William Littlejohn US Navy USS St. Louis |
I joined the Navy after graduating from high school. I was sworn into the Navy on October 4, 1940 at Denver, Colorado. I took my training at San Diego, California. I went aboard the light cruiser, USS St. Louis in December of 1940. We went directly to Pearl Harbor. I was in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. We were the first major ship to clear Pearl Harbor. I was stationed in the #2 boiler room. I served aboard the ship for five and a half years. The gunners shot down 2 planes going out of Pearl Harbor on December 7th. I was on the quarterdeck waiting to go ashore when the planes came in . I saw them heading for battleship row. Then general quarters sounded and we were out of the harbor in 67 minutes. Normally, it takes two to three hours to get up steam on the boilers. We wasted no time. Outside the harbor, a mini sub fired 2 torpedoes, luckily they hit the coral reef and exploded before they got to us. The ship fired a 5-inch shell through the conning tower, credit St. Louis 1 sub. The Navy put the ship out of commission in June of 1946. I was the junior noncommissioned officer (Chief Water Tender) and was awarded the commission pennant, which I have today. The ship was credited with 12 airplanes, 1 heavy cruiser, 1 mini sub and 4 destroyers. We had a kamikaze hit our hangar deck, killing 23 men, a 500 lb bomb at Green Island, killing 13 men, a torpedo in Kula Gulf that damaged the bow, but no loss of life. We were the most traveled ship in the Navy until the later part of 1943 as we were short on ships. We were all over the Pacific trying to make the enemy think we had a good sized Navy. Tokyo Rose claimed their forces sank the St. Louis (the Lucky Lou) three times. Sorry, No Way. We would always come back and do our jobs. Our main duty was to bombard the islands before troops landed. The St. Louis had five 6" turrets (main battery) and four 5" mounts (secondary battery). Each turret and mount was awarded an E for excellence on the St. Louis before the war started. The Marines and Army said" Put a dime on the beach or island and the St. Louis could find it." |
Information provided by William Littlejohn. |
