Jan. 7, 1945

My Darling Kay:

We are headed back in again as we never bombarded San Fernando.  Today we are going clear in, within a few thousand yards of the beach. I am kinda worried that the Japs might start shooting at us.

We were the second ship to open fire. We are firing 16-inch armor piercing shells. In fact that is the only knid we have in 16-inch.

With the glasses I can see a lot of little houses on the beach.

We are not going to shoot as much as we did at Leyte. We don’t want to get caught short of ammunition as we did before. The ships will take turns firing. We will fire for a couple of hours then another ship will fire for awhile.

We had an air attack and one plane crashed into an Australian Cruiser. If it had been a little higher it would have missed them. It hit one of the stacks.

I guess I will be up most of the night again.

Australian cruiser hit by Japanese kamikaze, as seen from the USS West Virginia

Jan. 8, 1945

My Kay:

Up at 3 :30, we started bombarding at 6:00 a.m. We are going to keep the beach clear so that the demolition squads can go in close and clear the beaches of any kind of Barricades. Those guys are very brave. We can now see their destroyer type ship going in.

After they get in pretty close they launch their Higgins Boats and still go in closer. When they get in close enough to see the barb wire structure they dive off the side of their boat and fasten the explosives to the wire. Then they swim back towards their boat. The boat will not stop for them, they  just throw out a line. The guys grab hold or the line and are pulled in. They do this while the boat is going about 20 knots an hour. They have been shot at twice from the beach, we have been firing on the beach all the time they have been working.

The Underwater Demolitions Teams (or UDT) were the precursor to "Frogmen" of later wars.

We just had a report that there were several planes on their way here to bomb us.

The demolition squads are now returning to their ship and are coming back.

Our Combat Patrol, just reported that all Jap planes have canceled their flight. (That means they have been shot down).

As we were moving out we had an attack. I finally saw something I have always wanted to see. I wanted to see what would happen if one of our 5-inch shells made a direct hit on a plane. This Val was going to crash dive one of our Battleships and the ship started firing. On the second shot it hit the plane. There was a big explosion and the plane was blown into. three pieces. I could see the motor going straight toward the Ship but it hit just beside it,water splashed on the ship it was that close to it. The rest of the plane came floating down. To my surprise we saw two parachutes. Those Japs did not bail out of that plane. The plane was blown from them. They just fell out.

Val Two seat bomber

Jan. 9, 1945

My Sweet:

We are up at 3 :30 a.m.  Today is the day all the troops will land. And it is a good thing. If they don’t get the troops in there soon we won’t have any ships left.

There are 8 torpedo planes coming from the port side and I can see them all. They are flying about ten feet of the water and they are going like hell. The ships between us and the planes are shooting at them. Now we are shooting at them.

There are 2 planes going straight towards a Tin Can. The Can is hitting the water just in front or them throwing up a big wall of water. They got one of them.

Right now there is a Val crash diving the Mississippi. ‘There are several ships tiring at it besides ourselves. It hit the Mississippi, on the starboard side and it is burning like the devil.

USS Mississippi

There is so much going on I can’t see it all. In all I saw six of the planes shot down and I think there were two ships that were hit. The California was also hit.

We are now shelling the beach for the troops. Honey, I never saw so many ships. They are all over the horizon. I can’t begin to count them. I’ll bet there are 200 of them.

Now the troops are in their  L. S. I.’s and are headed for the beach. In the first wave there must be 100 of them.

Men landing on shore at Luzon

We have changed to rapid fire in fact all the ships have now. The small boats are now shooting and straffing the beach. There are some rocket ships also shelling the beach and they are really doing a good job.

The troops landed 5 minutes late. It is now 9:35 a.m.

Our job is now about done. All we are doing now is waiting for the Army to get a better hold.

The Army has been on the beach for half an hour and finally received some mortar  fire and they have sent their tanks in after them.

The Army have asked us to shoot a couple of salvos at a pillbox. We knocked it out. (Hurray)

Jan. 28, 1945

My Darling:

We are still at Lingayen Gulf, and have all our ammunition loaded and fuel aboard and are waiting for stores.

Nothing has happened except we have Air Defense every morning and night. We haven’t seen any planes though. I wonder where they are at. It kinda worries me

Jan 30, 1945

Hello Darling:

Well, we are going to load stores tonight, all night, and do a little shelling in the morning.

We still haven’t received any mail, it has been a month and six days since I have heard from you.

Yes, I still love you Kay.

Feb. 4, 1945

My Darling:

We never done any bombarding but did and have been loading stores for 5 days.

And still no mail.

This place is really dead. I don’t know how long we stay here.

USS West Virginia Band Performs

I wish we would get out of here.

Feb. 7, 1945

My Darling Kay:

We are still sitting here in Lingayen Gulf, waiting for our mail I guess.

A report came over the radio on the 5th and said our troops were in Manila and that the Japs were burning the southern end of the city. “The dirty dogs.” I guess we will have to fix up Tokyo for them

I wish we could get out of here.   We still have Air Defense  every night and morning.

The Japanese practiced "scorched earth" tactics as they become more and more frustrated by their losses.