USS Kidd (DD-661)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The USS Kidd Veterans Memorial consists of the restored WWII destroyer Kidd
(DD-661) and a large two-floor museum with a variety of nautical exhibits
including many model ships. Kidd
first opened to the public in 1983 as a museum ship moored along the banks
of the Mississippi River. She had been decommissioned in 1964 after a long and
distinguished career during WWII and the postwar period. The Louisiana Naval War
Memorial Commission, which has responsibility for operation and upkeep of
the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial, constructed a unique concrete cradle in the
Mississippi River bottom to hold the ship in place during the seasonal 40-foot
rise and fall of the river.
On April 11, 1945, a kamikaze aircraft hit Kidd with the suicide attack
killing 38 and wounding 55. The starboard side of the main deck shows the area
where the plane hit the destroyer, and a short distance aft along the main deck
there is a bronze plaque that lists the names and ranks of the 38 men killed in the
battle action off
Okinawa Island. The museum also has an exhibit in memory of those men killed in the
kamikaze attack with a photograph of each man above
his name and rank. The ship has few information plaques, with nothing on
the history of the kamikaze attack, in order to keep the ship more authentic and
reduce clutter according to the museum ship's attendant.
USS Kidd Museum Exhibit
on Operations During WWII and Korean War
Half of a large exhibition room on the museum's first floor is dedicated to
the history of USS Kidd. The room has a large model of USS Kidd in a glass case
in addition to many information signs and historical photographs. One wall
displays a cutaway side view of the destroyer that shows locations of
different compartments with historical photos of men in those areas of the ship.
Another wall shows artifacts and photographs from the ship's service during
World War II and the Korean War. Information plaques near the room
entrance explain the unique dock to hold the ship and the ship's long
restoration to the wartime configuration as of August 1945.
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Both the museum and the ship contain several artifacts related to the
kamikaze attack on April 11, 1945. The USS Kidd exhibition room in the
museum displays several pieces of the Mitsubishi Zero that were taken from the
wreckage aboard ship including a fragment of the exploded bomb carried by
the kamikaze plane, cross section of the aluminum propeller, a piston, a piece
of aluminum fuselage, and two instrument panel tags. The crew's mess area on the
ship has a small exhibit of USS Kidd artifacts that includes a fuel pump
from the kamikaze plane.
One exhibit in the USS Kidd area of the museum tells the story of
Lieutenant Junior Grade Broox C. Garrett, Jr., who was injured in the kamikaze
attack. Two aluminum rivet heads, sheared from the ship's decking by the blast,
are exhibited. These were surgically removed from Garrett's abdomen, and one of the
rivets amazingly still retains portions from Garrett's uniform. He was standing
on the main deck, starboard side, leaning over the railing taking 8mm movies of
the attacking Japanese plane, until his luck ran out. Above the two rivet heads
is a photograph of Garrett sitting in a hospital bed with his eye bandaged.
The exhibit includes the following story told by the 72-year-old Garrett: "As he came spiraling
down in a 'falling leaf' descent, he looked like he was going to splash.
However, as he got right down to the water he suddenly leveled off—heading
straight for us. I kept taking movies. He was smoking. Looking through the
viewfinder made it appear like he was further out than he actually was, but when
I heard the big 20mm gun shooting then you knew it was close. When I moved the
camera aside I suddenly saw just how close he was. It was too late to move or
duck, though. Then there was a terrific blast and I felt myself being hurled
through the air and suddenly found myself on the far side of the passageway,
laying on my back, with no clothes on except my belt—which had a few shreds of
cloth hanging on it. And blood all over me. I looked down and saw my left femur
protruding from my leg and said OH MY GOD, LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! I felt my left
eye hanging down on my cheek. When I later saw my steel helmet with a bullet
hole in it, then I realized that the bullet had punctured the steel part,
glanced down, creasing my eyebrow, apparently pulling my eye out."
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Pirate Captain Kidd, mascot
of the destroyer Kidd, is
painted on forward stack
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The museum exhibit related to the kamikaze attack on Kidd contains the
following background information about Japan's kamikaze tactics.
The Divine Wind
The Kamikaze attack had become an integral part of Japanese tactics after
its successful tryout at Leyte Gulf, where it sank an escort carrier and
damaged others. From then on, Allied seamen came to know suicide pilots
well. Kamikaze – "divine wind" in English – attacks during the Lingayen Gulf
operation were very effective, sinking four Allied vessels and damaging
forty-three.
