(In crediting Edison News as an important source of original
information in this Chapter on the USS Edison, it is appropriate to provide an
insight into the "staying power" of her crew. This staying power served Edison
well in convoy operations, in submarine and aircraft defense, and in shore
bombardment during the complex phase of getting landing craft to their
debarkation point, onto the shore, and into defensible, expanding perimeters
against resourceful, battle tested, enemy forces. The Edison crew's staying
power is being exhibited long after Edison herself went to the scrap yard. In
January 1970, The Edison News was born in Lafayette, Indiana. Founder,
Publisher and Editor Robert Cloyd had been a Motor Machinist 1/c aboard
Edison. Cloyd kept this letter size, multi-page, slick paper tabloid going for
32 issues and then turned it over to Jean Whetstine in Linden, Michigan, in
the Spring of 1976. Jean was the wife of Larry Whetstine, another Edison
sailor. It is still being published in Byron, Michigan by Jean in 1997,
surviving husband Larry Whetstine's death and her own near fatal brush with
cancer. The Edison's 27th Reunion has been scheduled for the Holiday Inn in
Portsmouth, Virginia the week of October 13th, 1997.)
Configuration Changed Rapidly
In Chapter One, the photo of the USS Edison underway showed no main battery
gun mounts at all. Launched in late November 1940 at Federal Shipyard and
Drydock in Kearny, New Jersey, Edison was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard on 31 January 1941. She made short shake down cruises in February and
March 1941 and returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a six weeks installation
of her main battery of five 5"/38 cal. DP guns.
Edison had five war paint "appearances" during her relatively short life.
The first was plain gray. Then came a North Atlantic wavy camouflage paint
job, followed by one of Mediterranean medium gray over dark blue. Her fourth,
and most used, was a Mediterranean/North Atlantic "zigzag" camouflage. She
finished her duty in the Pacific painted in the dark gray used there.
The number of different Edison "appearances" has not been restricted to
wartime paint jobs. The Edison underway photos reveal three different main
battery configurations, namely no guns, five guns, and four guns, in that
order. In a letter which appeared in the Edison News' 20th issue in
September 1971, her first Commanding Officer, Admiral Albert C. Murdaugh USN
(Ret.) provided information not available in official records.
"I was ordered to the Edison from duty at the Naval Gun Factory in
Washington, DC. The first thing I did, on getting the word unofficially, was
to hand-pick a main battery. Meanwhile, the Federal Shipbuilding Corporation,
seeing a war coming on and wishing to establish a good performance reputation
for the sake of future contracts, decided to deliver the Edison six weeks
ahead of schedule. A classmate who was superintending construction at Kearny,
tipped me off. I hastened to get the guns shipped and found, to my
consternation, that F.D.R. had given them to one of the small British AA
cruisers in the Mediterranean, who were then hard-pressed. Next, I went to
BuPers (Bureau of Naval Personnel), who simply didn't believe me. (that Edison
would be ready early) Finally, I persuaded them to look into it, and they
ended up by ordering the Edison detail (officers and men who would put the
ship into commission), which I had just begun to assemble. Some of the men
arrived for commissioning with only three weeksof boot camp. Fortunately, in
desperation I at last reached a sympathetic ear at OpNav (Naval Operations).
They, in effect, told us (the ship and its crew) to go and get lost for six
weeks. Things couldn't have worked out better. The recruits learned far more
aboard ship than they would have at Newport (the Navy's torpedo station). We
were able to concentrate on basics and when the guns were finally installed,
gunnery technique was quickly mastered, as the record shows."
"On the question about the number on the bridge wings in the old photo (the
"old" photo he referred to is the one which follows), my recollection is
somewhat hazy after so many years. The circumstances were somewhat as follows.
