Evening star., 1941-12-15
Knox Text
fContinued From First Paee)

crafts torpedoes. the tender then
shot down second plane, which fell
on land nearby.
Men fought with the cool con-
fidence that comes from complete
indoctrination for battle. In one
case, a single bluejacket manned a
5-inch anti-aircraft gun after his
10 battery mates had been shot
down by a strafing attack. He
! would seize a shell from the fuze-
pot, place it in the tray, dash to the
other side of the gun, and ram it
| home. He would then take his
position on the pointers seat and
fire. After the third such round, a
terrific explosion blew him over the
side of the battleship. He was
| rescued.
Naval Air Station Action.
"At the several naval air stations
attacked, crews dashed into the
| flames enveloping planes set ablaze
by incendiaries, stripped of free ma
chine guns, and with them returned
| the enemy's fire. In at least one
instance an enemy craft was shot
down.
Two cruiser scouting seaplanes,
their speed and maneuverability re-
! duced by heavy pontoons. destroyed
an attacking japanese pursuit ship
of thrice their speed
simultaneously throughout the
Navy Yard examples of personal
heroism developed. Several work
men of Japanese ancestry deserted
| their benches to help the marine
defense battalion man machine-gun
nests. Two of them with hands
blistered from hot gun barrels, re-
quired emergency treatment.
Cool as ice, the men who manned
the Navy Yard signal tower from
which flashed orders to the an
chored fleet, carried out their as
signment under a hail of machine
gun fire and bombs from the enemy,
as well as shrapnel from their own
forces anti aircraft batteries. None
left his dangerous post. First to
observe the invaders through their
long glasses from their high van
tage. point, they sent out the
astounding AFRAID warning by
visual signals. Then they settled
into the complex business OF trans
hitting the scores of orders to the
ships that fought back at the at
; tackers from their berths, or pie
pared to stand out to sea.
Swan to Get on Ships.
Men from ships out of action
managed at any cost to return to the
battle. There were the survivors OF
the capsized ship who swan through
blazing oil to Chamber aboard other
ships and Join gun crews. Crews
from another disabled vessel swan
| into mid channel. where they were
hoisted aboard outward-bound de-
stroyers. Proof that getting back
into battle took precedence over
their own lives was the fact that
| the comparative safety of the shore
lay only a few yards away. Lying
in a hospital bed when the first
air-raid alarm sounded, one officer
leaped up, brushed aside nurses and
ran across the Navy Yard to his
ship. He fought with such gall
lantry and zeal, despite his illness,
that his captain recommended him
for promotion.
There was the case of the de-
stroyer tender which lay alongside
a dock undergoing major overhaul,
powerless and without armament.
Unable to assume an active defense
role. she concerned herself with the
| vital task of rescue with her avail
able ships boats. One Naval Re-
serve ensign volunteered as skipper
of a motor launch. With four men
he proceeded across Pearl Harbor's S
reverberating channel through a
hail of enemy machine-gun fire and
shrapnel. They saved almost 100
men from one battleship-men who
had been injured or blown over
board into the oil-fired waters. The
attack on this vessel was at its
height as these rescue operations
proceeded Suddenly the launchs
propeller jammed. Coolly the en-
sign directed the work of disengag-
ing the screw as flames licked
around It's wooden hull, meantime
also supervising the picking up OF