American and British seamen underwent their most fearsome trial by
suicide planes during the Okinawa campaign. They were within close range of
the airfields on the Japanese home islands, and both the invasion fleet and
the fast carrier force were hit again and again. Thirty ships were sunk, and
though none was larger than a destroyer, 368 were damaged, including
carriers and battleships, some put out of action for months. Almost 5,000
Navy men were killed.
The USS Kidd museum displays the original two-page handwritten
engineering log entry dated April 11, 1945, that recorded the results of the kamikaze
attack. There is also a fascinating photograph taken by Lieutenant Junior Grade
Broox C. Garrett, Jr., of the kamikaze plane that crashed into Kidd as it
skimmed above the sea toward the ship with the destroyer USS Black
(DD-666) in the background. At the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial, there is
no mention by name of the kamikaze pilot who hit Kidd. Katsumi Hiragi's
carefully researched 2005 Japanese book entitled
Tokkō pairotto o sagase:
Umoreta rekishi no nazo o horiokoshita shinjitsu no kiroku (Searching for a
kamikaze pilot: Record of truth uncovered regarding puzzle of his hidden
history) concludes that Lieutenant Junior Grade Shigehisa Yaguchi piloted the Zero fighter
that crashed into the ship. The centerpiece exhibit for Kidd's WWII and
Korean War history is the wooden figure of a Japanese pilot at a plane's control
stick and supposedly dressed in a typical Japanese aviator flying suit, but it
looks less than authentic.
The aft crew's berthing quarters of USS Kidd, a Fletcher-class
destroyer, serves as a museum for all of the 175 Fletcher-class
destroyers. The footlockers in this area have had glass covers installed, and
now each one exhibits various artifacts and memorabilia from two or three ships.
Several Fletcher-class destroyers were sunk or damaged by kamikaze
attacks in the Philippines and around Okinawa. The ten Fletcher-class
destroyers sunk by kamikaze aircraft include Pringle (DD-477), Luce
(DD-522), Abner Read (DD-526), Bush (DD-529), Morrison
(DD-560), William D. Porter (DD-579), Twiggs (DD-591),
Callaghan (DD-792), Colhoun (DD-801), and Little (DD-803).
The museum has a gift shop on the first floor that sells a variety of
items such as caps, shirts, and postcards. Visitors interested in learning more
details about USS Kidd's history can purchase Robert F. Sumrall's 2002
book USS Kidd (DD-661) or
the 23-minute DVD Introduction to the USS Kidd (2005) written by Mark
Ballard and directed and edited by Donna Britt. The DVD highlights interviews
with four Kidd WWII veterans who tell stories about the ship and her
history as they tour the destroyer on which they fought. They provide personal accounts of the kamikaze attack and explain that every man in the forward boiler
room got killed. The film shows a computer simulation of how the Zero fighter
pilot headed toward the USS Black (DD-666) but went over that destroyer
and then headed toward Kidd while he positioned the plane between the two
destroyers to limit their gunfire due to fears of hitting the other ship.
The museum has created an excellent web
site filled with photographs and information about USS Kidd and her
history. The well-organized "Virtual Tour of the USS KIDD (DD-661)" takes the
reader through various ship compartments in about 30 different web pages. The
detailed "Ship's History" includes several fascinating photos such as
one from the time
when the crew hoisted the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger pirate flag in
New York harbor when the ship was delivered to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyards. The
"Oral History" section has accounts from about 25 WWII veterans including nine
stories about the kamikaze plane that crashed into Kidd. Signalman 2nd
Class Bill Gath describes the kamikaze attack from his position on the signal
bridge:
This plane came out of the low clouds, started heading toward the BLACK,
and then jumped the BLACK, more or less checkerboard style, over the top and
dropped down low to the water, coming in on the USS KIDD. The ship could not
fire its five-inch guns and 40mm guns due to the closeness of the ships in
formation, or we would have been shooting our fellow men on the USS BLACK.
At that time, the 20mm was shooting, and the plane was actually smoking and
going down when it hit the starboard side of the USS KIDD right at the
forward stack, underneath what would be the captain's gig. The bomb went
through the ship and exploded on the portside just about at the entrance to
the mess compartment down below.
The museum's web site also has a section dedicated to "Fallen Crew
Members of USS KIDD (DD-661)" with a separate biographical page including
photograph of about half of the 38 men killed in the kamikaze attack on April
11, 1945
USS Kidd Museum
The USS Kidd Veterans Memorial is open every day except Thanksgiving
and Christmas and the day before these two holidays. Adult admission to both
the museum building and ship together costs $8. Over the years many WWII destroyer crews
have selected
Baton Rouge as a reunion site with the opportunity to explore the USS Kidd
Veterans Memorial.
Date of visit: January 18, 2012
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