European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                7 i by Evan Wye Sale or a scr yank staff correspondent skipper of the de Stroyer stood on the his head thrown peering through glasses at the Tackack fire High on the there at it he he lowered the glasses and pulled his baseball Cap Down Over his there but they keep coming Back for now its suicide planes with suicide Kami Kaze Means divine they Tell kids with a Little flight training hopped up with the idea of joining their ancestors in the most Honor Able Way he smiled and the lines of fatigue and Strain made deep furrows in his weather beaten its a weird business something that Only a Jap would dream almost every Day they claim Treyve sunk another Hundred of our actually we shoot most of them Down before they get to some get of there bound a few if they Only knew How maybe they the destroyer was the uss she had taken the worst the Kamikaze boys could seven Jap suicides had hurled their planes at determined to destroy the ship and them selves in one big moment of Beautiful eve last three had been shot four had the Newcombe still was afloat and most of her Crew still were some of them were sitting Cross legged on the deck below play ing they didst look As if they were very much awed by the attention of the japanese attack the weather that Day had been the new patrolling off Slid easily through the slight her Crew at Battle Sta the air defense had passed word that an attack by Jap suicide planes was but the afternoon wore on and there were no the restless from their Long stay at the watched the Sun drop Down toward the it would soon be time for evening bogies coming in in the turrets the men stretched out on the deck beside the guns leaped to on the 20s the gunners who had been dozing in their harnesses snapped the electric motors the gun muzzles arched sweep ing the target the destroyer shivered As the throbbing engines picked up the seas began to curl away from her in a moment the Newcombe was knifing through the water at better than 25 bogies in bearing three Zero what had been Mere specks in the sky grew suddenly they were All a whole swarm of one detached himself from the group and headed for the the cans heavy guns challenged dirty Brown bursts appeared in the one Jap bore through jigging from Side to Side As he tried to line up the ship in his he was a deliberately trying to crash the the Newcombe Shook As her 40s and 20s joined their bullets hammered into the he lost control and splashed into the sea 400 Yards another plane tried the Newcombs guns blazed the second plane disappeared in a Wall of for a moment the gunners thought they had then he burst into much a yellow Hame flickered along his left he was starting to Burn out but still he came commander Ira Mcmillian of Coro stood on the Wing of his eyes fastened on the at the last minute he shouted an in the wheel House the quartermaster spun the the speeding destroyer heeled Over in a rivets training it was too late for the Jap to change his there was a splash and a great Ball of yellow flame As he plunged into the sea at the spot where the Newcombe had been a moment the bogies buzzed warily about out of seeking an one thought he saw zoom ing he made a Quick diving levelled out and came in the belly of his fuselage a few feet above the the Newcombs 5inch Bat teries a burst threw the Jap Down against the he recovered and kept com Mcmillian barked his order for a change in the hut this time the onrushing plane swerved freakishly in the same for an instant the men of the Newcombe had a glimpse of the Pilot hunched Forward in the cock the uss Newcombe managed to bring Down the first Jap suicide and to Dodge the the third plane connected and the crippled destroyer easy prey for two More with All Power and communications knocked the tin can Stih his be goggles face an impassive then the plane shot past ripped through the gun mount and shattered itself against the there was a blinding the Newcombe shuddered and rolled heavily to on the signal Bridge Richard Hilt Burn sm3c of was Flung High into the air by the before he landed unhurt on the deck he caught a glimpse of the bits of guns and men flying in All wounded men struggled to gain their others Lay to already beyond escaping steam roared from the broken but the net Combe had been hit the rest of the Crew remained on up in the wheel House the quartermaster wrote carefully in the ships log plane hit our causing damage not known at a mile behind the Newcombe an other ship saw the Flash of the exploding altering her course she started for the scene at full she want the Only one who saw the plane hit the one of the bogies noted it he banked around and came for a closer he probably want expecting much opposition but a Surprise was waiting for the Newcombs guns still packed a the startled Jap veered As the 5inch batteries opened he want Quick the burst hit he caught his Wing dropped off and he spun into the from his Post on the Bridge Wing Jesse Fitz Gerald Smolc noticed the ships photographer lying helpless on the platform half Way up the undamaged Forward running aft he climbed the ladder to the As Fitzgerald Bent Over the the Newcombs guns started whirling around he saw not one but two planes one from the port the other from the port As they closed the guns in their wings started the bullets ricocheted from the Bridge and whined around aboard the net comb the gunfire Rose to a again Mcmillian tried to Dodge at the last minute but the ship had lost too much the planes were upon one itself in the base of fitzgeralds stack the other Dove into the Hole made by the first there was a tremendous a giant fist seemed to descend upon the Newcombe and drive her Down into the men and gun tubes alike disappeared the heavy steel hatches which had been tightly dogged Down were blown off their twisted like Sheet engulfed in flame and billowing Black the Nei Combe lost headway and slowly came to a dead Stop in the All her Power and communications knocked up Forward the dazed men picked themselves up and stumbled out to see what had happened their the Bridge and Forward portion of the Newcombe were relatively undamaged but the flame and smoke amidships hid the Stern from View shielding their faces from the searing the men tried to peer through was the Stern still they there was no Way of Stern is someone cried and Many men believed signalman Fitzgerald had ducked at the last miraculously he and the wounded photographer were untouched by the looking Fitzgerald found the base of the stack sur rounded by and wreckage one of the above him the