European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse The Navy now reveals How its underwater demolition teams swam ashore on enemy held beaches to prepare for by Harry Tomlinson yank staff correspondent hawaiian the Jap com Mander at iwo Jima sent men Down to patrol the beaches on they might have run across a Stocky american Sailor wearing Only swimming trunks and trying to Light a the Sailor was Dave Mack em2c of who had boasted that he would smoke a cigarette on iwo before invasion to keep the record it must be reported that Dave didst get the cigarette lit his matches had become Damp Dur ing his swim to the Beach and and iwo Beach that Day was a Little too hot to wait for matches to dry Dave was one of some 80 Navy swimmers Udo boat travelling at full Speed demonstrates by picking up i i i ill who went in under heavy fire to make a thorough reconnaissance of the iwo beaches before at iwo they were following the pattern set by underwater demolition teams at every Pacific invasion from Kwajalein theirs was a three fold Job to make blow out obstacles and mines on the beaches and blast Chan Nels through the Coral for Landing be fore Day to guide Landing Craft safely to the beaches and to clean up the beaches and prepare harbours for larger ships after the work of the underwater demolition teams was hidden by the Best veil of secrecy the Navy was Able to but marines and soldiers who hit the beaches on knew that some one had been there before the japs also knew that whatever kind of obstacles or mines they put along the beaches would disappear be fore the invasion Craft started in on with the Jap the Story of the men who made a habit out of working Long hours on Well protected enemy beaches can be there was no such thing As a typical operation for an underwater demolition on each is land their Job was but no matter How heavy the Jap fire or How rough the surf or How Many Jap obstacles had to be blown out of the they never failed to have the beaches at iwo they swam in almost a mile to discover that the beaches sloped so sharply that the japs had been unable to erect barricades against Landing they did locate Many Jap gun emplacements that had not been revealed by Aerial within min utes after they returned to their ships the Loca Tion of the guns was radioed to the which began pounding the Jap positions from Long despite heavy machine gun and mortar Only one of the Udo men was lost in the iwo reconnaissance there were some close Leslie Goode sic of Day got to within 50 Yards of the Beach before he saw Jap snipers taking pot shots at by swimming Long distances under water Goode stayed out of the paths of the Jap bul once when he came up for air he saw a Jap Rifleman disgustedly throw his piece on the ground and shake his fist at the when the swimmers got Back to their ships they were blackened with the smoke of shells that landed the one casualty was a swim Mer who just never came eight men were wounded when mortar shells made direct hits on two of the boats which were waiting to pick up the the heaviest casualties Carne on the night before when the Job was completed and the men of team 15 were Back on their assault personnel destroyer and and heading out to meet the Marine transports to guide them into the a Jap Betty picked up the phosphorescent Wake of the ship and sent a 500pound magnetic bomb straight Down into the mess Hall crowded with men playing smoking and talking in the excited Way that men always talk when they have just come safely through a harrowing sex Twenty eight men of udt15 died there in the bless ans mess along with 12 men from the ships it was always a Relief to get into the claimed one Udo you always Felt a Man in the water makes a poor a lot of us brought Back Jap bullets fired at us while we were As the bullets went dead in the water and started to we would dive after them so wed have something for it want souvenirs the boys were thinking about when they volunteered for the underwater demolition whether they believed it or they were told that it was a suicide that it was for overseas Back in May 1943 the Navy was faced with the urgent problem of training men for underwater demolition work in preparation for the series of invasions that had been planned for the the first Call for volunteers went men with Small boat and swimming experience were asked and the Seabee All the Early those which saw the greatest amount of action in the made up of Seabee recruited at Camp Perry and trained at and Here at the navys com Bat demolition base on Maui in the hawaiian later teams were composed of Volun Teers from the but according to a training to the Seabee must go most of the credit for the successful operations of the first teams and for the excellent training Given to the later most of the old timers in the who have been in on As Many As seven different pre Day that they Are glad they according to Pete Smalle the Only Gripe they have is that they were promised they would never have to pull guard duty and have been pulling it 24 hours a Day Ever but just because i say we liked the protested a chief who was one of the original dont think we we rent every time i went in to a Jap held Beach i was scared at at Kwajalein and eniwetok and Roi reconnaissance was fairly the swimmers made Only rough estimates of water while the information was the Navy needed More precise an intensive training program was and the demolition ers became As competent in reconnaissance As in among the Seabee volunteers were found men who had drafting or map making they were taught How to record the data which swimmers brought a system was devised whereby their charts would be in the hands of the officers and men of the Landing forces Long before swim mers spent hours practising How to estimate the depth of water by sight hanging straight Down in the water and estimating the distance Between their feet and the to make sure they forget the water Depths by the time they had completed the Long swims Back to their roughened plexiglass plates were the plates were strapped to their and the depth of the water was recorded on them with a Lead the operating in would swim in on straight parallel recording Depths either by estimate or with sounding leads every few when their information was compiled Back on their a Complete Chart for the Landing forces was at Leyte some beaches which had been selected for landings were abandoned because the swimmers found the Landing Craft get at according to a Udo beaches which had been considered unusable were found to be adequate after a Only at Guam and Borneo did the underwater demolition teams find obstacles and mines in Quantity and depth comparable with those the marines ran into at after the Udo boys got through at Guam the japs probably became they knew that any obstacles they built would be gone by but at Guam the obstacles lined the whole Yards of invasion they were mostly cribs made of Coconut each was about six feet five feet wide and three to four feet the cribs were filled with Loose and each crib was joined to the next by a length of heavy construction on udt3 and udt4 began most of the cribs were built just inside a reef which varied from 50 to 200 Yards away from the the 75yardwide reef was covered by not More than a foot and a half of water at High tide and by As Little As six inches at Low rubber boats were loaded Down with pow Der and rowed in to the from there it was a race against the Jap carrying three fag 10
