War Diaries (March 28) (nonfiction)

War Diary entries for March 28.

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Diaries

Donald W. Panek: March 28, 1945

Everything came off smooth as usual and proceeded into our designated sweep area @1. We were sweeping in formation as follows—Skylark–Sage–Revenge–Pursuit. The Requisite had just lost her gear and proceeded to fall out of line to stream more gear. Then it happened—what we all had feared most—the lead ship hit a mine. I guess the picture of that ship will stick with me as long as I live. I guess it was about 11:20 AM when she got hit cause chow was called down a little after, but somehow food didn’t interest me. The Sage and us were ordered to sweep as close to the burning ship as possible and continue on. She was hit on the port side about amid ships. Fire engulfed the ship from one side to the other. She leaned up as if she was lifted up about 5 feet and then settled down listing fairly heavy to port. Smoke and fire was pouring out pretty heavy from no. 1 stack so I guess that’s where she got hit. The guys in her forward engine room didn’t have a chance. It looked like she was going rite [sic] down, but after she settled down after the explosion, and the smoke cleared away, she looked like she mite [sic] stay up. Fire was still coming out of the stack and the mess hall was burning pretty bad. PG 1128 [?], who was our demolition ship hurried over there rite [sic] away and began picking up survivors who had jumped off rite [sic] after the explosion. Evidently everyone was off except for the damage control party when she took the second mine. All of them were standing on the foc’sle as good as I could see, apparently working to flood her magazines to keep her from exploding again. The second mine hit forward somewhere—it looked as if it were rite [sic] underneath the forward magazine, where all the guys were standing on the foc’sle. It blew every one of them off. This was all she needed because she began sinking at the bow. One man was standing on the bow as she started down and when the deck left his feet, began swimming away. Quite a site [sic]. If you want to call it that. It took her about 5 minutes to completely go under after her second hit, going down bow first. The last site [sic] I remember of her was her rudder and screws sticking out of the water. Then she disappeared.

Up until we received a report on her casualties, the crew on here were the most beaten down I’ve seen. All we could talk of was the Skylark and how she went down. This was the first we’de [sic] experienced—one of us I mean.

The report of the casualties is almost unbelievable to say the least. 5 men killed and many injured. We couldn’t hardly believe it. I guess the five men were the engine room crew. We had at least expected half her crew killed and many injured but thank God they were so light. You can well imagine how we feel going into a mine field now. Especially lead ship.

During the nite [sic]—an attack as usual—2 Bettys came across our fan tail—we think we got one cause a can reported on splashing off her stern. They were no more than a couple hundred yards away from us. Can’t take credit for it tho [sic]. Tracers came over the F. Bridge—Evidentally [sic] strafing us.

—Donald W. Panek – World War II Diary: Invasion of Okinawa. Panek served aboard USS Revenge (AM-110), a minesweeper that participated in the invasion of Okinawa and related events from March through June 1945. Panek’s diary runs from mid-March through early September 1945. He provides a detailed record of events, including an account of the sinking of USS Skylark (AM-63) on 28 March 1945, which, thanks to the efficient rescue work of Revenge and USS Sage (AM-111), suffered only five deaths.

• Diary of Donald W. Panek @ navy.mil

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Donald W. Panek (nonfiction)
• War (nonfiction)
• War Diaries (nonfiction)

External links

• Diary of Donald W. Panek @ navy.mil