Few people, except specialized historians, now know that on 1 September 1941,
Admiral King (Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief Atlantic, later Chief of
Naval Operations) issued an operation plan setting up regular convoy
operations in the North Atlantic. Presumably, to delay full realization by the
Germans of what was happening, orders were issued to paint out bow numbers and
put them on the bridge wing, like the British and Canadians. Many ships were
just too busy at the time to get around to it. The order reached us in the
Navy Yard, where compliance was easy. After Pearl Harbor, the numbers were put
back in the accustomed place."
The 5"/38 cal. gun on the forward edge of the after deckhouse behind the
second stack was removed as compensation for
other topside weight to be added. Edison's war history was compiled with four
5"/ 38 cal DP guns as her main battery. The high superstructure on the after
deck-house would be removed at this same time and a lower profile 36-inch
searchlight inserted in its place. It could reasonably be assumed that this
high superstructure aft had been originally intended to give the after conning
officer a high visibility platform in situations where the bridge, pilot house
and forward conning structure had become inoperable due, for example, to
battle damage. But, topside weight considerations eventually dominated all
modification decisions. US Navy destroyers had capsized in storms. Boards of
inquiry decided that one source of concern was too small a margin of
metacentric height (a linear measurement representing the difference between
the center of gravity and the center of buoyancy). In a ship's roll, a
sufficiently positive measure of metacentric height provides the lever arm in
the restoring moment to bring the ship back level. Later additions to Edison
and her class were two 40 mm Bofors AA gun mounts to complement the 20 mm
Oerlikon guns already installed. Torpedo directors were also added, one on
each wing of the bridge. The cylindrical object on the after quintuple torpedo
tube mount aft of the second stack just forward of the after deckhouse was
also removed.
USS Edison DD439; Build, Commissioning and Outfitting Data
Keel laid 18 March 1940 at Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Kearny, New
Jersey. Built alongside her sister ship, USS Ericsson DD440. Launched 23 Nov.
1940. Commissioned 31 Jan. 1941 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Named for Thomas
Alva Edison, famed US inventor. Governor Charles Edison of New Jersey, his
son, was present at commissioning. Ship construction details were 1630 tons
displacement, 348 feet at waterline, 36 foot beam, just under 12 foot draft.
There were two Westinghouse, 25,000 shaft horsepower, steam turbines, driven
by four Babcock & Wilcox triple drum boilers, rated 600 psi, 750 deg. F.
Rated top speed was 37 knots. She was of the Benson/Livermore class, two
stacks with a foc'sle deck.
Her armament: Four 5"/38 cal dual purpose guns controlled by General
Electric Mk 37 (amplidyne drive) Director, Sperry stable element (gyro), and
Ford Mk 1(mechanical, analog) Computer; two quad mount 40 mm AA guns; eight
single 20 mm AA guns.; ten 21-inch torpedoes in two quintuple mounts; two
racks (tilted, for roll off) of 600 pound depth charges on stern and 6 K-guns
for 300 pound depth charges, three on each side from midships aft. Edison's
complement varied from seven officers and about 100 men at commissioning in
1941, to 24 officers and over 250 enlisted men when the US finally got its
military manpower at war strength in 1944. Sonar and radar: High frequency
sonar transmitter and echo detector in a faired dome on the hull. SC long
range aircraft detection radar, antenna on main mast high.. FD fire control
radar, with antenna on top of MK 37 Gun Director, azimuth controlled by
training director, elevation control independent of director. Used "lobe
switching". Not very effective. When the number of ship's officers became too
large for the number of bunks in the officer's quarters, I was shifted to
Division Commander's cabin (we had no DivCom aboard) and slept next to the FD
radar magnetron. I was directed to wear a bite-wing (dental) x-ray patch
pinned to my undershirt. Good intentions for sure, but no one ever checked it
to see if radiation had affected me. Also, the spare magnetron for the FD
radar ("maggie") was stored under the FD radar cabinet and only Holmes
Bridges, Edison's Chief Radioman, who had gone to the Bellevue Laboratories
Radar School in Washington DC, knew it was there. But, I discovered it. I have
not told anyone until writing these lines. Radar was very secret in early WW
II. In late 1942, after the North African invasion, the Navy Yard installed
the Raytheon SG radar. The SG radar's PPI-Plan Position Indicator-a large
oscilloscope with the main glass up and the gun down, was installed in the
pilot house next to the binnacle. The SG radar's horizontally rotating antenna
was installed on the main mast under the fixed SC radar antenna. More about
how the huge technology advance of the SG radar meant changed everything comes
in later chapters. SG radar was one of a very elite number of US wartime tools
that made the crucial difference in WW II. We had it. They did not.
