>>Valley Patriot>>
|
Valley
Patriot of the Month
Gunners
Mate 3rd Class
Thomas Petrillo, U.S. Navy - WW II
Part II
(04/04/07)
By Ted Tripp
METHUEN It was late in
the summer of 1943 and Tom Petrillo was a shell loader on
one of the twenty 5" guns onboard the battleship USS
Massachusetts. After serving 16 months on Big Mamie, and
having participated in the invasion of North Africa and
later in the support of numerous amphibious landings in
the Pacific, Seaman Petrillo was suddenly given one hour
to get his things together and ordered back to the states
for a new assignment. He would become part of a new Navy
program to mix battle-tested sailors with new recruits in
an effort to accelerate the training on naval ships about
to be launched.
A merchant ship brought Tom back to San Francisco and,
after a short leave at home in Methuen, he was ordered to
report to Naval Station Bremerton near Seattle for
assignment to the USS Midway, an escort aircraft carrier
almost finished in the nearby Kaiser Shipyard.
Escort carriers, sometimes called jeep carriers, were
smaller, lighter and slower versions of the larger fleet
carriers. The escorts were about half the length,
one-third the displacement and had about one-third the
crew of the larger ships. Each carried only 24-32
fighters and bombers. Amazingly, over 120 of these small
carriers were built during the war.
The USS Midway (CVE-63), 512 feet long with a 65-foot
beam, was launched on 17 August 1943. She had a top speed
of 19 knots and a complement of over 1000 sailors and
aviators. Her defensive armament consisted of sixteen 40
mm guns along the sides of the ship and a single 5"
gun on the stern.
The Midway was commissioned on 23 October 1943 at
Astoria, Oregon where Tom boarded the ship and set up
station in the 5" gun turret. Unlike the
Massachusetts armored twin 5" gun turrets,
this 5" gun was open to the elements and provided
minimal protection from enemy fire.
Shortly after boarding, Tom was promoted from seaman to
gunners mate 3rd class.
The Midway proceeded south to San Diego to load planes
and spare parts for delivery to Pearl Harbor. Tom says
every square inch of the flight and hangar decks was loaded with replacement
aircraft. Upon return to the states, the Midway picked up
another load of aircraft for delivery to Brisbane,
Australia.
After one more trip ferrying aircraft, the carrier
returned to San Diego where she picked up Air Composite
Squadron VC-65 and headed west into the Pacific to fight
the Japanese. She joined Admiral Bogans Carrier
Support Group 1 in June of 1944 for the conquest of the
Marianas. During that summer and into the early fall, the
Midway participated in strikes against Saipan, Tinian and
the invasion of Morotai.
On 3 October the Midway returned to Seeadler Harbor at
Manus Island for replenishment. There, the crew learned
the name of the ship was going to be changed to the St.
Lo to free up the name Midway for a super aircraft
carrier then under construction. The new name St. Lo was
to commemorate a hard-fought victory by American troops
who had liberated the French town on 18 July 1944.
Tom remembers that the crew was quite upset over the name
change. Apparently, it is bad luck to have the name of a
ship changed while at sea and many on board tried to
transfer to other ships. However, because of wartime
conditions, that was virtually impossible.
The St. Lo departed Seeadler Harbor on 12 October to
participate in the amphibious landings on Leyte in the
Philippines. MacArthur landed on October 20th in his
famous pledge to return and liberate the islands. The St.
Lo provided air support for the invasion forces.
The St. Lo was now part of Rear Admiral C. Spragues
Task Unit 77.4.3, better known by its radio call sign of
Taffy 3. The St. Lo was one of six escort carriers in the
task force of 13 ships, which also included a protective
screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts.
From 18 to 24 October the planes of the escort carriers
attacked enemy airfields and bases on Leyte, Samar, Cebu,
Negros, and Pansy Islands.
On 25 October the task unit was off Samar Island when it
launched its initial aircraft strike just before dawn.
Shortly afterwards, an anti-submarine patrol plane
spotted a large Japanese fleet approaching at high speed
from the northwest. At first Admiral Sprague thought the
pilot had mistaken U.S. ships for the Japanese, but then
lookouts quickly confirmed that they were enemy ships.
The surprise attack by Vice Admiral Takeo Kuritas
Center Force had taken the Americans completely by
surprise.
Composed of four battleships, eight cruisers and 12
destroyers, the overwhelming Japanese force was poised
for a decisive victory. The largest ship, the 72,000 ton
superbattleship Yamato, displaced more tonnage than all
13 American ships combined.
The faster Japanese force closed in and at 0658 opened
fire on Taffy 3. What followed next was one of the most
heroic naval battles of World War II.
