He was a kid, only nineteen, with a round, boyish face, owing money in quarter and half-dollar bits to everyone aboard, completely irresponsible. Not, as you might think, a lad who made these small touches to beer ashore. He never drank anything, but he liked to have a good time in a shooting gallery of on a roller coaster and forgot what time it was and overstayed his liberty. I'd give him extra duty when that happened and didn't feel any compunction about it, because he had one of the keenest pair of ears I ever saw growing out of a human head.
He was on duty at 14:40 on the day before Christmas, when our convoy was just a little south of the islands. It was a good thing we had him there too. He came rushing out of his box to the bridge.
"Captain, do you see anything on the port bow, bearing 120 true?" he demanded excitedly.
I picked up my binoculars. "Not a thing."
"Well, sir, it must be a sub then, 'cause I have a good sound contact."
I turned to the officer of the deck, who happened to be Ensign Simmons, a former cadet from the Merchant Marine who was our sound officer. "Send all hands to battle stations."
Dutch Kriner sent an emergency submarine-contact signal to the convoy. They snapped smoke from their funnels and bore out sharp to starboard at their best speed , which was about 10 knots for the interisland steamer, as the sirens shrieked all over the ship. Of course we had to have one of those incidents that showed how much we were still amateurs in war. Just as Bing Mitchell reported all stations manned and ready, someone below got excited and pulled the soundgear switch. Ferrell's instrument went dead.
"Contact lost!" he shouted through the door.
"Just another big fish," said Mitchell, but before he had finished saying it they got the switch closed again and Ferrell yelled.
"Contact regained, Zero-thirty true, range about 500 yards."
This was close quarters. "She's inside our turning circle," said Bing.
"Full right rudder," I ordered the helmsman; and to Ferrell, "Hold your contact!"
Maybe I did the wrong thing--some of those people that figure things out on the maneuvering board told me afterward that I did--but that sub was so close in on our left that we couldn't turn into it's track, so I went around the other way, hoping to pick him up. It was a marvel that we made it, but with the help of Ferrell and some wonderful work by the helmsman we did.
"Contact good, sir," shouted Ferrell as I gave an order to steady her on a course north; then, "Contact closing rapidly."
It was a sub, all right--a fat, happy sub, running submerged merely because it was daylight, heading for Pearl, probably expecting nothing so little as to find American ships on the way.
"Range 400 yards." Simmons had his stop watch out.
"Stand by to attack with depth charges," I ordered. "All engines ahead full."
"Contact lost." Simmons had his stop watch out.
"Stand by to drop!" I said.
"Now," said Simmons, bringing down the arm he had lifted.
"Drop one!" I said, and as Shelly, the torpedo officer, repeated it, the chief torpedoman swung the lever. (We didn't have K-guns in those days, it was all from the racks.) "Drop two! Drop three!"
At thas speed the shock of a depth charge makes you feel as though the whole world were being violently shaken from side to side, and sown in the engine-room their feet go to sleep. A shout went up from the whole ship as I leaned around the signal rack to look at our wake. In the center of the boiling water where our depth charges had fallen, oil was welling to the surface with fragments of debris in the middle of it.
I shouted for the rudder to be put hard left and we charged back into the slick, dropping three more depth charges. More oil came up; we swung out the sound gear, ranged again, and Ferrell shouted that he had picked her up, now turned and headed southwestward from the point where we had hit her. He was a wonder to do it with all that racket in the gear and well deserved the special letter of commendation from the Admiral that he got along with his promotion later.
Bing Mitchell said, "She'll probably go deep, Captain. Better give her a deep barrage."
The Commodore had rushed to the wing of the bridge with me, his nose lifted like a bird dog's to catch the odor of the slick as we ran through it. "Get a rag, get a rag," he was shouting. "Get me a line and some rag. We'll bring up a sample of that oil." He was the only one to remember that frequent reports of depth-charging submarines had come in before and that what looked like an oil slick was all too often merely debris from the depth charges themselves.
As we swung toward the slick for the third time, he lowered the rag triumphantly from his nose, not noticing that it was one of his best towels, picked up in the excitement. "Diesel, all right," he said, and we were over the slick again with Ferrell shouting, "Lost sound contact!"
Drop one, drop two, drop three again, and we came full left.
Before we had completed the turn I heard another shout: "Look, a submarine!" It was, too; the bow of an enormous submarine, fully 50 feet of it, pushing up through the water slowly at a steep 70-degree angle, dripping oil, the net cutter at the bow looking like a set of teeth and the diving planes at its side showing the characteristic Jap shape.
