January 12, 1945 - Morning - GQ - We got a report of 10 or 12 Jap planes in the area, but only 3 or 4 came over the gulf in our area. We fired at one but he was out of range. One Jap plane made a suicide dive high altitude out of range of the anti-aircraft guns straight down through the flak and hit a destroyer. It was so far off that we couldn’t see how much damage was done. The ships on the beach where we were got a lot of firing as the Jap planes came right by them. Just after we got a flash white, a Jap plane came over. It had got by without the radar picking it up. We fired at it with a lot of other ships but it got away. 1600 - Getting underway for Leyte.

January 10, 1945 - Still on beach - we haven’t got pontoons to unload with yet. Morning - GQ - All the ships on the starboard of us were firing. I saw the plane, but it went right on through the flak. While they were firing, I heard a Whoosh and ducked and a shell hit a pontoon in front of the 777which is beached next to us. They think the shell is from one of our big guns. A little later another Jap plane came over on our starboard side and the ships and shore batteries shot it down. I saw it burst into flames and start to fall and think it hit the water. We got some pontoons this morning to unloadon, but the surf was so rough we didn’t get them into position to unload until evening late. 2000 - GQ - All at once a plane came over the beach straffing and it dropped a bomb about 50 yards from our bow doors on the beach. It was so dark we couldn’t see the plane and no one was firing at him. We have a watch on deck tonight with rifles and tommy guns because we got a message to be on the lookout for Jap swimmers armed with demolition charges who swim up under a box or something and try to put the charges on board. We also have a report of Japanese small craft around close. We got several reports of boogies tonight, but none came over.

January 9 - 0545- Revellie, chow. 0645 - GQ - We are getting ready to make a run for our station. The battleship Cruisers and Destroyers are opening up with their big guns. Boy, they really are giving that beach a shelling. A couple of Jap planes came close and one of them made a suicide dive into a battlewagon, but there was such a barrage of flak up there that the other one left. 0900 - At our station 2000 yards off the beach and putting off LVT’s. We have also lowered our small boats which act as guides for the LVT’s. Some of our LVT’s go in on the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd ,4^th , and 5^th waves. There is only supposed to be 30 seconds between waves. The LCI’s are going in now and letting go their rockets. The battlewagons and other large ships are still pounding away with their big guns. They really are pulverizing that beach. I hear they have been shelling it for 3 days. H-Hour is at 0930. I haven’t seen any opposition at all yet from the beach. We are to go in on Blue Beach. There is an Austrailian Cruiser close to us that has a torpedo hole in her, so I guess the Bay was taken without any opposition. The boats and tanks are now heading for the beach and the big guns are letting them have it for all they are worth. The second wave is forming up. The PCS and the SCS and other boats were in close to the beach early clearing out all mines and obstructions. All our LVT’s got off all right and our part of the landing was carried out perfectly. I think the first wave is hitting the beach now, but you can’t see anything much from the smoke. The other waves are at various stages toward the beach, while still others are forming up. The big ships are still pounding away. We stayed anchored where we are until we beach at 1400, if everything on the beach goes ok. About 1160 our small boats got back. They said they didn’t meet any opposition at all. The big ships slacked off shelling he beaches about noon and by 2 ’o clock there was only an occasional shot. 1400 - preparing to get underway to the beach. GQ - a plane is coming out of the sun over us low and our guns are really letting go. Some of our 40mm’s got him in the wing and at least one of our 20’s hit him also. He went on over us and circled and dived straight for the cruiser, the HMS Shropeshire, the one that had the torpedo hole in it. We were bout the only ship firing at the plane and he was smoking when he started his dive. He looked like he was going to hit the cruiser in the middle, but he only took off the top of one of her stacks and part of her superstructure and hit the water on the other side. There was a lot of smoke when he hit and by the time the smoke had cleared, he had sunk. Before he came over us, he straffed and dropped a bomb near LSV 5. He also hit a Destroyer with a bomb and straffed some other ships near shore. The doctor says he saw a bomb or plane hit a battleship about this time. He said it made an awful big fire. He believes it was a suicide plane. All of this happened in about a minute. I think the Jap plane was a ’Val. He was really maneuverable and fast in a dive. We are now going into the beach at standard speed. We have to hit full to cross a sandbar. We are beaching on the starboard end of the group of LST’s next to LST 614. We could only get about 25 feet from shore. The 614 and the other ships were using the pontoons brought in by some more LST’s. We cannot unload our cargo until we get a pontoon so I guess we will spend the night on the beach. This part of the gulf where we landed has pretty level ground with a lot of palm trees growing all over it. It is a pretty place. A lot better looking than anything we saw in New Guinea. On the sides of the gulf is Hillsand Mountains. At 1530, I carried one of our SCR receivers over to the 614 to get it fixed. They worked about 4 hours and couldn’t fix it so I am leaving it and hoping they can fix it before they leave tomorrow. While I was on the 614 we had GQ. We saw the plane real high over the gulf. Boy the ships were really putting up a barrage. There was so much flak in the sky that you couldn’t hardly see the plane through it. I doubt if a gnat could have come though it untouched. The plane must have been out of range though because he circled around the Bay with everyone firing at him and then disappeared. I don’t think he did any damage unless he started that fire that you can see on the port side. I can’t tell whether it is ship or land. About the time the ships quit firing at the plane another came in high on the starboard side, but he got away too. After dark, I got back to the ship and went on watch. 2330 - a few boogie reports, but no alerts. At 1455, General MacArthur hit the beach in front of us, but I never saw him.

Sept 18, 1944 -

• 0515 Morning- General quarters.
• 0900-Arrived Morotai. We have complete control of the part of the island where we are. We could see planes about a couple of miles off bombing. One fell about 500 yards from us. That was the closest we came to any resistance at all. Morotai is only about 12 miles from Halmahera. You can see Halmahera real good from Morotai. Americans dropped about 210 tons of bombs on Halmahera today.
• 1100- Beached and started unloading supplies. There was a few anti aircraft and demolition bombs going off about all day.
• 630pm. Retracted from beach. Started back for Halmahera with an LCI in tow. Morotai had 2 light air attacks right after we left.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morotai