Admiral Sprague immediately
ordered the launching of all available aircraft to attack
the Japanese fleet with instructions to rearm and refuel
at Tacloban airstrip on Leyte to continue the attack.
Meanwhile, as Japanese salvos fell around them, the ships
of Taffy 3 took evasive action and the destroyers laid
down a blanket of smoke to protect the carriers.
Several of the destroyers and destroyer escorts made
torpedo runs at Kuritas fleet and continually
harassed the Japanese forces. They would eventually pay a
dreadful price. At 0855, the Destroyer USS Hoel, peppered
by Japanese shells, was the first to be sunk, losing 267
men in the process. The Destroyers Roberts and Johnston
would also be sunk shortly afterwards with the combined
loss of another 274 sailors.
The escort carrier Gambier Bay took a shot just below the
waterline that knocked out one of her engines and reduced
her speed. As she fell behind the others, the Japanese
closed in to finish her off. She went down with the loss
of another 131 men.
Meanwhile, the planes from Taffy 3 were inflicting
considerable damage on the Japanese fleet. U.S. Task
Units Taffy 2 and Taffy 3, to the south of the battle,
sent additional torpedo planes and dive-bombers. The
combined air assault sunk three Japanese heavy cruisers
and relentlessly attacked the remaining ships. At about
0930, Admiral Kurita signaled his task force to withdraw,
just as two of his heavy cruisers were within a few
thousand yards of Taffy 3s escort carriers. One
explanation given later was that Kurita, because of the
unexpectedly fierce counterattack by U.S. forces,
mistakenly thought he had stumbled upon Admiral
Halseys entire Third Fleet, and withdrew to fight
another day.
During all this action, Gun Captain Tom Petrillo was
directing fire from the St. Los 5" gun towards
enemy ships. His crew hit one Japanese cruiser three
times and left it burning.
Another shell from the gun had deflected a torpedo away
from the St. Los stern. As the Japanese ships fired
their parting shots, Toms 5" gunners scored a
direct hit on a retreating destroyer.
Now the remaining ships of Taffy 3 began to pick up
survivors from the water. But the battle wasnt over
yet. At 1050 hours a flight of eight Japanese suicide
planes attacked the escort carriers. Three were shot down
before they could reach the ships but two of the
remaining planes hit the Escort Carriers Kitkun Bay and
Kalinin Bay; fortunately, the planes inflicted little
damage. A third Kamikaze, with two 500-pound bombs under
its wings, crashed onto the flight deck of the St. Lo. At
least one of the bombs penetrated to the hangar deck
below where crewmen were loading torpedoes and bombs onto
returning aircraft. The ordinance exploded, creating a
massive gasoline fire which led to additional explosions.
The third explosion shook the entire ship and many knew
at that point the St. Lo was mortally wounded. The word
was passed to abandon ship.
Immediately after the plane hit, burned and injured men
started fleeing the hangar deck. On the fantail, Tom
Petrillo and two others started assisting the injured and
putting life jackets on those that went into the sea. The
three stayed behind to help as explosions rocked the
structure and they were able to assist 25 to 30 injured
sailors get off the ship safely.
The fifth explosion, however, was enormous and close. Tom
suffered shrapnel wounds in his right shoulder and left
leg and the blast shattered a portion of his hip. Dazed
and wounded, he couldnt get up so he rolled off the
deck into the sea below. Once in the water, Tom knew he
had to get away from the ship before it went down, but he
couldnt swim because of his injuries. Fortunately,
a raft with five men on board came by and picked him up
and paddled away from the ship. They also picked up a
17-year-old sailor with his left leg blown off.
Just thirty minutes after the Kamikaze attack, the St. Lo
went down. Tom couldnt watch as it disappeared
beneath the surface. The St. Lo became the first U.S.
ship to be sunk by Kamikaze attack.
All of Taffy 3s remaining destroyers and destroyer
escorts accelerated their rescue efforts for the many
survivors still in the water. The recovery area was large
and at one point the ships disappeared from the horizon
where Tom and a handful of other survivors were waiting.
They felt abandoned. There were sharks in the water that
attacked some of the wounded sailors. Hours went by as
Tom and the others waited for rescue. Suddenly, late in
the day, they saw ships approaching on the horizon. At
first they were jubilant, but then someone said they
might be Japanese and fear spread throughout the
survivors. Fortunately, however, the ships turned out to
be Taffy 3s destroyers coming to the rescue.
