Chapter 6 the Cleveland in the Pacific end of 1942 and begin of 1943

Cleveland in the Pacific

5 December 1942 USS Cleveland Pacific

Cleveland sailed for the Pacific on 5 December 1942, and arrived at Efate Island on 16 January 1943.

From Shipmate

Cleveland next left Norfolk in early December 1942 and headed for Noumea, New Caledonia – Halsey’s headquarters for the South Pacific Command. We arrived two cruisers and a division of DD. We moored alongside an AA cruiser and asked, “where is the fleet?” They said WE were the fleet – again poor odds.

End of Article

3 January 1943 New Caledonia

After passing through the Panama Canal, the group set a great circle course for New Caledonia, and January 3, 1943, anchored at Noumea. Ten days later, the CLEVELAND proceeded to Havannah Harbor, Efate, New Hebrides, her first base in the South Pacific.

Shipmate March 2002

31 October 1942 Purvis Bay, Florida Island

Shipmate

TF 39 sortied from its base Purvis Bay, Florida Island at 2:30 a.m. on 31 October to bombard the Japanese air base at Buka-Bonis at the north end of Bougainville some 400 miles away. Just before midnight, after running through perilous reefs and shoal water, depending on sonar to back up unreliable charts, the TF opened fire. A Black Cat spotter reported “on target.” TF 39 then proceeded southward to the Shortland Islands to conduct a daylight bombardment of the Japanese seaplane base. The Japanese returned our fire straddling TF 39 but inflicting only insignificant damage. Then TF proceeded southward to Rendova for a quick replenishment stop.

Shipmate November 2002

Tales of the Solomon Islands.

During the first six months of Japan’s aggression, The Combined Fleet swept aside all opposition as it ravaged the Pacific as Far East as the Indian Ocean.  The Philippines, Malaya and Indonesia were seized to realize their aim of “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”.  The only threat to this ambitious plan was the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor. From that vantage point PacFlt was on the flank of Japan’s line of communication to its Southeast Asia operations. The Japanese knew that the United States would use Australia as a staging base in preparation for ‘The return to the Philippines”.  Their strategy was to destroy the Pacific Fleet and Pearl Harbor and to block the sea-lanes from America to Australia.

The opening gambit was the attack on Pearl Harbor.  While the Fleet suffered considerable damage, but our carriers were at sea and not damaged.  The Japanese Navy, who had demonstrated that the major striking force of a fleet was no longer battleships but carriers, was alarmed.  Nevertheless the plan to capture Port Morsely, New Guinea, Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Eastern Solomon, Islands to block communications with Australia went ahead. A month later Japan planned to capture Midway to entice PacFlt westward into the waiting arms of the Combined Fleet to complete the destruction started at Pearl Harbor.  These operations reflected classical Japanese propensity for complex plans involving multi-objectives separated beyond mutual support distances) Japan was turned back at Coral Sea and suffered a terrible defeat at Midway with the lost its powerful, battle tested fast carrier strike force.

After a short respite following Midway, PacFlt was ready to take the offensive.   Japan still posed a threat to sea-lanes to Australia for it still held Tulagi and Rabaul and was building an airfield on Guadalcanal.   On 7 August 1942 SoPac forces seized Tulagi and the unfinished airfield on Guadalcanal thus opening the six months long battle for the Solomon Islands.  It was a hard fought and furious. The Japanese were superior in numbers of ships and aircraft and were superb night fighters.  They had a very lethal torpedo with twice the power of those in the U.S. arsenal; these long lance guppies had the habit of blowing the bows off our ships.  Also they had superior optics and the advantage of operational experience.   U.S. Forces were still making the transition from peace to war.  ADML Spruance said that the hardest thing in times of peace is to tell whether an officer will fight in time of war as well as fight intelligently.  Some did not make the transition.

The most important advantages of the U.S. were the shipbuilding program started in 1940, radar and preeminent intelligence.  Further the indomitable American fighting spirit awakened by superb leadership brought victory at Midway.

Both sides lost so many ships in the seven vicious night battles that the waters around Guadalcanal became known as Iron Bottom Bay. The U.S. Navy was hard pressed to scrape up any cruiser, battleship they could find to replace losses.  Cruisers were transferred from Alaska (What a trip those ships must have had).  Because of the anti-submarine Battle in the Atlantic few destroyers could be spared.  Even the old battleships were sent to SoPac. (The OBB’s were sort of a country cousin in the high tech, high speed Solomon Island campaign.  Later they came into their own in shore bombardment and returned to their glory at Surigao Strait in 1944.)

The arrival of four new Cleveland class CL was most encouraging for it meant that the Two Ocean Naval Act of 1940 had begun to kick in.  Of these ships only Cleveland had a bit of battle experience off Casa Blanca, hardly equivalent to operations in the Solomons. All these ships needed a shake down period to prepare for the unique fighting environment of the Solomon Islands and to study the lessons of the unprecedented naval battles of October and November ’42.

1 November 1942 Purvis Bay, Florida Island

On 1 November a PBY reconnaissance plane reported a Japanese force of three CA, two CL and eight DD sailed from Rabaul headed for Empress Augusta Bay. RADM Merrill placed TF 39 in position between the Japanese force and the Bay. Our Friendly Black Cat kept the Admiral informed of the Japanese composition and movement through the night and estimated we should make contact about 2:30 a.m. on 2 November. With our superior radar we made contact at 2:33 a.m. before the Japanese Army knew we were there. They were deployed in a line of three columns. RADM Merrill deployed in a line ahead. DesDiv-CruDiv-DesDiv, crossing the Tee. (Although Tee crossing is an ancient tactic, it is a principle of naval warfare that resists time.)

The fog of battle sets in sooner at night. With DD charging about making torpedo runs, and the Japanese maneuvering madly trying to avoid the fish crisscrossing the area, the battle soon became a melee – except for the CruDiv 12 that maintained its position across the front of the Japanese formation by a series of 180° turns at 30 Kts. Although nothing is certain in night engagements, the Japanese lost three cruisers and two destroyers and other ships damaged. US had one cruiser and two destroyers damaged. The Japanese Admiral finally decided he had enough and retreated toward Rabaul. TF 39 followed and by daylight was dangerously close to Rabaul.

Expecting an air attack at daylight, the Admiral deployed the ships in a tight diamond formation, cruisers on the cardinal points at 1,500 yards distance with a destroyer in between each cruiser. There were only four DD to screen the CLs for two were escorting the two damaged DD. The attack lasted about 30 minutes. Seventeen Vals were shot down, remnants fled to Rabaul. A small bomb hit Montpelier CL 57 demolishing a catapult and one bomb hit near Cleveland, close enough to trip circuit breakers but no other damage. Thanks to our victory at Midway, Japanese aviators that fought at Empress Augusta Bay were not of the quality of those who died at Midway. All ships returned to Purvis Bay under their own power 100 hours after sortie.

