THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508180008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Regarding the July 29 Daily Break's excellent story on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine in World War II, the fact that the Naval reporting system failed to alert the operational commands of the non-arrival of Indianapolis at her scheduled destination was further expanded by another lapse in getting the word out.
Information that USS Underhill (DE 682) was lost to a Japanese submarine (I-53) and an accompanying herd of ``kaiten'' (human torpedoes) on July 24, 1945 in the same area as Indianapolis was lost six days later, was not sent out to the fleet. This could easily have been done by classified general message. Had Capt. Charles Butler McVay of Indianapolis known of the Underhill sinking in the very area which he was traversing, how different might his actions have been!
Underhill was the lead escort of a convoy of LSTs, bringing war-weary soldiers of the 96th Division to the rear in the Philippines. Her accompanying escort vessels were two PCs and three SCs.
After sinking one submarine by depth charge, Underhill was attacking another by ramming. Either the submarine being rammed, or one of the ``kaiten'' or both, caused a great explosion which demolished the entire central portion of Underhill and sent up a great plume of fire and smoke.
The bow and stern fell adrift and were destroyed by the PCs after they rescued survivors from the waters - 113 men were lost, including the captain and most of the officers. Survivors were taken by the PCs to LST 768 and 738 (the former Cost Guard-manned and the second Navy). The next day all survivors were taken to LST 768.
An open sea air evacuation by PBY was attempted but only one survivor was able to be placed on board the aircraft. Transfer from an LCVP to a bobbing PBY is not the safest activity one can imagine. The survivors were taken by 768 to Guian, in Samar, while the convoy continued, unescorted to Leyte. There was a Naval Hospital in Samar.
USS Underhill had its 50th memorial to lost shipmates in the Academy Chapel in Annapolis this past July 24 and I attended along with two other LST 768 veterans and our wives. This ceremony has been repeated each July 24 since the war, and at 3:15 p.m., the approximate time of the Underhill loss. We know the time is wrong, due to the difference in time zones, but the official time is 3:15 local time.
If only this loss, transmitted to the fleet, could have prevented the loss of Indianapolis.
NEALE O. WESTFALL
Captain, USCG (ret)
Portsmouth, Aug. 1. 1995 by CNB