Lawrence A. De Graw

Naval Encounters 5
BATTLEWAGONS: A NAUTICAL HISTORY

At great Pearl Harbor did we stand… December ‘41.
Of eight great Battleships in port, quick all but three are done.
We count the names and bow our heads, as fallen comrades do;
As brave Nevada, Pennsylvania – and Oklahoma, too,

Go proud with “sisters” Utah, Arizona – now ever lost to all;
But yet our time would not be through, since now we got the call –
To bristle up and knit the brow, and to battlestations flew –
Our biggest battles yet to be across Pacific blue.

The battleship USS Pennsylvania leads USS Colorado, USS Louisville, USS Portland, and USS Columbia into Lingayen Gulf before the landing on Luzon, Philippines in January 1945. Battleships and other big gun naval vessels that served in the Pacific Theatre during World War II were used primarily for offshore bombardment of enemy positions and as anti-aircraft screens for aircraft carriers.

So, Battlewagons put to sea; brave Cruisers set to run;
Destroyers placed well out ahead, the battle but begun.
We head to South Pacific, to islands all about,
To fight the proud Imperial Fleet, and their surface ships to rout.

To Coral Sea we prep our ships; Flotilla sails through squall,
But brave Yorktown and the “Lex” precede us, and we never get the call.
But stand we well in place of station, and man our guns with pride;
For patience have we much to spare, and time is on our side.

At Coral Sea – a “Flattop” war – from skyward comes attack,
A hundred planes in welkin meet, where most would not come back;
But face-to-face they’d never be, each enemy unseen,
And only aircraft fight from ship to ship; few shots from ships between.

So great battleships to North now move; to Solomons we sail;
Through stormcellars deep we speed the ships, our mission not to fail.
With turbines screaming, guns in trim; we grind the gears of war,
We angle in for best approach and step through Goto’s door.

With seething menace, lethal armor, warships cruise The Slot,
Battlewagons swinging guns in tandem, roaming Channel hot.
Off Savo Isle, they churn cold waters – year of ‘42;
Past Solomons they sail their ships, horizoning to view.

These were the greatest ships that ever were – the greatest that could be;
With gun directors well alert, at battle speed to sea
We motion well our yawing ship – at dawn no dread is found;
And by six o’clock of second day sail Iron Bottom Sound.

USS Nevada BB-36 is a survivor of the W.W. II Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific in 1941. Now crossing the Atlantic, she pounds German gun emplacements with her main battery at the port of Cherbourg, during the allied Normandy Invasion of June 1944. The American battleship is straddled by fire from the guns of the Hamburg battery but remains intact and unsinkable!

Now, sixteen-inchers aiming well, with cannonades we fly,
We lob the shells to volley back, hot lead our best reply.
With broadsides full and smashing hit, we pummel points ashore;
As brave Marines touch down on beach and “open up the door”.

We loiter well in hostile seas, both near the “Cape” and ‘round;
‘Til 1943 we sail, hot action to be found.
Our Battlewagons stay their course; these moments now to pen;
By end of year Japan was done, and would not come again.

Thence off to Philippines we go, brave honors more to win,
To Lingayen and to Leyte Gulf, where battle must begin.
And watch fierce West Virginia–Maryland salvo well to coast,
From well offshore we volley full and hit them at the most.

Now the time on shank of ‘44 does sit; with convoys through the Strait –
At Surigao we push our ships, no moments left to wait;
As Halsey’s ships in Leyte Gulf the “Battle Line” do hold,
By 26 October, Shima’s hot offensive is so soon no more than cold.

With twelve battlewagons hold we course, lined up to face their nine,
A spectacle at sea the time unveils – 100 ships combined
In brawl at sea, Imperial Fleet so soon to tame;
And soon we bottom out one carrier and three battleships of name.

So they disengage, disengage, disengage well…
Of sixty warships fought that day, were twenty sent to hell.
And battlewagons once again momentous war did save,
Of deadly warships sunk that day – ALL sent to deadly grave.

So, off to “Iwo G” we sail, our Battlewagons all,
And by second month of ‘45, at Suribachi call.
As brave New York and Tennessee now slam the ridges high;
To disroot tunneled enemy, and from fearful lairs to pry.

In thirty days, with days beyond, we pummel ashen rock,
The recoil of our mighty guns themselves – themselves a thundershock
That shook the very firmament and lit the chalky sky;
In thirty days we raise our Flag and watch it skyward fly.

“Otoko-Tachi No Yamato” HIJMS YAMATO leads the light cruiser YAHAGI on the
ill-fated Ten-ichigo Operation

So, off to Okinawa soon we surge; at battle speed we drive;
And boldly perch our ships off coast… ‘tis April ‘45.
Now, eighteen battlewagons come to life – hot action to pursue;
As fierce Yamato battleship soon enters into view.

We punch the holes at waterline as deadly warships gun;
As high above our heads our planes prepare another run.
For next two days, assault from skies all happens in a blink,
Off Bungo Strait we find Yamato… by 7 April sink.

For ninety days we push the fight, their stronghold here to break;
But our Battlewagons will not quit, and our warships not forsake
This place of battle – Okinawa – so we drive the daunted foe;
With impetus we push the fight, no fear would ever show.

These were the greatest ships that ever were – the greatest that could be;
From ‘41 to ‘45 – fierce Battleships at sea
Did clear the lanes and purge the foe, our freedoms more to hold;
But sixty years have come and gone – our guns now all gone cold.

But with greatest pride and mettle firm, we ride the “ghostly” waves,
As Battleships – with battle-weary – peek up from watery graves;
And kindly ask for moment’s pause, if over waves we ride;
To remember men who drove these ships and on Battlewagons died.

Epic Saga and Tribute ©Copyright Pending 2009 by Lawrence A. De Graw