The History

The USS Waller continues steaming towards a return to the Pacific War Zone.  Working a mid-shift, Radioman 1st Class Morris Anthony found time on this day to write two letters to Helen.

In this first letter, we see the anxiety that comes from the long wait before the battle.  An experienced combat veteran by this point, Radioman Anthony knew what lay ahead.  During the heat of battle, training takes over as you focus on the critical tasks at hand.  But, the routine of camp or shipboard life, permits time for the mind to think about what’s ahead.

The concern may have stemmed from a nighttime air raid between November 17 and 18, 1943.  The USS Waller was part of a force screening U.S. transports and supply ships when 10 Japanese torpedo planes attacked at 0300 on the 18th.  The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships described the battle:

Flares and float lights dropped by the Japanese planes lit up the scene with an eerie light. Destroyer gunfire sent tracer streaks across the night sky, and one “Betty” spun into the sea off the port bow of Pringle (DD-477). Another attacker, roaring in low and fast at 0330, flew into a veritable hail of flak and crashed, trailing flames into the sea astern of Conway (DD-507). The torpedoes launched by the doomed aircraft failed to hit their mark and sped off past the American ships. Two minutes later, however, another “Betty” drew blood from the American force by torpedoing McKean (APD-5), which later sank. When the smoke of battle had cleared, Waller picked up eight Japanese aviators. [1]

The Letter

SOURCE:

1. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships Online. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/waller.html