Evening star., 1945-07-02
Destroyer Ingraham
Downs Six Jap Planes,
But Is Hit by Seventh
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, July "A
great rent gapes in her hull. Is
of her enlisted men are dead and
80 wounded, but the destroyer
Ingraham will split the seas
again with her trim nose for
another crack at the Japanese.
The 2,200-ton "tin can," now
in drydock for repairs at Hunters
Point, San Francisco, survived a
direct hit by Japanese Kamikaze
plane early in May north Of Oki-
nawa and came home under her
own power, the 18th Naval District
announced today.
Before receiving this nearly NOR
tai wound the Ingraham had taken
heavy toll. She was instrumental
in sinking three enemy vessels, and
destroyed six of the seven suicide
planes which chose her as their
target in the flaming fury of
dawn attack by 10 to 80 Japanese
aircraft of all types.
Nicknamed Mighty l."
Nicknamed the Mighty I" by her
crew, the Ingraham was operating
on the edge of the East China Sea
with another battle-famed de-
stroyer, the Morrison, when she was
hit.
Enemy scout planes sighted the
two craft during the night. AS day
light came the big kamikaZe squad
ran moved in for the kill, diving
from all directions at the destroy
ers and their smaller support craft.
1t. John D. Brink, u. S. N. r., of
San Diego, Calf, Ingraham gum
merry officer, said the japanese
threw all available planes from
modern fighters to old twin-engined
float craft into the battle.
The Morrison was struck and
badly damaged. The Mighty I
steamed to her aid firing "at every
thing in sight" Then seven Jap
suicide pilots peeled off toward the
Ingraham. The ships gunners
knocked down six of them in two
] furious action-packed minutes.
Seventh Hits Ship.
The seventh bored through the
barrage OF steel from all available
ack-ack guns and crashed into the
vessels side at the water line, ram
ming into the crews mes hall with
it's bombs exploding in the gener-
ator room. So terrific was the blow
that an almost perfect imprint of
the plane was left in the Ingraham's
side.
Flames swept through the stricken
ship, and she settled in the water
until her decks were within five
feet of being awaSh. Overhead other
Japanese flyers poised to deal the
death blow, but American compact
air patrolmen sent them plunging
into the sea by the score and none
reached the Ingraham.
Forty minutes later rescue tugs
took the crippled destroyer in tow
dIlu pu1lC0 liGl W odACbJ'
The Ingraham, one of the Bar
ton" class of big destroyers, partici-
pated in the Leyte Island philip
pineS) invasion and other South
west Pacific engagements before
reaching the high mark of her IA
month career while escorting
American carriers in strikes at the
Tokyo Yokohama area.
/ n Fought at Two Jima.
In late February she was of Two
Jima pounding enemy shore install
lations with her 5-inch guns. A
short time later she joined the de-
stroyer pack in protecting carriers
softening up Okinawa for invasion.
She went unscathed through the
Okinawa landing and support
operations in April, receiving her
hit the following month while at a
"hot spot" picket station between
the Ryukyus and Kyushu, Japan's
southernmost home island.
During all action since Leyte, on
a battle-a-month schedule that in
cluded Mindoro and the Lingayan
Gulf invasion of Luzon in the Philip
pines, the Ingraham was command
ed by Comdr. j. F. Harper, Center
vile, Md. Before that her skipper
was Capt. Howard w. Gordon, now
public information officer at the
18th Naval District headquarters,
San Francisco.
She was built at the Kearny
IN. " shipyards of the Federal
Shipbuilding Co. and commissioned
March 10, 1914.