Evening star., 1942-02-13


and started back to the main at
tack.
7:28-Two shells went over us.
They seemed to be considerably of
In detection. No one seemed to no
tice. We continued our sweep UP
and down the battered island.
7:40-Two more ships came into
the opening between the islands.
One seemed to be hunting for shell
ter as waterspouts broke out be-
tween them. The other was head
ing straight for the beach as If
nothing could stop it. Nothing did.
1t went aground. lifted its prov
from the water and with dense
smoke pouring from its funnel list
ed far over to starboard.
7:45-The front of the island was
getting hazy under shreads OF black
smoke.
8:15-Two 6-inch batteries or
maybe three over there in the smoke
were tossing out shell with no
thought of economy. The sea be-
tween us and the island was tufted
with them. And now and then in
the fashion Of another well-remem-
bered war. one Of them would throw
a chunk of time-shen at us for ad-
justment. Our 5-inch batteries
which had been working on the
ship now beached, shifted to shore
obJectives-all the starboard bat
teries were working and the din
was close to the limit of human en-
durance. The puffs of the first s.
inch salvo and the flashes of a
battery in the middle of the island
seemed almost simultaneous. The
second salvo fell in the same place
and another cloud Of black smoke
went up to join the gathering murk.
All Guns Firing.
STA new ship moved hazily
into sight on the lagoon. Our guns
straddled it on the third salvo with
a tremendous uprush Of white water.
The ship which had been firing
steadily from the guns fore and
aft struck her prov down under
the swell, shivered, leaned to port
and went out of sight. Whoever
was aboard went with her.
8:25-After a brief lull and a
change Of position we were firing
everything we had except POM
poms. The results were almost i'm
mediate. There was a burst of red
fame, and tremendous black
cloud rolled skyward-oil would be
my guess, and a big tank of it.
From some source or other came
word that our planes had destroyed
landing field and that shells from
our warships had levelled a large
industrial installation camouflaged
by palm trees. With it came the
news, relayed to ack-ack stations,
that II Jap torpedo planes and Z
bombers had taken of from some
point that apparently was not in
cluded in our visiting list. Fire now
turned mostly black, with red spears
darting through, seemed to cover
an area Of hundreds Of yards.
Another ship, disturbed by the
cannonade elsewhere came across
the open space in the lagoon streak
ing for the beach as the water
thrown by our heavy shells burst
over it. Perhaps 20 splashes ap-
peared just about then between us
and the large-caliber snipers on
shore. But still nobody seemed to
mind.
s:30-We shifted our fire to the
north end of the island and most
of it went over the crest toward
targets that only our air observers
could see. 1t was not SO spectacular
now that we could trace it only
by little whirls of debris over the
palm tops, but we had heard that
three or four auxiliaries besides
the ones we had smoked out were
anchored there.
Meantime shells from shore bat
teries were falling nearer. One
batch lit about 200 yards off port.
Shells Bracket Ship.
8:35-Four shells tossed white
water to starboard. There wasn't
any doubling what that meant. w,
were bracketed.
Our turrets were working fastel
now, but apparently not on the bat.
terry which was working on us. tn,
continuous detonation caved II
your stomach. The five-inch gun.
had q continuous bark that jarrec
something inside your head. Cottor
in your ears was small comfort now
8:4l-Another string of geyser.
flashed ahead of us-just the sam,
sort of geysers we tossed up arount
the Jap ship in the lagoon before
she fell apart. The land battery
was slow, but working well. Tht
range was now about right-deflec.
tion not far off. Four white plume.
rose from the island. Somebody hac
apparently just smashed a large
wooden building.
8:45-Three shells Just smashed
in front of us; one almost scrapeC
our stern. From our platform yor
can see the widening circle of green
spreading over the deep blue water
like ooze on a swamp. Our fantail
had a segment cut off it on one
side-which shows how close it came
About then the bridge decided tc
stop this nonsense. We could hear
telephone men relaying the order
already transmitted by other routes
to the engine room-"30 knots" We
swung about almost on pivot. Our
coop on the foremaSt rolled over
until We were looking almost
straight down into the blue water
and We came up with a jerk al
right angles to our original course
Four shells fell in a patter astern
and to port. 1t was excellent shoot
ing as we now could admit for we
had come out of the bracket.
8:50-Our guns lifted a few salvos
from the stern. Shells began to
pile up on the island where the bat
terry was flashing at us. We were
doing q sort of adagio dance-the
sort Of movement one might expect
Of an elephant doing a bayonet
drill. Our wake, broad path OF
light blue with fringes of white over
the calm surface of cobalt, was like