Arizona republican., 1918-12-30
LOCAL BOY HAS TWO
NARROW ESCAPES IN
EUROPEAN WATERS

ing account of his experiences to his
parents, DR.. and Mrs. H. H. Wilson.
The writer prior to enlistment was a
member of the Phoenix fire department
and is a graduate of the local high
school.
Shortly after entering the service,
June 1917, the LOCAL youths capabilities
attracted the attention of his superiors
and he was sent to an electrical train
ing school in Brooklyn, New York.
Upon the completion of this course
which extended over a period of 80
weeks he was assigned to duty with
the L. S. S. Bridgeport, regair ship
which he is still stationed.
The letter follows:
Brest, France. Nov IS, 1918
My Dear Folks
We received a big mail late last night
and was glad to receive your letters.
The clippings Ikwas particularly in
terested in as We are pretty familiar
with the work of the naval gun crews
with the 14-inch guns but that was
the first account l saw of it in the
Press. You see our captain made the
trip to the front about two weeks be-
fore the war ended and saw them in
action.
He told us that they had a proven
maximum error of 125 yards in % miles.
If YOU can imagine a gun Smelling Mesa
from the vicinity of Glendale and land
ing all shots within one city block, you
have some idea of the work they did.
OF course at that distance firing must
be directed by observation balloons or
airplanes but it is going some at that.
~, 4 oil hon
need is yo' name and address and they
can plant a shell in yo' back ya'd.'
We have been here since August )
and as you know, are a repair and
mother ship to the destroyers. There
is one other repair ship here and we
have about So destroyers each. We saw
action twice once off the Delaware
Capes and again on the way in here,
when we were attacked about 80 miles
out.
The first time we sighted periscope
1900 yards off the port beam and forced
it to submerge with a dozen shots or 80
AS we had no convoy we were forced
to let it go at that. Out here it was q
different story. We had two destroy
ers with US that had picked us up the
previous day. They did fine work anC
they think they got the first sub witt
depth charge.
The official report says three sub:
/ engaged but We saw only two. Th'
first made two wild shots and one eX
cellent shot that missed our rudder fiv,
/ feet. As it happened the ship comman
ders We're afraid of contact mines, 81
/ changed the formation from tw'
| abreast to a single column, the theor.
! being that if the first ship got through
/ 1 I,
| one would get it.
1 Well, it saved our bacon" for w
/ were swinging into line when the tor
/ pedo was fired and it destroyed thei
aim.
! I'll never forget that scenei One o
/ the sub chasers 1--WE had 20 We wer
/ acting as supply ship for) was the frs
to give a warning 1t was a fogg,
morning and the subs had it all thei
way. The chaser saw the wake of tn
torpedo and let loose with her siren tn
Bridgeport replied with her siren an
the Smith, a destroyer on our own star
board side, (the sub was on the por
side) let loose with four blasts on hers
| You ought to have seen her get int
action! She turned around in about hal
| her length and went across our sterl
making about 60 knots all four stack
smoking like a locomotive.
In the meantime we were not quie
| by any means. The skipper" ordere
full speed ahead, both engines. TIL
port battery was sending out shell ATTIC
shell and the general quarters gong
we're ringing like mad.
All electricity except lights on tn
battle circuit were cut out and tn
smallest generator cut in to save strain
The old Bridget" was quivering a
over from the engines and the gun fire
We carry eight 5-inch, 40 caliber rifle
and they jar things too.
| Well, the first destroyer on the 10
and some of the chasers started t
drop cans and in a minute the Fan
ming" came up from her position an
dropped a full sack. About Tins tim
with all interest centered on the por
side q periscope showed up about 40
yards away on the starboard bow. GU
other battery got busy and by the tim
the destroyers got over there she wa
gone. She evidently figured on plot
ing our course and speed and then sab
merging for long shot.
They say one for the cans" brougt
up lot Of oil and few days later
destroyer got crippled sub, that coul
not submerge so it may be true the
got ours. 1t was a wonderful eXperienc
but l hate to think how near it cam
to being a fizZle performance from GU
point of view.
You see. we had $50 of those sam
cans in our war head locker that mean
q tons of r. n. T. which is the stu1
which reduced Halifax to ruins.
addition to this light charge we carrie
10000 rounds of mixed 8, and 5-inc
shells in our forward and after maya
zines. Each of these has q nine poun
bursting charge of T. N. T. and cor
siderable more smokeless powder.
We also had a small item of 200
gallons of gasoline in tanks on decl
The after hold was full of lubricatin
oil and one compartment full of fu
OIL
If they had hit US we would nevt
have been compelled to abandon shi
in the boats. We would still be goin
when our term of enlistment termir
ated. So you see I am a lucky guy
Personally, | am well satisfied wit
the action l saw and perfectly salts
\ fled to return to my civilian calling.
We are still very busy, shifts worl
ing night and day, but as the Freno
say &C est la Guerre" / suppose yo
knew the repair ship mentioned in II
Phoenix papers as having a "tigl
squeak was ours, didn't you?
| won't be able to tell as thrillir
tales as some might have, but there
this much about it intend to con
back to tell them myself which is
blamed sight better than letting Il
navy department do it with a ten VOL
radio
We had nice feed Thanksgiving al
also save a feed to $50 French kids.
was paid for by the crew, they certain
: ly enjoyed it and it was We'll worth Il
! money.
CON