Editor Note: Glenn Hoplin was the 2nd of 4 Hoplin brothers to enlist in the Navy during WW II. (Oliver 1941, Glenn 1942, Donald 1942, Paul 1945). None of them had ever seen an ocean. Glenn joined the navy after graduating from Augsburg College in 1942. He was inducted and sworn in at the Federal Building on Washington Ave in Minneapolis and sent to Great Lakes, IL for boot camp. What follows are his reminiscences of those war years.
Glenn's Story 1942-1945
After this course, I was assigned more electrical training at Consolidated Edison Power Plant on the East River in New York City. This was an ‘in-plant’ session, observing the production and distribution of electrical power. This was a huge generating plant with many boilers and turbine generators. The coal for the stokers would come up river on barges, and was elevated to the top of building and distributed to stokers. This was a six-week stint and we lived on Pier 92 on the Hudson River.
We proceeded south and entered the Pacific through the locks of the Panama Canal. The Jersey and its class were the last naval ships designed to fit in the canal locks. The locks are 110’ across and the Jersey was 108’. The operation of the locks is fascinating, with water levels raised by gravity flow from the created lake above. The reverse is done on the Pacific side, with water from Gatum Lake discharged into the Pacific, lowering the ship in 3 locks to sea level. We anchored in the Gulf of Panama and took on fuel. The oil kings miscalculated and flooded a sleeping compartment with 6” of #5 black fuel. All openings between compartments have water-tight doors and 8” thresholds, so the spill was contained. But it was a mess to clean up.
We left Panama City for the South Pacific and in a few days anchored at Funafuti, a small island in the Ellis group, just south of the equator. A couple days later we were part of the 5th fleet under the command of Admiral Spruance. None of knew where we were going, but the harbor was filled with ships – aircraft carriers, cruisers, battleships, destroyers, destroyer escorts and dozens of supply ships – an awesome sight. Our mission was to prepare the Marshall Island Group for a Marine invasion. For about a week, we shelled and bombed these atolls until the palm trees were nothing but stumps. How anyone could survive such shelling? Of course, the Japanese did and the fighting was fierce. A week after the landing, we anchored at Kwajelain Island in the Marshall Island group. Most of these islands are coral reefs.
From here began a series of island hopping, bypassing Japanese occupied atolls cutoff from supply and eventually securing an anchorage at Palau and Ulithi and neutralizing the Japanese base on Truk Island in the Carolines. Then north to the Marianas, Guam, Saipan & Tinian. These islands are volcanic and valuable for airfields that put the new B29’s in range of Japan. Then we went south to New Guinea in preparation for the invasion of the Philippines. We also participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima, famous for its flag raising photo on Mount Surabachi. During the Marianas campaign, the Japanese were desperate and planned an attack on the 5th fleet from their carriers and go on to Guam which was still in their hands, refuel and return to their carriers. The battle became known as the Marianna’s turkey shoot. Over 400 Japanese planes were shot down. Admiral Spruance ordered the fleet to flank speed to attack the Japanese fleet. The distances between the target was calculated to so our carriers would be available when the planes would be nearly empty of fuel. Many US planes had to land in the water as the carriers could not land the planes fast enough and they ran out of fuel. That night every search light in the fleet was burning, something never seen in a war zone. Most of the pilots were recovered but many planes were lost.
We were then ordered to Pearl Harbor to be fitted with new radar and receiving Admiral William “Bull” Halsey as commander of the 3rd fleet. [The 3rd and 5th fleet were essentially the same ships, except for the command. I suspect it as an attempt to make the Japanese believe we had a 3rd, 5th and 7th fleet in the theatre. The 7th consisted of older battleships and carriers.]
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| Brothers in Hawaii |
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| Bogus story |
After the invasion of Saipan, the B29 super fortress bombing campaign began in earnest. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the second on Nagasaki, August 9. The Japanese surrendered. The formal Japanese signing of the surrender terms took place on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. There was some resentment at this, as the Missouri had served a very short time in the war theater, however, Truman was now President and from Missouri, so that was that. A tragic side story. The atomic bomb was transported by the cruiser USS Indianapolis from the USA to Saipan. She then proceeded to the Philippines and was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The survivors were in the water for several days as their distress signal was ignored. Only when she was late arriving in Manila, was a search initiated – a tragic event.
The Navy had a point system to qualify for discharge. It was based on length of service, number of engagements, marital state and who knows what. I had many more points than I needed for separation so was transferred to a Kaiser built transport ship bound for Bremerton. Enroute, we ran into a typhoon. The ship bounced like a cork and many old salts became quite penitent. I spent a couple days in Bremerton and then to Minneapolis for discharge at World Chamberlain Naval base. We were given a gold discharge pin, called a "ruptured duck" and $100 mustering out pay. No longer sailors – Hallelujah. It was a happy time as my wife of four months met me.
