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Supply Support in World War II
Life Aboard a Tin Can
By Rear Admiral Robert H. Spiro, Jr., SC, USNR (Ret.)
War is frequently the defining point
in time, the watershed, for those who
experience the travail of military combat. Such was World War II for me, and
the Civil War for my maternal grandfather, James Archibald Monroe. Each
war lasted four years, and each, in its
distinctive manner,
traumatic.
Graduating from college on 16 June
1941, I recall standing on the campus
green, just in advance of graduation, savoring the forthcoming ceremony. Several of my classmates and I were discussing the European War and the recent Battle of Britain, and debating the
issues of Nazism, Fascism, and Communism. Little could we know that only
six days later - on 22 June - Hitler's
Panzer Divisions would plunge into
Stalin's Soviet Union, the first of some
three million invading Germans. Nor
could we know that in less than six
months Japan would suddenly attack
Pearl Harbor, the war would embrace
the globe, and our lives would be forever changed.
I had graduated at 20, that summer
of '41, and had been accepted at a very
desirable graduate school. But I decided
to wait a year, to teach school a year,
and perhaps get married. Thus I was a
beginning school teacher in Norfolk
when, returning from church services
on Sunday, 7 December, I heard the radio announcement
that at 7:55 that
morning - "a date that will live in infamy"- Japan had attacked and devastated Pearl Harbor. Three weeks later I
marched down to the recruiting station
and enlisted in the Navy.
was
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A 1942 photo of Yeoman First Class
Robert H. Spiro, Jr., USNR.
Presumably because I was a college
graduate, I was assigned the rate of
Yeoman First Class and stationed in the
Office of Naval Intelligence at NOB
Norfolk, serving in the office of the Director, CDR Charles J. Gass, for 14
months.
I applied for a commission in early
1943 and a few days later received a direct commission, signed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox, as Ensign, SC- Yep),
USNR. When he administered the oath,
CDR Gass explained that I would be
temporarily assigned to the Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk, then attend the
next class at the Navy Supply Corps
School at the Harvard Graduate School
/
of Business Administration.
It would
begin 11 June, and I should get my new
uniform.
The NSCS program was accelerated
because of the war, and I completed my
courses in Supply Afloat and Ashore,
Disbursing, Accounting, etc. in five and
a half months,
graduating
before
Thanksgiving that year and was thus relieved of the "P" (Probationary) in my
Supply Corps designator. Within 10
days I was aboard a Liberty Ship in San
Francisco Bay and enroute to Pearl Harbor for assignment as Supply and Disbursing
Officer of USS MORRIS
(DD417), flagship of DES RON TWO.
I reported aboard MORRIS at Pearl
Harbor on 7 December 1943. MORRIS
was a SIMS class destroyer, the seventh
of that name,· constructed in Norfolk
and commissioned
on 4 March 1940.
One of 12 in its: class, MORRIS was
348 feet long, displaced 1;570 tons, had
a draft of 13' 6" and a rated speed of 35
knots. It was the first destroyer to be
equipped with fire control radar, and
had just returned from the Tarawa and
Gilbert Islands invasions. The ship had
also seen active service in the Battles of
the Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz,
Guada1canal and the Aleutians. MORRIS was to be my home for the next 22
months - until the end of the war.
MORRIS set sail from Pearl in midDecember, engaging in training exercises along with DESRON TWO and submarine S-41 in the territorial waters of
the Hawaiian islands. For five days a
storm raged, and I was sick unto death
(or so it seemed). Happily, after that
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The key to victory for the Allies in the Pacific was a series of costly island-hopping
shown supporting an amphibious landing operation.
first storm I was never seasick again despite the fact that MORRIS was exceedingly top heavy and was reputed to
hold the fleet record for roll (73 degrees
in the North Atlantic in late 1941, from
which it recovered).
In mid-December
the squadron
headed east, arriving in San Diego on
the 14th and remaining in the Southern
California area for a month, re-outfitting, re-supplying
and engaging in
shore bombardment exercises around
San Clemente.
As a brand new and very junior Supply and Disbursing Officer, I learned
that the Sailors of MORRIS, which had
been engaged in combat operations in
the Aleutians and Gilberts during the
latter part of 1943, had held few paydays and most men had accumulated
sizable sums in their pay accounts. We
were moored along Pier #5 in San
Diego and I needed substantial funds
for a payday. So I called a local bank in
San Diego and made an appointment to
withdraw funds.
