jedwardpita
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For this entry I will combine the ship's war diary with an oral history recording of William Traylor. The lines in quote marks are from Mr. Traylor.
1/6/45 Underway for Hollandia. Mean and equipmdng of the 104th CB BN aboard LST 742 was formation guide. LSTs 721, 1812 591 and 936 comprise the rest of the convoy.
1/10/45 Arrived at Hollandia. Voyage uneventful.
"January 10,1945, we arrived in Hollandia and found we were going to go to Leyte. This was what we had been waiting for. We were going to the Philippines. The weather was very hot now. Every day it was close to 100 degrees in the shade, and over that several times. January 10, 1945, Tokyo Rose said that our convoy would be sunk and told date we were to leave and how many ships in the convoy. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen."
1/15/45 Underway to join convoy enroute Leyte Gulf, Philippine Islands. Joined convoy as 26th ship in position of convoy of 42 ships. USS Medusa was convoy guide. - Medusa was the first purpose built AR ship below is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Medusa commissioned as a very modern repair ship by the standards of 1924, capable of blacksmith work, boiler repairs, carpentry, coppersmithing, electrical work, foundry work, pipe work, plating, sheet-metal work, welding, and repairs of optical and mechanical equipment. Her machinery shop's equipment included lathes, radial drills, milling machines, slotting machines, boring machines, optical repair equipment, armature bake ovens, and coil winding machines. To meet additional demands from the fleet, she had a motion picture shop, large laundry and bakery facilities, and large refrigeration units. She also embarked two officers and 20 enlisted men from aviation Observation Squadron 2 (VO-2) to repair floatplanes based on battleships and cruisers.
Medusa continued her fleet support duties out of San Pedro until mid-August 1941, when she moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was there on 7 December 1941 when Imperial Japanese Navy carrier aircraft attacked. With her commanding officer ashore, her repair officer, Lieutenant Commander John F. P. Miller, took command. Medusa fired on a Japanese Type A midget submarine she sighted in the harbor, ceasing fire on it when destroyer Monaghan closed in to sink the submarine. Medusa's antiaircraft machine gunners claimed two Japanese Aichi D3A1 dive bombers shot down during the attack. After the attack, she went to work in her primary role as a repair ship; she provided pumps to the damaged seaplane tender Curtiss, machine gun ammunition to the grounded battleship Nevada, and rifles to U.S. Army troops at Schofield Barracks, and food, beverages, and fuel to ships' boats that visited her, and she assisted in efforts to rescue men trapped in the hull of the capsized antiaircraft training ship Utah.
On 1 March 1942, the Base Force was redesignated the Service Force, Pacific Fleet. Now a Service Force unit, Medusa continued to aid the clean-up at Pearl Harbor.
On 4 April 1943, Medusa got underway for the combat area. She arrived at Havannah Harbor at Efate in the New Hebrides on 20 April 1943, relieving repair ship Rigel there on 24 April 1943. She operated at Efate for the next 11 months, temporarily deploying to Espiritu Santo from 24 July 1943 to 4 August 1943 to fashion a temporary bow for the torpedoed light cruiser Honolulu.
On 27 March 1944, Medusa departed Efate for a series of shorter assignments. First sailing to New Guinea, she repaired ships of the 7th Fleet at Milne Bay and Buna Roads; she then steamed to Guadalcanal, where she arrived on 15 May 1944 for service with the 3rd Fleet. On 1 June 1944, she steamed to Sydney, Australia, for repairs to her hull, damaged by grounding on Buna Shoal in May, before continuing on to Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands. After the ammunition ship Mount Hood disintegrated in a massive explosion at Manus on 10 November 1944, she provided repairs and medical supplies to internal combustion engine repair ship Mindanao, which had suffered heavy damage in the explosion.
In mid-January 1945, Medusa departed Manus for Hollandia where she joined a convoy for San Pedro Bay in the Philippine Islands. There she serviced ships engaged in the capture of Luzon and other Japanese-held islands in the Philippines and the Ryukyus until 6 July 1945, when she returned to Manus.
This is getting long, so I will start another entry.
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