HANNIBAL VICTORY

well the day is nearly over and the watch comes around to bring us back to reality back from our thoughts of home or games or books it's time for blacking out almost dust even a pinpoint of light can be seen miles away at dusk and dawn All Hands report to battle stations flaming sunset might be a thing of beauty to an artist but to an enemy submarine it's the time of day when he's almost invisible on the dark surface of the water while a ship stands out against the sky like a target in a shooting gallery so the gun crew goes through their drill before the night hides us you word has just come from the bridge Hawaii should be off the starboard bow anytime now the news is spread like wildfire among the Islanders in our crew maxi goes aloft and finds out it's true and they come running all anxious for a glimpse of home the whole gang swarms up to the top of one of the Samson posts pretty soon they get convinced that we're not headed for Pearl but that we will pass through the island south of Oahu and keep our westward course there's Diamondhead now pearl harbors just beyond we felt mighty sorry for those boys for this was home they were passing by but there wasn't anything we could do about it was an old story to Sam the third mate he was a Hawaiian himself but today Diamond Head is only a point on the chart to him our business takes his westward but where that big trooper came from you we happen to be batting the breeze and the crews mess when somebody says here we got 8-iron mascots topside and the so-and-so's don't even have names Chris says he's got an ID this ship is named for Mark Twain's hometown right and we got a whole set of Mark Twain's books the people of Hannibal gave us right all we got to do is look in there one's got to be Tom Sawyer somebody says yeah and Huckleberry Finn so all the Chris knees take place I wonder what it is makes a bunch of American guys give names to such items as planes and tanks and even trucks and railroad engines then somebody brought up a serious problem what if some of these were lady engines and somebody else yells handle Bella so Annabelle it was we'd left Hawaii astern almost a week pass and the ocean was getting to look a little different to us so far it had been all smooth sailing this couldn't last much longer then law on the horizon we picked it up a Pacific at all in a week on one of those island paradise --is the Japs made hell on earth for our Marines to take in a we talk is an almost circular chain of islands the rim of an extinct volcano about 30 miles across inside its deadly coral reefs the deep Lagoon of blue water is protected from the open sea and as we rounded the point where the Navy had built a shore station we saw ships of every size type shape and kind warships and merchant vessels as far as you could see there's a sir over there the carrier Sarah Tobin and there were dozens of other victory ships like ourselves and big rusty sided liberties the seagoing workhorses of this war and long gray tankers vast destroyer escort the pack transports and attack cargo ships LSTs landing craft patrol boats America's maritime might all gathered together out here in the middle of the Pacific pretty soon the harbour boat comes hustling up with orders from the Navy port director on where we're supposed to anger now here we were two-thirds of the way across the Pacific five thousand miles from San Francisco but the real tough going lay ahead of us now is the chance to check up on our life-saving equipment to go over the lifeboat gear with a magnifying glass almost check the provisions and water first-aid equipment and navigating instruments in the boats we had the latest kind of rig the boats were launched by gravity and were hoisted by electric powered davits the Molson took personal charge of this detail so you can be sure everything was done right for some of us aboard who'd sweated out long blistering hours in the tropics and lifeboats like these before getting rescued or who had nearly frozen to death in them after getting dumped in the North Atlantic we'd somehow come through luck I guess 5,000 of our shipmates in the Merchant Marine were never seen again yes we wanted to be sure we had something to hit you our lives - if the Hannibal took a hit from a kamikaze or a sub anchored at enna we talk life was not so bad we had to wait for other vessels that were to make up our convoy and soul in the meantime you couldn't keep the fellows out of a clear blue water makes you want to dive in and these lads wasted no time including a little showing off after all some of them were athletes and knew their stuff and is for the camicus and other island boys they were practically born with webbed feet they clowned around gave everybody a lot of laughs while we waited for the serious work yet to come we didn't have long to wait we broke out the laundry the Navy began rounding us up to the convoy aircraft Macarius squeaked low overhead an escort vessel began to corral the tankers and it was Anchors Away for the Hannibal victory we were going to make the last long stretch of our journey in the strength of each other's presence no longer would we be traveling alone