Fri. Oct. 27, 1944
Kay Darling:

Air attack at daybreak. Shot down 2 planes. We are supposed to take on ammunition today. I wonder??

Noon and no ammunition yet. Trapped??

Weather hotter than the devil o Approximately 115 0 •

Air attack at sunset repulsed.

I am getting tired of spending most of the day and all night in this hot gun tub waiting for Jap planes.

Where in the —- is the ammunition lighter?

Everything seems to be going wrong.

Sat. Oct 28, 1944

Hello Darling:

Air attack this morning. Air Combat Patrol shot down 4 planes.

Air attack at 08:00 – one Jap plane was hit and it crash dived into the superstructure of the California. The bomb it was carrying exploded and scattered parts of the plane and the frantic pilot all over the ship and the water. The radar and some other minor damage but by some miracle none of the crew were injured.

The California, was in formation about 1000 yards to our port quarter.

Another plane (this one was not hit) attempted the same trick on the Cruiser Louisville, but missed and crashed into the water. How Nice.

The Louisville was hit by Kamikaze attacks 3 months later.

Oh! Where is our ammunition?

P38 ‘s and P61’ s are up today. Hurrah, for the Army Air Combat. The Army must have Laclomb Airfield serviceable.

P38 Lightning (Left) and P61 Black Widow (Right) were land based craft. The Sea Bees were able to repair or create air bases at an amazing rate, providing much needed support.

All hands are a working party unloading empty 5-inch brass onto the lighter~ (All except me).

Maybe we will take on ammunition soon — I hope.

Signed Payroll, morale rising. Signed for money you can’t spend.

Air attack at sunset. Shot down 2 planes.

Where in the devil is the ammunition?

Weather is hot again same as usual.

Tokyo Rose, claims they sank the West Virginia. Again? I guess we have nine lives. She also says the Jap fleet was defeated at Surigao Strait. Claims their losses were light.

Sun. Oct. 29, 1944

Kay:

I slept in my sack last night for the first time since Oct. 17th.

“Sack” was slang for bunk. If the crew wasn’t sleeping in their bunk, they would be sleeping at their guns.

Rained most of the night

Air attack at daybreak – repulsed by Air Combat Patrol.

The fuselage of a Jap plane with the pilot sitting in the green-house, afloat about  200 yards to our port bow. The pilot refused to be taken aboard our destroyer. The destroyer opened fire on the plane with 20 m.m. and the plane caught fire. Flames at least 30 yards high and throwing a fury of black smoke up in the air about 100 yards.

A downed Japanese bomber.

Hurrah! Ammunition lighter along side. First four divisions load ammunition. After about an hour and a half the lighter shoved off’. How much ammunition did we get? .

Ammunition Lighters were specialized cargo ships that carried and transferred ammunition.

Read More

FLASH—Official results of the Battle of Surigao Strait;

The Battleship West Virginia, was credited with sinking one battleship “alone and unaided”.

The Battle of Surigao Strait, was also the second biggest (naval) battle in modern history and the biggest in WORLD WAR II.

Our Fleet consisted of:
6 Battleships
8 Heavy Cruisers
12 Destroyers
approximately40 torpedo Boats

We lost a few Torpedo Boats ( not official yet) and had a Destroyer severely damaged.

The Albert W. Grant was successfully repaired, even though it was quite severely damaged.

The Japanese Fleet consisted of:
2 Battleships

The Japanese battleship Yamashiro was destroyed during the battle.

2 Heavy Cruisers
2 Light Cruisers
10 Destroyers

The Japs definitely lost in the battle;
2 Battleships
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Light Cruiser
6 Destroyers
Heavily damaged and probably sank later:
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Light Cruiser
4 Destroyers

It is possible and highly probable that the entire Japanese Task Force was destroyed and sunk.

All the U.S. Battleships that took part in this engagement were presumably “Junks” and were to be used for bombardment only.

Rigged paravanes and we are headed out of Leyte Gulf.

Paravanes on USS West Virginia

Screws were inspected and their condition reported as critical. Our top speed is 17 knots. (original top,speed 21 knots) It is possible that we are headed for port to get the screw fixed.

"Screws" are the naval equivalent of a propellor. The screws on a big battleship like the USS West Virginia were huge.

Nature sure is funny. When we came to the Philippines there was a big storm and now that we are leaving there is a heavy rain and blowing again. This is really a storm it is a 70 mile an hour gale. I never saw it rain so hard in my life.

They had to secure~all the gun watches except 5-inch and the l6-inch. Now it is reported that the gale is up to 80 miles an hour.

All the hatches are dogged down.

Mon. Oct. 30, 1944
My Dearest Kay:

Pretty good day today. It is def’inite now that we are going to get our screws fixed. I guess we are going to Espiritu Santos in the New Hebrides. Just imagine , no air attack today.

Nov. 5, 1944
Kay Dearest:

We have arrived at Espiritu Santo , will go into dry dock tomorrow.

We will also have Liberty tomorrow.

I have let the last few days pass as all we have been doing is travel.

We are among three islands. Two are very small and have coconut plantations all over them.

Beaches of Espiritu Santo, now a destination for scuba divers.

The water here is very clear. Some of the fellows have caught some rather large sharks and other strange fish.

Nov. 6, 1944

My Darling:

We are now in the largest floating dry-dock in the world. I just cannot see how it manages to pick us up.

West Virginia in floating drydock, ABSD-1, 1944

When we were in the Phliippines, we went so close to the beach we ran aground and it bent the ends of our screws.

The SEA-BEES, are sure doing a great job. They are also fixing up the ship.

Well, I went on Liberty today. We had two choioes on where to go. One- to go the the main island and go sight-seeing or two- to go to the small island. and go swimming and get 2 cans of beer. Well, I went sight-seeing and it turned out pretty good. We rode around for 4 hours. I only saw 1 white woman and there were about 6 officers with her. We saw some natives. They looked like natives too. The older ones looked like all their teeth were going to fall out.

Natives of Espirito Santo

Some of the guys bought some shells and bracelets. There was nothing there worth while. The only kind of money talk was one dollar bills.

We ate lots of coconuts.

The islands were nothing like I expected, I’ll tell you that.