Life on a Battleship

At the ICPA, we receive many interesting submissions from time to time. A recent submission was this, sent to us by Dan Gallagher. It is the log kept by his father, Machinist's Mate 1^st class Clyde Gallagher of the USS Idaho, kept during 1943 prior to his transfer to the USS Missouri.

The Idaho was not in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese raid on December 7^th, 1941, but was instead in the Atlantic with her sisters Mississippi and New Mexico on "Neutrality Patrol." As the few surviving battleships still in service, these three were teamed with other pre-Washington Treaty battleships, including those lightly damaged at Pearl and then hastily repaired. These ships were ten knots slower than the carrier task forces speeding around the Pacific. As a result, they were used as the "last line of defense" of the West Coast of the United States. As tensions eased, and the likelihood of a Japanese invasion seemed less and less probable, these ships were released to provide cover for invasions and ground forces for the balance of the war.

As a diversion to the Midway campaign, Admiral Yamamoto staged an invasion of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, as an attempt to draw the remaining United States Carrier forces into a trap. The Americans were not fooled. Knowing that the main Japanese forces would be descending on Midway, the American carriers waited in ambush, and crushed the Japanese Naval Aviation forces in one swift blow. Japan would never again take the initiative in the Pacific.

But, by 1943, the Japanese remained on American soil. Amazingly, both Japanese and American forces in Alaska suffered greater casualties from the weather than from each other. The principal enemy of cold was paired with insufferable boredom. It was into this theatre than Machinist's Mate 1^st Class Clyde Gallagher of the USS Idaho and his shipmates sailed. As you read his log entries, you can sense the tension, wonder, weariness and pride of these men.

April 7
Left San Pedro Harbor at 1:00 P.M., en route to Aleutians. Idaho, Nevada and destroyers.

April 15
Air alarm (friendly planes)

April 16
Sighted first land a 8:00 A.M., a small, snow covered island. Sub alarm caused by sighting a couple of whales. At 1:00 P.M. we entered the Amukta passage, between Fox and Andreanoff island groups, and entered the Bering Sea. The Idaho was leading and so became the first battleship U.S. to enter the Bering Sea. At 6:00 P.M. , in a heavy snow storm we dropped anchor in Kuluk Bay, Adak.

April 17
Left Adak at 4:00 P.M. to start first phase of campaign patrolling.

April 19
Crossed international dateline for first time.

April 21
Between Russian coast (Kamchatka pass) and Kommandorski islands. Man in V Div. washed overboard. Picked up by destroyer Hull, but died of exposure. Sea temperature 35 degrees.

April 30
Dropped anchor at 4:30 P.M. in Cold Bay, Alaska, on peninsula across Shelikoff Straits from Kodiak. During this period of patrolling we were twice attacked by Jap subs, and our destroyers sank one.

May 1
(At Cold Bay). Received our first mail since leaving the states.

May 4
Left Cold Bay at 10:00 a.m. . We were supposed to leave yesterday but were delayed due to storm. Force now consists of Idaho, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Nassau (carrier), 5 troop transports, and large number of destroyers and escorts.

May 8
Day slated for attack, but postponed due to rough weather.

May 9
Same as above.

May 11
First attack on Attu. Went to G.Q. at 5:00 a.m., secured at 6:00 p.m. . During day we fired on Jap positions in Holtz Bay and Chicagof Harbor. Some damage and casualties top side from Jap shore batteries. Attacked by subs during night. No damage and our destroyers sank two.

May 12
Bombarded Attu from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. . Lost several planes, and Pennsylvania had bow partly blown off from bomb hit in the aviation gas storage spaces.

May 13
Continued bombardment with 14", then ran in close in shore and fired with 5" .

May 16
Pennsylvania gone back to U.S.

May 17
Refueled from tanker

May 22
Joined by New Mexico and Mississippi

May 24
Anchored at Adak at 10:30 a.m. . Worked all night refueling, taking on supplies and making necessary repairs.

May 25
Left Adak at 8:30 p.m. to do some more patrolling.

June 4
Refueled and took on supplies and mail from tanker. (Only about three hours darkness now).

June 8
Sub alarm. No dope on it.

June 9
Got mail from destroyer

June 11
Joined by Tennessee and cruiser Portland. The whole second division has the mumps.

June 18
Refueled from tanker. Took on mail.

June 22
Dropped anchor at Adak at 5:30 p.m. . Just before entering port we were attacked by a Jap sub. He did no damage and got away.

June 26
rear Admiral Kingman who has been aboard the Idaho transferred his flag to the Tennessee. A sub is loose INSIDE the harbor. Had one attack but they didn't get it.

June 27
Above mentioned sub made 3 attacks, all failing and was finally rammed by PT boat and sunk. (Much Excitement)

July 3
Air attack from Kiska but they did no damage, due to bad weather.