Not exactly armament, but important in some enemy action situations, were
the smoke generators. These were used on several occasions, one of which was a
surprising close call for Edison along the northern Mediterranean coast of
Italy. Look for a description in a future chapter.
In her total period of service, 940 officers and men served aboard Edison.
Eight enlisted men served the entire period of just over five years, from
commissioning to decommissioning. (This statistic on the total number of
personnel who served on Edison is not found in official Navy records, but was
compiled by Edison sailor Robert Cloyd in 1971.)
Service Summary
Edison's main service was in the Atlantic and Mediterranean from 1941-1945.
After a brief period in the Far East in the last half of 1945, Edison returned
to Charleston, South Carolina in early 1946. She was decommissioned there on
18 May 1946. Her last years were spent as part of the inactive "mothball"
fleet in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In June 1965, Edison along with Ericsson
(440), and Woolsey (437) were sold for scrap. Edison was sold to Lipsett of
New Jersey for $87,000. She began and ended her life in New Jersey.
The Shipyard
Let me add a personal note. As the ship's welfare officer for most of 1942
and 1943, I handled large, semi-annual, money contributions to the ship's
welfare fund from the workers at Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock who had
built Edison. These funds were used for ship's parties and other "worthy"
uses. I can never forget the unparalleled generosity of the shipyard personnel
who built an extraordinarily seaworthy ship. If any them survive to read this,
let them know that their efforts and financial generosity were matched by a
dedicated crew, mostly reservists and draftees, who fought the Edison
brilliantly against an unforgiving sea and a desperate enemy.
The Ship's Armament Usage
The official Edison launch data was covered above. Usage summaries are
offered here which will help the reader anticipate some of the engagement
activity in which the ship participated. This activity will be told in future
chapters. In this way, the later pages can emphasize the flow of the action
while the reader will already have an overall picture of the ship's life
cycle.
The torpedo battery: The World War II destroyer evolved from the pre-war WW
I torpedo boat. In WW I these torpedo boats evolved over a series of class
building upgrades into destroyers. In the sea war in the Pacific in WW II, a
few division or squadron-strength destroyer torpedo attacks were pressed home.
No mass torpedo attacks were recorded by US destroyers in the Atlantic or
Mediterranean theaters. While the Edison fired torpedoes in training, she
never fired one in action against an enemy. Interestingly, the Edison was part
of the destroyer detachment which screened the battleship USS Iowa with
President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard when he made the famous trip that
culminated in the Cairo meetings with Chiang Kai-shek of China and Prime
Minister Churchill. Edison was part of the Mediterranean screen from Gibraltar
east. A different screen brought Iowa from US waters to Gibraltar. It was
during that part of the trip on 14 November 1943, that the USS William D.
Porter (a destroyer later sunk in a Pacific battle) fired a torpedo,
mistakenly, at the Iowa. Porter was conducting a training exercise and the
crew in training made the mistake of choosing Iowa as the training target. The
destroyer then compounded the mistake by actually firing the torpedo. The crew
likely did not know what "cargo" the Iowa carried. According to one newspaper
story, reprinted in the Edison News, Iowa took evasive action and the
torpedo exploded in her wake. Training exercises took an enormous human toll
in the period of the author's tour aboard Edison and some situations will be
cited later in our story.