Tom was eventually picked up by the Destroyer USS
Raymond. As Tom lay in a stretcher on the deck, he will
never forget watching the burial at sea of four fellow
sailors who died after being brought on board. The
captain said a prayer and made a few remarks, the bugler
played taps, and the four bodies draped by the Stars and
Stripes slipped into the sea. A total of 128 men were
lost when the St. Lo went down.
Tom was finally brought below deck where a Navy corpsman
administered morphine and marked his forehead. The
destroyer headed for Leyte Harbor as Tom slept that night
and the next morning he was transferred to a hospital
ship. He was still in his wet and oil-soaked clothes when
he remembers the doctors and nurses cutting off his
uniform and administering anesthesia. When he woke up
later, he was in a full body cast from his ankles to his
chest. There was also a bar holding his leg casts apart
so that his hip could heal in the proper position.
Another hospital ship, the USS Comfort, would eventually
take Tom to a field hospital on New Guinea where he spent
two months in a Quonset hut. Later on, the SS Lurline, a
converted luxury liner, would bring Tom back to San
Francisco after picking up additional wounded in
Australia. Following a brief stay at the Oakland Naval
Hospital, Tom was put on a train to Boston by way of
Chicago. Because of the body cast, Tom could not enter
the train through the narrow doorway. A window had to be
removed and he was passed through it to a special area
the train crew had prepared for him. The trip to Boston
required three different trains and each time a window
had to be removed to transfer him in and out.
On New Years day 1945 Tom arrived at South Station
in Boston and was taken by ambulance to the Chelsea Naval
Hospital. On January 19th he had his third or fourth
operation Tom had lost count at this point. It
wasnt until March that the doctors finally removed
his body cast and allowed him to use crutches. On 19 July
1945, Tom Petrillo was discharged simultaneously from the
hospital and the Navy. He was judged 60 percent disabled.
Tom returned to Methuen and, after a long recovery
period, briefly worked at the Rockingham Race Track
followed by the Arlington Shoe Factory. Then he got a job as a carpenter at Hanscom
Field in Bedford and would spend the next 20 years
helping to maintain the infrastructure of the base. When
he retired, he started the Petrillo Construction Company
which his son, Kevin, now runs.
In the late 1940s, Tom was filling out some insurance
paperwork at the Clover Hill Hospital in Methuen when he
met Margarite Fitzpatrick and asked her out to lunch. One
thing led to another and the two were married in
September of 1949. The Petrillos have four children:
Kevin, Carrol, Susan, and Kathleen; 12 grandchildren; and
12 great grandchildren.
Tom Petrillo is a lifetime member of the Disabled
American Veterans Post 2 in Lawrence (Methuen) and a
member of VFW Post 8546 in Salem, N.H.
Gunners Mate 3/c Tom Petrillo, we thank you for your
service to our country.
Final Note: Last summer Tom got a phone call from a
former shipmate that he had never spoken with before. It
was that of Shipfitter and Seaman 2/c Louis Casiami, the
last injured sailor Tom had put a life jacket on and
helped over the side on that fateful day in 1944. The
sailor and his wife had finally tracked him down after 62
years to personally thank him for what he had done so
heroically, so long ago.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The March 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 12,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, MERRIMACK, Hampton &
Salisbury Beach, and Lowell.
|
Valley Patriot Archive
Thomas
Petrollo
Part I
Prior
Valley Patriots of the Month
Valley Patriot Story
ARCHIVES
Prior Lead
Stories
Prior
Valley Patriot Editorials
Prior Columns by ...
Tom Duggan
Dr. Chuck
Ormsby
Paula
Porten
Ralph
Wilbur
Hanna
Ted Tripp
Griselsilva.com
Patrick
Blanchette
D.J.
Beauregard
Jim
Cassidy
D.J. Deeb
Marcos
Devers
Bob
Desmarais
Regina
Faticanti
Jim
Fiorentini
Bill Kelly
Wilfredo
Laboy
Peter
Larocque
Vilma Lora
Ed Maguire
Billy
Manzi
Paul
Murano
Mark
Palermo
Hartley
Pleshaw
Debbie
Quinn
Raise Em
Right
Dr. Peary
Kathleen
Corey Rahme
Barney
Reilly
Angel
Rivera
Jim Rurak
Grisel
Silva
Mike
Sullivan
Sandra
Stotsky
Mike
Sweeney
Ken Willette
Scott Wood
Jim
Xenakis
|