BY FREDERICK M. BINDER
Lt.
Cmdr. USNR, Ret.
Ron 27 was commissioned at Melville, RI, in late August, 1943. The officers and men trained at Melville were assigned to this new Elco squadron with Commander Clinton McKeller, USN, as our C.O.(1). Shakedown was along the New England coast and Long Island Sound. Assigned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the squadron finally was put aboard tankers and moved down the Atlantic coast to Aruba and then to the Panama Canal.
Unloaded, the twelve boats moved through the canal under their own power to the Pacific side and to the island of Tobago where further shakedown activities were undertaken around the islands off the coast of Panama. The boats, three to four at a time, were detailed to Balboa for refitting. There, the torpedo tubes were replaced by racks and new aircraft torpedoes supplied. A 40 mm. was put on the stern and a 37 mm. on the bow. In addition, the boats had a 20 mm. and two twin .50 cal. Machine (four in all) plus two depth charges, a smoke screen generator, a small mortar, and an assortment of small arms.
During the time (1943-45) that Ron 27 boats were in the Pacific, at least to April 15, 1945, not one torpedo was fired at the enemy. There simply were no big ship targets in our patrol areas. Our squadron essentially became a “gun boat” squadron.
Once again, loaded aboard tankers, were crossed the Pacific and were unloaded at Espirito Santos in the New Hebrides. From that point on the squadron made its way though the islands under their own power: first stop for an operations assignment was Treasury Island off southern Bougainville in the northern Solomons.
From our base at Treasury we patrolled Bougainville north to Empress Augusta Bay and the island of Choiseul southeast of Bougainville. Action against Jap barge traffic at night and an occasional float plane (a washing machine charlie) were the enemies. On occasion we worked with Catalina PBY’s (Black Cats) who dropped flares to show us where the barges were along the coast. With the flares and our radar we able to locate the targets, but we worried about the Cats who also dropped a bomb or two to “help out.” So – officers were assigned to the Cats to show them what a PT looked like from the air.
From Treasury we were sent north to Green Island, a horseshoe shaped atoll north of Bougainville. From there we patrolled the north side Bougainville and the Bismarck Straits between New Ireland and New Britain. There was very little action in that area so we moved on to Hollandia, New Guinea and then to Mios Woendi, a Dutch atoll in the area north and west of New Guinea. The biggest problem was making our way from Hollandia to Woendi. We were hit by a typhoon – waves 30-40 feet high, a wind about 100 mph. Somehow, the squadron got through it without the loss of a boat or a man.
At Mios Woendi we rested a few days and were assigned to the Palau Islands. We patrolled Pelilu and Babelthuap and Kossal Roads, a deep anchorage for large ships such as cruisers. The Marines and Army had taken Peleliu, but there was still some Jap activity. Other than a bombing raid (one plane) and a few scattered shots from the islands when we moved in close to shore, there was little action. The big thing we faced in the Palaus was a shortage of fresh water and food. Try washing in ½ helmet of fresh water and eating K and C rations for weeks at time. (Oh yes, and another typhoon.)
Reprieve? Well, perhaps. We missed the Leyte battle, but were ordered to the Philippines. First stop, the PT base on Samar, across from Leyte and the town of Tacloban. At Samar my boat, the 375, was ordered to Mindanao to pick up American guerillas who had been fighting the Japs in the jungle of that island since the fall of Manila. We came to the designated spot at the tip of that large island, signaled our presence by a flare and the men came out of the darkness in outriggers – shouting, happy and drunk as skunks! What a reunion aboard a Navy vessel taking them to freedom and home! Here were 15-20 real heroes of the Philippines!
From Samar Ron 27 moved north through the San Juanico Straits to Subic Bay on the northwest side of the Bataan Peninsula. Here was an old anchorage and coaling station from the time of Admiral Dewey and the Spanish-American War in 1898. The U.S. Rangers had moved in ahead of us and had driven the Japs into the surrounding hills. Other than a few snipers there was no problem though the officers slept onshore with .45 cal. pistols handy.