Her first mission in the consolidation of the Solomon Islands was with Task Force 18 (TF 18) to guard a troop convoy to Guadalcanal from 27 to 31 January,on 16 January 1943.

Shipmate October 2002

In 1943 BuOrd “experts” discovered that the 6-inch fragmentation projectile produced a much larger burst than the 5-inch AA shell.  There upon they concocted a scheme to use the new 6-inch gunned cruiser’s main battery for AA fire. The fact that ballistics characteristics of the two batteries were quite different did not deter them.  Each is controlled by its separate plotting room, director, computer and stable element.   Further the elevation of the 6-inch gun was about half of the 5-inch.  BuOrd’s simple solution was to devise a formula based on range to compute a ballistic correction to make the two systems compatible.      

Cleveland Cl 55 was selected to conduct the first live test at anchor in the harbor of Efate, New Hebrides.  BuOrd sent the formula.  The table of ballistic corrections, ship’s company had to compute the table of corrections.   Fortunately our Fire Control gang had some very sharp officers and petty officers that were up to the job.  Now all we had to do was to see if the system would work.  The day of the test arrived.  Gunnery officers from cruisers present came aboard to witness the demonstration.   The tow plane with target approached for the first run.  It was an absolute disaster.   Tommy Rudden 39 manned the Main Battery director and Gervias Morrison, USNR the AA director.  I was in Plot.  WE could not get our act together.  There was confusion as to whether directors were tracking the tow plane or target so the first run was aborted.  Phones connected the gunnery officer, Commander Russell Smith ’25, in gun control and me in plot.  Our failure to open fire embarrassed him in front of our guests.  He became enraged and proceeded to verbally work me over using the most colorful language.   The starting of the second run interrupted the gunnery officer’s tirade saving me.   This time both directors were on the target, not the plane, and plot entered the ballistic correction.  Morrison was tracking the plane but Rudden controlled the trigger.   The plotting rooms relied on the computers for information—plus of course the more or less excitable communications from the directors.   The AA director tracked the target, the AA computer solved the fire control problem, the ballistic correction applied and transmitted to main plot.  There the MB computer sent the corrected solution to the Main Battery director and turret, with instructions for training and elevating the 6-inch gun onto the target.  The order, Open fire! emerged from this strange chain of command and the single burst destroyed the target.  I reported to the gunnery officer in the wardroom where he conducted a `hot wash up’ of the demonstration.  He was in a much better mood.   I apologized for disastrous first run, and he said, “That was just within the family”. 

Editor’s Note:

The ideal solution was a proximity fuze inside an artillery shell, but there were numerous technical difficulties with this. The radar set had to be made small enough to fit inside a shell, and its glass vacuum tubes had to first withstand the 20,000 g forceof being fired from a gun, and then 500 rotations per second in flight. A special Section T of NDRC was created, chaired by Tuve, with Parsons as special assistant to Bush and liaison between NDRC and BuOrd.^[22]

On 29 January 1942, Parsons reported to Blandy that a batch of fifty proximity fuzes from the pilot production plant had been test fired, and 26 of them had exploded correctly. Blandy therefore ordered that full-scale production begin. In April 1942, Bush, now the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), placed the project directly under OSRD. The research effort remained under Tuve but moved to the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where Parsons was BuOrd's representative.^[23] In August 1942, a live firing test was conducted with the newly commissioned cruiserUSS Cleveland. Three pilotless drones were shot down in succession.^[24]

Parsons had the new proximity fuzes, now known as VT (variable time) fuze, Mark 32, flown to the Mare Island Navy Yard, where they were mated with 5"/38 caliber gun rounds. Some 5,000 of them were then shipped to the South Pacific. Parsons flew there himself, where he met with Admiral William F. Halsey at his headquarters in Noumea. He arranged for Parsons to take VT fuzes out with him on the USS Helena.^[25][26] On 6 January 1943, Helena was part of a cruiser force that bombarded Munda in the Solomon Islands. On the return trip, the cruisers were attacked by four Aichi D3A (Val) dive bombers. Helena fired at one with a VT fuze. It exploded close to the aircraft, which crashed into the sea.^[27]

I don’t know if any cruiser ever fired their main battery at a Jap plane, in my time aboard, Cleveland never did.   It was a Robe Goldberg scheme for it ignored that the two batteries had entirely different characteristics and missions.  The AA battery was designed for rapid, flexible movement.  The director could train through 720 degrees before hitting the stops. The guns could moved rapidly in azimuth and elevation and elevate almost to the vertical.  The main battery was heavy and relative slow in movement.  Its guns had about half the elevation of the 5-inch.   Cleveland engaged in one distinct surface-air battle while I was aboard.   That was after the surface Battle of Empress in November’44 when 70 Jap dive-bombers hit Task Force 39—4 Cruisers and 4 destroyers, in a tight diamond formation turning in 360 circles at thirty knots.   AA fire shot down 17 planes the rest fled back to Rabaul.  A small bomb hit one of Montpelier’s catapults and Cleveland took a near miss.   Main batteries remained trained in fore and aft.   I dread to think what would have happened if the 6-inch batteries had open up during this fast moving melee.  (We received a dividend from the battle of Midway for those 1944 Japanese aviators were not of the quality of those wiped out on that miracle day in June 1942.)

Somehow this description of a 6-inch gun firing at an aircraft reminds me of Gertrude Stein’s description of her opera, “Four Saints in Three Acts”, about saints that do nothing and their vision of the Holy Ghost described as “Pigeons in the grass and magpie in the sky”.  To which she referred to as a “perfectly simple description of the Spanish landscape”.

Shipmate November 2002

Cleveland seemed to be festered be assignments to develop foolhardy Rube Goldberg ideas.  The first was using the main battery to shoot down aircraft that was covered in an earlier Shipmate.  Captain Andy Shepard was given the job of finding a way to fire a torpedo from a cruiser catapult.  As gunnery officer I got the dirty work.   Commodore Arlie Burke lent us a chief torpedoman and some strikers.  I was aghast.  The resulting contraption well could damage the catapult.  Work started and the more I saw of the paraphernalia the more I became concerned.  The Captain asked for the progress each day. I mumbled something like fine.  Then I went to the Chief and told him to slow down. I prayed that Task Force 39 would be ordered to sea.  My prayers were answered when orders arrived for another trip up the Slot.  The Chief was thanked for his cooperation and told to get his `baby’ off the ship for it was a missile hazard an we were going back to sea.  To me the chief seemed as glad to end this fandango, as was I.