At the appointed
hour, a trusted
July/August 1995
campaigns. Here, USS MORRIS (DD417), circa 1943, is
Storekeeper named Marc Meyer and I
strapped on our Colt 045 revolvers and
with a large leather satchel in tow, were
transported in a Navy car to the bank.
We carefully checked out our funds (I
think we had $100,000.00) and returned
to the curbside to board our car.
No car! No car to be found! The car
phone had not yet been invented! So I
inquired about the street car line. We
walked to the car stop and took a trolley-car back to the base, arriving safe
and sound. Payday was held the next
morning.
On 21 January we took leave of San
Diego, not to return to the States until
June 1945. We headed to Roi Island and
the Kwajelein Atoll in the Gilberts,
where MORRIS and companion ships
began 18 months of continuous warfare
that would earn the ship six battle stars
and encompass the entire Western and
Southwestern Pacific to Western New
Guinea, Halmahera Island on the eastern fringe of the Dutch East Indies, and
Okinawa Gunto in the East China Sea. I
was not to have a night ashore during
those 18 months.
As a new shipboard officer, I was
gung-ho to learn the ways of the sea
and the duties of a seagoing paymaster.
I worked hard at being a good"S" (Supply) Division Officer aboard MORRIS,
running the'Iittle ship's store and laundry; operating
a good mess for the
crew; providing paydays and keeping
payroll and other accounts to keep the
ship supplied with provisions, clothing,
and spare parts; maintaining
Title B
records; and in filing all BuSandA reports. I had, of course, a military assignment in times of combat and stood
a regular communications watch in the
CIC as Coding Officer. For about half
my tenure on MORRIS;"my battle station was on the 20 and/or 40mm guns;
later I served at general quarters in coding and communications.
As time wore on, MORRIS was at
sea for weeks and months at a time. We
resupplied from tenders, auxiliary ships,
tankers (oilers) and large capital ships,
and from jungle bases and depots in the
Florida and Georgia Islands, Noumea
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on New Caledonia, Guada1canal, Hollandia and Ulithi. Of necessity, I became something
of an expert
at
"scrounging"
from other ships and
competing at jungle depots for essentials.
Unlike most other ships, MORRIS
had no ice cream machine, and our men
loved the stuff. I did my utmost to get it
- 10 or 20 gallons at a time - from
other ships when we refueled at sea or
in port; when we received mail pouches
underway; any ..time other ships were
nearby. For example, one of my college
classmates was a communications officer aboard WICHITA, which was often
in company with us, I often sent him a
message, by semaphore or otherwise,
stating that we "urgently require 15 gallons of ice cream." He usually obliged,
as did the Supply Officer of the battleship NORTH CAROLINA, and others.
Our Chief Commissary Steward was
a wily old Chief namedShaw, Suitably
paunchy and sporting a pencil mustache, he was a Fleet Reservist who had
served in World War I and had been recalled for a second round at perhaps age
45 or 50. He invariably presented for
approval his weekly menu for the crew,
and it always called for potatoes for
each meal. I remonstrated with him one
day, saying, "Chief, I know that our
crew must get tired of potatoes every
meal," to which he replied, "Pay, they
love potatoes and won't stand to give
them up." Finally, after some weeks I
prevailed upon him to experiment just
one week with potatoes only 12 or 15
times. After a storm of protest and
grumbling, I gave in to my wise old
Chief and we serve them thereafter at
every meal -- hash browns, baked,
boiled, french-fried, scalloped, in salads, etc.
The logistical considerations of operating under severe wartime conditions
in the South Pacific - places like New
Guinea and Guada1canal - caused us
to rely largely on Australia and New
Zealand for fresh vegetables,
dairy
products and meats. I recall the vast
quantities of cabbage foisted upon us.
Frequently, for want of refrigerated
space, we stacked dozens of cases on
the fantail. Quickly the stench of rotting
32
;lit'
~~""_,1;uHie~
The lighter side of war: LTJG Spiro finds time to do a little fishing off the coast of New Guinea.
cabbage in tropical climes was overwhelming, and' we would "deep six" it
regularly.
Also, while we enjoyed the fresh
dairy products, the constant supply of
"sheep products" quickly "told" on the
crew, including the officers. Almost every day for a year we served lamb
chops, legs of lamb, mutton, ram's
meat, ewe's meat or just plain "sheep."
For 20 years after the war I could not
tolerate "sheep meat." But now I like it
once again.
Taking monthly inventories was a
real problem aboard the little 1,580-ton
destroyer, especially in the tropics. We
had no air-conditioning, only blowers.
