I am Rodney Guidry from Sunset, Louisiana; Telephone 318-662-5511.
I was aboard the USS Alden (DD-211) and made a daylight torpedo attack on 2 Japanese cruisers and a destroyer, the Asagumo [27Feb42]. We fired our starboard battery of torpedoes and let the torpedoes get ahead of us, then we turned 160 degrees to starboard, to fire our port battery, all total we fired the total battery we had. Then, we executed a maneuver technically known as "gettin' the hell outta there!" [Asagumo was holed above the waterline and her engines were stopped temorarily.]
We went to join the main fleet that were patrolling toward the east as they were trying to circumvent the Japanese defending Men of War, so we could get to the Japanese transports that were trying to land Japanese soldiers and marines at Tanjong Priok on the western end of Java and practically simultaneously in middle Java and in eastern part of Java at Surabaja.
When we joined the American Fleet the Japanese were flaring us with flares to let their ships know our locations. We stayed with them until about midnight and somehow we got to following the HMS Jupiter a British destroyer. The Jupiter hit a mine when she was about 1000 yards away from us and vanished. As we had been told by the Dutch Admiral to go to Tanjong Priok for more Dutch torpedoes to jury rig them for more attacks upon the enemy. As we did not have enough fuel to reach Tanjong Priok, we told the Dutchman of our predicament. We heard no more of the Dutchman as he was now dead, having been sunk along with the HMDS Java by torpedoes from the Japanese cruisers.
We pulled into Surabaja at about 1 o'clock in the morning to find all of the Javanese yard workers gone. We pulled our fuel lines and managed to get enough fuel to at least get underway. I sat in a bomb crater about 8 feet deep about 15 feet away from my ship, discussing with a shipmate the like of a possibility of us escaping alive anyway. At approximately 5 o'clock in the morning, we got away from the dock into the Sound for more bombings from the "Dr. Pepper Boys" The reason we called them this was because they bombed us at 10, 2 , and 4. It was really demoralizing to lay down on deck and watch the bombers come above our anti-aircraft fire while crawling under a coat of paint, praying and scared as hell. I say crawling under a coat of paint, because the were no foxholes on the camber of a deck; I assure you we were all exposed.
And sometime in the morning, we called Bandung, where the headquarters were in Java, to find out what we were supposed to do. We told them that we were practically out of ammo and no torpedoes, low on fuel, and the men were dead tired. They told us to stand by and prepare to scuttle, as the water was so shallow that we had to break the keel to prevent salvage by the Japs. I was on the demolition party and would have been one of the last five men to leave the ship. Approximately 3 in the afternoon, we called Bandong again to find out how much longer we would have to stand by. They suggested that possibly after sinking our ships, we would go to Tjilatjap and try to get out of Java in that manner. We decided aboard the Alden and the other three four stackers [USS John D. Ford, USS John D. Edwards, and USS Paul Jones] to make a run for it.
We went between Java and Madura and turned south. The only reason the four stackers could pass in this way and not the [heavy cruiser HMS] Exeter was because our draft was not as deep as theirs. At the southern end of the Bali Straits, with the moon shining from west to east, we met three Japanese destroyers and we opened fire on each other. As a ruse, we fired what is known as dummy torpedoes. Whenever a torpedo is fired at the enemy, the enemy sees a flash. That notifies the ship that a torpedo has been fired at him. At the same time, we took empty cartridge cases from our guns and threw them over the sides to simulate the splash of a torpedo hitting the water. We were actually faster than the Japs and in no way spoiling for a fight, so we ran at maximum speed, what the engine room said was approximately 30 knots. The fireman on the gratings in the fireroom was controlling the speed by opening and closing one valve. He had all the jets going. When the smoke stacks would start shuddering, he would slightly cut down one jet to stop the noise, then gradually open it again. He was taking place of the acting officer.
When we got south of Java, instead of going straight south, we headed west to confuse hopefully the Japs. We got south again and headed south of Java we crossed the path of about 100 Men of War 4 hours apart. Another four hours of fast steaming, 2 planes was sighted from a carrier and general quarters was sounded. I was told this because as I had been awake for 87 hours, I was unable to be awakened, I slept through it. [The 4 destroyers were the only American ships to escape to Australia from Javanese ports on 28Feb42. Destroyers Parrott, and Whipple, cruiser Marblehead, and two gunboats added to the total of the Asiatic Fleet's surface forces which survived the campaign.]
And that my friends, is just one of the awful things I went threw in the first 85 days of World War 11 when the Asiatic Fleet bore the brunt of the fighting that saved many Americans from now speaking either Japanese or German. You who are reading this, should thank my comrades of the Asiatic Fleet for doing this for you. All totaled Rodney Guidry was in 10 major invasions after escaping from north of Java. He was one of 660 men who left 6339 of his fellow seaman in the ABDA command to drown in the North Java Sea. Sea.
Amen,
Rodney Guidry