Q-Ball Family Thanksgiving War Story

[Q-Ball]

Thought I would share....before he died, my grandfather would tell this story pretty much every Thanksgiving. A miracle that saved alot of lives at the end of the war:

Thanks for Thanksgiving Day

We were on the island of Eta Jima in Kure Harbor in Japan on Thanksgiving Day, 1945. We were quartered in the Naval Academy and had the mission of disposing of large quantities of munitions stored in caves on the east side of the island facing the naval base. One of the problems was to dispose of large stocks of black powder that had become wet. Such powder was sensitive to detonation, much like the primers we use to ignite the powder in our howitzers.


For a few weeks, we had a level area that was in the form of a grid. We would dump a truck load of powder, burn it, and wait for 4 or 5 days for the area to be cooled off before burning more powder there. To do this task, we had 6 officers in charge of various areas, about a dozen sergeants, plus about 20 drivers, supported by a couple hundred Japanese. It became clear that we would never meet our objective of burning up the vast quantity of powder before Christmas, when were scheduled to go back to Kure prior to disbandment of the Division on 1 January 1946. There were so many munitions in caves that we could not blow the powder in place. But there were two caves near the naval academy that were empty. To take advantage of this situation, we planned to load the caves with powder, seal them and blow them. With great care, we spent several days moving the touchy explosive.

On Thanksgiving Day, we had planned to have dinner at 1:30 pm (1330 hours). Our commanding officer planned to go to Kure to have dinner with a friend, so turned the Battalion over to me and flew with Lt. Wiggins, a resident of Hawaii, to Kure on the main island of Honshu. It seemed a bit strange that a 1st Lieutenant would be the senior officer in the 218th, but all of our captains and majors had been overseas so long that they returned to the States either before we left Base X at Zamboanga, Mindoro, Philippine Islands or left right after we got to Japan. There were a number of officers on the island that were senior to me. But they were in the 46th and 47th General Hospitals, and Medical Officers could only take command of medical units and medical facilities. We planned to move enough powder to complete filling the caves with the expectation that we would accom¬plish the task by noon. We met that objective and dismissed the Japanese workers and our own troops. Our advisor, a lst Lieutenant, Ordnance Corps, indicated we did not have time enough to seal the caves, but we would do it on Friday.

A guard was placed so as to observe the caves, but far enough away so an accidental explosion would not harm him. After having completed early morning missions, I needed to clean up to participate in the various courses of dinner with each of the 5 batteries. As I was shaving, there was a boom, a rattle of windows, and a cloud of smoke. I got to a phone and called the OD (Officer of the Day) and asked what was going on.

He had already received word that the caves blew up and the guard was ok. Some buildings were on fire, but earlier we had accidentally burned two down and formed a fire break that might save the rest. I asked for transportation, quickly dressed and awaited the jeep, which soon came. At the scene, it was clear that the two wooden buildings were a total loss. The fire break seemed to be adequate to prevent other buildings from burning down. The guard, specially selected as the most reliable man on the shift, informed me that there had been no one in the area prior to the blast. Our Ordnance Advisor indicated that something as simple as a rock fall from the ceiling of the cave could have set it off.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that we had been extremely fortunate. None of our personnel and none of the Japanese had been injured or killed, but it would have been different if it had been another work day. I confided with our chaplain that we should all give thanks for Thanksgiving Day. Each year as we celebrate that day, that is the most memorable I have ever known! It wasn't until long afterward that I realized that perhaps I should have been thankful that there was only a short report of the incident. And the 218th was the only unit handling major amounts of munitions that had no casualties.

[CMDRMCTOAST]

Very cool thanks for sharing...

[Chickenboy]

Neat story, Q-ball.

[stuman]

Great story. Thx