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Asked Questions page. Recollections of Lieutenant (junior grade) J.F. Brown, USNR, commanding officer of USS LCI (M) 974, an infantry landing craft armed with mortars, who was rendered unconscious when his vessel was struck by a Japanese suicide assault demolition boat during the Lingayen Gulf Landings on 10 January 1945.
Adapted from J.F. Brown interview
in box 3 of World War II Interviews, Operational Archives Branch,
Naval Historical Center.
Lieutenant Brown:
This is Lieutenant (jg) J. F. Brown, Commanding Officer of LCI
(M) 974 [landing craft, infantry (motar)].
LCI (M) 974 was sunk by enemy action at Lingayen Gulf,
Luzon, about 0400 10th of January, 1945. On the morning of the
9th of January LCI (M) 974 participated in the initial
amphibious assault on the beach at Lingayen [northwest coast of
Luzon Island during the US invasion of the Japanese-occupied Philippines,
4-18 January 1945] with other LCI gunboats.
After the Army had started inland from the beach area we retired
to the seaward and consolidated our ammunition with other LCI
(M)s and remained at anchor for call fire on special targets [fire
missions requested by the Army troops ashore on targets designated
by them]. It happened that we were not called on to come in during
the day, the rest of the day, for any special assignment so we
remained at anchor until late in the afternoon, up to the time
for laying a smoke screen. Then we proceeded just to seaward of
the transport area with other LCIs and anchored approximately
6,000 yards from the beach in about 20 fathoms of water and then
we laid smoke screens [using smoke to conceal the movements and
location of friendly ships, somewhat like heavy fog] until approximately
dark.
We remained at anchor during the night and at about 0400 in the
morning a small enemy [Japanese suicide assault demolition] torpedo
boat sneaked in and hit us on the port [left] side slightly after
amidships [in the center of the longitudinal axis of the landing
craft].
Approximately all of our crew was injured, including the men on
watch and it evidently was quite a terrific explosion for I am
advised that the ship sank in approximately six minutes.
Interviewer:
Mr. Brown [the term "Mister" was a proper form of address
for all officers below the rank of Lieutenant Commander, regardless
of their actual rank title], in the area where you were, there
was very little call for fire from any of the ships, was there?
Lieutenant Brown:
That's right, there was very little call fire, at least for the
first day and that's all I remember, the first day of the battle
there.
Interviewer:
You had some Army on board?
Lieutenant Brown:
Yes, approximately half of my crew was Army, [to load and fire]
these Army mortars, 4.2 mortars. They had an enlisted crew of
Army of 21 men plus two Army officers aboard [Mortars are anti-personnel
weapons designed to fire explosive or illumination shells at high
angles over ranges up to 4,000 yards - the projectiles are fired
at a high angle in order to clear obstacles between the mortar
and the target, and projectiles plunge almost straight down into
the target, thus hitting behind protective fortifications. The
mortars referred to had bore diameters of 4.2 inches.].
Interviewer:
I understand that you were hurt, and a good many others, and you
were put over the side were there enough Navy men, able bodied
left to put you over the side, or was that done by the Army?
Lieutenant Brown:
As far as I know the Army [soldiers] didn't have anything to do
with it. I understand my [Navy] engineering officer and one of
the enlisted men, the electricians mate I think the Army had already
gone over the side at the time.
Interviewer:
Well, these people that were casualties among the Naval personnel,
were some of them slight casualties so they could still help with
the abandoning ship?
Lieutenant Brown:
Yes, they were, oh, approximately six men who weren't injured
except probably only jarred up considerably. They gave a lot of
assistance to the injured men and quite a few, as a matter of
fact, who assisted some of the men all the way over to different
ships, who were injured.
Interviewer:
As reconstructed to you, what happened to the people after they
got into the water? What ships picked them up, were there other
LCIs around or other types of ships?
Lieutenant Brown:
There were quite a few other ships around. I believe there was
an Army boat close by that sent over some sort of a dinghy and
then later some other ship, probably an APA [attack transport],
sent over an LCVP [landing craft, vehicle, personnel] that towed
us over to the Boise where we were given first aid. There
was also some LSTs [landing ship, tank] around.
Interviewer:
In addition to this [these] Army and Navy personnel aboard, what
sort of cargo did you have?
Lieutenant Brown:
Well, I had my full quota of mortar ammunition which was approximately
20 tons, after I had consolidated with another LCI. I also had
a full magazine of 20 mm [anti-aircraft gun] ammunition. We were
very fortunate in not having any explosions or, that is internal
explosions, or any fires on the ship, because where the explosion
occurred was underneath the fuel tanks and the diesel fuel men
who were below in the compartments that [where] the diesel oil
was, the fumes were quite bad and were [the fuel was] all mixed
with the water that came in.
Interviewer:
How long was it before the ship sank, according to the information
that you have been given?
Lieutenant Brown:
According to the information I have the ship sank in about six
minutes which was a very short time considering the fact that
all the power was knocked out and it was in complete darkness,
the battle lamps were all jarred loose, I understand and of course
the flashlight were hard to find in all the confusion and by the
time the injured men got out it was time to abandon ship then.
Interviewer:
In view of the large number of casualties and I suppose the extensiveness
of the explosion there was no time for any attempt at damage control,
I take it?
Lieutenant Brown:
That's right, there was, as I say, there was such a short period
of time and all the power was knocked off anyway, so there just
wasn't time for any damage control.
Interviewer:
In the D-day activities there were you involved, or did you observe
any [enemy] air action or counter battery [fire] from shore [against
the US Navy ships]?
Lieutenant Brown:
Well, just about H-hour [the designated time of the first landings]
as we were going in shelling the beach [with on-board mortars]
quite a few Jap planes came over then. The closest one to us,
of course, was out of the range, we didn't open fire on it. It
came in and hit the Columbia which was approximately 3,000
yards from us over on our starboard [right] side. The plane itself
was out of our range anyway. There was quite a bit of air activity
that morning in the area in there.
Interviewer:
Thank you very much, Lieutenant Brown.