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| BB62 in 2014 - Camden, NJ (Philadelphia Harbor) |
Appendix for WW II buffs
USS New Jersey Official History
USS New Jersey Official History
The second New Jersey (BB-62) was launched 7 December 1942 by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard; sponsored by Mrs. Charles Edison, wife of Governor Edison of New Jersey, former Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned at Philadelphia 23 May 1943, Captain Carl F. Holden in command. {Editor note: Glenn Hoplin was a member of the commissioning crew.}
New Jersey completed fitting out and trained her initial crew in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for Funafuti, Ellice Islands. She reported there 22 January for duty with the Fifth Fleet, and three days later rendezvoused with Task Group 58.2 for the assault on the Marshall Islands. New Jersey screened the carriers from enemy attack as their aircraft flew strikes against Kwajalein and Eniwetok 29 January-2 February, softening up the latter for its invasion and supporting the troops who landed 31 January.
New Jersey began her distinguished career as a flagship 4 February in Majuro Lagoon when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commanding the Fifth Fleet, broke his flag from her main. Her first action as a flagship was a bold two-day surface and air strike by her task force against the supposedly impregnable Japanese fleet base on Truk in the Carolines. This blow was coordinated with the assault on Kwajalein, and effectively interdicted Japanese naval retaliation to the conquest of the Marshalls. On 17 and 18 February; the task force accounted for two Japanese light cruisers, four destroyers, three auxiliary cruisers, two submarine tenders, two submarine chasers, an armed trawler, a plane ferry, and 23 other auxiliaries, not including small craft. New Jersey destroyed a trawler and, with other ships, sank destroyer Maikaze, as well as firing on an enemy plane which attacked her formation. The task force returned to the Marshalls 19 February.
Between 17 March and 10 April, New Jersey first sailed with Rear Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's flagship USS Lexington (CV-16) for an air and surface bombardment of Mille, then rejoined Task Group 58.2 for a strike against shipping in the Palaus, and bombarded Woleai. Upon his return to Majuro, Admiral Spruance transferred his flag to USS Indianapolis (CA-35).
New Jersey's next war cruise, 13 April-4 May 1944, began and ended at Majuro. She screened the carrier striking force which gave air support to the invasion of Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt, Bay, New Guinea, 22 April, then bombed shipping and shore installations at Truk 29-30 April. New Jersey and her formation splashed two enemy torpedo bombers at Truk. Her sixteen- inch salvos pounded Ponape 1 May, destroying fuel tanks, badly damaging the airfield, and demolishing a headquarters building.
After rehearsing in the Marshalls for the invasion of the Marianas, New Jersey put to sea 6 June in the screening and bombardment group of Admiral Mitscher's Task Force. On the second day of pre-invasion air strikes, 12 June, New Jersey downed an enemy torpedo bomber, and during the next two days her heavy guns battered Saipan and Tinian, throwing steel against the beaches the marines would charge 15 June.
The Japanese response to the Marianas operation was an order to its Mobile Fleet; it must attack and annihilate the American invasion force. Shadowing American submarines tracked the Japanese fleet into the Philippine Sea as Admiral Spruance joined his task force with Admiral Mitscher's to meet the enemy. New Jersey took station in the protective screen around the carriers on 19 June 1944 as American and Japanese pilots dueled in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. That day and the next were to pronounce the doom of Japanese naval aviation; in this "Marianas Turkey Shoot," the Japanese lost some 400 planes. This loss of trained pilots and aircraft was equaled in disaster by the sinking of three Japanese carriers by submarines and aircraft, and the damaging of two carriers and a battleship. The anti- aircraft fire of New Jersey and the other screening ships proved virtually impenetrable. Only two American ships were damaged, and those but slightly. In this overwhelming victory but 17 American planes were lost to combat.
New Jersey's final contribution to the conquest of the Marianas was in strikes on Guam and the Palaus from which she sailed for Pearl Harbor, arriving 9 August. Here she broke the flag of Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., 24 August, becoming flagship of the Third Fleet. For the eight months after she sailed from Pearl Harbor 30 August New Jersey was based at Ulithi. In this climactic span of the Pacific War, fast carrier task forces ranged the waters off the Philippines, Okinawa, and Formosa, striking again and again at airfields, shipping, shore bases, invasion beaches. New Jersey offered the essential protection required by these forces, always ready to repel enemy air or surface attack.
In September the targets were in the Visayas and the southern Philippines, then Manila and Cavite, Panay, Negros, Leyte, and Cebu. Early in October raids to destroy enemy air power based on Okinawa and Formosa were begun in preparation for the Leyte landings 20 October 1944.
