It is March 28, 1945.
US Navy vessels are in the midst of a seven-day bombardment of the Hagushi beaches of Okinawa in preparation for an amphibious assault there which will land sixty thousand American troops onshore by nightfall on April 1.
The fleet of 1,300 naval vessels includes several minesweepers, whose job is to clear sea lanes to the beach landing zones.
Don Panek serves on one of them, the minesweeper USS Revenge.
Here is his diary entry for the day:
“Everything came off smooth as usual and [we] proceeded into our designated sweep area.
We were sweeping in formation as follows— the Skylark–Sage–Revenge–Pursuit.
Then it happened—what we all had feared most—the lead ship [the Skylark] hit a mine.
I guess the picture of that ship will stick with me as long as I live.
I guess it was about 11:20 AM when [the Skylark] got hit cause chow was called down a little after, but somehow food didn’t interest me.
The Sage and us were ordered to sweep as close to the burning ship as possible and continue on.
[The Skylark] was hit on the port side about amid ships.
Fire engulfed the ship from one side to the other.
She leaned up as if she was lifted up about 5 feet and then settled down listing fairly heavy to port.
Smoke and fire was pouring out pretty heavy from no. 1 stack so I guess that’s where she got hit.
The guys in her forward engine room didn’t have a chance.
It looked like [the Skylark] was going rite [sic] down, but after she settled down after the explosion, and the smoke cleared away, she looked like she mite [sic] stay up.
Fire was still coming out of the stack and the mess hall was burning pretty bad.
Our demolition ship hurried over there rite [sic] away and began picking up survivors who had jumped off rite [sic] after the explosion.
Evidently everyone was off [the Skylark] except for the damage control party when she took the second mine.
All of them were standing on the foc’sle as good as I could see, apparently working to flood her magazines to keep her from exploding again.
The second mine hit forward somewhere—it looked as if it were rite [sic] underneath the forward magazine, where all the guys were standing on the foc’sle.
It blew every one of them off.
This was all [the Skylark] needed because she began sinking at the bow.
One man was standing on the bow as she started down and when the deck left his feet, [he] began swimming away.
Quite a site [sic].
If you want to call it that.
It took [the Skylark] about 5 minutes to completely go under after her second hit, going down bow first.
The last site [sic] I remember of her was her rudder and screws sticking out of the water.
Then she disappeared.
Up until we received a report on [the Skylark’s] casualties, the crew [onboard] here were the most beaten down I’ve seen.
All we could talk of was the Skylark and how she went down.
This was the first we’d [sic] experienced—one of us [minesweepers] I mean.
The report of the casualties is almost unbelievable to say the least.
5 men killed and many injured.
We couldn’t hardly believe it.
I guess the five men were the engine room crew.
We had at least expected half [the Skylark’s] crew killed and many injured but thank God [the casualties] were so light.
You can well imagine how we feel going into a mine field now.
Especially [as the] lead ship.”
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When you send young men into a war zone, you are asking them to perform a job in Hell and then live with the memories.
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