Wayne Chambers

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S.S. Henley was moored at X-11 in Pearl Harbor alongside the U.S.S. Ralph Talbot and the U.S.S. Patterson, north of Ford Island.

About 7:45 a.m. General Quarters sounded on board the Henley. By the time the roused crew had thrown on their clothes, the Quartermaster was running through the ship shouting “delay that call, delay that call. I pressed the wrong button. I was supposed to press the button to call the Officer of the Day to the quarter deck.” He had intended to announce the arrival of a high ranking officer.

Just before 8:00 a.m. General Quarters sounded again. This time it was not a false alarm and De Leonians Wayne Chambers on the Henley, his brother Roger at Honolulu, Fred Schmidt on the U.S. S. Medusa and Arthur McKamey who was on the U.S.S. California anchored alone at the southernmost berth of battleship row, were in the middle of the opening attack by the Japanese on the United States Pacific Fleet.

The Henley would leave Pearl each Monday morning for routine sea duty and return to base each Friday evening or Saturday morning. Seventy-five per cent of the crew would then be granted liberty. At noon on December 6, Wayne left the ship to visit his brother Roger. Roger was serving in Naval Intelligence which was located in downtown Honolulu.

After a day in Honolulu, Roger wanted Wayne to spend the night in town but Wayne decided to return to his ship, agreeing to meet Roger the next morning about nine o’clock. After the false alarm, Wayne opted to get ten more minutes sleep before heading back into Honolulu.

He had no sooner gotten back in his bunk when General Quarters sounded the second time. This time the Quartermaster came running through the ship shouting that they were under attack. It would be almost a year before Wayne and Roger would again have contact with each other.

The main target of the Japanese was battleship row on the opposite side of Ford Island from the Henley, but, they attacked ships scattered throughout the harbor, including the ships anchored with the Henley. They were unsuccessful in a bombing attempt on the Henley itself. Although the crew of the Henley began returning fire almost immediately, machine guns were the only weapons initially available for use and were ineffective against the Japanese planes.

Even though the Captain, the Executive Officer, the Gunnery Officer, the Engineering Officer and three fourths of the crew were on shore, the remaining men managed to get the ship underway in an attempt to get out of the harbor and into the open sea.

The ship’s skipper, Lt. Commander Robert Hall Smith and the Executive Officer Lt. H.G. Corey had both spent the evening at their homes on shore. After awaking to gunfire, Corey looked out of his window where he saw the flames from Pearl Harbor. He was soon picked up by the skipper and the two raced toward a landing area where a whaleboat was maintained for access to the ship.

When Cmdr. Smith pulled into the landing, he tossed his keys to the attendant and shouted “Get them to my wife when you can.” But on the way to the whaleboat a Hawaiian woman who operated a hot dog stand near the landing, pointed a rifle at the two officers and screamed “Halt!”. Once they convinced her that they were not Japanese, she allowed them onto the whaleboat.

Awaiting their arrival at the whaleboat were the ship’s engineer and coxswain. But, as they set out they could see the Henley steaming out to sea. Lt. Francis E. Fleck, the Officer of the Deck and the Junior Engineering Officer, Ensign Chambers had managed to get the ship underway at 8:30 a.m.

Luckily, a lull in the bombing occurred from about 8:30 until 8:55 when the second wave of planes struck. The Henley was one of only a few of the ninety ships in the harbor to make it out to sea. The U.S.S. Nevada had made a dash for the open sea and had narrowly averted being sunk in the harbor mouth. Only the action of two tug boats managed to ground her in mud and keep the harbor mouth open.

The Henley passed the U.S.S. Utah which had been hit and overturned. The Utah was in the process of being retired from the Navy and had been stripped down. Part of her superstructure had been removed and scaffolds and planking made it appear from the air that she was one of the carriers the Japanese were after. As a result, the Japanese wasted many torpedoes and eleven minutes in sinking the Utah. The Utah and the Arizona were the only ships not raised after the attack.

On the opposite side of the island was anchored the U.S.S. Tennessee on which Wayne would later serve. Directly behind the Tennessee was the U.S.S. Arizona. Shielded by the West Virginia, the Tennessee sustained only two direct hits although those hits did cause casualties and do some damage. But the real damage came from debris from the Arizona. Even though the Tennessee remained relatively unscathed, the ship was trapped for the next week between a concrete dock and the West Virginia. It was released from its berth only after the dock was delicately dynamited.

Further south was the U.S.S. California on which Arthur McKamey was serving. (McKamey’s ship was misidentified in the 1995 article as the Tennessee). The McKamey family lived east of De Leon prior to the war but earlier had sold the farm to W.H. Smith Sr. That farm was located directly across from the Smith fruit stand on the Gorman Highway.