July 4
Pulled out of Adak with Tennessee, Omaha and destroyers at 8:45 a.m. Extra good chow today. WE sank Jap sub at 4:00 p.m.

July 7
Left Adak at 4:00 p.m., headed, according to rumor, for Dutch Harbor.

July 10
About 2 p.m. we got word of Jap cruiser force headed for Kiska, so turned around and headed that way, wide open.

July 11
Around noon we got word the cruisers had been taken care of, so resumed our former course.

July 13
Dropped anchor in Dutch Harbor at 6:00 p.m.

July 14
Simmons and I went ashore. First time I've been off the ship in exactly 100 days.

July 17
Had USO show aboard this p.m.

July 21
Had Shore Patrol duty

July 22
Simmons and I went ashore - also visited Tennessee and Northwestern- a cargo ship damaged by Jap bombing.

July 23
Left Dutch Harbor at 5:30 p.m. to hunt for Jap convoy supposed to be somewhere around Semichi Island.

July 28
Met large cruiser force off Semichi

July 29
Sub alarm. No dope.

July 30
Refueled destroyers and took on mail

July 31
Sub alarm this evening but it was chased off before it did any damage

Aug 2
Made quick-run attack on Kiska, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., firing main and secondary batteries (about 60 rounds of 14"). One sub attacked us but was taken care of by destroyers. We steamed right down the channel between Kiska and Little Kiska, and took quite a hammering from shore guns of which we knocked out several. This attack was made by the Idaho, Tennessee, Portland, and planes from Amchitka and Adak.

Aug 3
Dropped anchor about noon at Adak. Bay very crowded with shipping.

Aug 8
We took the wrong kind of ammunition aboard, so left at 8:00 a.m. with 2-destroyer escort to go to Dutch Harbor for some.

Aug 9
Anchored at Dutch harbor at noon, shifted ammunition and left about 4:p.m. Sub alarm at 8:30 p.m. but no damage.

Aug 10
Anchored at Adak about 5:00 p.m..

Aug 11
Had quarters this evening while the admiral pinned the Navy Cross on one of our aviators for rescuing an army flyer at Attu.

Aug 14
Left Adak at 10:00 a.m. for Kiska.

Aug 15
First day of attack on Kiska. Went to G.Q. at 5:00 a.m. and secured at 8:00 a.m.. It was so foggy the island couldn't be seen, though we were practically within spitting distance of it, and all our firing was by radar. On securing, we went to patrolling on a line between Buldir and Semisopochnoi Islands, north of Kiska, on call if needed (weren't).

Aug 16
Same procedure as yesterday.

Aug 17
Standing by off Kiska. Rumors are that landing troops found the Japs all gone.

Aug 18
Anchored at Adak at 10:00 am.

Aug 19
One of our destroyers was towed in today with stern blown off by a mine. About 60 men killed.

Aug 28
At 2:00 PM the skipper called all hands aft and told us our job was done and we were going back to the states. At 6:00 PM we pulled out, and the word was passed we were going to Frisco. The Mississippi, New Mexico and Wichita are with us.

Sept 3
New Mexico and Wichita left us to head to Bremerton.

Sept 6
Dropped anchor in Frisco Bay at 1:15 PM.

Sept 9
Hitchhiked home. first time home since new years.

Sept 10
Moved to Hunters Point shipyard.

Sept 29
Pulled out of S.F. at 9:00 am for Long Beach.

Sept 30
Anchored San Pedro Harbor at 6:30 PM. Spent period between Sept 30 and Oct 18 in and out of Long Beach and at San Clemente for gunnery.

Oct 19
Pulled out of Long Beach at 1:00 PM, with New Mexico and Mississippi, and destroyers, en route to Pearl Harbor, T.H. About 150 passengers aboard.

Oct 25
Anchored at 4:45 pm at Pearl Harbor, just aft of the wreckage of the Arizona. Mississippi tied up alongside.

Oct 31
pulled out of P.H. at 9:00 am with large task force for a few days of battle practice off Maui.

Nov 3
Ran into combination of very hot weather and rough sea which we found out later was due to submarine volcanic eruption.

Nov 10
Left Pearl Harbor 10:15 am for Gilbert Islands with large amphibious force of battleships, cruisers, transports,Lasts, carriers and destroyers. We are to attack Makin Island, another force is to attack Tarawa, and still another act as a screen.

Nov 15
Crossed equator at 3:15 pm. Due to being in a war zone there was no ceremony. Also crossed international date line this pm. Sea temperature 85 deg., Engine room temperature 108 deg., temperature in my battle station (steam steering) 142 deg.!

Nov 17
Off Funafuti in Ellice Islands. All ships in the force except battleships refueled from tankers. We sent off mail via destroyers.