"Commence firing!" I yelled.
Nothing happened. Everybody simply stood there pop-eyed with a mouthful of teeth, looking at the monster as though it were a movie.
"Commence firing!" I shouted again, and then ran out into the wing of the bridge to yell at the top of my lungs to Dewey, the gunnery officer, "For God's sake, why don't you commence firing?"
I heard him yell in return to his talker but never heard what he said because at the same moment all the .50's seemed to open up at once. They went right in, stitching a row of holes along that bow, but I don't know whether they had any real share in it. Even as they were hitting her the sub tilted majestically to the vertical, then slid backward and down with gathering speed.
We completed our turn, rushed past the spot, and just for luck I dropped four more charges into it. Oil boiled out of that pit of sea, spreading and spreading till it covered a circle a mile in diameter, and from beneath it came the shock of an explosion, heavier and deeper than our own depth charges. The last barrage must have set off something within the sub itself.
The Drayton had sunk an enemy warship, one bigger than she was. That would have got us double prize money in the old days of the Navy when they were still paying prize money. . .
--L. A. Abercrombie, Captain
and Fletcher Pratt
From: The United States Navy in World War II
Compiled and edited by: S. E. Smith
Part I: Chapter 6: Scratch One!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | |
| Career (US) |  |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Percival Drayton |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
| Laid down: | 20 March 1934 |
| Launched: | 26 March 1936 |
| Commissioned: | 1 September 1936 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 October 1945 |
| Struck: | 24 October 1945 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 20 December 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Mahan class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,500 tons |
| Length: | 341 ft 4 in (104.04 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (10.67 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 10 in (3 m) |
| Speed: | 37 knots (69 km/h) |
| Complement: | 158 officers and crew |
| Armament: |
|
USS Drayton (DD-366) was a Mahan-class destroyer in the United States Navy before and during World War II. She was the second ship named forCaptain Percival Drayton.
Underway as plane guard for Lexington in TF 12 when the Japaneseattacked Pearl Harbor, Drayton, with the force returned to Pearl Harbor 13 December 1941 after searching for Japanese raiders. Between 24 December 1941 and 7 January 1942, she escorted a convoy to Christmas Island, making two attacks on submarines en route. Four days later she got underway in the screen of Enterprise for an air strike on Bougainvilleon 20 February, returning to Pearl Harbor on the 24th. After screening a tanker to Suva Harbor, Fiji Islands, Drayton sailed for the United States 25 March and arrived at San Pedro, California, 5 April. She joined in training exercises and patrol duty on the west coast until 1 August 1942.
_underway_1941.jpg)
Drayton sailed from Pearl Harbor 17 November 1942 for action in the Solomon Islands. She sortied from Espiritu Santo 29 November with TF 67 to intercept a Japanese naval force guarding transports en route to reinforce Guadalcanal. That night, the American ships battled a determined Japanese force off Tassafaronga. When the action was over, Drayton picked up 128 survivors, including the commanding officer from Northampton, and returned to Espiritu Santo 2 December. Drayton continued to operate in the Solomons campaign, bombardingMunda, New Georgia, and protecting transports bound for the Russell Islands. She escorted the unladen transports to Wellington, New Zealand, then returned to Noumea 7 March 1943 for exercises and patrol with TF 64.
Drayton sailed from Nouméa 13 May 1943 as escort for a transport convoy and arrived at Townsville, Australia 4 days later. Through the summer, she escorted Australian transports carrying troops from Townsville to Milne Bay for the lengthy fighting on vast New Guinea. Drayton patrolled and gave fire support during the invasion landings at Lae on 4 September and bombarded Finschhafen on 22 September.
After brief overhaul at Brisbane, Australia, Drayton returned to the New Guinea area, escorting transports to Arawe, New Britain, for the landings of 15 December, and covered the marine landings near -Cape Gloucester 26 December. She screened high-speed transports from Buna Roads to the invasion of Saidor 2 January, and aside from a brief voyage to Sydney to replenish, remained on patrol and escort duty for the occupation of the Bismarck Archipelago.
Drayton carried troops for the invasion of Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands. Here she joined in the bombardment 29 February 1944 and remained to provide fire support. She returned with reinforcement troops from Milne Bay 4 March and began operating as headquarters for the Landing Craft Control Officer for the Admiralties. Drayton bombarded Pityilu Island 12 March then sailed forSeeadler Harbor, Manus, escorting an LST convoy before returning to New Guinea.
