In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 1 MOBILIZATION Awaken a Sleeping Giant Illuminated only by starlight, the attack cargo ship Tate steamed across an uncommonly calm sea during the early hours of April 16, 1945. The clear, moonless night sky sparkled with the constellations Tate’s captain knew so well. After two world wars, Lt. Cdr. Rupert E. Lyon, an expert navigator and decorated warrior, viewed the stars as friendly lighthouses in the sky. Yet, on this sleepless night, he would need no celestial bodies to guide his ship. Loaded with assault troops and combat cargo, Tate and the rest of Transport Squadron 17 were sailing up the west coast of Okinawa toward a gathering storm. The amphibious transports aimed their bows at the flashes of light on the horizon as the thunder of a naval bombardment raced across the peaceful sea toward the blacked-out ships. Peering through his binoculars, Lyon could just make out the dark outline of an island to the north as his squadron eased into the assembly area for the invasion of Ie Shima. It had already been a long war in many ways for Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Milton J. Buswell, as he stood ready at his 40-mm gun mount. Not yet five months old, the battle-tested Tate was Buswell’s third ship of the war. His previous two ships were now shattered hulks rusting on the seafloor half a world away. Buswell had joined the armed guard in 1941 and was training when the United States entered the war. His first ship, Ballot, a confiscated Italian merchantman, broke down during a convoy across the North Atlantic before limping into Iceland. The convoy sailed on but lost 11 of its 22 ships to submarines . Later, on a run to Murmansk, Ballot ran hard aground when the convoy scattered in heavy fog during a German attack. Buswell soon found himself again in the Barents Sea on the freighter Greylock as part of an 11-ship convoy. Spotting two torpedoes jumping out of the sides of the waves and heading for his ship, he sounded the general alarm in time to avoid one of them. Buswell then watched helplessly as the second torpedo slammed into his ship, scoring a fatal hit. Minutes later, he was in a lifeboat bobbing about the frigid Arctic Ocean. Rescued by the British corvette Oxlip (K-123), he returned to the 2 COMBAT LOADED United States, where his next assignment was at the armed guard center in Brooklyn, New York, repairing laundry equipment, safe from the sea and the war. After transferring to Virginia in 1944, he was sent to gunnery school and then to Tate. A typical Midwesterner of average stature, Milton Buswell was hardly extraordinary except for his good fortune. What would end first, his luck or the war, would be determined on board Tate.1 With the eastern horizon beginning to glow just before sunrise, the heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37) lowered her 8-inch gun barrels and began firing low-trajectory broadsides into Red Beach T-1 on the island of Ie Shima. For Buswell and those of his shipmates with a view of the action, the muzzle flashes from the big guns exposed the silhouettes of the assembled ships and boats of the invasion force in the predawn darkness. Each violent flash burned a glimpse of the future into the eyes of those searching for a hint of what would unfold. For two and a half hours, the combined naval bombardment was relentless. Screaming shells passed directly over the heads of the men of the 77th Infantry Division embarked on the assault craft circling offshore. With the bombardment reaching its climax, the waiting U.S. assault forces did not have to check their watches to know their time of reckoning was at hand. The amphibious command ship issued the classic order “land the landing force,” and the wave guide officers in their leading and flanking boats led the assault waves forward, keeping them on course and schedule.2 Carrying fuel and ammunition to help sustain the invasion once it moved inland, Tate waited offshore. A product of a mobilized war economy, in less than nine months the ship went from the drawing board into battle. Now it would carry out its primary mission: landing combat cargo in support of an ongoing amphibious invasion. Only a few hours before, Tate’s twenty-four landing craft, which were now taking part in the attack, had hung from...

Share