The storekeepers
and I would strip
down to shoes and undershorts to take
inventory in the cramped compartments
Newsletter
and bilges, where we stored canned
goods and dry stores. Often we would
have to empty a bilge area to count the
cartons, then re-stack all items, for the
ship was subject to violent rocking and
rolling. One thing was certain: we kept
our muscle tone up and weight down!
I insisted that we plan holiday meals
the best we could in order to maintain
morale, especially around Thanksgiving
and Christmas. We had no print shop,
so I would arrange, when alongside a
tender, to have holiday menus printed in
advance. Often- we could not fulfill our
commitments.
I still have one menu
(Christmas
1944) which had been
marked up by a crewman.
It listed
"Shrimp
Cocktail,"
which he had
crossed out and written over, "No
shrimpses." "Olives," was marked out
with the comment, "and no olives, durn
it!" He also marked. out "Oyster" in
"Oyster Dressing," the "Creamed" in
"Creamed Peas" and completely obliterated "Candied
Sweet ·Potatoes,"
"Fresh Fruit" and "Cigars."
But all "good" things must come to
an end, and MORRIS' "good times"
had a sudden and traumatic ending. It
happened at Okinawa Gunto in April
1945.
Most of the Pacific Fleet assembled
in late March in Ulithi Atoll. According
to Samuel Eliot Morison in the last volume of his classic History of Naval Operations in the Pacific, 1,213 ships and
crafts of all types, plus a myriad of attack transports and cargo ships, landing
craft like LSTs, allied vessels and supporting task forces - 2,528 ships in all
-- sailed from Ulithi to launch the
largest operation of the Pacific War.
They carried with them 182,112 troops,
including 81,165 U.S. Marines. Their
goal: the conquest of Okinawa Gunto,
just 600 miles south of the Japanese
home islands.
The next step was obvious - the attack on Japan. First Kyushu in the fall,
then the Tokyo Plain in Operation
Coronet in March 1946. It appeared that
we might improve on the timetable of
the current (but unofficial) slogan of the
Pacific sailors: "The Golden Gate in
'48."
We were to land the troops on "L"
July/August 1995
(Love, according to the then-current
phonetic alphabet) Day. There was every indication that the Japanese were
aware of our mission, for every day as
we approached
Okinawa submarine
soundings, aircraft sightings and attacks
increased
in tempo. MORRIS and
DES RON TWO were part of Task Unit
51.11.1, screening 19 transports. Just
after midnight on Easter Sunday morning, MORRIS and its accompanying
ships moved deliberately into the East
China Sea, between Okinawa and the
little archipelago of Kerama Retto.
Sunday and the days following were
hectic and always confrontational.
MORRIS was assigned to the radar
picket screen, positioned with a number
of DDs and DEs (Destroyer Escorts)
between Okinawa and the Japanese
homeland, just off the coast of Okinawa. Our mission was to protect the
fleet and the landing operations.
Japanese Admiral Toyoda, commander of all Japanese forces in the East
China Sea, mobilized his suicide air
squadrons in a final desperate confrontation during Easter Week and immediately afterward. "Operation TenGo" called for the utilization of 4,500
aircraft to stem the American tide. This
was to be the first of 10 massed
kamikaze
onslaughts
to be called
kikusui, or "floating chrysanthemums."
Toyoda was able to assemble
699
planes to attack on 6 and 7 April; 355
kamikazes were included in his attacking force.
On Friday, 6 April, MORRIS was
the last remaining ship active in station
A-ll, sector "Charlie." That day was
the first and greatest of Japan's manned
kikusui attacks, according to Morison.
Admiral Turner's staff estimated that
182 Japanese planes in 22 groups attacked the U.S. Navy that afternoon.
Seventeen American ships were sunk or
damaged by the swarms of Japanese
planes. MORRIS survived that hectic
day until 1811 hours, just 38 minutes
before sunset.
A lone Japanese plane, a Nakajima
B5N "Kate" torpedo bomber, appeared
out of the setting sun flying at 180
knots, low on the water just skipping
the waves. MORRIS opened fire furiously with five-inch 38s, then with the
40 and 20mm guns. The "Kate" seemed
hit and smoking, possibly afire, but it
came on. MORRIS turned away to starboard at flank speed, but at 1817 was
hit just forward of amidships,
just
A direct hit by a kamakaze was devastating to any ship, especially a small one. Here is
one view of the damage suffered by MORRIS in the aftermath of the attackof6 April 1945..
