Edited by Spessard Stone from The Florida Advocate of Friday, November 9, 1945
At the Kiwanis meeting, Clyde Simmons gave a brief report of his activities in the Sea-Bees. They were a stevedoring outfit and were stationed in Pearl Harbor for several months loading and unloading the almost unbelievable tonnages of supplies for carrying on the war in the Pacific.
While there, Mr. Simmons witnessed one of the greatest tragedies of the war in that place. Eight LST ships, laden with ammunition with many Marines aboard, exploded in the harbor. The loss of life in this single tragedy was said to exceeded the initial bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japs on Dec. 7, 1941.
On Tinian Island, Mr. Simmons and his company were subjected to much strafing by the Japs. Later on he served on Okinawa during the time the Japs were making their last desperate efforts to stave off defeat.
The LSTs Of Pearl Harbor, Part 2
My article of November 20, 1997 contained an edited column of The Florida Advocate of November 9, 1945, in which Clyde Simmons witnessed the explosion at Pearl Harbor of eight LST ships, with the loss of life "said to (have) exceeded the initial bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japs on Dec. 7, 1941."
Mr. O. H. Wright of Bartow in a letter, dated December 26, 1997, to this writer, enclosed this account from Victory At Sea by Dunnigan and Nofi, which shows, as Mr. Wright notes that the losses were considerable, but nothing like December 7:
"1944/May 21--Japanese resistance on Wakde Island is crushed...Meanwhile, another disaster unfolds at Pearl Harbor.
"Often, just getting ready for combat was lethal.
"While ships are being loaded for the coming invasion of Saipan, one LST filled with fuel and ammunition (because of a shortage of specially built ammunition ships) explodes while docked next to several other LSTs.
"This happens in the West Loch area of Pearl Harbor, near the ammunition depot.
"The LSTs are swarming with sailors and Marines, all working on a Sunday to get the ships ready for the upcoming operation...
"Six LSTs are lost, as are 207 Marines (and many sailors). Nearly 400 Marines are also injured.
"This disaster delays the 4th Division's sailing by twenty-four hours, the lost time being made up on the voyage to Saipan."
Mr. Wright further commented:
"I was a submarine officer during WW 11, and we spent about a week at Pearl Harbor after the LSTs exploded and saw the wreckage; no attempt had been made to salvage most of them...
"With the war over, my submarine was 'killing time' at Pearl Harbor, when the Navy Bureau of Ordnance brought forth a new magnetic exploder.
"It was decided that our sub would make the very first test firing with a live warhead on the torpedo. Our target was to be one of the damaged LSTs!
"The LST was towed to sea with a couple of big pumps pumping like mad to keep her afloat. Experts from the Bureau of Ordnance prepared the torpedo on our sub. Many high-ranking observers were aboard.
The captain elected to fire the torpedo from a stern tube at a relatively short range while stopped dead in the water, then immediately go ahead as fast as possible to get away from the effects of the explosion.
“We fired the torpedo, then went ahead as fast as you can get a 1,500 ton ship to move from dead slow; the torpedo evidently ran in a vertical circle, not approaching the target and exploding when deep under us.
“The pumps ran out of fuel and the LST sank. My navy service ran on another six months or so, but I don't know if they ever got a satisfactory exploder."
These articles were published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.), respectively of November 20, 1997 and April 30, 1998.
October 11, 2001