Today is the 13th of July 1944, I'm Commander C.A. Johnson, United States Navy, former commanding officer of the USS Glennon, DD620.

It was my privilege to be commanding officer of that ship during its last nine months. I placed the ship in commission under Commander F.C. Camp, then commanding officer, myself being executive officer, in October 1942. The ship since then has completed seventeen successful convoy cross-without the loss of a single ship in the convoy.

This ship was engaged in the Sicilian invasion in July 1943 and its spendid shore fire control worked at that time. The only previous time that the ship had been hit in any manner or form was at Palermo on the 31st. of July 1943, when the Germans made a large determined attack on the ships in the harbor. The Glennon was strafed at that time, wounding sixteen men on the starboard side of the bridge. The plane that strafed the ship at that time had just bombed a British light cruiser anchored on our starboard beam where they scored a near miss. I was on the port side of the ship at the time, saw the plane. Before we could get to the plane, she came up out of her dive at about 150 feet, crossed over the ship and fired with her after-machine guns.

By the time I arrived on the starboard side of the bridge, the wounded were laying both inside and outside on the bridge. There were only two men who were seriously wounded and the others had minor shell fragment wounds. The plane apparently got away scot-free, although out of fifty planes making the raid that night, nine were shot down by both aircraft and AA battery fire.

From the 1st. of August, 1943, when we started to leave the Mediterranean until the invasion of France in the Bay of the Seine, in June 1944, the Glennon was occupied in transporting troop convoys to Scotland for the forthcoming invasion. These convoys in the North Atlantic, undoubtedly many of our troops who are now fighting in France will remember the weather of the North Atlantic during these crossings. It was typical North Atlantic winter weather.

About the end of April we began to wonder whether our ship was going to actually take part in the forthcoming invasion which had been played up very strongly in the newspapers but which we had heard nothing official about as yet. However, the orders began to come in with indications that we were going across with an entirely combatant convoy which looked to me very much like the beginning of the invasion to come.

On the sixth of May, we left New York proceeded to England with the Destroyer Squadron Seventeen plus the Plunkett, convoying the USS Quincy, a new United States cruiser.

On arrival Destroyer Squadron Seventeen reported to Commander of the Twelfth Fleet for duty. From that time on, until the invasion, time was taken up in actual practices for shore fire control and for action against German E-boats. All of this training was taken by all hands in a serious mood and excellent results were obtained. By this time, it was absolutely apparent to all hands that the ship was ultimately destined to take part in the invasion. Both the officiers and men seemed very happy and keyed up to the situation

Shortly after arrival in the United Kingdom the commanding officer started to receive voluminous reports and operation orders for the forthcoming invasion. He was unable to disclose at any time to anyone the nature of the orders that had been received. However, on the 25th of May, the order came through to release the information to those people that were required to know in order to get them thoroughly acquanted with their job.

Ports Jammed With Shipping

The plans were so well made and it was evident in our travels around the United Kingdom at this time that this invasion was going to be larger than anything that we had seen before this time. The ports of the United Kingdom were jammed with shipping. It seemed miraculous to myself and to most of the other people present at that time that the Germans were not taking advantage of this apparent tremendous shipping in these ports by making air attacks on them. Weak raids were made but at no time did I see a determinded air attack during this period.

The actual place where the ships of the bombardment group were assembled was at Belfast in the Bangor Lough. There, the same situation existed as existed throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, the anchorage had to be set down very carefully in order to get all the ships in the harbor. These were most all of them combatant ships including battleships, cruisers and a large number of destroyers.

Finally the word came setting D-Day as of the 5th of June 1944, 0600, being H-hour. That meant that we were going to have to get underway from Belfast on the 3rd in order to bring the heavy bombardment ships on station at H-hour. On the morning of the fourth, we received word that the invasion had been delayed 24 hours making H-hour on our beach, 6:30 on the morning of the sixth. This delay was taken in stride without any undue difficulties by any of the forces involved. A turn-around was made and another turn-around made twelve hours later.

The actual approach on the afternoon of the fifth was really remarkable in the large number of ships taveling down their specific lanes all over the southern coast of England. There was every type of ship known by both the British and American Navies in those formations. These ships had to make schedules and they were adjusting their speeds from time to time in very fast tidal waters in order to make the proper time at their destination. These ships did very well.

