January 8, 1945 - 0200 - General Headquarters. We had GQ from 1800 yesterday until I went on watch at 2000. I got off watch at 2400 and GQ was sounded from 0200 until I went on watch at 0900 this morning. About 0300, a Japanese suicide plane crashed into LST 912 at its port boat Davits. It killed 4 men and wounded 4 more, 1 of which was Army. It severly damaged the small boat and Davits and destroyed 40-4 and 40-6 guns beyond repair. It really made a big explosion, but they got the fire under control and they never lost their place in the convoy. They were about 1500 yards behind us in the next column to our starboard.

About 0800 our planes intercepted a group of Japanese planes and some of them broke through. Two of them came out of the sun straight toward our ship but, when they were about 2000 yards off, one of them turned and went into a dive straight down the middle of the convoy for a transport. He dropped his bomb close to the transport, then turned a flip and crashed right into it about midship, just aft of the bridge. It really made a big explosion and a lot of smoke. The other plane went on across the convoy and got away. An LST reported swimmers in the water just after the transport was hit, but I do not know whether they were picked up or not. The transport was ahead of us and one column over to the starboard. A lot of the ships are firing at the planes (Vals) including us, but didn’t see any hits. They were out of range of our 20mm. A little after this, the 4 battleships and 3 escorts on our port side shot down a plane. I never saw it fall but saw the splash where it hit. They really put up the flank. We were passing Manilla Bay about this time. We made smoke this morning from about 0200 to daylight. We heard that 19 men were killed on the transport that was hit. Evening - they had a burial at sea for the guys that were killed last night. Evening - Counted 9 Aircraft carriers on our port. The planes look like swarms of bees landing and taking off from them. We didn’t have any more GQ until regular GQ. Then we saw some ships firing, but didn’t see any planes. After GQ they had another flash red, but nothing came of it. We are now even with Linguyan Bay and we will be in some time tonight. H - hour is early tomorrow morning.