From Wikipedia
Back on June 1st, I wrote about Carl Clark, a black sailor who was on board the destroyer minelayer USS Aaron Ward (DM-34) when it was attacked and hit numerous times by Japanese kamikazeson May 3, 1945.
He said that he had an ordeal of it, but, he was understating the whole thing.
It is a wonder this ship did not sink. In the first attack, the ship shot down two attacking kamikazes before a third one released a bomb on the ship that explodes causing a lot of damage right before it crashed into the ship's superstructure. The bomb exploded below the waterline and flooded the engine room.
The crew worked to repair the ship for twenty minutes before a second wave of kamikazes arrived and sank two other ships (the USS Little was struck by five of them).
Several of the enemy planes made for the damaged Ward which shot down two more of them. Then one crashed, a second one released a bomb that hit before it also crashed into the ship as did a third kamikaze.
Miraculously, the crew managed to keep the ship afloat and it was able to get to where it was fixed.
Quite the Story. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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