The Emmons Saga: A History of the USS Emmons (DD457-DMS22)
by Edward Baxter Billingsley
iUniverse, 2005, revised edition, originally published in 1989, 438 pages
On April 6, 1945, five kamikaze aircraft hit the high-speed minesweeper USS
Emmons (DMS-22) in quick succession. The surviving crewmen soon abandoned
the seriously damaged ship, and Emmons was intentionally sunk by another
high-speed minesweeper in the early morning hours of April 7, 1945, since the
ship had uncontrolled fires and was drifting toward enemy-held territory. Edward
Baxter Billingsley, author of The Emmons Saga, served as the ship's third
commanding officer from July 1943 to November 1944 and previously had served as
Engineering Officer and Executive Officer since the commissioning of the
destroyer in December 1941 (designated DD-457 at that time), two days prior to
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. This book presents an extremely well-researched
history of Emmons' entire career. However, other than some individual
accounts of the kamikaze attack and its aftermath, the narrative generally lacks
personal stories to make the crew come alive.
Billingsley spent eight years performing research for this thorough history.
The primary sources included ship's logs, war diaries, and action reports. He
also utilized recordings of survivors' memories taped at the October 1982
reunion of the Emmons Association and written accounts of the kamikaze
attack prepared by surviving crewmen within four days after the sinking. The
book includes 25 pages of personal accounts of the kamikaze attack from these reports, but they lose some of their impact as
Billingsley has converted them from first to third person accounts. The
Emmons Association privately published Billingsley's history in 1989. This
subsequent edition published in 2005 includes two short additional chapters, one
about the 2001 discovery of the Emmons wreck by divers and another about the
special bond of Emmons' survivors and their reunion meetings.
The Emmons Saga chronologically covers the complete history of the
destroyer (converted to a high-speed minesweeper in November and December 1944)
from her commissioning to her sinking. The book lacks an index to quickly locate
specific references and maps to follow the ship's numerous movements to
relatively obscure places in both the Atlantic and Pacific. A 12-page Employment
Schedule at the back of the book summarizes Emmons' actions during the
war. The book has 25 photos that effectively supplement the narrative, but most
are not that clear. The cover has a fine painting by Dwight Shepler, Navy Combat
Artist aboard Emmons during the Allied landings on the beaches of
Normandy. The painting on the cover is entitled "Target of Opportunity," which
shows Emmons firing her guns at German gun emplacements on top of rugged
cliffs to the east of Omaha beach.
After Emmons' commissioning and fitting out, the destroyer's shakedown
cruise took her to South America for diplomatic reasons. Afterward, while
Emmons served in the Atlantic and European theaters, she suffered no
casualties and participated directly in few battles, which makes the first 13
chapters somewhat slow reading in places with many pages describing rather
uninteresting patrol and escort missions. The tension increases with Emmons'
participation in the Normandy landings in June 1944 and the invasion of southern France
in August 1944, but
even these events rarely put the ship in real danger. In late 1944, Emmons
was one of 24 destroyers no longer needed in the Atlantic that the Navy decided
to convert to high-speed minesweepers for use in the Pacific War. The conversion
took six weeks. The new ship, designated DMS-22, still had the primary
characteristics of a destroyer but with fewer guns and depth charges, and
minesweeping equipment had been added to the stern.
After minesweeping training, Emmons went by way of Ulithi to the
waters around Okinawa in preparation for the planned invasion on April 1, 1945.
Early in the morning of March 24, Emmons and other destroyer minesweepers
began sweeping assigned areas south and southwest of Okinawa. On April 6, the
day of Japan's first and largest of ten mass kamikaze attacks called Kikusui
(Floating Chrysanthemum), Emmons and her sister ship Rodman were
assigned northwest of Okinawa to provide gunfire support for AM class
minesweeper units. At 1532, three kamikaze planes attacked Rodman, with
one crashing into the forecastle starting huge fires and another one hitting
close aboard to starboard with a bomb rupturing the hull and causing flooding in
several compartments. Emmons started to circle Rodman to provide
fire support to the seriously damaged ship with an estimated 50 to 75 enemy
aircraft heading their way. Combat Air Patrol (CAP) destroyed many Japanese
planes, and Emmons shot down six. Another four planes crashed close
aboard without causing serious damage. Finally, a kamikaze succeeded in crashing
into Emmons at 1732, and four more kamikaze aircraft hit the ship within
two minutes killing 60 and wounding 77 [1]. At about the same time, another
suicide aircraft hit the damaged Rodman, which suffered casualties of 16
dead and 20 wounded [2] from a total of three kamikaze aircraft hits. About
1800, the decision was made aboard Emmons to abandon ship, and the
drifting ship with uncontrolled files was sunk by gunfire from the high-speed
minesweeper Ellyson (DMS-19) in the early morning of April 7, 1945.
Several officers and crewmen from Emmons received individual recognition for
outstanding performance of duty on April 6, 1945, with awards of one Navy Cross,
four Silver Stars, and eight Bronze Stars. All personnel serving on Emmons
at the time of the sinking received a Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon from the
Secretary of the Navy. The commendation reads as follows:
For outstanding heroism in action while attached to Mine Squadron TWENTY,
operating under Commander Mine Force, Pacific Fleet, from March 24 to 31;
and thereafter under the operational control of Commander Transport Screen,
from April 1 to 6, 1945, during operations for the seizure of enemy-held
Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands. Although lightly armed and highly vulnerable while
operating in dangerous mined waters, the U.S.S. EMMONS rendered heroic
service in minesweeping, fire support, radar picket, anti-suicide boat,
antisubmarine and antiaircraft screen missions. A natural and frequent
target for heavy Japanese aerial attack, she was constantly vigilant and
ready for battle, fighting her guns valiantly against a group of Japanese
suicide planes striking in force on April 6, and downing six of the
attackers before five others crashed her in rapid succession, killing or
wounding many personnel and inflicting damage which necessitated her
sinking. By her own aggressiveness and the courage and skill of her officers
and men, the U.S.S. EMMONS achieved a record of gallantry in combat
reflecting the highest credit upon herself and the United States Naval
Service.
Personnel who served on Emmons' sister ship Rodman
(DD-456/DMS-21), which underwent temporary repairs at Kerama Rettō and then
returned to the States, also received a Navy Unit Commendation for outstanding
heroism during the Battle of Okinawa.
USS Emmons DD-457
during service in Atlantic
Notes
1. From Dictionary of American Naval Fighting
Ships (DANFS) entry for Emmons. Surprisingly, Billingsley never
summarizes in the book the total number of casualties from the hits by five
kamikaze aircraft. A photo of a plaque affixed to the Emmons wreck in
2003 lists 18 killed and 42 missing (p. 385), which agrees with the total of 60 dead in
the DANFS entry.
Appendix B lists the names of officers and crew killed, missing in action and wounded
in addition to showing the names of survivors. This list has 18 killed and 40
missing, which makes a total of 58 dead, two less than the DANFS entry. Appendix
B lists 72 wounded, which also differs from the DANFS entry that indicates 77
wounded.
2. From DANFS entry for Rodman.
Source Cited
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Department of
the Navy, Naval Historical Center. Web site: <http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/>
Other web site: <http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/>
(June 26, 2010).
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