The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-11-11
ellis Story of
Heroic Helene"
Continued from Page y


rescued Immediately greached shore
safely
Then began the new fight for
many of her survivors. For 10 days
afterwards, first in enemy-patroi-
led waters and later on enemy-held
Vella LaVella Island, they strug-
gled to avoid capture and TO sur
vive.
On the following morning. when
rescue ships had departed with most
of their surviving shipmates, l66 of
the Helena's company found them
selves swimming alone or III small
groups on a lonely, hostile sea. They
were rescued by one of the out
standing feats in the United States
Navy annals.
Among these survivors were Lieu
tenant Commander John L. Chew.
u S. N. IS Southgate Ave, Annap-
oils. Md; Lieutent Commander
Warren c. Boles, u. S. N. r., Mar
blehead. Mass. and Major Bernard
T. Kelly, u S. M. c., 59l5 South
Campbell Ave. Chicago, H.. a com
mander of the Helena's Marine De-
tachment
Lieutenant Commander Chew coll
lected group and kept it together
for the mutual safety of its mem
bers. Frequently men who had been
injured drifted away and had to be
brought back by stronger shipmates.
Later an American 9-24 flew over
the scattered dots Of survivors and
dropped three rubber boats. Lieu
tenant Commander Chew's group
managed to salvage two of the
boats Two wounded men were
placed in them and about SO other
survivors slowly gathered about
their rims. Planes, enemy as well as
friendly ones, frequently passed
over the men, but they were not
strafed. Toward evening an attempt
was made to reach Kolombangara
but SO heavily encountered were the
little boats that no progress could
be made against the adverse cur
rents.
Next day, Lieutenant Command
er CheW's party was joined by Ma
jor Kelly and five Marines who
had been in the water without RATS
or boats for 80 hours. It was de-
cided to attempt to reach Vella La
Vella, which, while farther away
than kolombangara, was in the di-
rection of the wind and current,
The natives there were known to be
friendly and there were presum-
ably fewer Japanese than on Kol-
ombangara.
With the help of an improvised
sail and constant padding, head
way was made at about one and a
half knots. The men were beginning
to tire, and occasionally man
would fall away from one of the
boats and was not seen again. Hap
PLY, case of potatoes floated by.
and the men found that chewing on
them helped greatly to lessen their
thirst The water was warm and
there were no sharks.
| That night few more men dis
appeared. Some just seemed to fall
asleep, and then slid under the wa
ter. The survivors could rarely re-
call their identity, because every
one was covered with oil and looked
alike, and the whole company by
that time was suffering from Sc
we're physical exhaustion and oc-
casional mental relapse. One of the
boats made land that night. The one
bearing Lieutenant Commander
Chew and Major Kelly drifted on.
The following day Lieutenant
Commander Chew and Lieutenant
Commander Boles set out to swim
for the shore of Vella LaVella not
far away Lieutenant Commander
Chew was picked up by native in
boat about a mile from the beach.
Lieutenant Commander Boles and
/ the other men, either in or cling
ing to the boat, arrived soon after
wards. Friendly natives guided them