33
above the waterline between
~
••
'tIfII
the #1 and #2 guns. The
.•l,· ~~4·
plane's wings seemed to shear
-. ?
off, but the engine, torpedo (or
bomb), and kamikaze pilot apparently penetrated
the thin
1/4" hull of MORRIS, possibly
~,... '\ ..
exploding on the starboard side
of the ship.
I was at my battle station,
j:
on coding-communications
f
duty, when it happened. There
/.
were approximately
a dozen
I
men in the CIC with me, perhaps 20-30 feet from the explosion. We were knocked violently to the deck and the CIC
was engulfed in total darkness.
We came to, all of us dazed
(but unhurt), and dashed out on
deck to find total chaos, dead
and injured lying around with
terrible damage to the forward
half of the ship. We pulled, the
injured to safety, administered
first aid, manned fire hoses, organized rescue parties and
tried to save the ship.
A destroyer and a DE finally
came alongside to help with the
Another view of the damage sustained by MORRIS.
wounded and to fight the fires.
Shortly after the impact, we
thought the ship would have to
be abandoned, for ammunition
was exploding,
the fire was
spreading and a severe list to
During World War II, Supply and
port was developing. But with the help of
Disbursing
Officers were required,
the other ships and the heroic efforts of
when in combat zones, to keep their
the ship's crew, MORRIS was saved. By
most important disbursing records in a
2015 (according to the Captain's Action
sealed, watertight 40mm ammunition
Report) all fires were under control; by
can (with line and buoy attached) near
2030 they were out. Most of the woundtheir general quarters' station. Someed had been transferred to other ships.
time during the evening of 6 April, I
According to the Action Report, MORfound my 40mm can, superficially
RIS slowly limped into the nearby anburned but with contents intact. Thinkchorage of Kerama Retto,"underway
ing MORRIS might be abandoned, I
with port engine ahead one-third, startransferredthe can to a ship alongside.
board engine ahead two-thirds, maneuSeveral days later, in the Kerama Retto
vering with left rudder because of a large
anchorage, I retrieved the can and thus
section of hull bent outboard on starsaved all the ship's Navy Pay Records,
board side ... at a speed of seven knots.
Cash Analysis Book, copies of recent
Steering control in after steering with didisbursing returns, pay receipts and othrections from bridge over lV circuit.
er disbursing vouchers.
Commenced pumping A -4 and A -6 to reMy little stateroom, which I shared
move jive-degree port list." MORRIS arwith another junior officer, had been 10rived in Kerama Retto at 0500.
,
A.,
.~
/
34
cated just forward of the wardroom. But this room, together
with others in the vicinity, was
missing - nothing remained or
was recovered - including a little desk safe which contained a
few records and $1,208.18 in
petty cash. My main safe, which
was small (about 40" cube) and
heavy, was permanently welded
to the deck under a table in the
crew's mess hall. It was intact in
the flooded compartment
and
was later recovered.
I still have a copy of my official report, dated 13 April 1945,
addressed to The Chief of the
Bureau of Supplies
and Accounts
via
the
CO
and
ComDesPacFlt. In states in part:
"In the Supply Officer's room
were the following records, of
which no trace can be found:
Cash Book, Check Records, ... "
"The main safe, located in the
crew's mess hall, was inundated
by water and oil, but its contents
(the sum of $65,647.00 in cash
and unused checks #821-1500)
were intact and undamaged. r
"Complete Disbursing
Returns have been rendered for the
months of March 1945. In accordance with Reference
(a),
Disbursing Returns have been
renderedfor
the period 1-6
April 1945 (See Enclosure (D)). Because of the strenuous operations of
war in which this vessel has been engaged, no financial transactions took
place during the aforementioned period
. . . A new Checking Account with the
Treasurer of the US. has been initiated
by submission of Money Requisition
(S&A Form 15) in the amount of
$30,000.00.
"All refrigeration spaces, one dry
provision storeroom, the GSK Storeroom, and one Ship's Store Storeroom
were completely demolished, and all
contents thereof are a total loss ... It is
therefore impossible to render provision
returns for the Third Quarter 1945 or
Ship's Store returns for the month of
March 1945 ... tr
"It is requested that Ship's Store
t
t
t
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Profits available at the time of the casualty be brought forward to the new
account ... "
"It is believed that the Commanding
Officer's Report of Ship's Store Profits
(S&A Form 232) had been mailed
aboard ship, but had not been delivered
to a Post Office. This would mean that
this report was lost ....