Nov 19
Started having dusk as well as dawn G.Q. ran close to another portion of our force this am. and counted 74 ships of all types in sight at once. We had two alarms this afternoon and pursuit planes off one of our carriers knocked down a Jap bomber about ten miles from us.

Nov 20
Attack on Makin Island. Went to G.Q. at 5:00am. Our carrier planes bombed and gunned Jap positions on the Island and at 6:25 am we opened fire with the main and secondary batteries and continued for two hours, and fired intermittently throughout the day. About 2 pm. we were attacked by 8 Jap dive bombers but our carrier planes drove them off before they did much damage. We secured from G.Q. at 5 pm, which was 12 hours of plain hell; my battle station was 145 deg. and when I finally came out was so weak I could hardly stand up. The troops landed without much loss although we did lose a few planes. We were fired at by Jap shore batteries but not hit. the center gun of #2 turret on the Mississippi blew up, killing about 45 men and in the afternoon we did their firing as well as our own.

Nov 21
Three false alarms last night. We are standing just off Makin and have a grandstand seat at the war. We can see the troops landing, the planes bombing and the destroyers running in close and firing. We had our radios tuned so we could hear the planes talking back and forth. The morale of the crew is just about as low as I have ever seen it. The food on this cruise is actually unfit to eat and everyone is just about worn out from heat, lack of sleep and constant alarms.

Nov 23
Still off Makin, covering the troop landings. Steaming hot weather and thunder showers. Air alarms this AM, but planes turned off and headed for Tarawa. We had a sub alarm this evening. Sub did no damage and got away.

Nov 24
Just before dawn this morning the Liscolm Bay, one of our carriers was torpedoed, blown up and sunk by a Jap sub. It was just about a mile from us and we could see it plainly. It looked like the 4th of July in hell. Very few survivors. The sub that sank it got away. At 1:30 this pm we were attacked by by two waves of Jap zeros. 20 in the first and 15 in the second wave, diving on us and machine gunning, but didn't do any damage to speak of. All their bombs missed. All ships opened fire and our carrier planes took after them. We didn't hit any but our carrier planes shot down 13 and drove the rest off. about 8 U.S. planes lost. The action lasted 1½ hours.

Nov 25
Thanksgiving Day! Good chow! Just after sunset we had a three hour torpedo plane attack with no damage. The planes dropped flares from a high altitude then came in very low and launched torpedoes, two of which narrowly missed our stern. Our guns shot down one. Bad weather finally drove them off, don't know where our planes were.

Nov 26
Japs were back again tonight, dropping flares for about an hour, but failed to locate us due to fog and rain.

Nov 30
Left this area and headed back for Pearl Harbor.

Dec 3
Knocked off dawn and dusk G.Q which is great relief.

Dec 5
Anchored at Pearl Harbor at 2:45 pm.

Dec 10
went to fire fighting school at Aila Landing

Dec 27
Recd. notice I'm to be transferred to new construction.

Dec 29
Said good bye to Idaho at 2:00 pm.

Dec 30
Up at 4:30 am., lashed gear, ate chow, got clearance and orders and left receiving at 7:00 am. Went aboard merchant ship Frank Dodd and got underway for San Francisco. Nice sleeping quarters, wonderful chow and nothing to do for the next 9 or 10 days.

Jan 26
named on draft lot to go to Brooklyn, N.Y. for duty on USS Missouri. Was due to be sent direct but sang the blues and got 20 days delay.

From frigid Alaska, to sweltering Hawaii. From terminal boredom in the Aleutians, to repeated attacks and constant alarms in the Gilbert Islands. 1943 was quite a year. I think it is summed up best in the following entry "...have a grandstand seat at the war. We can see the troops landing, the planes bombing and the destroyers running in close and firing. We had our radios tuned so we could hear the planes talking back and forth..." It all must have been quite a spectacle for the men involved - working hard, relaxing whenever possible, and watching other ships limping home badly damaged, or simply disappearing from sight. Looking about, and seeing that death had claimed still more young men far from home.

Clyde Gallagher was born Oct. 18, 1915 in Reno, Nevada. He joined the navy in 1942, and trained in San Diego. He was 27 at the time. As such, he was probably one of the older enlisted men assigned to the Idaho. The home he referred to hitch-hiking to was in Sacramento, California, about a hundred miles or so from San Francisco. He obviously stood out among the Idaho's crew, and had an exceptional service record, because he was among the first 10 % of the crew assigned to the USS Missouri to finish outfitting her. He was on her shake-down cruise and stayed with her until leaving the navy in 1945. He was on the Missouri at the surrender signing ceremony. Sadly, Clyde Gallagher passed away on December 26^th, 1957, at the age of 42. But all Americans owe him, his shipmates, and all veterans a debt of gratitude that will long outlive us all.