In the approach the Glennon was leading the shore bombardment group assigned to Utah beach.

The approach was made without incident, sighting no German aircraft or no German surface craft. There was periodic firing to the eastward of us and also to the westward of us in the vicinity of Cherbourg. This was taken to be E-boats trying to make an attack on the forces but being definitely stopped by our own forces who were patrolling that area.

Arrived On Schedule

We arrived in the transport area and the shore bombardment area on schedule and from that time on everything clicked off in accordance with previous plan. The paratroopers apparently had landed as their large number of planes were seen coming out. A very heavy barrage and bombardment was laid down by anti-aircraft on the beaches about H minus 4. This barrage was something that I have never experienced before

We were approximately 15,000 yards off the beach and the ship shook very violently during this entire barrage. There was an immense amount of dust blown to seaward and it came almost as a cloud. When the aircraft had finished their job, the shore bombardment ships opened up heavy fire on pre-determined targets on the beach. Targets were machine gun nests, batteries of all types, and shocked the Germans just before the arrival of the first wave of troops on Utah beach. Apparently the first wave was very successful because shortly after H-hour, we heard the announcement that our troops had breeched the seawall just behind Utah beach and were going ahead on into the country beyond.

Shortly after H-hour the Glennon received orders to proceed into this near shore fire support areas and to contact its shore fire control party ashore and give them support that they would ask for. We proceeded into the beach by way of the central boat lane and I was amazed at the quietness of the inshore area.

Invasion was not yet four hours old but the beaches were being worked thoroughly, the ships were going in apparently according to schedule and everything was quiet, there didn't seem to be any sign of confusion at the time. I arrived on my shore fire control station and was unable to get any targets from my shore fire control party ashore apparently due to the fact that they were moving so fast that they didn't require support from me.

That day proceeded without incident as far as the ship was concerned except for the firing of a few rounds at a battery which fired very short of us. It was also noted later in the afternoon that very heavy fire was laid down on the beaches causing the beaches to be closed for some three to four hours while this battery that was laying down the fire could be located and silenced.

That night was spent in the shore fire control, shore bombardment area, screening our heavy shore bombardment ships. There was a light air raid during the night. Some bombs landed fairly close, nothing serious. There was a low cloud formation, no plances were seen definitely enough to fire upon them. Our own Allied aircraft were able to chase them out of the area very shortly after they arrived.

The next morning the ship was ordered to a new shore fire control station off Quineville about two miles. This day was very much more satisfying to myself and to the officiers and crew. We fired at numerous targets that were designated by the shore fire control party, were able to dodge a few shells from the beach German batteries and were able to help our own Army stop a counter-attack late that afternoon.

Screened Bombardment Ship

This was rather interesting to us. We received a very hurried call for support and were told to be very careful as our troops were being counter-attacked and if the fire should be off very much why we'd fire on our own troops. However we went ahead fired about 200 rounds as directed by our shore fire control party, receiving very enthusiastic reports from them on completion of the fire that the enemy had been turned back completely as a result of the fire we laid down, and had retreated beyond the immediate sight of their positions.

That night we went back to screen our heavy shore bombardment ships again. Again that ngiht there were numerous air attacks with some bombs and mines falling in the area.

The next morning, the 8th of June, D plus 2, we were back at our station, on previous day's station by sunrise. A 8:03 there was a terrible explosion in the vicinity of our port quarter. Immediate information was that we had struck or detonated an acoustic mine. The after section of the ship immediately started to part about fifty feet from the stern. The stern settled rapidly and it was found that the ship was anchored fast by the stern.

There were numerous men who were able to get clear of the compartments below and they were in the water with no ships in the immediate vicinity. We immediately put our own motor whale boat in the water to pick these men up. We were very fortunate in being able to get to all except one of these men, all of whom had been quite badly wounded.

It was a very short time before two mine sweepers closed the ship and attempted to tow the ship off the beach. This was unsuccessful. They decided to evacuate as many personnel as we could, including the wounded, only keeping those personnel that it would require to salvage the ship and to man our guns that remained.

A tug was asked for to pull the ship off the beach and was sent in later that morning.