This invasion brought on the desperate, almost suicidal, last great sortie of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Its plan for the Battle for Leyte Gulf included a feint by a northern force of planeless heavy attack carriers to draw away the battleships, cruisers and fast carriers with which Admiral Halsey was protecting the landings. This was to allow the Japanese Center Force to enter the gulf through San Bernadino Strait. At the opening of the battle planes from the carriers guarded by USS New Jersey struck hard at both the Japanese Southern and Center Forces, sinking a battleship 23 October. The next day Halsey shaped his course north after the decoy force had been spotted. Planes from his carriers sank four of the Japanese carriers, as well as a destroyer and a cruiser, while New Jersey steamed south at flank speed to meet the newly developed threat of the Center force. It had been turned back in a stunning defeat when she arrived.
New Jersey rejoined her fast carriers near San Bernadino 27 October 1944 for strikes on central and southern Luzon. Two days later, the force was under suicide attack. In a melee of anti- aircraft fire from the ships and combat air patrol, New Jersey shot down a plane whose pilot maneuvered it into USS Intrepid's (CV- 11) port gun galleries, while machine gun fire from Intrepid wounded three of New Jersey's men. During a similar action 25 November three Japanese planes were splashed by the combined fire of the force, part of one flaming onto USS Hancock's (CV-19) flight deck. Intrepid was again attacked, shot down one would-be suicide, but was crashed by another despite hits scored on the attacker by New Jersey gunners. New Jersey shot down a plane diving on USS Cabot (CVL-28) and hit another which smashed into Cabot's port bow.
In December, New Jersey sailed with the USS Lexington (CV 16) task group for air attacks on Luzon 14-16 December; then found herself in the furious typhoon which sank three destroyers. Skillful seamanship brought her through undamaged. She returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve to be met by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
New Jersey ranged far and wide from 30 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 on her last cruise as Admiral Halsey's flagship. She guarded the carriers in their strikes on Formosa, Okinawa, and Luzon, on the coast of Indo-China, Hong Kong, Swatow and Amoy, and again on Formosa and Okinawa. At Ulithi 27 January Admiral Halsey lowered his flag in New Jersey, but it was replaced two days later by that of Rear Admiral Oscar Badger commanding Battleship Division Seven.
In support of the assault on Iwo Jima, New Jersey screened the USS Essex (CV-9) group in air attacks on the island 19-21 February, and gave the same crucial service for the first major carrier raid on Tokyo 25 February, a raid aimed specifically at aircraft production. During the next two days, Okinawa was attacked from the air by the same striking force.
New Jersey was directly engaged in the conquest of Okinawa from 14 March until 16 April. As the carriers prepared for the invasion with strikes there and on Honshu, New Jersey fought off air raids, used her seaplanes to rescue downed pilots, defended the carriers from suicide planes, shooting down at least three and assisting in the destruction of others. On 24 March 1945 she again carried out the vital battleship role of heavy bombardment, preparing the invasion beaches for the assault a week later.
During the final months of the war, New Jersey was overhauled at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, from which she sailed 4 July for San Pedro, Pearl Harbor, and Eniwetok bound for Guam. Here on 14 August she once again became flagship of the Fifth Fleet under Admiral Spruance. Brief stays at Manila and Okinawa preceded her arrival in Tokyo Bay 17 September, where she served as flagship for the successive commanders of Naval Forces in Japanese waters until relieved 28 January 1946 by USS Iowa (BB-61). New Jersey took aboard nearly a thousand homeward-bound troops with whom she arrived at San Francisco 10 February.
After west coast operations and a normal overhaul at Puget Sound, New Jersey's keel once more cut the Atlantic as she came home to Bayonne, New Jersey, for a rousing fourth birthday part 23 May 1947. Present were Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, former Governor Walter E. Edge and other dignitaries.
Between 7 June and 26 August, New Jersey formed part of the first training squadron to cruise Northern European waters since the beginning of World War II. Over two thousand Naval Academy and NROTC midshipmen received sea-going experience under the command of Admiral Richard L. Connoly, Commander Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, who broke his flag in New Jersey at Rosyth, Scotland 23 June. She was the scene of official receptions at Oslo, where King Haakon VII of Norway inspected the crew 2 July, and at Portsmouth, England. The training fleet was westward bound 18 July for exercises in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic.
After serving at New York as flagship for Rear Admiral Heber H. McClean, Commander, Battleship Division One, 12 September-18 October, New Jersey was inactivated at the New York Naval Shipyard. She was decommissioned at Bayonne 30 June 1948 and assigned to the New York Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Korean Conflict - New Jersey was recommissioned at Bayonne 21 November 1950,
Vietnam War - New Jersey's third career began 6 April 1968 when she recommissioned at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the only active battleship in the world.
October 2001: Arrives at her final destination on the Camden Waterfront in New Jersey, and opens to the public for tours
Copyright © 2015 Dave Hoplin
Copyright © 2015 Dave Hoplin
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