were rotating watches from Gun two to Gun one. And since there were no watch in gun one from 2000 to midnight, I thought I would go up at 2200 with my blanket and take a nap before my crew arrived there for the mid-watch. While I was sleeping we hit some rough water and a wave swept under the gun which woke me up. I thought the gun mount was being ripped off the deck. Instantly I hit the rat hole to the upper handling room of Gun one and remained there for the rest of my watch. From then on I never went to Gun one ahead of my watch to take a nap.
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While still operating with the fast carriers task force during an enemy air attack at night. Gun one was trained aft and in rapid fire when a wave coming over the bow struck the back of gun mount caving it in! Our gun captain Goon Rollins spoke into his sound power phones and said: “Gun one abandon gun!” He did not wait for a reply, just took off his phones and we all went down the rat hole. The very next night during an air raid with our gun trained forward, a big wave struck the front of the gun mount on the Pointer’s side caving in the front end of the gun. Again Goon Rollins ordered: “Abandon gun!” and we hit the rat hole and spent the remainder of General Quarters in the upper handling room of Gun one. When the ship was ploughing into the sea gun one took the full force of the waves.
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Still operating with the fast carrier task force during and air raid with the ship at General Quarters and proceeding at 30 knots, I was the loader in gun one. I had to brace myself to hold on because of the heavy sea with bow pitching up and down. Previously we had greased the shells to keep them from rusting. When I lifted a shell from the hoist to lay it in the rack, the ship dipped down and the shell went up out of my hands and I lost control of it due grease and the weight of the shell itself. As it came back down it slipped right through my hands. I used my legs and knees to try and scotch it but it slid right on through and into the pit of the gun! The shell was rolling freely back and forth in the pit. My first thought was that the shell was going to explode and blow gun one totally off the ship! I thought about opening the hatch and jumping out but I came to my senses and hollered at the pointer telling him to take the gun out of automatic (Director Control) as I was going down into the pit! (If the gun elevated with anyone in the pit they could be crushed.) I retrieved the shell and returned it to the rack and rammed the spade lever forcing the shell and powder into the gun. We quickly shifted back to automatic and the gun fired. Director Control had been demanding to know why gun one was not firing. It was a very frighten moment for me!
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After being at sea a week or two the food in the mess halls left a lot to be desired. We would have such delicacies as dehydrated spuds, powdered eggs and green tough liver! We learned to look after ourselves when the ship returned to port and the ship was loading stores.
Working parties would lay some of the choice items such as canned fruit aside. Usually in a convenient place where we could get to them in case we didn’t like what was on the menu! One time when we were taking on supplies, I sent several cases of canned fruit and other desirable items down the hoist to the lower magazine. We moved the powder and stacked our goodies there and moved the powder back into place to conceal our loot. This was done immediately after taking on stores, an announcement was made that the Captain was going to hold a “Ships Inspection”.
The next day the Captain came down and looked around and said everything looks okay and left. I sure was hoping he would not see those supplies. I don’t know what would have happened if he had discovered them. After that I tried not to overstock!