there's one of our sister ships a victory swinging into position everywhere you look the whole surface of the big lagoon was busy with ships getting into position to leave through the narrow pass between the islands signalmen were working the big blinkers we all carried this was the way we talked with each other out here but we were under tight orders not to break radio silence we have to keep our exact distance within the pattern of the 50 vessels that made up the convoy along with us were 10 big tankers all carrying high octane gasoline and bound for Saipan this was the great test of strength our ability to keep the sea lanes open for the steady flow of fuel with a b-29 that were blasting the Japanese home islands into rubble made a smiley proud of our Merchant Marine to realize that air power in the Pacific was directly dependent upon us now the whole battle zone lay ahead the word got around one more stop maybe at an advanced base and then the Philippines we were pretty sure that was where we were headed we realized we were in Indian territory now and like our forefathers and covered wagon days we had to keep our eyes peeled in our powder dry the Tropic nights were beautiful and dangerous we were blacked out like the inside of a cat rem-1 dawn we made landfall it was Leakey for the [ __ ] defenses had broken during the landings of a few months ago we exchanged blinker signals and were told to come to anchor the Japs still infested those dark hills underneath us they were lying dead on the bottom because here they first used their kamikaze planes against our cargo ships while our soldiers hung onto the beachhead we weren't going to stay here long the word was passed we were headed for Lingayen Gulf that's where they needed the railroad to connect up with Manila this time more ships were joining us a special task force of escorts LSTs and a couple of big Navy transports like this fellow bound for a private invasion of their own only a few weeks before this was where one of the great battles of history took place the [ __ ] Navy tried to smash our Leyte invasion and met instead the gunfire from our battle wagons and planes from the carriers of our third and seventh fleets now all gun stations worm and all lookouts were posted for the Japs were still holed up in these Philippine Islands even if we have got him on the defense and we've got air cover too we all carried valuable cargo but if we thought ours was worth a lot what about that big C type ship off to Stockard she was a trooper with 2,000 American GIs aboard and behind us in column and alongside to starboard with the LSTs our DS flashed a warning somebody picked up unidentified signals in the sound detector now look out strain their eyes for telltale signs of a sub there between the trooper and the LST is that a Silver Streak in the water you we were a juicy target this convoy loaded with mam and tons of supplies the chapel subs were an even greater danger these lads wanted dad to paint a jet flag on our funnel they got a [ __ ] on our maiden voyage our escorts are laying a pattern of defin charges now here you can feel the concussions from the ashcans going off around us the D he suddenly veers across our course maybe they've located we think we got that one there may be others we can't stop to find out the alert is still on the weather is closing in on us a rain squall is an ideal time for attack below the surface another nip sup may be laying in the gap you then the plain Street north suddenly the signal leaps from ship to ship all clear all clear the alert is over and welcome rest for our nerves strain crew moving after four heartening cup of java kliklak rest before they go on watch except for we tea it is first attack and we've come through on top China sees belong to us now Halsey and his carriers arranging the shores of Asia off to port from Saigon to Formosa in the islands the Japs are still fighting stubbornly we have the feeling of power now sea power in the Pacific which means we can keep open the sea routes to our armies keep pouring into them the flood of America's production which is steadily swapping our enemies behind us or the Liberty 10,000 ton cargo ships symbols of the power and the will to win which have rocked the sons of heaven back on their heels you we've reached our destination we got saluted too in a way met destroyers throwing a salvo at the enemy back in the hill we're at the head of Lingayen Gulf where the Japs first invaded in 1941 and where we landed to drive down on Manila glads are wasting no time unbuttoning our locomotives the enemy is shelling the Anchorage with guns they took from Corregidor here comes a landing craft they'll take the smaller stuff to shore we need something bigger to handle this floating railroad yard on our decks these fellows can handle the k-rations but this baby can take 70 tons at a time cast it off check this harbors hot we don't want to get caught with this stuff on our decks here's the answer and lct landing craft tanks which will ferry the locals from us to shore a neat trick could thicken slant remember our lifting beam we brought it along and now the lieutenant in charge is showing him