Gerhard "Gary" Holm US Navy USS California |
The morning of the attack, the division I was in had the duty of the day, so we were getting ready for church by bringing the chairs and hymn books up to the topside when the first three Jap planes flew over us to drop bombs on the Navy planes and hangers on Ford Island. I could see the pilots, they were that close to me. I then went to the plotting room, which is in the center of the ship but very deep down below the third deck. I hadn't been down there very long when we were hit by two torpedoes on the port side, then a near bomb miss then a bomb hit close to the center of the ship where about 50 sailors were killed so I and others were sent up to take their place. As we had to go up by way of the third deck we found out there was six feet of water on it so we couldn't go that way. We had the only escape tube on the ship, it was a round tube with ladder rungs. It came out way put high on the ship. As I came out of the tube, the Jap planes were straffing so I had to get behind some protection. About then, the Captain called out on his loud speakers to abandon the ship, as he thought it was going to blow up. So, we jumped over the side into the water covered with oil. Our ship did sink, but we raised it in March 1942, rebuilt it, and was used in several engagements. During the day, I and a couple more sailors, were sent to another ship to get some ammunition. On arriving to this ship, their chief boatsman came down the gangway to meet us and he asked us if they could use our motor launch to pull a snag hook around their ship as there was a Jap two man sub spotted and maybe we could snag it. We pulled the snag hook around for a while, when we hooked onto something that stopped us. Well, we thought we had the sub, but it turned out we had snagged a fresh water pipe that furnished water for Ford Island. The two man sub was later shot through the conning tower and grounded on Ford Island. A ship came speeding by our ship, when they put their screws in reverse at high speed, it made a big wave that put the fire out. Ships behind us rolled over and the Arizona blew up. It was an awful day. On the USS California, we lost 96 good sailors and friends. I was declared killed during the raid and my father received a telegram. He didn't find out that I was okay for a couple weeks. I have the telegram. I came from a large family and we were all in the service. One brother was in a plane over the Aleution Island in 1942. He was shot down, survived the fall, but was then executed with three others by the Japs. |
Information provided by Gerhard Holm. |
