The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-22

18th naval district, issued after the Vancouver shelling.
 The highway between Astoria and Seaside Is three miles inland, screened from the sea by a heavy growth of scrubby timber.
 Robert Lucas, member of the stan of the Astoria Budget, saw the smelling from his home. It began about il:3O D. m. CT:30 @. m. Mon- day EWT) and lasted about IS min utes.
 "The residents of the towns quite naturally were frightened" he said, because there are no military ob- jectives, they believed a Japanese submarine was attempting scare rad on the coast"
 Residents of Hammond, Warren ton, and Gearnart, other nearby towns, were awakened by the firing. They heard the whistle of the shells, followed by explosions on the beach.
 It was the third attack on the North American Pacific coast since the war started. A Japanese sub- marine fired 25 shells at Elwood oil fields, north of Santa Barbara, Cal, last Feb. g, while President Roosevelt was making a fireside chat.
 Flowed into Sands
 Eyewitnesses here agreed that the shells plowed into the desolate and empty sands south of the Colum- hia river mouth, in what they be- Neved was 8 Japanese scare raid" |" The boom of the gun, the whine of the shells, and the thud of the crash of the landing missiles were heard in Astoria, Hammond and Warrenton towns strung in an east-west line along the south shore of the Columbia.
 Among the few witnesses of the shelling were c. l.. Dodgers, Q pack ing company executive of Ham, mond, and Robert Lucas, a Inem- Der of the staff of the Historian Budget.
 Many persons apparently slept through the raid. Civilian defense wardeng, on the alert, ordered a blackout in the three communities. There was no panic.
 T was reading when heard the first shot," Rodgers told United Press. T hurried outside and a moment later there was an orange colored flash which lit up the whole western sky and then whining sound. followed by thud. This was repeated at brief intervals. got the impression the first four shots were aimed farther south, toward Seaside or Gearhart.
 After that, the shells began land- ing closer to Hammond-farther north. Some of them apparently exploded when they struck, while others were duds. I'd see the flash, then hear the boom of the gun and then there'd be another explosion"
 IS to 16 Minutes
 Rodgers and Lucas estimated the duration of the raid at about "fif- teen or sixteen minutes" starting at 11:30 P. M. Lucas witnessed the attack from a window of his Astoria home.
 "There was no way to tell the exact direction of the shells" Lucas said. From here, we could see the flashes, hear the faint whistling of the shells, and then either a dull or Q sharp blast as they struck. Nat urally, we were all little frightened although there were no indications of panic" .r
 The two weekend attacks were near the vital sea lanes between Pacific ports and Alaska. Two weeks ago 6 submarine torpedoed and sank a merchant ship off the northwest coast of the State of Washington.
 It Is known that Japan has 6 number of large submarines capable oG crossing the Pacific. The under sea craft that shelled Elwood oil Field-doing damage of $500-was definitely Japanese.
 Tokyo Radio recently carried what purported to be sn interview with an officer of that craft who told of the destruction" visited on the oil field.
 Japanese submarines also were active against shipping in California water last December when 10 Ves- sells, most of them tankers, were attacked. Only one was sunk.
 A submarine - presumably the same that shelled Elwood-fired at a tanker off San Francisco March 3, but there were no further raids in Pacific coast waters until June I when the American merchant ves- sel was torpedoed off the northern coast of Washington.
 One of the crew died of injuries and two others were hurt seriously by the torpedo explosion.