Shipmate July 2001

.  CruDiv 12 consisting of Montpelier, Cleveland, Columbus and Denver commanded by Rear Admiral Tip Merrill; and Commodore Arleigh Burke `23 and his Little Beavers were based in Pervis Bay, Tulagi, Solomon Islands.  The bay was surrounded by jungle.  To make a recreation area CBs were called in to bulldoze a proper area for R&R.   Beaches were cleared one for officers and one for enlisted men.  Tents were erected and tables and benches scattered about.  Photos 1 and 2 are of the first Officers Club.   Except for groups not identified the rest of us sustained our selves on 3.2 beer.   The effect was like swallowing compressed air.  As enlisted men left Cleveland (CL-55), the chaplain passed out 2 ration tickets for beer.  (The purpose was to assure that guzzlers could not deny the less serious imbibers their recreation perk.)  One of the young sailors wrote his parents about the tickets.   They were shocked that a Navy chaplain was leading their son to drink.  Their pastor wrote Admiral King who soon vented his spleen on Cleveland.  The chaplain no longer saw the sailors off for R&R.  The house of the British Bishop of Polynesia was located on a hill at the far end of the Bay.  It was abandoned when the Japanese moved in.  Eventually it was taken over and converted into a more high tone officers club.

By this time the battle of Guadalcanal was close to its end, but fighting was still going on, and the Cleveland's first mission was to escort a troop convoy sailing to the island, as part of Task Force 18. On 29-30 January 1943 this convoy came under fierce Japanese attack (battle of Rennell Island). The Cleveland survived a heavy Japanese air attack, although the heavy cruiser USS Chicago was sunk.

The Cleveland then joined Task Force 68, under the command of Rear-Admiral A. S. Merrill (the other 'Merrill's Marauders'). On 6 March TF 68, with three cruisers and six destroyers, steamed up 'the slot' and bombarded the Japanese bases at Vila and Munda. A weaker Japanese naval force, attempting to get supplies to Vila, was found, and two Japanese destroyers were sunk (action of Kula Gulf).

Chapter 6 continued USS Cleveland North African Invasion 1942

10 October 1942

Clearing Norfolk's Chesapeake Bay on 10 October 1942, Cleveland joined a task force off Bermuda (on 29 October) bound for the invasion of North Africa – the first new class of ship to enter World War II. Her firepower supported the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco on 8 November, and she remained on patrol until 12 November, returning to Norfolk on 24 November.

The assignment came. October 10, 1942, the CLEVELAND set out for Bermuda, B.W.I., and anchored there after several days' steaming. Stripping ship foretold the imminence of battle. All non-essential inflammable - linoleum, furniture, paint - were removed to minimize fire hazards. And when the CLEVELAND departed two weeks later, valuable records, secret information and personal effects were left behind. Two days out she rendezvoused with a force steaming eastward to invade North Africa.

7 November 1942

November 7, after zigzagging for more than a week through submarine-frequented waters, the force split. The CLEVELAND and RANGER were ordered to cover the landing of General Patton's troops near Fedala, French Morocco, on "D" day, November 8. These troops augmented the drive against "Desert Fox" Rommel and his famed Afrika Corps.

The Air Group offshore, US cruisers Cleveland, carriers Ranger and Suwannee, and destroyers Ellyson, Corry and Hobson had had little to do on D-day directly in support of assault waves at Fedala. Ranger launched F4F Wildcats in 0615 which headed for the Rabat and Rabat-Sale airdromes, headquarters for French air forces in Morocco. Encountering AA fire, they destroyed 21 planes on the ground in the two fields. The second flight shot down a plane and the third destroyed more planes on the ground at Port Lyautey. One US pilot was lost. Later flights went after the batteries and French naval ships at Casablanca. Another fighter squadron from Ranger encountered 16 French planes airborne at a Le Cazes airfield in Casablanca and lost four of its own planes as it shot down 8 French aircraft and destroyed 14 on the ground. This squadron also strafed the first group of French destroyers coming out of Casablanca. Ranger's SBD Dauntless dive bombers reached 10,000 feet over Casablanca at 0700 in the 8th and bombed the sub basin in the harbor. Suwannee's planes maintained ASW and combat air patrol. With 18 knots maximum speed these converted tanker/carriers needed a fresh breeze to launch planes and in Casablanca on Nov. 8 ,1942, often had to head for water where the chop indicated wind. We lost 44 planes, all causes, but many of our pilots and crewman were recovered.

Following "D" day the two ships continued to patrol about thirty miles off Casablanca. On the second day of this patrol, CLEVELAND lookouts spotted four torpedo wakes off the port beam. Radical maneuvers avoided three. Two hundred yards away, the fourth dove sharply, passed under the stern, and surfaced on the starboard side.

Shipmate 2010

June 1942 North African Invasion

“Cleveland was commissioned in June of 1942. Our first operation was the North Africa Invasion. While steaming around off the coast of Casablanca with several other ships, we got into a bevy of submarines. We dodged torpedoes for several hours. I was standing on the after air control station and off our port side we saw the telltale wake of a torpedo headed for Cleveland. We all braced for the hit. About 100 yards off the ship, the torpedo breached, came out of the water and dove under the ship for a miss. We figured the SS must have been Italian, not German! No ship was hit.”

End of Article

11 November 1942 USS Cleveland North Africa

Hostilities in French Morocco ceased November 11, and the ship once more joined the main group en route to Bermuda. Spending only one night in Great Sound, the ship got under way for Norfolk, Virginia, where she underwent necessary alterations from November 24 to December 5. On the latter date, the CLEVELAND, the WICHITA, three escort carriers and five destroyers sailed from Lynnhaven Roads to join Admiral Halsey's forces in the South Pacific.

Chapter 6 USS Cleveland 1942-1944

USS Cleveland April 1942 to November 1944

On 1 November 1941, Hull No. 423 was launched and christened USS Cleveland (CL-55). Built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, and sponsored by Mrs. H. Burton, Cleveland was commissioned on 15 June 1942 with Captain E. W. Burrough in command.

Shipmate November 2004

By 1942 I had worked up to main battery assistant and was involved assigning officers to gunnery billets.  At this time BuPers was stripping the fleet of officers for new construction.  I went to Washington to find out what BuPers had in mind for Nashville.  A review of our roster disclosed that they had their eyes on our director, turret and plotting room officers.  As each name was mentioned for possible detachment I objected that by taking our director and turret officers and replacing them with our junior officer’s readiness would suffer.   During this discussion my name was not mentioned.  I left concerned but with little specific information.   Arriving aboard about 10:00 PM I was greeted by those in the wardroom with a chorus of, “Welcome home Jim Farley” (FDR’s Postmaster General).  I asked why this epithet.  They replied that I had orders which erroneously they thought I had arranged.  

My dispatch orders were secret.  They were brought from the safe for a quick view and returned.  I was detached with sanitized unclassified orders.  When reporting to the commissioning detail at New York in Camden the gunnery officer informed me that I would be the F Division officer.  I told him that I had spent four years in turrets and never been in a plotting room.  He ignored my logic and said, “You are the F Division officer.  He did take the precaution of sending me to the four week Fire Control School in the Navy Yard Washington and two weeks at the Ford Instrument Company in Long Island.

Shipmate April 2004

In February 1942 I was transferred to Cleveland CL 55.  The gunnery officer, Russell Smith 25, appointed me fire control officer.  He ignored the fact that I was an experienced turret officer and brusquely repeated that I was the fire control officer.  During my Cleveland years, 1942 to 1944 the class moved up two grades to Commander.