coils of wiring in the broken rigging whipped crackling and showering the decks below in a Cascade of Blue Fitzgerald took his Man Down the ladder and found a path through the burning gasoline to the Forward part of the he applied a Tourniquet to the photographers bleeding leg and then rushed Back to the Bridge to help put out the fires in the signal Flag men on the other destroyer had seen the second and third planes hit the had seen her go dead in the water Hal hidden in the Clouds of As the distance Between the two ships narrowed they could make out figures stumbling about in the dense smoke that covered the new Combes other figures Lay along her Star Board deck waving too badly Hurt to into the smoke went the other at almost collision Speed she swept up along Side the there was a grinding crash As the two ships came the men jumped across and made the ships fire hoses were snaked across the powerful streams of water leaped from their nozzles and drove the flames Back from the prostrate Rescue parties rushed in and dragged them to the suicide boys were not another plane was roaring headed straight for the looking Joseph Piolata of saw the other de Stroyer firing right across the Newcombs the gunners did their Best but the Newcombs superstructure hid the plane from their on both ships the men watched helplessly this was the the Newcombe could never survive an other but the burning can still had Flynt m her incredulously the men of the crouched on her struggling in the Watt iving wounded on the deck heard their ships for Ward batteries there was no Power but the gunners were firing the gunnery officer stood at his station shouting the Range data to the men in the Forward 5inch in the 2 Turret Arthur Mcguire of rammed shells with bleeding his hand had been caught by a hot Shell while firing at the third Jane but he was still on the the Jap had the new Combes Bridge in his it looked As if he  the burst from Mcguire gun caught him and blew him the hurtling plane missed the Bridge by a scant eight skidded across the Newcombs ruptured deck and slowed into the other with a gaping Hole in the after deck and the port Side a tangled web of broken lines and wildly sprouting fire she drifted slowly without water to fight the fire still raging amidships the net Combe was but the destroyers Crew contained some notoriously obstinate Donald Keeler of Dan was one of Keeler had been at his station in the after steering he was knocked Down by the explosions but got up and put the ship in manual when it became evident that All the Power was gone he joined the crowd on the Stern just in time to hear that the after ammo handling rooms were Burn ing and the magazines were expected to go any Keeler elected to fight the his Only Hope Lay in the Handy a portable pump powered by a gasoline the engine was started like an outboard winding a rope around the Flywheel and giving it a Quick like All outboard motor engines sometimes v it and then again sometimes it groping around in the blistering Keeler found the Handy carefully he wound the rope around the held his breath and the engine kicked Over and kept now Keeler had he and Donald newcomer of took the Hose in the 4 handling room and went to work on the Malcom Giles of san and David of joined the four men got the fire under then they dragged the pump the 3 handling room was a roaring steel dripped like solder from in the Galley next door the heat had already trans formed the Copper kettles into pools of molten Rneta flames shot from the ammo hoists like the blast of a huge it looked Hope less but newcomer shoved the Hose in the door no sooner had he done so than a wave came override and doused the the chattering Handy Billy spluttered and Keeler rushed Back to the again he wound the rope around the gritted his Teeth and i think i even prayed that second he but the Damn thing popped right some thing it  do again in a million the men went Back into the handling they kept the Hose in taking the magazines didst blow up Forward the sailors were trying to fight the fire with hand a withering blast of heat drove them their life jackets smok ing their clothing was the Newcombs Doc John Mcneil of and Edward Redding found one of the Crew battling the flames with hair half Blind from the blood dripping from the shrapnel wounds in his face and with difficulty they dragged him off to the emergency dressing station in the Ward Many of the pharmacists mates were out of men with Only fir staid training helped blood plasma for the Burn Earl say re of was trapped on the Stern unable to get his casualties he was working on a fracture when someone tugged on his Blue eyes has been hit looks like Hes bleeding to Blue eyes was the youngest member of the he had come aboard claiming 18 years but the men had taken one look at him and decided he must have lied to get they teased him by calling him Blue eyes and it became his now he Lay on the blood spurting from a vein in his Sayre had no he Knelt Down beside Blue eyes and stopped the flow of blood with his he stayed there while a second plane came in and hit the other de Stroyer 20 feet he stayed there for almost an hour longer until they could come and take Blue eyes away and operate on him and save his but Sayre had saved it the res of the japs had been driven it was beginning to get dark when a Ray of Hope came to the exhausted men of the Kelers Volunteer fire department seemed to be holding the perhaps now they could save their but the wave that had stopped the Handy Billy was followed by another and the net Combe was the weight of the water that the hoses had poured into her after compartments was dragging her the rising water moved steadily it reached the after Bulkhead of the Forward engine if it broke the Newcombe was done for and the Bulkhead already was Back on the Stern Charles Gedge of and torpedo men Richard Mehan of Richard Spencer of and Joseph Zablotny of had neutralized the depth charges and dumped them after them went the smashed anything that would lighten the in the Forward engine room the damage control party shored up the bulging water oozed from it but it with less than one foot of free Board Between sea and her the Newcombe stopped now the blinkers flashed in the other destroyers were coming Over their rails came men with fire hoses and pump doctors and pharmacists mates with plasma and band tugs were on the the fight was Over the Newcombs men had answered the ques Tion just How much punishment can a destroyer take the answer was just As much As any gang of japs can dish provided her Crew never stops trying to save i t 0 2