The secondary AA batteries, 20mm and 40mm guns: Ring sights were used in
early engagements. Later a MK 14 gunsight was added to the 20mm guns and
included in a MK 51 director for the 40mm guns. The guns themselves worked
fine. Profiiciency with the MK 14 gunsights came slowly and in many action
firing situations, personnel fell back on the old ring sights. One 40mm
"premature in the breech" due to a tracer ignition in a lot of Triumph
(manufacturer) shells caused eye damage to a young Gunner's Mate. The author
(then the Gunnery Officer) had just received an urgent message warning of this
possibility in a given lot of 40mm shells and was consulting the magazine
inventory when the ship went to General Quarters against air attack. It was
then that the accident occurred. Edison, unfortunately, had that lot of 40mm
shells aboard. The failure specifics were precisely as predicted. Also,
Edison's first quad 40mm gun mounts had to be replaced because the drives were
friction-coupled and salt water quickly decomposed the friction surfaces
(sandpaper). Pouring a quart of oil into a hole marked "Oil Here" did not
help. The later hydraulic drives worked fine. Edison's secondary AA batteries
were in action frequently. German planes did not press attacks home like the
Japanese so leading the enemy aircraft sufficiently in azimuth was usually the
key to fire control success.
(While some formal training was given for torpedoes and for the light AA
guns, most of this training was what the ship itself could work in on its own.
Priority for training, with full exercises scheduled, was given to ASW and to
AA and shore bombardment for the main battery 5"/38 cal guns. For the Edison,
which seemed always to be selected for close-in support of the amphibious
forces making landings, priority was given to shore bombardment.)
Depth charges: Used frequently against sonar targets which were classified
by the sonar operator as probable submarines. Edison trained several times
during each watch in setting various "patterns" for depth charge explosions.
These drills came without warning to the watch standers. Setting a given
pattern in less than 30 seconds was an objective. For the crew, this involved
going from a lookout watch station down to the main deck, often in rough
weather, and getting enough illumination and "feel, to make the setting, if at
night. Any setting other than "safe" armed the charge, causing it to go off at
a given, "set", depth. Edison SOP (standard operating procedure) was to leave
charges on "safe" at all times except when attacking a suspected submarine.
The reasons for the SOP will become clear in one of the chapters. When
conditions permitted, Edison also trained with other destroyers in "creeping
attacks", where one destroyer pinged with its sonar and barely kept steerage
way in order to provide minimum sea noise, while the other did not ping but
was vectored in by the pinging destroyer in a creeping movement to get over
the target for release of depth charges. The British came up with this scheme
which provided better sonar performance and kept the sub puzzled about what
was going on.
Main battery, 5"/38 cal. Dual Purpose guns: Edison had to be re-gunned (new
barrels) twice while the author was aboard. Very likely the ship was near the
top in all US Navy WW II destroyers in rounds fired per 5" gun barrel. A gun
barrel could "wear out" in several hundred rounds, with extensive firing
intensively concentrated in relatively short time periods causing the most
wear. The only other "wearing" components were the "bloomers" which
(almost)sealed the aperture in which the gun moved in elevation in the mount,
against the salt water elements. The bloomers would simply burn up during
concentrated periods of fire. The early leather bloomers were replaced with
canvas when the Navy figured out that bloomers had become a "consumable". This
battery of guns, director, computer and when needed, stable element (gyro),
experienced near flawless system performance. The Chief Gunner's Mate (Kerns)
and Chief Fire Controlman (Jackson) and their men deserved much of the credit.
These gun mounts had hydraulic drives. Tiny air bubbles in the hydraulic fluid
were an occasional cause for a given gun mount to "hunt" in azimuth or
elevation. This took some maintenance crew nursing, but could be dealt with.
The extremely reliable General Electric MK 37 Director had an amplidyne drive.
