April 12, 1945 saw my ship, USS OVERTON (APD 23) off Okinawa after unloading our UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) ammunition to the teams. The ship’s public address system announced the death of our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. As I looked to sea from my General Quarters station, I witnessed Japanese KAMIKAZEs crashing into our big ships and thought ‘FDR is not the only man to die this day’.

This air battle by the ‘Sons of Nippon’ almost did us in; 5,000 American men killed in action, 3800 wounded, 36 ships lost and 380 ships damaged. As a sidelight to my story, our Division Commander ordered us to a picket station, our Skipper LCDR John Bracken USN, sent a flashing light message in return: ‘Gyro compass out; radar and sonar damaged in near miss; fireroom blowers only allow us to make ten knots, starboard shaft out of balance, boiler tubes leaking.....’

This reply came from our Division Commander: ‘You are a menace to navigation. Go back to Pearl.’

This was the start to the finish of USS OVERTON.

The story I wish to share has never been written; note the enclosure from the US Naval Institute. I have tried to present my story in different military publications in the hopes that someone would verify the story. Now I have information that three sister-ships were involved in this story. The APD’s are the BARRY, the DICKERSON and the RATHBURNE.

25 May, 1945 BARRY was severely damaged by suicide aircraft, towed to Kerama Retto, where it was decided to anchor her offshore as a ‘tethered goat’ decoy for suicide aircraft.

(NOTE - We published some of the story of the ‘tethered goats’ on page 29 of KTB #116). To date, no one has seen fit to add to the story or to verify. Let’s hope we have the answer. I feel that we have a great story here, on how we defeated the brave but crazy KAMIKAZE.

The following is from the history of USS BARRY (APD 29)

April 1945 - after calling at Eniwetok, Ulithi and San Pedro Bay, USS BARRY reached Okinawa on 15 May.

She immediately began her patrol and escort duties, and was on patrol 35 miles northwest of Okinawa when struck by a KAMIKAZE plane on 25 May. Two planes attacked, and one was shot down. The other broke through the barrage and struck the ship below the bridge, tearing a 28 foot by 10 foot hole in the hull.

Twenty-eight enlisted men were wounded by shrapnel, four seriously. The explosion from the plane’s gasoline tanks and bomb ignited fuel oil from BARRY’s ruptured tanks, and a furious blaze sprang up, sending spurts of flame and clouds of smoke through the gash in the hull. The fire was immediately over the forward magazine and there was imminent danger of an explosion. An attempt was made to flood the magazine, but it could not be reached through the smoke and flames.

At 1340, forty minutes after the plane had struck, the Commanding Officer gave the order to abandon ship, since the magazine could not be flooded. BARRY’s own landing craft were lowered and all hands safely cleared the side.

The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant C. F. Hand, went aboard USS SIMS which had arrived to assist. SIMS lay to near BARRY while Lieutenant Hand gauged the rate of flooding of the forward compartments. At 1500 he estimated that the water had risen until the forward magazine was covered, minimizing the danger of explosion. The deck of the stricken ship at the stem was then only one foot above the water.

A skeleton crew together with parties from SIMS and ROPER then reboarded BARRY and began to fight fires. The last fires were extinguished at 0630 the next day and BARRY was taken in tow.

Enroute to a safer anchorage at Kerama Rhetto that morning, the ship again came under air attack. The party from ROPER, manning BARRY’s after 40mm battery, shot down one attacking Japanese airplane, and an escorting ship splashed the other.

After an inspection, BARRY was stripped of useful gear and decommissioned as being too expensive to repair or salvage. On 21 June, BARRY, without a crew, began her last voyage in tow and, in spite of her obviously damaged condition, lured a KAMIKAZE to destruction. A companion suicide plane however, crashed into and sank BARRY’s escort, LSM 59.

BARRY was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation, together with Task Group 21.14 for outstanding performance during anti-submarine operations in the mid-Atlantic.

Many thanks A. J. Remember, anyone with a story to tell of their time in the war; in any navy, any army, any air force - in any branch of service for any country; please send your story here.