From Subic we patrolled Bataan and guarded the mouth of the bay as the Japs had a small, well-protected naval base at Mariveles Harbor on Bataan. One night three of our boats made a foray into Mariveles and were shot up, one officer losing his arm. Mariveles had been off limits. Now we knew why! There were Jap PT boats at Mariveles and one night the 375 (Frederick Binder) and 357 (Jeremiah Nolan) patrolling the mouth of Subic Bay managed to sink a marauding Jap PT which was trying to gain access to the bay.
I suppose there were two actions in which Ron 27 was involved which stand out in our memory: the fall of Corregidor in early February ’45 and being the first US Naval surface vessels into Manila Bay since the fall of Manila in 1942.
Four boats, two from Ron 27 and two from Ron 21, were led by Lt. (later Governor of Pennsylvania) Raymond P. Shafer, made their way at night through the narrow strait between Carabao Island and Luzon into the heart of Manila Bay and up as far as the harbor breakwater. In Manila there was house to house fighting, especially in the Intra-Muros sector where the Jap Marines were holding out behind walls 10 feet thick.
Our boats went through the straits because we were told by Naval Intelligence that there were no mines in that stretch of water. All the way in Jap flares were being sent up from Carabao Island, but the Japs never fired on us. When we got into the bay proper and made our sweep we managed to sink two very large sailboats loaded with personnel. The motorized sailboats did not heave to when warned. We came close aboard and decided that passengers were Jap troops fleeing from Bataan to Luzon. We sank them.
By now it was dawn and rather than risk a return trip through the narrow straits, Lt. Shafer decided to take our chances over the mine fields on the bay side of Carabao Island. Passing too close to the island, ostensibly to avoid the mines at the mouth of the bay, we drew fire. We replied. Our guns exploded a fuel and ammo dump on Carabao. What a glorious noise and blaze. We then skittered over the mine fields at 45 kts. And back to Subic.
Since PTs drew only 4’8” we were able to go over the mines as they were set deeper than 4’8”. Interestingly, a few days later we discovered that sweeps had gone into the Carabao straits and swept it clear of mines. So much for Naval Intelligence.
The other story surrounds the parachute drop on “the Rock” – Corregidor. Many parachutists missed the small landing area and landed in the rock’s crevices. Our mission was to move in close to the island fortress, put over rubber boats and bring them aboard the PTs. Our boat picked up 15-18 that day in the midst of Jap sniper fire. No one was hit, but we delivered the paratroopers to landing craft and they were ordered to assault the beaches. Some went into battle shock with the order was given.
The last action the PT 375 experienced while I was the boat captain was also in Manila Bay. We were assigned to pick up a salvage officer, a three striper, and go up to the Manila breakwater and harbor. The salvage officer was to plot the sunken hulks in the bay for clearance so that the large ships of our fleet could anchor there.
A low flying Piper Cub’s pilot and passenger kept pointing to some of the hulks, indicating there were Japs in them. We approached one and foolishly I stood near the bow and yelled at the “occupants” to surrender. I didn’t know they were Jap marines who did not surrender. I was greeted by rifle fire, whereupon I hit the deck, gave orders to back off and fire into the hulk. Four Japs floated out – three dead and one, taken aboard, soon died. We went to two other hulks and close aboard fired our guns – a couple of more enemy dead resulted. But the salvage commander begged us to go back to his ship. He had seen enough action for one day and quite honestly, so had I.
With fighting still going on in Manila, some of the boats went up Manila Bay and we tied up to a “safe” pier. A few of us (officers) went into the streets and ended up in Santo Tomas, a University converted by the Japs into a prison for American, British and Europeans who had been caught in the fall of Manila in 1942. Santo Thomas had been liberated only a few days before, but the PT officers were more than welcome by these poor half-starved people.
News of the massacres in Manila had not yet reached the Navy, but we later learned that more than 100,000 civilians had been needlessly slaughtered by the Japanese Marines.
Ron 27 lost only one officer killed and one badly wounded, plus two or three enlisted men slightly wounded (2). I left the Ron in April ’45 and later it was assigned to Borneo. That part of Ron 27’s history is not known to me and I returned to Ron Four, Melville, and was there recovering from malaria when the atom bombs brought an end to the conflict.
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(1) In the course of our service overseas, McKeller was replaced by John Bonte and he was replaced by Stillwell Taylor.
(2)Lt. jg Frank Lane (KIA in Manila Bay), Lt. Belton Copp, wounded and lost his arm in the Mariveles Harbor raid.
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