Shipmate April 2002

In February 1942 I joined the commissioning detail of Cleveland CL-55 at New York Ship Building Corp., Camden, NJ, as prospective F Division officer. Because of the submarine threat off the US coast, Cleveland had to shake down in the Chesapeake Bay. One of the gunnery department’s top priorities during the shakedown was to align batteries of guns, directors, and fire control radar. As you gunners know a steady and sharp horizon is essential while aligning gun batteries. It was a thrill in the Bay with only a bit of horizons north and south flashing by while the ship maneuvered recovering aircraft.

Cleveland conducted shore bombardment training off Bloodsworth Island in the bay. One day a barge loaded with 5-inch, 38 projectiles came along side. I had the duty. While inspecting the cargo I discovered that the projectiles were marked with large letters A, B, C, etc., the significance of which escaped me. I called the ammunition depot and was told curtly the matter was top secret and could not be discussed over the phone. I answered, “Okay, they will be stowed as they come aboard.” The answer came back, “Oh, no! Store them in alphabetical order.” (The projectiles were experimental radio fused VT projectiles. The letters indicated different frequencies.)  The next day Cleveland rendezvoused with a tow plane. On the first run the AA director tracked the sleeve, trained out a 5-inch mount and fired one projectile. The single round destroyed the sleeve. A second run produced the same results. There was much excitement over this strange new weapon. This was the first at sea test. Later in the South Pacific, Cleveland conducted practice AA firing at a target towed parallel to the firing course. The bursts were ragged. The Captain asked if the stable element was cut in – it was. On changing the fuse lot the next run was okay. The fuse batteries on the first run were defective. (“Smart weapons” cannot be taken for granted.) The VT fuse AA common projectile hardly can be compared with the “smart weapons” of today. But compared with timed fuses, this high tech weapon of World War II was better by a factor of three.

Much later in the 1970s while lecturing in the elderhostle program on the naval battles that doomed Japan, the VT fuse was discussed. One of the students had worked on the development of the fuse. He knew about the first sea test so we had a lively discussion.

THE USS CLEVELAND, 10,000-ton light cruiser and name-ship of her class first displayed her commission pennant and the National Ensign at Philadelphia 15 June 1942. Since that date her performance through more than three years of war was a credit to these symbols of her nation.

ProLog Gil Slonim

Prolog Gil Slonim WC 829

My ringside seat at the point of contact in the far reaching maritime war in the Pacific was hardly pre-ordained. It took some footwork to get there; and to stay.

This starts with a report that emphasizes that all of the hostility and conflict was hardly directed at the ‘real enemy’ the Japs. When Halsey sailed out of port for America’s first offensive strike against the Marshalls, Eddie Layton, Admiral Nimitz’s Intelligence Officer, decided he’d better have somebody around who spoke Japanese. The idea stood on its own. He and Joe Rochefort agreed to send Banks Holcolm, a genial Marine Major who was a fellow language officer in Tokyo from 1939 to August 23, 1941, when we hastened to get on our way, approximately three months before the sneak attack against Pearl Harbor. They wanted to test the waters as to how Radio Intelligence (R.I.) units could be factored into the forces at sea, backing up the Task Force Commanders in their decision making, in tactical situations with the local intelligence they could gain on the spot, where the guns were firing, and planes zoomed in for bombing, strafing and torpedo attacks.

Banks proved so helpful to Vice Admiral Halsey & his staff, even though he had no radiomen with him, that upon their return to their Ford Island moorings in Pearl Harbor, the Admiral told Banks, “Go back and tell your boss you are now on my staff permanently.” Neither Halsey nor his mercurial chief of staff, Captain Miles Browning, was too bashful in this regard. And at the start of hostilities the formality of orders form the Bureau of Navigation gave way to more flexible administrative methodology. But Layton and Rochefort had strong reservations, at the time it was estimated that there were 35 officers qualified in the Japanese language. Both Layton and Rochefort had desultory visions of all being fanned out to individual commanders in the Fleet, and the problem created was there would be nobody left to work on the code breaking that went on at Pearl, Washington and Corregidor. They reasoned, “If every Admiral in the Fleet should successfully insist upon having their own Japanese interpreter assigned to his staff, who would be left to work on codes and communications analysis!”

They insisted that Halsey’s demand must be resisted. This brought Miles Browning and Eddie Layton into direct conflict. Joe and Eddie put their minds together, and decided they would cut a deal with Halsey. Each time that he set to sea for an offensive operation they would assign an R.I. unit (which would include specially trained radiomen) to him personally. But when he returned, the people in the Unit would return to FRUPAC. But Holcomb was not available. This word got around in FRUPAC as well as in the Fleet. I decided I wanted, in the worst way, to get to sea. Obviously, this could be my chance. I decided at the time, if I was to be the one, I’d better be on the same watch section as Joe Rochefort in our round the clock vigil in the basement of the 14^th Naval District in Pearl Harbor.

I analyzed the pattern just as we did with Japanese communications intercepts. I figured that one night Eddie Layton would call and say, “Halsey needs somebody to go to sea with him.” I wanted to be right there to raise my hand with all the enthusiasm I could muster for Joe would make the decision right then and there. He wasn’t one who had to brood things over before he acted. He made up his mind quickly. I had a strong urge to get back aboard ship, and it looked very much like I was destined to remain at a desk for the duration in that deep and gloomy Hawaiian basement.

I did not have the gift of code breakers’ persistence, nor their patience. The historic area left me cold. I wanted to make some history. It was the future that fascinated me. Besides, I was a naval officer. My training had prepared me for battle at sea. No self-respecting Naval Academy graduate would ever be satisfied to serve throughout an entire war behind a desk. Whether in Washington or in lovely Hawaii, it worked. My scheme of maneuver shifted into a high gear after shifting watches to Joe’s section for the 12 hour on – 12 hour off watches we stood. The call came, I could tell who he was talking to as he threw in a few well-chosen Japanese words (for instance) to punctuate his points. My hand was in his face before he could ask the question. The OK came nearly as swiftly.

Shipmate August 2006

WWII Prolog Cryptography

The following is Part I of a sea tale about the contribution of radio intelligence to Fleet operations; part II will be in the September issue of Shipmate.   Because of closely held security few senior officers understood radio intelligence and held it in disdain—thinking of it as a childish play thing.  After Pearl Harbor Mobile Radio Intelligence teams were sent to sea on Task Force Commander’s staffs.  (Some TF commanders still did not trust the junior officer who led his Mobile Team.)

During the doldrums of the 1920s a hand full of naval code breakers worked to penetrate Japanese codes and ciphers.   The breaking of Japan’s WE WE cipher, used in the former German islands in the Central Pacific mandated to Japan by the League of Nations,  disclosed that Japan was fortifying the islands.  Later the code breakers uncovered Japan had penetrated the Navy’s war plan Orange.  Cryptography non-believers began taking notice of these accomplishments.—some with control in mind. Our Classmate Gil Slonim entered the mysterious world Cryptology just before WW II.

