Overseas Diary –Harry Fenner

[page 1]


Diary of Overseas time  [time table]

Left: Camp Pendleton, Va. on Jan 1, 1944

Arrived: Camp Stoneman, Calif. on Jan. 12, 1944

Left: Camp Stoneman, Calif. on Jan. 20, 1944

Left: San Francisco, Calif. on Jan. 21, 1944

Arrived: Fort Hase (Oahu, T.H.) on Jan. 31, 1944

Arrived: Lako Btry (Oahu, T.H.) on Feb. 13, 1944

Arrived: J.J. Area, (Oahu, T.H.) on March 31, 1944


[page 2 follows]


Arrived: at Pearl Harbor May 24, 1944. Sunday - May 21st 1944 LST's blew up eight ships sunk.  Loaded aboard ship (LST 240) on May 24, 1944.

Left: West Loch, P.H. on May 25, 1944

Arrived: Eniwetok, Marshall Is. June 7, 1944

Arrived: Saipan June 14, 1944 (D-Day June 15, 1944)

Boarded LST-130 Nov. 20, 1944


[page 3 follows]


Left- Saipan Nov. 30, 1944

Arrived- Leyte (Phillipine Is.) Dec 6, 1944

Left- Leyte on LSM-15 March 8, 1945

Arrived- Okinawa March 31, 1945
Left - LSM-15 to hit beach on Keise Shima, Okinawa Gunto
L-Day - 1 (April 1st L-Day Okinawa)

June 21, 1945 Okinawa Secured.


Real close one's I've had:

Bombed & shelled on Saipan & Tinian.


[page 4 follows]


Air attack going from Saipan to Leyte, Jap plane over ship (He missed)

Rifle & M.G. fire on Leyte.  Mud in Leyte over our knees.

Jap counter btry fire from Okinawa to Keise April 1st on through.

Jap amphibious landing on Keise Shima April 8, 1945 (All Hell broke loose.)


[page 5 follows]


Battles Started & Finished

Saipan Str - June 15, 1944
Fin - July 9, 1944

Tinian Str - July 24, 1944
Fin - Aug. 1, 1944

Leyte Str - Dec, 6, 1944 (for us)
Fin - Dec. 22, 1944

Okinawa Str - March 31, 1945
Fin - June 21, 1945

 

[Details of fighting]

6/15/44 - Our 1st air attack at 6:30 P.M.  Enemy driven off (4 planes).

6/17/44 - 2nd air attack forced us out of Saipan Harbor (8 Jap planes went down).


[page 6 follows]


6/20/44  Hit the beach at Saipan.

6/21/44  Air attack lasted all night.

6/22/44  Our guns opened on the enemy.  Enemy returned fire back at 4:40 AM (no casualties).

6/24/44 - Enemy planes bombed our area, bombs landed several hundred yards over.

6/26/44 - Air raids all night long.

6/27/44 - Air raids again all night long, about eight bombs landed near our area.


[page 7 follows]


6/28/44 - Our AA downed 2 Jap planes.

6/30/44 - Air Raid 8 PM to 2:30 AM.

7/2/44 - Air attack, hit airfield & hospital area (Just missed us).

7/6/44 - Air attack, begin 7:40 PM lasted all night, bombs fell near airfield, Japs shelled us from Tinian.

7/8/44  Turned our guns on Tinian.

*Note: We fired 3,567 rounds of 155mm shells on Saipan.

7/24/44  Shelled from Tinian again (Air Burst).

7/24/44 D-Day Tinian.


[page 8 follows]


7/26/44  Shelled by Japs (N.C.).

8/1/44  Tinian secured at 6:55 P.M.  We fired 2,882 shells at Tinian.

9/15/44  Air raid, 2 planes shot down off White Beach lasted one hour.

11/2/44 Air raid, 12:55AM to 145AM 3 planes shot down (Jap).
11/6/44 1st air raid 12:35 AM to 2:30 - 2 Jap bombers shot town 2nd - 3:35 to 4:30 AM 4 Jap fighters shot down.

11/23/45  A complete surprise, a daylight raid.


