Friendly Fire

Friendly Fire. U.S.S. North Carolina. April 6, 1945, The Battleship along with three large aircraft carriers, two light carriers, three battleships, four light cruisers and 12 destroyers were fighting off the coast of Okinawa. During the day an estimated 182 Japanese kamikazes in 22 groups attacked the allied ships. Just after 1 o'clock in the afternoon an allied ship fired at a low flying kamikaze and struck the Battleship North Carolina by accident. A 5-inch/38 caliber projectile hit the base of the port side 5-inch battery director (Sky II), located just above the signal bridge. (You can see the welding seams on the director, above left.) 44 men were wounded and three were killed: Edward Emil Brenn, Chief Fire Controlman , Carl Elmer Karam Jr., Seaman 1/c , John Malcolm Watson, Fire Controlman 1/c , , Crew Memories , I had just started at the CIC [Combat Information Center] and gone out on the Signal Bridge. Lieutenant Commander Kurin, the division officer, asked me to stay. I was a surface plotter and I stayed because he ordered me to. We had many casualties that morning. Most everybody on the Signal Bridge got hit. My buddy walked out right in front of me and I was a step behind him. He got out before he was pulled back. He was seriously wounded. You often wonder but never mention what would have happened otherwise. , , Everett Beaver, Radarman 2/c , , Three, men in my division got killed today and I knew them all well. It kind of gives you a funny feeling. It seems as if tomorrow I will wake up and find it all a dream. I was on the Signal Bridge when it all happened. A five-inch shell hit Sky II by the base. It was fired by one of our destroyers. I could hear the shrapnel hit against the steel on the side of me. I hope I never see a day like today again. , , Jerry Kass, Fire Controlman 3/c, as noted in his diary , (captions) , John Watson and Edward Brenn on liberty. , The damage to Sky II is visible between the men on the scaffold. , Burial at sea ceremony on April 7, 1945. Chaplain Redman conducted Protestant services for Karam and Watson and Chaplain Klass conducted Catholic services for Brenn.