APc-48...(Part VIII)...

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At this point in history's timeline, few are left standing who can accurately depict the duties and responsibilities involved in the assignments of those individuals who took on the immense task of defeating a determined enemy which had the advantage of first strike...No one job, from the commander-in-chief to the after-hours floorsweeper, can be said to have had a higher impact on success if all took the seriousness of the task with equal degrees of serious intent...In this context, some got the headlines while some recycled the newsprint for the events of the following day, but all played a key part...

During the course of the war, officers and crew aboard the APc's found the expectations placed at their door to be increasingly varied, calling for much ingenuity and innovation...The shallow draft design of these small coastal transport vessels was called upon more and more, as Navy planners saw the need to bring in more men, supplies and materials that first envisioned...Small raiding parties and their gear were a specialty, and even larger companies which were brought in on beach landing craft, were still guided to the correct location by the APc crews, who had to maintain a continuous knowledge of the reef-infested island waters...They also stood by at these times for sudden extraction if plans went awry...

One job planned by no one involved the transport of shiploads of green palm leaves to the smaller islands where Allied barges and tugs hid in secluded inlets during the day, hiding from Japanese overflights which would bomb and strafe them if they were found...These vessels moved only under the cover of darkness, bringing reinforcements and supplies, as well as taking away casualties...During the course of battle, the natural green foliage over these coves and inlets was shot away, leaving any parked vessels exposed to sight...By day tons of greenery was cut from the jungle growth of other islands, and stacked in huge piles aboard the APc's, which moved these loads at night to the exposed shipping conduits for disguise the next day...

At times the job became hazardous beyond measure... On 12/17/1943, APc-21 was working with a minesweeping force during the amphibious campaign to retake the BismarckArchipelago, when the enemy attacked from the air...A minesweeper and several landing craft were hit and damaged in the attack as all guns on all ships were manned to drive away the Japanese aircraft...Under the most ideal conditions, 20mm gunners can track and maintain fire at approaching enemy aircraft, but against fast moving and maneuverable attack aircraft, a slow moving vessel's crew longs for the comfort of quickly adaptable .50 caliber guns in close combat...

At one point, a Japanese "Val" divebomber took APc-21 in its sights and released all three bombs...One bomb penetrated the wooden hull without detonating, but the other two straddled the ship, detonating in the water with the explosions crushing the wooden structure of the  hull...Damage control assessment confirmed the ship was too weakened to continue, and all men were ordered to abandon ship...The entire contingent of 26 men and officers were rescued, as APc-21 took on water and sank to the bottom...APc-21 was awarded two battle stars during its Pacific service...

The quiet jobs may have been the most nerve-wracking as ships embarked at night to drop off raiding parties, or resupply those already emplaced...Constant attention had to be paid by all crewmembers looking for coloration changes in the waters signifying a hidden reef or sandbar, or scanning the horizon for dark shapes which might have been an approaching enemy ship...No lights could be displayed as the ship navigated to any one of the thousands of small islands, hoping they wouldn't mistake an enemy occupied islet for their real destination...A prearranged flashlight signal would let them know if they navigated correctly; a hail of enemy fire would tell when they didn't...The distinctive sound of the powerful diesel engine should be recognizable to experienced waiting troops, but not everyone was that experienced...And the sound might even muffle warning sounds of an approaching enemy...

If the navigation was successful, the passengers and cargo were unloaded, any messages exchanged, casualties taken on and they were off to the next stop...If difficulties were encountered, enemy forces spotted, if weather worsened, they might have to find a small inlet or jetty in which to hide during the day to avoid contact with the enemy... Crews learned quickly to make note of likely coastal inlets where the small vessels might take cover if ample warning was given of an approaching flight of enemy aircraft...

Occasionally the APc's were called upon to form their own task units, as when four of those based at Guadalcanal were grouped to transport and insert Fijian patrol units teamed with Navy radio countermeasures and Army radio field units into a group of islands where it was suspected that a Japanese coastwatcher was observing and reporting on Allied movements...The APc crews dropped off some teams, then moved on to insert another elsewhere, returning the next day to pick up and leapfrog the original team to another island...In this way many suspected points of enemy activity were covered at once...In analyzing the data from the radio directional finding teams, it was found that the suspected radio traffic halted during the period of surveillance, leaving the unit commander to suspect the aid of a German trader, said to be a deserter from the German Navy 32 years earlier, but whose true sympathies in the current conflict were unknown...It was decided to allow him to continue to operate as a trader, but to treat him with circumspect in future observations...

In the shallow coastal water of the many small islands which dotted the Solomon chain, the little APc's took on many tasks which would have been impossible for the larger craft...They were used on occasion as SAR vessels sent to rescue downed fliers stranded on an outlying coral reef...Where a large ship might have been picked up on Japanese radar, or even seen on the horizon by lookouts, the APc's could slip in unnoticed...Another advantage from their slow speed was leaving less of a trail to follow among the coral reefs...Faster ships, as an example the PT boats, left a phosphorescent wake as the cavitation and propwash from their higher speed left a clear imprint in the coral waters observable for some time after their passage...

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