The mission of cryptology is to acquire, evaluate and disseminate enemy radio traffic.  Originally the mission was in the office of Intelligence. (ONI). But it overlapped the Office of Communications (ONC) and (ONI).  Between the war years a feud developed between these two offices resulting in interdepartmental rivalry over which would control Cryptology.  The CNO gave custody of this infant to ONC because he did not trust ONI.  It is interesting that the CNO of the time condoned feuding with in his staff instead of ordering the feuders to come down with a joint position that the CNO could approve as naval policy.  Those who place their personal interests above the interest of the United States endanger the security of the Nation and adversely affect the Navy.  Before Midway another rivalry erupted when the office of War Plans joined the ONI-ONC feud. If it had not been for the strength of Admirals King and Nimitz the Midway battle would have been compromised.   Interdepartmental feuds have infected the Navy since time immemorial. It’s not the system it’s the people.

(Consider the rattle snake, a creature jealous of his territory.  If a passer by stays clears of the rattler’s domain he will be safe; but if he enters it the snake will strike.) 

The key to naval radio intelligence was a net work of listening stations covering the Pacific located for triangulation of intercepts. Message receiving evaluation and dissemination centers Op-20-G station Negat in the Navy Department, station Hypo in Hawaii and station Belconnen in Australia. Mobile radio Intelligence Units were assigned to fleet and task force commanders.

I am confused by the lexical of intelligence for it was derived from the         Greek word kryptos “hidden” and logos “word”. (It’s all Greek to me.) were originated by pioneer cryptographers and vary from dictionary versions.

The following definitions are to keep me sane.

                     

                                     The Arcane science of: Cryptology

                                    

                                   Cipher          Changes text word for word

                                   Code             Changes idea

                                             Cryptology    Methods of secret communication

                                                         Includes signal security, ones own

                                                          and nullifying enemy security

                                Cryptanalysis    traffic analysis

                                Cryptography    Encoding messages intended to be

                                                           decoded only by addressee.

                               

                                Cryptographic Section--code breakers headquarters

When an intercepted message cannot be read by cryptanalysis, it can yield important information by traffic analysis, not perfect but helpful.  By analyzing radio traffic the following deductions are possible: sender and receiver of messages, locations of transmissions (radio direction finding), transmission length, routing, traffic volume and precedent.

Gil was a language student in Tokyo in the late thirties but was sent home in 1941 because of the threat of war.  He was trained by the remarkable Joe Rochefort for Mobile Radio Intelligence Unit duty. When Joe thought him ready he was transferred with his mobile team to VADM Halsey’s TF 16 in time for the raid on Tokyo and duty in the Solomon Islands.   When VADM Halsey took over the South Pacific Command  in October 1942, RADM Kinkaid became  CTF16 in time for the carrier actions of the Eastern Solomons where Enterprise was damaged ( Gil lost a man and might have been killed had he not been with the admiral.); and of Santa Cruz Island.   His team was transferred to Saratoga that was torpedoed.  Next the team was transferred to Wasp via a destroyer.  Before they arrived Wasp was torpedoed.  Gil’s team was ordered to Pearl Harbor.  He got a flight to Pearl.  His crew had to hitch hike; with their heavy gear, they moved some twenty six times. This ends Part I.

 

Chapter 5 continued USS Nashville Commissioning

30 April 1938 Nashville Commissioning

“After 22 months I was transferred (30 April 1938) to new construction USS Nashville, being commissioned in Camden NJ and the Philadelphia Navy Yard.”

“We had a wonderful Shakedown cruise to Europe and Britain – my first trip to Paris and other fun. While in Britain fraternizing with the Brits, we were told to be on the alert for a new ASW thing called ASDIC.  But the Brits were too smart for us. We did, however, discover the pros and cons of Scotch.”

Shipmate March 2004

Commissioning a ship is like Plebe Year, you don’t want to miss one but you don’t want to ever do it again. My guardian angel failed to heed this advice. For twice I was assigned commissioning details, Nashville (C43) in 1938 and Cleveland in 1942. From 1938 on with the rapid expansion of the Navy, I suspect many of you went through this process several times. Both of these light cruisers were built in the New York Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River. The winds of war were blowing in the Far East and in Europe. But in 1938 the United States was mired in a euphoric delusion of peace. The Navy was manned at 65% complement. Nashville had a crew of 875. The wartime complement for Brooklyn class light cruisers was 1,200. The Two Ocean Navy Act of 1940 awakened the nation to the reality of international affairs. As the Navy began to mobilize, reserves were brought up permanently manning levels of the Fleet units slowly to increase to complement.

When you go to new construction, things are different than reporting to active ships. You find a dead ship. It takes people, the crew, to bring it to life. You start from scratch. The philosopher Horace Kallen wrote, “When you start with nothing you can go anywhere.” There were myriads of instructions for organizing a ship that were theoretical and very general in nature. Our aim was to develop a practical ship’s organization that would meld the ship and crew into a fighting force for the obvious tough times ahead.

There are so many things to be done in a short time that the only priority was one: to work on the ship’s organization manual, crew assignment, provisioning ship stores, developing a database for machinery upkeep and repair, etc. All work was going on simultaneously. I was involved in crew assignment. Those coming from the Fleet trickled in. on one day a detail of 500 from the Norfolk Training Center arrived. A few were veterans, but most were recruits. Each man had a questionnaire listing his qualifications and experience. These were helpful in doing my job. I admit possible there were mistakes but only one left me with chagrin. It happened during the mad house o assigning this large detail. I placed on recruit on the shell deck of a turret to handle 6-inch AP projectiles weighing 135 pounds, the sailor weighed 125 pounds. It was clear from working with these recruits that their civilian careers were quite varied. We needed three barbers and our search located ten, each with up to `13 years’ experience.

The above is a sampling only of the commissioning process. Every department and every man was involved. It was an all hands evolution. After the festivities of commissioning were over, Nashville sailed for GITMO to commence training. Training did not stop at GITMO for like education training never ends; it’s a life long endeavor. We went through the full catalogue of exercises including a competitive landing force drill. At the completion, CAPT William W. Wilson assembled the officers in the wardroom and informed us in no uncertain terms that he was dissatisfied with our progress. We simply had not reached an acceptable state of readiness. We junior officers were taken aback for we thought we had done a great job. We felt the captain’s remarks were a pep talk, not a dressing down. Apparently we were not going to be court marshaled for our next mission was a shakedown cruise to Northern Europe and Britain – a most delightful and exciting trip.

6 June 1938 Shakedown Cruise

Nashville Shakedown Cruise – Nashville (CL-43) was commissioned in Philadelphia on 6 June 1938. I was a plankowner assigned to the gunnery department. In July we shook down at GTMO. In early August Nashville departed on a shake down (goodwill) cruise par excellence to Northern Europe.

