Manfred Olson US Navy USS San Francisco

Manfred Olson was 26 when he joined the US Navy in November of 1940.  He spend six years fighting the war in the South Pacific. Olson was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed Hawaii on December 7, 1941.  He was stationed on the USS San Francisco, which was in Hawaii for repairs, and only parts of that frightening day are clear in his memory. He remembers hearing an order to release the Hawsers (large ropes) that hold the ship in port.  As he worked, a Japanese fighter plane flew in low and shot up the docks on which Olson was working. When Pearl Harbor was hit, a striking force of 353 Japanese aircraft engulfed the harbor.  The harbor was hit in two waves of attacks; 183 planes in the first wave and 170 on the second wave of terror. Olson's ship was sitting in the US Navy yard repair basin waiting to go into dry dock.  He never got the lines off the dock, he remembers running down the dock away from the bullets with another sailor who got shot in the hip.  Olson just figured the only reason he wasn't hurt was because he was a faster runner.  Olson didn't remember too much more about the rest of that fateful day. He did recall one other battle as if it happened yesterday, the battle of Savo Bay in the Solomon Islands in November of 1942. The San Francisco engaged in a deadly battle with the Japanese fleet in a night attack.  The American ship went in with guns blazing and shot up the Japanese ships as they sat dead in the water.  American aircraft were the back-up that night, helping sink the Japanese ships. "The ship was attacked by Japanese torpedo planes that would hedge-hop low over the island hills. "When we first saw them, they were right on top of us.  We couldn't get our guns low enough for the torpedo plane, so we shot in the water creating a wall of water for the planes to fly through," Olson said. "One Japanese pilot had been shot and he crashed into the fantail of the San Francisco leaving part of the wingtail on board, killing 26 men on our ship," Olson said. The USS San Francisco was engaged in more than 17 battles during World War II, being one of the most decorated ships in the war.

Information provided by Boyd Williamson