William H.J. Brotherton US Navy USS Sumner |
I was aboard the USS Sumner, tied up port side at berth 13, Sub Base. Fortunately, we shot down two Jap torpedo planes one direct hit leveling off to launch at Battleship Row. We avoided destruction when the third wave was called due to uncertainty of the location of our absent carriers. My battle station was on the Sumner bridge on the intercom. Two weeks later, another break when as a member of the first task force to depart Pearl a sub was sunk by our destroyer escort after a torpedo launch at us due to range finder error on the Japs part went under our bow. The skipper of the destroyer was awarded the Navy Cross. I spent 16 months on the Sumner doing survey work (branch hydrographic office) then a year in Australia at General MacArthur's Head Quarters and another year in New Guinea for a total of four years in the South Pacific, Australia and New Guinea as an enlisted man. |
Information provided by William H.J. Brotherton |