The destroyer got underway from Milne Bay, New Guinea, 22 March 1944 and escorted transports to Canton Island on her way to the west coast. Following an overhaul at San Francisco, California, Drayton trained out of Pearl Harbor before arriving at Eniwetok 8 August. For the next 2 months she patrolled off Maloelap, Wotje, Jaluit, and Mille—bypassed Japanese-held atolls in the Marshall Islands.
-Tarn.jpg)
Drayton reported to the 7th Fleet at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, on 20 October 1944; 5 days later, she got underway for patrol and escort duty in newly invaded Leyte Gulf, where she arrived 29 October. Her service in this operation included a voyage to New Guinea to bring back transports laden with reinforcements. On 6 December while screening a convoy of LCMs and LCIs to San Pedro Bay, Drayton was attacked by a twin-engine bomber which scored a near miss, killing two and wounding seven of the destroyer's crew. The next day she repulsed a group of strafing planes before they could damage her charges, and later the same morning engaged 10 or 12 enemy fighters. One aircraft crashed into the No. One 5 inch gun mount, killing 6 and wounding 12 men. Drayton extinguished her fires and carried out her mission, convoying her charges safely to harbor and then sailing unassisted to Manus, New Guinea for repairs.
Her repairs completed, Drayton sailed from Manus 26 December 1944 for the invasion ofLingayen Gulf, Luzon, 9 January 1945. She gave fire support until the 13th, then sailed to San Pedro Bay to escort a support convoy to the beachhead. From 27 January to 18 February, she served on patrol and gave fire support, bombarding enemy troops in the foothills and destroying a strong point in a cave.
Continuing to operate in the Philippines, Drayton participated in the landings at Mangarin Bay, Puerto Princesa, Cebu, Ormoc Bay, andMasbate City.
On 23 April 1945, Drayton stood out of San Pedro Bay for the invasion of Borneo, screening the actions at Tarakan from 1 to 27 May and at Balikpapan from 1 to 21 July. Returning to Manila 29 July, she got underway 7 August, and arrived at New York 12 September.
| Fletcher Pratt | |
|---|---|
Fletcher Pratt, as pictured in the June 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories
| |
| Born | April 25, 1897 Buffalo, New York |
| Died | June 10, 1956 (aged 59) Long Branch, New Jersey, USA |
| Pen name | Irvin Lester , George U. Fletcher |
| Occupation | Novelist, historian |
| Nationality | American |
| Genres | Science fiction, fantasy, history |
Murray Fletcher Pratt (1897–1956) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasyand history. He is best known for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War and for fiction written with L. Sprague de Camp.
Pratt was a military analyst for Time magazine (whose obituary described him as "bearded, gnome-like" and listed "raising marmosets" among his hobbies),[2] as well as a regular reviewer of historical nonfiction and fantasy and science fiction for the New York Times Book Review.
Wargamers know Pratt as the inventor of a set of rules for naval wargaming before the Second World War. This was known as the "The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game" and involved dozens of tiny wooden ships, built on a scale of one inch to 50 feet. These were spread over the floor of Pratt's apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula. Noted author and artist Jack Coggins was a frequent participant in Pratt's Navy Game, and De Camp met him through his wargaming group.
Ensign Ferrell: Robert George Ferrell Jr.
Ensign Simmons: U.S. Navy records indicate that Robert N. Simmons entered the U.S. Navy as a
Midshipman November 22, 1940 after previously enlisting on August 9, 1940. He was
promoted to Ensign, USNR on February 28 ,1941 and reported aboard the USS
Drayton (DD 336) on April 8, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. The USS Drayton was at sea
escorting the USS Lexington (CV 2) when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. After operating out of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. West Coast for
most of 1942, the Drayton spent the next 10 months in combat in and around
Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. By the time Robert Simmons was transferred
from the USS Drayton on August 19, 1943 he had been promoted to Lieutenant.
Ensign Ferrell: Robert George Ferrell Jr.
Ensign Simmons: U.S. Navy records indicate that Robert N. Simmons entered the U.S. Navy as a
Midshipman November 22, 1940 after previously enlisting on August 9, 1940. He was
promoted to Ensign, USNR on February 28 ,1941 and reported aboard the USS
Drayton (DD 336) on April 8, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. The USS Drayton was at sea
escorting the USS Lexington (CV 2) when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. After operating out of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. West Coast for
most of 1942, the Drayton spent the next 10 months in combat in and around
Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. By the time Robert Simmons was transferred
from the USS Drayton on August 19, 1943 he had been promoted to Lieutenant.
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