I quickly raced up stairs and ladders. "General Quarters, General Quarters!" A panicked Captain Matthews came over the intercom. General Quarters, the call to report to battlestations, obviously meant trouble. A blast from the 8-inch guns nearly threw me off the last ladder.
I opened the hatch. The horizon was ablaze with gunfire. "Ensign Huntington, get on the Bofors! We've got Jap aircraft taking off from Rabaul and we need to swat 'em outta the sky!" Petty Officer Horton yelled to me over the gunfire.
I ran along the deck as Japanese shore guns launched a salvo. The shells smashed into the bridge just below the control room. The ship shuddered as deadly metal rained down onto the deck.
Another blast from our 8-inch guns made me unbalanced. I grabbed the railing and steadied myself, continuing to my station. Then, there they were. Just as I reached the quad emplacement of 40mm Bofors AA guns, silhouettes of aircraft appeared among the smoke and fire. I didn't have time to count, just lined up the crosshairs and let 'em have it.
As they got closer, I recognized that most of the planes had a fixed undercarriage. They were Kates, torpedo bombers. The leading Kate began to break off for its attack run. I tried to line my crosshairs on him, but the ship was shaking with all the fire and I couldn't get a straight shot.
I saw it launch its torpedo. Just as the torpedo splashed into the water, another Bofors crew managed to score a hit and the Kate went into a spiral, a small flame erupting from its left wing. A giant jet of water soared into the air as the Kate nosedived into the Pacific Ocean.
The torpedo glided through the water. Men could only watch in utter horror and hope for mercy.