The first port of call was Cherbourg, France, from which leave parties visited Paris. A Reserve lieutenant, a professor from Penn State, joined Nashville for the cruise. He offered to guide us on the Paris trip (He and his bride spent their honeymoon in Paris and he was fluent in French). Steve Carpenter 35, several others, and I joined him for a most adventure-filled tour. He found us lodgings in a Left Bank pension. Steve and I shared a large room with a balcony (the tariff $1.50 per day). We ate in the garden (lunch of filet mignon, French fries, and watercress salad; cost: $1.00 – a bottle of wine was $0.50).

Our French speaking shipmate led us to a huge department store and commandeered a sales lady to escort us throughout the store and help us with shopping. Afterwards Steve and I felt confident enough to go sightseeing on our own. We stopped at a street side restaurant. Steve spoke a bit of French, but I did not. He left me at a table while he visited the men’s room. A burly waiter asked me to order. The only thing I could think of was beer and apparently my version was close enough to his language that he took my order. We had a couple more, then decided to visit the Louvre. Before long we needed to visit a restroom. The quest became urgent so we literally ran through the museum looking for a restroom. We held the world record of touring the Louvre – 30 minutes. Some of us visited a nightclub (CAPT Wilson also was present) about which I will limit comment to the fact that waitresses were scantily clad in shoes. Later we were escorted through the International House that was famous for bedroom replicas of Classical French architecture. Even in today’s relaxed atmosphere I will not discuss our guide’s commentary.

One day after we returned to Cherbourg several of us were strolling through a suburb. It was drizzling so we wore raincoats. We passed some children playing in their yard. When their mother saw us (in uniform) she rushed out to gather up her kids yelling “Allemande!” as she rushed them into the house. In the fall of 1938 the winds of war were swirling over Europe, creating a tension that was quite evident.

The next ports of call were in Scandinavia – Oslo, Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Because our First Class Cruise also visited these ports in 1935, my memory of these two visits is confused. So comments of Nashville visiting will be limited to a few items that made a lasting impression. Oslo, Norway, will always be remembered as a city of superb pastries and, unadulterated milk and a most friendly people. Copenhagen, Denmark, has the delightfully beautiful statue of the Little Mermaid at the entrance to the Harbor – a character from a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen; the world famous Orrefors crystal that I prefer to cut glass; and the 150-year old Tivoli Gardens amusement park with the great restaurant. The bicycle must have been their main mode of transportation for there are 300,000 in Copenhagen.

Leaving Scandinavia, Nashville’s last port of call (we thought) was Portsmouth, England. Before we left Norfolk we were told to get information on the British Asdic (SONAR in American). With the war just over the horizon, the Brits were more interested in making sure that if the United States would not join the Allies at the beginning but remain neutral. They entertained us royally with wining and dining. There was a formal reception at which we wore full dress uniforms. Afterwards British officers escorted us for a night on the town, lending us civilian attire to keep our uniforms pure. Finally we retrieved our uniforms and returned to Nashville. Somehow Steve Carpenter left his railroad trousers ashore but they were returned the next day by a British launch. All this “Hail, fellow, well met” was fine but I don’t know if anyone learned much about Asdic.

The next day Nashville was ordered to Gravesend, the port of London, in the River Thames. On anchoring, our berth was so near to shore that on the tide-change the motor launches were used to swing the ship away from the shore. Captain Wilson reported to the Embassy and returned with classified orders to proceed to Portland to pick up 25 million dollars in gold bullion, payment for weapons replaced by the United States for those lost at Dunkirk.

Upon arrival we moored alongside a rather run down looking wharf. Preparations were made for loading the shipment and for security. On the portside the ship, next to the wharf, the 20MM battery was manned, augmented by the Marines, with machine guns, Browning automatics and rifles. I was in charge of the unarmed loading party. Gazing at the firepower on the ship and visualizing an attack from shoreward, I noted that our party would be in the middle of any exchange of fire – unfavorable odds of our survival.

The shipment had not arrived by noon. The captain became increasingly concerned for Nashville had to cross the bar before low water and the tide was ebbing. The shipment finally arrived in an unescorted dilapidated old biscuit truck. Britain  opted not to transport the gold in a well-escorted convoy along direct highways. Although it took longer the subterfuge of routing this unmarked truck by back roads was Britain’s way of providing security. The loading was completed without incident. The captain was asked to sign a statement in the invoice that read, “X” number (I don’t remember the exact figure) of boxes containing gold. He insisted that the words “said to contain” be added.

After a routine trip home Nashville moored in the Brooklyn Shipyard in view of the vast population of the area. The U.S. plan for receiving the shipment was quite different from the British method. A convoy of armored trucks escorted by police cars and motorcycles, fire engines, and ambulances. Noise was deafening, with horns and sirens blasting and lights flashing. I don’t know if the press covered our arrival, but I feel certain that if any hijackers had aspiration for the gold, they would have been thwarted by traffic jams and hordes of pedestrians.

Thus ended peaceably but noisily Nashville’s wonderful shakedown cruise.

21 September 1938 Shipment of Gold

Getting underway 21 September from Portland England, with 25 million dollars in British gold bullion aboard Nashville arrived at Brooklyn Navy Yard 30 September 1938, offloaded the gold, and returned to Philadelphia 5 October 1938.

Shipmate May 2002

 “Suddenly we were ordered to Graves End in the Thames River. The Captain received secret orders and we charged over to Portland to pick up a shipment of gold – a transfer of funds for war material. The shipment was due in time for Nashville to sortie on a full tide. It was late. The Captain was very upset. Finally two old, beat-up biscuit trucks arrived with the loot. I was in charge of the loading party on the dock. We were not permitted to carry arms, but every machine gun in the ship and the Marine detachment was fully deployed.  We took on 2.5 million dollars in gold and departed for the US. On arrival at the Brooklyn Ship Yard, police cars and fire engines – all sounding sirens and flashing lights – arrived at great speed and removed the gold.”

End of Article

 30 April 1939 Nashville at the New York World’s Fair

President Roosevelt considered the New York World’s Fair of 1939 important enough for major naval participation.   He ordered the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet (CINCUS), ADML Claude C. Bloch ‘99, to take the Pacific Fleet to the World’s Fair.   Enroute the Fleet engaged in Fleet Problem XX in the Lesser Antilles.  Upon arrival on the East Coast, the U.S. Fleet, now including ships of the Atlantic Squadron, moored at bases along the Atlantic Coast where they prepared to attend the Fair.  President Roosevelt opened the Fair on 30 April 1939.   The Navy was expected to participate in numerous official activities. However, the Roosevelt Administration became alarmed at Japanese rampaging in the Western Pacific.  Pacflt was ordered back to the Pacific.  ADML Block who had not been consulted, was at a dinner party in Washington where the order was delivered to him.

