Detroit evening times., 1943-09-10
BACK FRDNH HE'LL 90. Wv Huz1.iS Jenkins. .Bz.
Hurt on First b. S.
WofshiP Sunk, He's les
Good as as New Today
IN the fourth day sea-going tug
y take over the crippled ship.

ON the fourth day seagong tug out OF Iceland to
~ take the crippled ship
1t was the 29th of January The North Atlantic metal
heavy and bitter cold high took many hours
towne from the 327oot Coast Guard cutter to
the tug while plungng deroyers crcled ceaselessy
The kid from Wisconsin Howard Wolf off the cut
ter control watch noon below second chow
and finally settled back small folding chair against the
outer bulkhead of the starboard passageway
1t was snug in there playing harmonica, an
other lingering tonee (omething like sweet potato
and the rest of the men, including Wolf slowing away
laundry or just shooting the breeze Stocky blond clean
featured Howard Wolf felt safe church at Two
Rivers Wis.
Then it hit.
chief machnsts mate was coming through the passage
way making the number of there TO- when the torpedo
strikes aft and slightly below and two explosions
follow almost together the torpedo and the boilers and blast
Of super heated invisible and between 400 and 600 de
grees Fahrenheit hits Wolf full in the face the lights out
all the ship.
He hears man and another yell Let's get out
Of here" They grope the backnes with the terrified
vction of blindness.
The kid thinks of his mother Il her opening the
Government telegram telling killed line Of duty
and all that because at this moment the ship gong
down and see her or my father and brother or Lake
Michigan again -"
and staggers through the rising water dead quiet
compartment you could hear pin drop in the water
Automatically he sfoshes forward toward what he thinks
is the crews deck He grabs stanchon by the starboad
ladder going up into the galley passageway He slowly raises
his head streak of light down where the
slipped aside. He knows he isp { blind.
Somehow he reaches topside and plods along the deck
toward the sick bay He feels pain Just terrible shaking
all like high fever He looks at his hands They
AL cooked creased and wrinkled and ray-whte
The door going into the sick bay dogged down How he
does Wolf doesn't know, but with his burned hands he
knocks off the two top dogs and kicks the bottom off
with his feet,
He the sick bay and walks TO mirror the after
bulkhead He his face 1t is graywhte and shrunk like
mummy's-hke plucked chicken just dipped in boiling
water" he thinks oh my God what sight How they
fix face like this ....
Pharmacist Mate peas off the kids clothes and Wolf
the skin dangling from his hands and There
still pain just the violent shaking after the Phi puts
him in a bunk and covers him with blankets
They drag other scalded and wounded up lay them
IN the hunks the sick bay decks The ships doctor goes
from another giving injections The burned shyer
conyulsiyely, begging for more blankets
shipmate in the adjoining bunk says, Hey Wolf How
do ook? By Wos eyes beginning to swell shut
bit he enough OF the 70 Just like To-
(The dies three days lateT)
The sound Of guntre reaches into the sick bay and the kid
thinks another attack coming He hears the outside
lowering the port heboats 10 take off the wounded
They carry him out, mattress, blankets and all The life
boat lowered TO the gunwae and the wounded put aboard
As the boat swings off the high Wolf has agonzng
moment when he felt they Will drop him in the cold water
TIE boat pulls away from the ship The fellow next TO
Wolf talks TO him ncessany Together they try to raise them
selves their elbows for last look the ship forcing their
closing eyes open They curse the Huns that figured
torpedoed our ship (That man. too dies day two ater