Ervin Schmidt US Navy USS California |
I was 25 years old when I joined the Navy in the summer of 1940 for a six-year hitch. I went aboard the battleship, the USS California, in Bremerton, Washington and left shortly for Pearl Harbor. All summer of 1941, we participated in battle exercises, firing all our guns at targets. The fleet went into Pearl Harbor on December 5, 1941. At 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched their attack. The Japanese planes flew past the Sub base, and launched their torpedoes at the ships tied up at Ford Island. The first torpedo hit our bow and now we knew, "This was no drill!" I learned later my best friend, Herbert Curtiss from Killmichel, Mississippi was killed by that first torpedo. We had planned a day at Waikiki Beach after church that Sunday. When the second torpedo hit, all lights went out and all motors stopped running. It looked like the California was going to capsize. "Abandon Ship" was announced on the MCI. I saw a 50-foot wall of flame coming down from the USS Arizona. I was not about to abandon ship and swim to Ford Island. Four of us sailors went to the magazine at the keel of the ship to carry 3" ammo to an anti aircraft gun above the bridge which was my secondary battle station. It was 90 odd feet up ladders and each box of 4/3" shells weighed 135 pounds. We got off eleven or twelve rounds, but no hits. That night, about 9:00 pm., the USS Enterprise sent its planes to Ford Island. A trigger nervous 5" gun crew opened up, all searchlights went on and five of our planes were shot down killing four of the pilots. My ship was listing badly so I helped in counter flooding and keeping hatches closed. The next five days were horrible as more and more of my shipmates' bodies were brought out. The USS Chicago came in on the night of the 13th and about 150 of us went aboard for temporary assignment. We left before dawn the next morning, joined a task force and got in on the Marshall and Gilbert Island raid. I volunteered for submarine duty in 1943 and served aboard the USS Torsk. I am the only sailor in the US Navy from 1940 to 1946, who has the unique distinction of being on one of the first ships torpedoed (USS California), at Pearl Harbor in the first few minutes of the war and four years later, in August of 1945, on a submarine, (USS Torsk) firing the last torpedoes of the war, sinking two Japanese ships. |
Information provided by Lester Ritchie |