Only about three dozen ships remained to attend the Fair on which the full brunt of participation fell.  The augmented Atlantic Squadron steamed through the Narrows at 5:30 am on 29 April to assigned moorings completing the operation at 3:00 PM.  Leading the parade were old “four piper tin cans” followed in order by six new CL’s, New York BB24 (Flagship of RADN A.W. Johnson ’99 Commander Atlantic Squadron) and Texas BB25 (Tennessee BB 43 had arrived earlier).  Astern of the BB were a division of new DD, carrier Ranger CV 4 and carrier tender LangleyAV3.  Finally R and SS class submarines with a tender and miscellaneous other                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           types.

The larger ships moored in the Hudson River, the carriers and smaller ship at piers.  Ships were open for visitors with an estimate of over 50,000 visitors.  On 30 April, the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark reviewed the Fleet aboard the Presidential Yacht Potomac AG-25.

Ships that moored in the narrow Hudson River anchored used the flying moor method to avoid the wide swing on changing tides.  Moving upstream of the anchorage, the first anchor was dropped while underway to set it. Then the ship backed down paying out the chain to a point down stream from the anchorage where the second anchor was dropped and set.  In the final step the ship moved up to the anchorage adjusting the chains.  This tactic provided the tight radius necessary for mooring in narrow tidal waters.

The City of New York hosted a banquet in a large ballroom.  The invitation read: “Officers and their bona fide wives are invited...”.  Officers were seated at tables on the ballroom floor, the wives on the balcony that encircled the ballroom.  Following dinner high dignitaries spoke with vigor “pointing with pride and viewing with alarm” (Will Rogers), I don’t recall any substance to what was said.

In the spring of 1939, Nashville carried American representatives to the Pan American Defense Conference in Rio de Janeiro, returning them to Annapolis 20 June 1939. On the 23 June 1939 she sailed from Norfolk for the Pacific via the Panama Canal, arriving San Pedro, California, 16 July 1939 for two years of operations. In February 1941, she and three other cruisers carried marines to Wake Island.

Shipemate

“While operating in the Hawaiian area in early 1941, we were called alongside USS New Mexico and given orders to proceed to the East Coast. A division of BBs and Cruisers were transferred to appease the British and to beef up our Atlantic force. Nashville, a CVE and a few DDs were placed on the neutrality patrol – from Norfolk to Azores non-stop and back to Bermuda. We had a four-day layover and then did the reverse – a thirty day round trip. Once we escorted the Marines to Iceland to replace the British forces there.”

Shipemate December 2002

Sailing Down To Rio

10 May 1939 Trip to Rio

When General Marshall's appointment as the new Chief of Staff was announced at the end of April, it was decided that Marshall would make the trip.⁹ He and his party departed New York on 10 May 1939 aboard the USS Nashville and arrived in Rio on the twenty-fifth. Their itinerary for twelve days included visits, dinners, receptions, and discussions with the Brazilians. On 6 June, the Nashville departed for the United States with the Brazilian Chief of Staff General Góes Monteiro and his party aboard. General Góes Monteiro was given an extensive tour of the United States, which must have impressed him, for he never made the visit to Berlin. The process of bringing the Brazilians "into the fold" had begun.

Shipmate September 2001

Sailing Down to Rio.  On the last weekend of Nashville’s participation in the New York World’s Fair, I visited friends in New Jersey. I arrived back aboard just in time for morning quarters. I mustered my division.  Then with other Division officers and heads of departments reported for the Executive Officer’s daily orders-of-the-day conference.  In addition to routine matters it was mentioned that the ship was going to Rio de Janeiro.  Back at my division I passed the word to the men, adding that there was talk of going to Rio.  The division Boatswain’s Mate said to me, “Mr. Carmichael it’s in the plan of the day—that I had not read.  (Dave Nash ’35, one of the junior officers, had just married.   At the time he and his bride planned their honeymoon the Rio trip was unknown.  His messmates consoled him by sort of a post-marriage bachelor’s party during his six weeks sojourn in limbo.)  But I digress.

The spring of 1939 was a very dangerous time. Hitler was gobbling up small nations in central Europe and Japan was violating China andpreparing for the conquest of South East Asia---their Co Prosperity Sphere campaign.  Mussolini sent his daughter Edda to Brazil to persuade Dictator Getulio Vargas to join the Axis.   Following Edda’s visit the Pan American Defense Council was held.  Nashville was selected to carry the American representative,  Major General George Marshall (who though nominated for Chief-of-Staff of the Army had not made his number) with a small staff was sent to counter the Axis effort to coerce Brazil.   The trip down took thirteen days.  At the equator we were underway with no way on long enough to convert all the pollywogs to shellbacks.

On arrival Rio, Nashville moored along side a quay in the center of the city, where we reposed for thirteen days.  A shore patrol was formed in two sections to allow each to get liberty.  I opted for the first trick to case the joint so I would learn better what to do and purchase when on liberty.   The senior patrol officer and I were housed in the top hotel in Rio (Connecting rooms with balconies and board--$3.50 per day.  Breakfast in our room ten cents extra.)  We were quartered in the Vice Squad’s headquarters—each provided a car and driver.   My driver was quite wild, charging about as if he was in a tank.  He gave me a Brazilian driver’s Ed course: The first car to enter an intersection had the right of way, a very hazardous policy and vehicular traffic had right of way over pedestrians.  I witnessed a car bump a lady who was not seriously hurt and as he drove by shook his fist at her for getting in his way.  My driver told me that Brazil had a dictator who acted like a president and the U.S. had a president who acted like a dictator.  The shore patrol tour was uneventful except the one night we visited an area where ladies of ‘negotiable virtue’ operated.  I am not a prude but I was shocked at the depth of human decadence.

My time on shore patrol may have been educational but liberty was more enjoyable.  Brazilians invited officers into their homes. My group was hosted at a very swank 3000 acre orange plantation.  There was a pool for swimming and the cocktail was a powerful concoction made from a sugar cane called kuchaci (I don’t know it that is spelled correctly but it was only slightly less lethal than Lucrezia Borgia’s “social” wine used in assisted deaths.)  Shopping was pleasant with a very favorable exchange rate. 

Next, I was put in charge of supervising 125 enlisted men invited to a country club party hosted by the Rio English Speaking Society. (The young ladies were prettier and more jovial than those at officers’ parties.)  The Nashville band came to provide music for the evening.  In the beginning the music sounded as though the musicians were using different sheet music. About half way through the evening the band sounded like a real orchestra.  I went to investigate the source of this miracle and found two bottles of scotch amidst the bandsmen.  (They were placed there by the local Standard Oil executive and president of the Society.)   There after the atmosphere of the party was greatly improved.  This gesture proved that scotch indeed is the “water of life”. (In Gaelic usiga beathe.)