All Title "B"
Records were lost, as well as numerous
items of Title "B" equipage, including
eleven (11) typewriters, a Friden Calculator, and a Buroughs
Electric
Adding Machine ... "
"On the day following the casualty,
a Field Galley was set up on the Main
Desk. The electricians mates salvaged
an iron from a wrecked oven, and
rigged a 12 x 18-inch hot plate. Salvaged mess gear and galley utensils
were scrubbed, and all available dry
stores assembled.
For five days all
hands were thus served three meals per
day from this galley. "Dungarees and
toilet articles were issued to those who
lost all personal effects. Every effort
has been made by all Supply Department personnel at this time of urgent
need to supply adequate food, clothing,
and supplies for this vessel. Information has been disseminated concerning
claims for personal property lostin a
marine disaster, and every assistance
will be rendered in properly preparing
these claims. Personal effects of deceased and missing personnel will be
processed in accordance with current
instructions. "
R. H. SPIRO, JR.
This report, dated 13 April 1945,
was endorsed and forwarded by the
Commanding
Officer, LCDR R. V.
Wheeler, Jr., to the Chief of BuSandA
with these words: "The Supply Officer
of this vessel, with initiative and imagination, met creditably the unusual conditions that resulted from the crash, explosion and fire. "
Total casualties to MORRIS personnel in this tragedy were 24 killed and
44 wounded. As soon as possible, the
Supply Department located all remaining personal effects of the dead and
wounded, sending them to families and
survivors as appropriate.
July/August
1995
MORRIS remained in Kerama Retto
during the remainder of April and until
22 May. On the day after arriving there,
the Fleet Repair Officer came aboard.
After noting that there were many other
destroyers in the harbor with lesser
damage, he declared that MORRIS
should be towed out to deep water and
sunk!
But MORRIS's Captain, Executive
Officer and crew were both indomitable
and indefatigable. While licking their
wounds, they commenced
to repair
MORRIS. The War Diary records that
during those long weeks (46 days in
all,) and despite heavy and daily attacks
by Admiral Toyoda's Ten-Go Operation, long hours of daily labor, mostly
by the ship's company, rebuilt MORRIS. A nearby damaged LST, loaded
with railroad rails, was persuaded to
part with a number of rails (in exchange
for daily meals provided by MORRIS's
able "Food Service Department") and
some cannibalized hatch covers. The
ship was listed to port and again to starboard for welding. A big "reefer"
(frozen food locker) was constructed in
the old crew's mess hall using salvaged
copper pipe from the old freezers. Rebuilt compressors ran the freezer.
Departing 22 May, MORRIS slowly
began the return journey to mainland
U.S. Stopping briefly in Saipan, Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor, it arrived in San
Francisco Bay on 18 June after a very
slow but uneventful
journey.
The
"Exec," LT A. A. Cherbak, USN, has
written an interesting piece on the rebuilding of MORRIS at Kerama Retto,
and related that on passing the Golden
Gate Bridge a number of curious ships,
puzzled by MORRIS' weird bow, questioned by signal light as to what type of
new destroyer it was!
MORRIS docked at Hunters Point,
and soon workmen were swarming all
over it, rebuilding almost from the keel
up. Most of the crew (including this
Supply-type "JG") got 30 days leave. I
hitchhiked by military air (it took two
days) to Orlando to see my wife and infant son for the first time since late
November 1943. With the dropping of
the atomic bombs and the surrender of
Japan (2 September), BuShips ordered
the suspension of work on MORRIS.
By that time, my little family and I
were ensconced in a luxurious Quonset
Hut at Hunters Point. I was quickly separated from active duty and hurried
away to enroll in a master's/doctoral
program at the University of North Carolina, just making the admissions deadline of 1 October.
In the meantime,
MORRIS
was
somehow declared neither seaworthy
nor habitable. It was decommissioned
on 9 November and stricken from the
Naval Registry 19 days later. It would
hardly be an overstatement
to record
that MORRIS was a gallant little ship,
living a rather full and exciting five
years, eight" months and 23 days, and
contributing its part to the victory over
Japan.
RADM Robert H. Spiro, Jr., SC, USNR,
retired in 1978 after more than 37 years of
service. He is a 194/ graduate of Wheaton
College, studied at the Harvard Graduate
Scftool of Business Administration, did graduate work at the University of North. Carolina ana graduated from Scotland's University
of Edinburgh, where he received a Doctor of
Philosophy Degree in 1950. He served as a
university professor and a dean, andsfor 15
years (1964-79) was President of Jacksonville University. He was also Under Seeretary of the Anny front /979 to /981.
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