Evening star., 1943-12-26

.!!...l.N q tinueS, But I'm
- not complaining,
because it's all
for a good cause,
Charles Cherry. and we know
that the people in the States are
backing us 100 per cent and are
sending US the fighting equipment
we need.
I'VE manage to keep in good
spirits and We laugh and make
jokes about all this he'll going on
around us. During the bombing at
tacks we sit in our holes and laugh
all the harder. That's the way it is.
I'VE are winning this war, but we
are paying an awful price in human
lives. When we hear about all those
strikes and walkouts in the war
plants, We just feel like laying down
our guns and walking out, too. But
of course we can't do that. If the
people in those plants could see
some OF our wounded boys coming
in from the front lines on stretchers,
or walk through one of these
graveyards over here, they would
sing a different tune than Give Me
More Money"
Big Guns Boom Steadily.
Seaman Cherry describes 'front.'
line living as lawfully hard on
persons nerves" He writes that the
big guns are booming day and night.
Once in while at night we
manage to get a little Sleep" he
writes. Last night wasn't so good,
though; we didn't get much sleep.
One of those little devils flew
little too close, and we filled him
full OF lead. 1t sure is a pretty sight
to see those Zeros come down in
flames.
The other night while was
sleeping in my foxhole, 1 felt some
thing crawling across my legs, but
1 didn't pay any attention to it be-
cause thought it was just another
bug. When 1 woke up there was a
big toad frog sitting on my chest.
Well that frog and I went around
and around in the foxhole until I
got him out.
Showers and Well.
"We have rigged up shower here
and Dug we'll We try to keep as
clean as possible, because it keeps
disease down. hope the Japs don't
blow it up before We get chance
to use it.
"A few days ago some of us were
caught under enemy shelling. A
shell hit about feet from us and
shrapnel went through my hat and
never touched my head. I think the
Lord must have been with me thai
Gay because the shrapnel was sing
ng all around us and it was q
miracle that wasn't hit.
"One of the boys who was with us
got hit bad and died shortly after
ward. That's the way it is over here.
One day you're alive and the next
day you're liable to be dead. Every
day the graveyard grows bigger and
bigger and hate to read those signs
on the crosses, Killed in action"
Seaman Cherry joined the Navy
in July, 1941. at the age of IT, After
serving at Pearl Harbor he suffered
a leg injury during the attack on
the Gilberts In February, 1912. He
returned to the war zone in June of
this year.
Describes Pearl Harbor Raid.
Several days after the attack on
Pearl Harbor Seaman Cherry wrote
the following:
a.. early Sunday morning 1 was
ready to go ashore.
Suddenly from the North came
large. V-shaped formations of
bombers. We thought at first it was
some kind of practice until a bomb
hit the stern of the ship and they
received a message over the radio
that We were being attacked Then
we opened fire with every kind of
a gun that would point up.
Its a funny thing, but I wasn't
scared bit-we were too busy to
be scared. was lying under for
ward gun turret with Springfield
trying to shoot holes in the Rising
Sun insignia on the planes. We
were fighting back with everything
from pompoms to antiaircraft guns.
This was kept up for at least
three hours, and then we got orders
to up anchor and head for San
Francisco. On the second day out
we were attacked by dive bombers
and torpedo planes. We fought for
hours, until it seemed it was no use.
Torpedo Barely Missed Ship.
II was hiding in a gun turret and
the machine gun bullets were bounc-
ing off the plates like rain on a
roof. Then torpedo plane came
in about 10 feet off the water to
try to torpedo us. All starboard guns
were trained on it and it launched
its torpedo and burst into flames
about 200 yards from the ship. The
torpedo missed us by inches.
While all this was going on. we
were singing II only want buddy
not sweetheart" Nom, those Japs
won't stop at anything. A lot of
the time we thought they were 60
ing to sink us, but somehow we came
through.
That just goes to show what
great spirit the boys in the Navy
have. Under all that bombardment
and waiting hours for another at
tack, all we did was sing. The dam
age aboard ship was not very great.
We were hit three times-I cannot
tell you where-and only a few were
killed. All I have is cut finger
from flying splinters. You couldn't
go out on deck because they were