Evening star., 1944-06-19
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
Star War Correspondent.

"
WITH THE WESTERN TASK
FORCE.--An LIST is an ungainly-
looking elephant of the sea, fiat
bottomed and capable of conveying
many men and a lot Of equipment
to a combat area. She can, If condi-
tions are right, run her blunt nose
up on an enemy beach and disgorge
fighting men and motorized equip
men right In the teeth of an en-
trenched enemy, II that enemy has
no heavy stuff to pour at her.
She carries plenty Of armament,
but is slow, cumbersome and prac-
tically tin ship as far as submarine
action Is concerned. She is thin
skinned, with no water-line armor
but LISTS have been hit by tin fish
and survived. Her main protection
is the veil of destroyers which sur
round the LISTS like sea skein, her
automatic weapons against air at
tack and her Intrepid crew.
Take LIST 371, for instance. She
was in the invasion Of Europe and
before that she had seen plenty o1
atts6d 4 Hhk tp1nt In at Celia, insthe
Sicily invasion. Only one of1icer, Me
skipper, 1t. A. w. Melohusky, and
three enlisted men had been under
fire before. 1t. Melohusky. an en-
listed man at the outbreak OF war
had seen action in the South Pacific
The others had been under fire At
Casablanca and one was at Pear
Harbor. The other seven officers had
not seen enemy fire and enemy ac-
ton was new stuff to the 100 other
crew members.
IL Hours on the Beach.
The 37l got in on the beach al
Celia at 2 pm. and ran into trouble
She was $50 feet from the beach
proper, running motorized stuff to
the beach across string OF pom
toons when road grader fouled on
the pontoons. She didn't get OF
until am.
Salerno came next for 371. On
that perfect beach for LIST opera
ton she nosed right up on the sand
Like the other ships echeloned along
the beach, she was under enemy 49,
millimeter fire, but they missed 371
although others of the same type
were damaged and one was beached
after hitting a mine. Three weeks
after the initial landing at Salernc
371 still was under shell fire from
German 88s on the hills trimming
the beach. Coming up from Africa
in a convoy, she was attacked by a
sub pack and got away safely by the
vigilance of the conveying destroyers
Her closest call was in Lake BIZ
zerte, where Nazi torpedo bombers
set their fish on circular course
and missed hitting every ship in the
harbor. although they claimed 2f
that night. Jerry also came at the
stack Of ships in Bizerte with high
level stuff, and missed again. But
the fireworks display that night was
terrific. One of SITS officers guesses
million dollars in lethal fireworks
were poured at the attacking planes
that night from the ships in the
harbor and the massed AA stuff
around the lake. The 371 missed a
stick OF bombs there by few feet
Water from the explosions drenched
the men on her thin steel decks.
Runs without Escort.
Then there was, for instance, the
night she ran without escort from
Sousse around Cape Bon for Tunis.
The entire sky around the cape was
lit up by the German flares, but
they didn't spot 37l. Another time
she was cold meat out in the middle
of the Mediterranean, her engines
out, a sitting duck for enemy air
attack. She was toWed for two hours
by a traWler, and made it the rest of
the way to Sousse under her own
power. She is typical of the LIST
fleet. Uncle Sam has a lot of them.
You've seen pictures of them nosed
up on some coral beach, their 40s
leaning down over the bow and men
pouring out the steel nose doors.
The 371 was commissioned at the
Bethlehem yards at Fore River,
Mass, in January. 1943
Her crew had been assembled at
Solomons, Md, and Joined her at
Fore River. She fitted out at Bos-
ton and New York. and went to
Norfolk for amphibious training,
operating at Solomons and Little
Creek in maneuvers in Chesapeake
Bay Back to New York she fitted
into convoy for the Mediterranean
area, BY this time her crew, Ohe
officers largely were graduates of
naval reserve midshipmen's schools
and indoctrinatio schools) had
shaken down with their ship. knew
her habits, what she would and
wouldn't do ana what her job was
to be in this war. -.
For them they knew there would
be no dashing destroyer duty. An
LIST Is no graceful gazelle Of the sea.
Nor Is she . ponderous battle wagon.