The director, mounted above the flying bridge, was up and clear of most of the
sea spray. (Number 1 Gun mount up on foc'sle often would be bashed in due to
heavy seas. One way we learned to minimize this damage was to leave the # 1
gun trained out to the starboard bow, so the sea did not have a flat surface
to pound.) The range finder in the main director had both coincidence and
stereo options. Chief Fire Controlman Jackson had sharply curved eyeballs and
I often thought he did not need the rangefinder's stereo feature at all; he
certainly used those optics with deadly effectiveness. In AA shooting he would
open up in range right on the enemy plane and usually with one small azimuth
or elevation spot (correction) would be able to call for "rapid fire". The
Sperry gyro and the Ford computer allowed the ship to go into "automatic" fire
with just small spots needed for correction. After the Raytheon SG radar was
put aboard, the Skipper would on occasion have the shipfitters make a floating
metal target to anchor near a beach whose shallow gradient did not give good
SG radar echoes. Then, shore bombardment could proceed in "automatic" with
reference to this marker, again with just small spots radioed from shore fire
control parties (SFCPs). The computer would simply take into account the
ship's movement and grind out the "problem". The 5" battery used "semi-fixed"
ammunition, a shell, and a brass cylinder which held the "powder" propellant.
These had to be mated in the gun's loading tray and a rammer pushed them
"home" and then the breech could be closed. An electric plus impact primer was
in the brass cartridge. On the port side about amidships was a 5" gun "loading
machine". It was used constantly to train crews. Edison could fire with a
Condition ONE gun crew, the battle station situation, or with a ready gun crew
, Condition THREE, or a watch and watch crew, Condition TWO. These different
gun crew personnel situations required a lot of men to know a a variety of
jobs in firing the guns. On the loading machine, for one, two or three minute
periods, the crew objective was 20 rounds per gun per minute! Edison crews
achieved those rates in combat. The Germans likened our effective rate of fire
to machine guns with large shells. The ship usually carried some star shells
for night illumination, some armor piercing shells for special targets, some
'influence" or "proximity" shells essentially for AA, and some white
phosphorus shells to help spotters move our fire to the target. We used all of
these on appropriate occasions. The proximity shells, with so-called VT fuses,
came with so many restrictions to their use (so the enemy would not capture a
dud and learn the secrets of construction) that we never used them in action
situations on the Edison while I was aboard. The preponderance of shells
aboard were referred to as High Capacity or HC. These could be fired at ground
or air targets. There was a nose ring time fuze, set in the fuze setting
hoist, which derived its setting remotely and automatically from the
computer's solution. This was the primary fuze for AA fire and also for
anti-personnel fire on ground targets when seeking an above-ground detonation.
There was a nose impact fuze. And there was a base detonating fuze. In other
words, fuzing was redundant. After all the work to deliver the shell to a
target vicinity, if the most optimum detonation did not occur, the backup
objective was to make "something" occur. I was aboard when two sets of gun
barrels were worn out and I do not recall a malfunction of this battery during
action. If one held a contest to name the most effective piece of conventional
ordnance in WW II, my nomination would be the 5"/38 cal. gun system in the US
Navy.
The Edison's Engineering Plant Usage
I was involved directly in ordnance aboard the Edison and the amount of
detail on ordnance furnished in this Chapter reflects that. Of necessity,
officers specialized in wartime. I rarely got into the engineering spaces.
Many below-decks personnel had to actually be ordered to come topside when we
were in port. The sparseness of detail on engineering here reflects those
wartime realities. Also, deck logs are the officially archived logs of a ship.
Little information has been preserved of the record of Edison's power plant
for her active years.
I can say that the Edison power plant was always on line when it was
needed. It never failed. The conning officers, and I was one, often called for
tremendous acceleration, well beyond the printed curves for increasing speed.
The Captain at his General Quarters battle station with the con was
occasionally warned by the engineering officer below, of the dire results if
we changed speeds so fast, but we certainly always got the desired result.
Sometimes the impact of a shell landing close aboard silenced the protests
from below. Yes, we lost "suction" occasionally, but Edison's corrective
procedures restored the situation immediately. These lines are written with
gratitude, if not with a complete grasp of what these men contributed.
Engine Miles Steamed