Evening star., 1942-04-05
'Hitchhikers,' Shout
Rescuers 10 Pecos
And Langley Crews
Suilors Saved From Juvu
SEQ Tell of Bottle With
jap Planes and Subs
BY the Associated Press.

and watertender aboard an old four
stack destroyer, looked out at the
figures bobbing in choppy seas of
the south Java Coast.
What are you hitchhikers doing
out there?" he shouted
That gruff greeting was the most
welcome sound the oil-covered
Salt-caked figures ever had heard
For many. it meant another chance
at life after having had ships
bombed out from under them twice
in as many days. For all, it meant
that rescue had arrived after more
than six hours in the sWift-running
water.
Survivors of Two Sinkings.
The figures were survivors of the
Nays aircraft tender Langley sunk
by Japanese aircraft on February q
and of the naval tanker Pecos sunk
in the same manner the following
day.
One of the survivors was G. l.
Engleman of San Jose, Calf, the
Pecos' chief radioman. Back in his
homeland, he told today of the re-
ception accorded them aboard that
old four-piper."
The Langley, bombed by japanese
planes, gunned by dive bombers and
sorely stricken, still managed to
postpone its ultimate fate long
enough for the ship to be abandoned
in orderly fashion and for casualties
to be held to minimum.
The Langley survivors soon were
picked up by an eScorting destroyer
and transferred that night by small
boats to the Pecos.
Face Same Ordeal.
Next day the Pecos was subjected
to precisely the same ordeal as that
which the aircraft tender under
went. First there was the single
enemy observation plane, then the
successive waves of horizontal
bombing, then the dive bombing
and machine cunning. 1t went on
for more than four hours.
Il looked up at the bridge when
we got the order to abandon ship u
Chief Engleman said, land saw the
Captain Commander E. P. Aber-
nethy) still there, firing away with
a machinegun himself as the planes
swooped in.
Then I saw 1t. Stone mot other
wise identified by Chief Engleman)
and be had part of his ear blown
off. v
II said, You've got a little
scratch there. Mr.. Stone and he
replied, oh, damn those nippers.'
Walks Down Ships Side.
1--WE were listing so badly by then
I simply walked down the side of
the ship and into the water I had
been in the water about three min
utes when the ship went down. I
could see many of the other men
churning around in the sea- and I
thought to myself this is just like
the movies
The oil was terrible. It burned
your face and got into your eyes.
So did the sinking sun and it was
painful
Chief Engleman and six others
found part of catwalk and used
1t for a raft, clinging to it until,
as midnight approached, the rescue
vessel hove to.
The Navy's petty officers, most of
them veterans of many a tour with
the Asiatic Fleet, brought home first
hand accounts of escape from the
Langley and Pecos as these ships
sank beneath them in rain of
japanese bombs.
D. Ashcroft of Occur D'Alene,
Idaho, chief pharmacists mate
aboard the naval tanker Pecos, re-
called how "Jughead' Crider, a
gun captain from Kentucky, came
down to the dressing station shortly
after the enemy's five-hour attack
on the vessel began.
Wounded, Goes Back to Gun.
"Jughead" was wounded then,
carried pieces of shrapnel in his
back, Chief Ashcroft said. Il dressed
him and he insisted on going back
to his gun. About an hour later
he was brought down again, with
fresh wounds. We couldn't save
him"
Chief Petty Officer r. D. Gross of
Belmont, Calf, chief storekeeper
aboard the Langley, like the rest of
the tenders crew. was bombed off
that ship one day and off the
Pecos the next.
He remembers that the survivors
~ tho Snnnn6 ciT1kio0 fnIlol1t
through the waves from about
pm. until long after dark before
help arrived.
Then the moon came up, and we
could see the silhouette of the
rescue vessel" he said, and those
of us grouped together managed to
reach her side and were hauled up.
The word 'shipmate' has always
meant a lot to Navy men, but never
has there been a bunch of ship
mates like that going aboard the
rescue ship. They did everything
for U.s."
Officers Man Guns.
There was j. NJ. Black of Lam
caster, Pa, boatSWain's mate first
class and a gun captain on the
Langley. In the thick of all the
fighting he saw ships officers man
the smaller guns as the bullets and
bombs of the diving enemy aircraft
decimated the regular crews.
There was Claude j. Kinds, jr.,
Fullerton (CalifD radioman, first
class. aboard the Langley. A kid
hardly of college age in a company
of grizzled veterans, he told how
the Langley's doom had been STAYED
off long enough to permit the rescue
of all crew members not mortally
wounded
1t was a disclosure that had not
previously come from any other
source.
Capt. Or. P0 Mcconnell had
given orders to prepare to aban-
don ship" the youngster said. "He
was standing there on the bridge,
instructing his men to take cover
from the straflng Jap dive bombers
but peppering away at them himself
with machine gun, just as If he
were potting ducks on a lake"
Planes Give Breathing Spell.
Then, quite unexpectedly, friendly