The first thing I noticed, the first one off the ship in this instance was our dog by the name of Gismo. He came to us just before we left New York. We had him alongside the dock and we put him off three times but just as we shoved off, he made one leap and managed to grab the ship. We thought at that time if he was so anxious to make the trip, why we would let him come along but I notice that he was the first one to get off. I had been a little bit worried up to this moment as to whether he actually was still on board but he seemed happy with his tail wagging.

The next few hours was spent mostly in trying to reduce the flooding in the after engine room and in the after living spaces still remaining with the ship. This was comparatively easy work and was brought quickly under control and it was thought perhaps that we could pull the ship off on high tide. The tug arrived just before high tide and made every effort to pull us off without success. The ship was turned through some 720 degrees finally in attempting to shear off the stern without any results.

It was then determined that we would attemt to cut the shafts, particularly the starboard shaft in order to push it out and probably that was what was holding us. This would free the ship and permit it to be towed away. While preparations to do this were going on, I received a dispatch from Commander Task Force Utah to abandon all further attempts at salvage, remove the crew and put them on an LST bound for the United Kingdom. It was known by the commanding officer that if this order was carried out, the after engine room would flood, the after living space would flood and while the ship would remain afloat, salvage operations would definitely be hampered.

We decided to take off all except enough men to keep the boiler in operation who could ride the motor whale boat out later and for myself to go to Admiral Moon, the Task Force Commander, and attemt to have the order changed in order to permit our boilers to remain in under fire to keep our pumps on the flooding spaces.

This was obtained that night and our crew was returned to the ship late the next afternoon. Full salvage operations by the ship's crew were underway late the next afternoon and we expected that on the eighth or rather the tenth we would be able to get the ship clear and be towed out.

Glennon Badly Holed

However on the morning of the tenth at 0700, the same German battery which had been giving a great deal of trouble both on the beaches and to the shore bombardment ships opened fire with extremely accurate fire. Their first salvo was short, their second salvo was a straddle hitting us in the after engine room. I tried to locate the battery at that time but was unable to do so. The battery was apparently hidden or well camouflaged. There was no smoke or flash visible from the ship.

After the third salvo had landed and hit forward, we decided to abandon ship in an LCM that we had close aboard. Already three men had been wounded on deck, the shells being anti-personnel shells, high explosive, bursting both on impact with the ship and in the water. Evacuation was carried out quickly and while the LCM was hauling away from the ship, there were mumerous shell bursts close aboard, three holes being put in the side of the LCM.

Afer being some distance away from the ship it was found that three men had been left on board. We had to get the wounded men we there already to some medical aid so we put through the picket line about a mile away, went close aboard a PT boat there, took off some men and sent the LCM on to obtain medical assistance for those men that had been wounded.

I took ten men and got a PT boat to return to the ship. The heavy shore bombardment ships by this time had opened up on the shore battery which had been shelling the ship and succeeded in silencing it, for the moment anyway. When we arrived back on the ship, it was found that the Glennon was badly holed all the way from the water line to its tops and from the after part to the stem. It was figured that their was at least five hits in the ship at that time and that question of salvage was no longer possible, at least by the ship's force, so we decided to put the fires out from under the boilers and to proceed to the transport area and obtain instructions form the Task Force Commander.

The three men were found, only one of which had been wounded after the former people had left the ship. They had done an excellent job and in keeping the fires going in the boiler and also putting out a small fire aft.

The ship had been hit on the bridge, destroying most of the bridge equipment and hit in the sound room, also in the radar room, radio room the forward fire room and two hits through the deck into officier's country and the CPO quarters forward. These hits wee known at that time.

After leaving the ship, we received instructions from the Task Force Commander to put the people on LST 381 return to the United Kindgom there to have a salvage party of 50 men and one officer, the commanding officer, to return when salvage operations became possible. As the LST was not getting underway immediately, the executive officer went back later that afternoon to inspect the damage and to get a few of his own clothes from the ship. The gunnery officer and a Chief Radar Technician went along with them. They found out that we had not counted all the hits earlier or there had been more shelling between the time we left and the time he returned because now there were 11 full shell hits in the ship and numerous near misses causing fragment holes thoughout the ship

It was thought that the ship would remain afloat as long as she was anchored by the stern but once she cast loose there, why, the numerous fragment holes thoughout the full length of the ship would undoubtedly flood practically all compartments forward and aft. The ship start to list heavily that night about 2200 and sank shortly thereafter.