how to corral it and make it fast to the engine he was an oil well rigger from Texas must have been a cowhand too and she moves for the first time in a month now the rolling stock is Footloose the locomotives leave us forever but they don't get away in secret we all turned out to watch him go getting the tenders off came next plenty of room had a full inch to spare on either side now despite the fact that the Gulf was getting rougher the word was passed to hurry up the job the military situation ashore called for faster supply from the big base here at Lingayen along the road to Manila so we worked late into the day Taking Chances we usually wouldn't to get our rolling stock ashore they needed these engines on the rails hauling men and supplies we worked until darkness caught up with us with Japs all around us we kept lookouts posted but the night was inky black he caught us flat-footed a single solitary Jeff bomber gliding in low let loose one stick of bombs on the ammunition dump ashore you're like crying watching the sweat labor of thousands of people in the factories back home go up in smoke flame not to mention the guys aboard the ammo ships who risk their necks to get it here all in one night's fireworks it's a pretty rough lesson than what a terrible waste war is the dawn was smoky over the Anchorage by the time the lct moved up to the dock with her load the breeze had swept the morning clear this shore had taken a lot of beating both from us and the Japs but the Army had rigged up a husky dock and laid rails on it so as to take the engines only the last lifting job now the transfer would be complete the railroad to Manila would be ready to run you couldn't help wondering how Mark Twain would have told the story of the locomotive that went to sea and flew through the air as Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn Hannah Bella and the others finally got their wheels on terra firma railroad engines with names many a Filipina would wonder about for years to come touchdown are ready to run engines are going to get one more lift before they're under their own steam by one of the always present ducks which work on land and water it'll tow our locomotives on the solid ground once again you the strange setting to find our engines in they'll carry the war goods first we know that after this war is over they'll mean a lot in the rebuilding of the Philippines helping our friends get on their feet again maybe she'll have a better world to live in because of those engines right now like kids everywhere in this for its hello Joe now we've got news while our railroad engines are ready to roll to Manila on their own power we're told that Manila Bay is open we're to take the rest of our cargo to Manila where the railroad battalions have set up a shop to put them together so all we steam out of Lingayen Gulf around the South China Sea into the harbor our army and navy is taken back from the nips there's Corregidor in the rock in patan of proud and sorrowful memories we see they've begun to rout other merchant ships into the anchorage already and since the docks of Manila are smashed we dropped the hook offshore and this time unload our cargo into LCMS it's almost the end of the journey for the car wheels we've all heard of what has happened to Manila so those of us who can leave the ship climb aboard the shuttling LCMS and head for Shore for some of us this was the first time we'd be able to see the destruction left by modern warfare we lay our course into the mouth of the Pasig River first the Japs wrecked the waterfront and then we had to blast them out and we came back it'll be many years before these scars are healed our wheels are coming ashore the Filipino stevedores get busy the wheel trucks have to be set on tracks and the car frames fasten to is a Filipino Tom Sawyer to help our railroad men checked the bearings look over the blueprints then get busy for the engines will soon be down from Lingayen to pull the freight burns this is where a wheel belongs on a rail ready to roll in the meantime the chief mate is taking a look at what used to be familiar street scenes Manila was once a peaceful prosperous city you some others from the Hannibal victory are sure to they've looked on ruined cities from Murmansk to Malta but this is the worst you don't feel very kindly toward the nips seeing something like this now comes the job of putting the couplings on the car frame next the frames are lowered onto the wheel trucks after this he'll use them as flat cars and build boxcars on the chassis jobs nearly done the mate told us afterwards he couldn't help thinking of the difference in what he saw in the broken ruins of Manila what we've done by bringing over a cargo that had helped rebuild this country the Merchant Marine was a weapon of peace too our locomotives had pulled into Manila now ready to get their loads rolling to help finish the fight we've left our name behind us here the voyage of the Hannibal victory is complete engineer gets his orders and the best of luck to you Anabella so we up the hook and headed home for more it's been a victory for the town of Hannibal for all the hometowns of America you