But dark clouds soon appeared on the horizon.   A dowager, one of the sponsors, charged towards me in the words of P.G. Wodehouse, “...like a Spanish Galleon under full sail.”  When within range with gun ports open her opening salve was, “This is a terrible party.”  When asked what was the trouble, she replied, “We ladies went to a great deal of trouble preparing a fine buffet and the sailors are not eating anything.  They are all in the bar drinking.”  I told her that would be corrected.  Gathering some of the leaders, I gave the following orders: The bar is closed. Go into the food room and consume all the food, then the bar will be reopened.  About thirty minutes later the food was gone and I reopened the bar.  The Spanish Galleon was happy and the party continued in full spirits.  Our sailors’ conduct was a credit to the Navy.  Only one old rummy became a bit pixilated and was returned to the ship in the paddy wagon and put to bed.

Finally, General Marshall hosted a dinner party for Brazilian guests on the forecastle of Nashville.  Photo 1 shows the layout.  Heads of departments dressed for the occasion stood by in the background in case a guest didn’t show to fill any vacant seats.   I was in charge of serving after dinner coffee.  Drinking my coffee black I forgot to serve sugar.  Brazilians are heavy sugar users so the error quickly was remedied.  The trip home was uneventful. General Marshall and staff were disembarked at Annapolis. 

Everyone was on the best behavior, except one old rummy had to be sent home. Suddenly a very bosomy old gal approached me. She said it was a terrible party. They had prepared a huge table of comestibles with a lovely non-alcoholic punch. But the sailors were collected around the bar. I replied, “That’s terrible!” So I collected the ring leaders and told them that I would close the bar, and for them to get the boys to consume the food, after which I would reopen the bar. Everybody was happy, the sailors had a better base for consuming alcohol. The ladies, I might add, were better looking than the ones supplied for the officer parties and they loved to learn the new dances from the sailors. The band began to sound like Glenn Miller which was due to two bottles of scotch surreptitiously placed in the band by the American head of Standard Oil.

End of Article

1940 Spring

The Man Who Came To Dinner.

In the spring to 1940 the annual Fleet problem was held in the Hawaiian Islands (I was in Nashville). While thus deployed, President Roosevelt ordered the Fleet to base at Pearl Harbor – permanently.  CinCUS, ADML Joe Richardson was alarmed.  The Fleet would be dangerously exposed and could not be supported by the base.  After several attempts to get the decision reversed so annoyed the President that he replaced ADML Richardson with ADML Husband Kimmel.  Nashville, scheduled for overhaul, returned to the States with the Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison, embarked.

While still in Pearl arbor I wrote my mother living in Washington, D.C., to come out to Long Beach for a visit.  I had no idea that she would accept.  A telegram arrived asking, “What do I wear?” She informed me that a friend, Mrs. Arthur Smith, would accompany her.  After Nashville returned for overhaul I rented a two-bedroom apartment ($16 per week) and a car.  On the day the ladies arrived, when I met them at the station and welcomed them to sunny California, it was raining. The Smiths were patrons of the Washington’s National Theater Players and friends of Edward Arnold, one of the actors. Mrs. Smith contacted Arnold, who invited us to dinner.  His house was impressive, as were the drinks served in standpipe size glasses.  Arnold was an epicure of renown.  He served a standing rib of beef that was beautiful to behold and watching him carve was of equal delight.  After dinner, I invited him to dinner aboard Nashville, and he accepted.  On the given day, I met him and the ladies at the boat landing and escorted them aboard.  I had not warned anyone that Arnold was coming to dinner.  He created some surprise at first but being a congenial person, he melded easily with our messmates.  I should have alerted the galley, however, for the meal was a disaster; meat load and canned spinach that Arnold consumed without a grimace.  Afterwards we retired to the fantail for movies. Showing was “My Little Chickadee” with W. C. Fields and Mae West.  Mr. Arnold’s famous deep laughter could be heard throughout the harbor.  The next day the duty commander dressed me down with something like, “Carmichael, don’t you ever do that again.”

20 May 1941

On 20 May 1941she departed Pearl Harbor for the east coast, arriving Boston 19 June 1941 to escort a convoy carrying marines to Iceland.

Shipmate July 2002

 “Next we were ordered to proceed to Annapolis and pick up Major General Marshall, who had been selected as Chief of Staff but had not made his number, to a visit to Brazil to counter a recent visit of Eda Mussolini. It was a contest for the loyalty of Brazil. We stayed two weeks, tied up at a quay in the middle of Rio de Janiero. I was put in charge of 125 enlisted men to attend a party given by the English-speaking society. We took the ship’s band, which seldom ended up with the music with which they started.”

7 December 1941

From August to December 1941 Nashville was based in Bermuda for neutrality patrols in the Central Atlantic.

Shipmate December 2002

7 December 1941

Carmichael was in a task unit patrolling Roosevelt’s neutrality zone between Norfolk and the Azores.  On the westward leg we stopped off  Bermuda.  Several of us were in Nashville’s wardroom playing poker when we got the word that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor.

“On 7^th December, we were in Bermuda, and I was playing poker with a few friends. The word came over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. We were excited and concerned for we had many friends at Pearl. We expected to return to the West Coast but instead we were ordered to Portland ME to pick up a convoy to Iceland. Together with the old USS Texas, all 12” gun BB were sent along to protect the convoy from Bismarck, totally unacceptable odds.”

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Nashville sailed to Casco Bay, Maine, where she picked up a troop and cargo convoy to escort to Iceland. She continued escort duty to Bermuda and Iceland until February 1942.

On return from Iceland I was ordered to commission Cleveland, a modernized Nashville type, again in the Camden/Philadelphia area.

Shipmate October 2006

From the USS Nashville official web site

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/n2/nashville-ii.htm The following is a history of the ship while Capt. Carmichael (Lt. Carmichael)

The second Nashville (CL–43) was laid down 24 January 1935 by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J.; launched 2 October 1937; sponsored by Misses Ann and Mildred Stahlman; and commissioned 6 June 1938, Capt. William W. Wilson in command.

Nashville departed Philadelphia 19 July 1938 for shakedown in the Caribbean. In early August, she sailed for Northern Europe on a good will visit, arriving at Cherbourg, France, 24 August 1938. Getting underway 21 September from Portland, England, with 25 million dollars in British gold bullion aboard, Nashville arrived at Brooklyn Navy Yard 30 September, offloaded the gold, and returned to Philadelphia 5 October.

In the spring of 1939, Nashville carried American representatives to the Pan American Defense Conference in Rio de Janiero, returning them to Annapolis 20 June 1939. On the 23rd she sailed from Norfolk for the Pacific via the Panama Canal, arriving San Pedro, California, 16 July for two years of operations. In February 1941, she and three other cruisers carried marines to Wake Island. On 20 May she departed Pearl Harbor for the east coast, arriving Boston 19 June to escort a convoy carrying marines to Iceland.

From August to December 1941 Nashville was based at Bermuda for neutrality patrols in the Central Atlantic. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Nashville sailed to Casco Bay, Maine, where she picked up a troop and cargo convoy to escort to Iceland. She continued escort duty to Bermuda and Iceland until February 1942.