[page 9 follows]


2 Jap fighters shot down by P-38's, one by AA fire.

11/27/44 another daylight raid by Jap carrier based planes.  Hit our airfield got some B-29s, eight Jap planes were shot down.  We had a pretty hot time for awhile.

11/28/44 Air raid - hits near our area (ships on both sides hit on the way to Leyte) we sure are lucky.

12/4/44  Sub alerted - 1:10 to 3:05.

12/6/44 at Leyte - 4 air raids during the night.

12/7/44 3 raids - 10:AM to 6:30PM 11 Jap planes downed.


[page 10 follows]


12/8/44 3 noon raids (16 Jap planes shot down).

12/9/44 2 raids, 4 Jap planes downed, one suicide plane sunk one of our cargo ships.

12/10/44  5 Raids  33 Jap planes accounted for during the night.

12/11/44 - Air raid at 7:20 PM.

12/12/44 - 3 raids.

12/13/44 - Air attack on our area at chow time.

12/14/44 - 3 air raids.

12/15/44 Btry opened fire on Japs at Ormoc Bay.

12/20/44  Air raid Japs dropped paratroopers all over the area.


[page 11 follows]


12/27/44  Leyte secured General MacArthur went by today - 444 rounds of shells on Leyte.

1/17/45  No air raids for 11 days.

1/18/45 Heavy air raids lasted two hours.

2/18/45 - 19 days no air raids.

2/25/45 No Air raids yet.  Wac's come in today.

2/26/45 3 raids - 2, 7, 10 AM.

2/27/45  Looks like were going into battle again soon.

3/8/45  Load on LSM #15.  Layed in Harbor until 3/24/45 then we took off for Okinawa.


[page 12 follows]


Met John Zemithus on LSM 15 from Worcester also.

3/31/45  Landed on Keise Shima Japs shelled 12:40 AM to 5AM.  Don't know how they missed us, it such a small place. 1 man killed.  We are right across from Naha.  Only three & half miles away.

4/1/45 Okinawa D-Day,  Soldiers and Marines hit beach. We are giving them support. Still lots of air raids

4/4/45  Doing lots of shooting.

4/6/45  Suicide attacks by Jap planes on ships.


[page 13 follows]


4/8/45 The worse night of the war so far.  Japs shelled again (12:40AM to 3:50AM) Jap landing on our Island. Heavy small arms fire all during the night.

4/10/45 another try by the Japs to land on our island but stopped before they hit the beach.

4/14/45 Japs shelled again.

4/21/45 Japs shelled   "

4/23/45   "     "      "

4/30/45 - 32 Air raids in seven days, saw plenty Jap planes go down.


[page 14 follows]


5/3/45 Sunk five Jap barges with our Long Toms.

5/4/45 Moved to Lucas Island.

5/8/45 Fired Victory salvo for Victory in Europe. Sunk 3 more barges during the night.

5/10/45 Moved to Okinawa.

5/11/45 Just set up and Japs shelled us.

5/12/45 Japs shelled (8 Casualties).

5/13/45    "     "    (NC)

5/14/45    "     "    (NC)

5/24/45    "     "    again no one hurt.

6/7/45 Just air raids bombs dropped near us no


[page 15 follows]


one hurt.


6/20/45 Just air raids for 13 days.

6/21/45 Okinawa declared secured. 1 P.M. We fired 9,583 rounds of shells in this operation.  Still air raids.

6/22/45 Japs tried to infiltrate our area.  No success.  3 Japs killed.

6/26/45 B btry got 3 Japs trying to infiltrate.
6/28/45 Hq 1 Jap.

7/5/45 Picket line duty.

7/10/45 Return to Btry.


[page 16 follows]


8/1/45 Just air raids and patrols for Japs.

8/10/45 Jap surrender rumors bring a lot of shouting

8/12/45 Still getting A.R.

8/15/45 Pres announces Jap surrender.

9/2/45  Formal signing of surrender.

10/6/45 Typhoon completely damaged our area. No place to sleep or keep dry.

10/7/45 Start rebuilding.

11/9/45 Left for processing.

11/11/45 Processed.

11/21/45 Still waiting for ships.

11/27/45 Boarded the APA - Dashing Wave.