Pearl Harbor Christmas by Stanley Weintraub

Author:Stanley Weintraub
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2011-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

Destroyer USS Peary. Naval Historical Center

Seaman Lester Harris, the navigator, an old China hand who had seen Japanese mistreatment of women, looking up from the inland charts he had ironed out after their immersion in Manila Bay at Cavite, remarked, “I thought that the boat would bring some of the nurses out. It’s a shame to leave them.” MacArthur kept them at Corregidor, where, after months of bombardment, they would become prisoners of war on May 7, 1942. (The general, his family, and his personal staff had been evacuated south on four PT-boats on March 11.)

Brought aboard Peary, its white surface frills of peacetime now being repainted in camouflage green to be less visible from the air, were “cryptographic aids” (apparently codebooks), a “Purple” coding machine, and a radio receiver—“all welcome equipment.” Seamen were especially grateful to be able to pick up the BBC, as it was, they had learned, “the most reliable and truthful,” however disheartening. As the destroyer began moving out, the C.O. directed a signalman to flash, “Passengers and cargo aboard. Request permission to proceed on mission assigned.” One guest was Rear Admiral F. W. Rockwell, Hart’s deputy, who had dodged Japanese bombs at Cavite, losing everything but the sweaty clothes on his back. He “half smiled” at the signal, “for the ship could be seen as already underway.” Permission was granted, with a “Good luck and safe harbor.”

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