As the Henley raced for the open sea, the second wave of planes made an unsuccessful attempt to sink her just as the ship passed Hospital Point. The destroyer again fired at the Japanese planes and this time claimed a “kill.” While in the channel, a second plane came under the ship’s fire. The ship’s log indicated that the plane crashed at sea.

By 9:00 a.m., the appointed time at which Wayne was to meet Roger, the Henley had cleared the buoys and was in the open sea. It immediately began patrolling along the coast. At 9:15 the Henley dropped depth charges in a attempt to sink what they thought was one of the Japanese midget subs operating in and around Pearl. While there were indications that a sub may have been hit, no visible surface evidence was found. One of the five midget subs operating in the harbor that day was sunk and later raised. Today it is on display at the Nimitz Museum in Fredricksburg, Texas.

Lt. Cmdr. Smith and Lt. Corey, realizing they could not catch the Henley searched for a ship from which they cold transfer to the Henley. Corey stated that during their search, dive bombers came “out of everywhere. The shrapnel was like rain. We picked up the whaleboat’s seat cushions and held them over our heads, as if they’d protect us from being creamed.” The U.S.S. Trevor picked up the officers at 9:52 as the final attack was ending.

An hour after being picked up, the Trevor cleared the entrance buoys of the harbor and set out to locate the Henley. The first attempt to swim from the Trevor was unsuccessful as the Henley drifted away from them. But, after a brief rest, the two managed to make the ship on the second try. Chambers recalled that they came on board about 12:15. His memory some fifty years later, was excellent for the ship’s log showed 12:16. The Henley returned to Pearl the next morning to pick up the remainder of the crew.

Few, if any Americans who were drawn into World War II participated in the breadth of events or came into contact with the principal leaders of the Allied campaign as did Wayne Chambers.

He was eventually transferred to the U.S.S. Tennessee. It was a fortuitous event, for the Henley was sunk at Savo Island on August 9, 1942.

At Tarawa, the Tennessee gave fire support for the Marines landing on the island. One of those Marines was Dean Truitt, Chambers’ future brother-in-law, who was wounded in the battle.

In December 1943, Chambers was transferred to the new U.S.S. Quincy. It replaced its predecessor which, like the Henley was sunk at Savo Island. The crew boarded the newly commissioned vessel in Quincy, Massachusetts and headed for a shakedown cruise that took them from Boston to Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk, Virginia and on to Trinidad before returning to Boston on March 13, 1944.

Beginning May 4, 1944 and continuing until the end of the war, the Quincy was involved in an astounding series of battles and events that was probably unparalleled in World War II.

The Quincy first headed for Bangor Lough, Ireland where American ships were assembling for D-Day. While in Ireland, the ship was visited by General Eisenhower. On an afternoon, soon after Ike’s visit, word was passed along the deck that the ship was sealed. The final preparations for D-Day had begun. On June 6, 1944 the Quincy headed for Normandy.

At 5:57 on the morning of June 6, the Quincy opened fire in response to fire from the Normandy shore and soon silenced the German battery. The Quincy had fired the opening salvo from the naval armada facing the German lines.

For thirty-six hours the Quincy fired without let up until everything in her magazines had been used. She was then ordered back to England. While the men finally got some rest, the Quincy raced to Portland, England, reloaded and returned to Normandy thirty hours later. Finally, on June 21, after the troops had pushed far enough inland so that distance limited her contributions, the Quincy was relieved of its duties and steamed to Portland, England.

Only four days later, the men of the Quincy found themselves shelling Cherbourg, France. This was followed by the Mediterranean “cruise” which began with the loading of ammunition at Oran, Algeria and was followed by the shelling of German positions along the Mediterranean in southern France.

Perhaps the most notable experience of the war for the men of the Quincy was to follow. The ship returned to Boston for repairs. While there, some special equipment, including an elevator was constructed from the deck to the bridge. After spending Christmas in New York the Quincy headed for Newport News, Virginia arriving there January 22. Pier 6, where they docked, had been screened off. Something was up and the scuttlebutt was little more than a trickle of misinformation. The reality was, the Quincy would carry President Roosevelt to his meeting with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta in the Crimea.

Roosevelt arrived at the ship at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of January 23, 1945. In his entourage were his daughter Anna Boettiger, Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, Vice Admiral Ross McIntyre, Major General Watson, Justice James Byrnes, the Honorable Stephen Early and the Honorable Edward Flynn. The destination was Valeta, Malta.

Seven days later, the crew helped President Roosevelt celebrate his sixty-third birthday. It would be his last as he died less than three months later.

About ten in the morning on February 2, the ship swung into her assigned berth alongside the British ship carrying Winston Churchill. Churchill waved his naval cap at the President and Roosevelt responded with a salutation. At 11:30 Churchill accompanied by a lone Scotland Yard man, walked down the street to the dock and came on board to confer with Roosevelt.

Others who came on board were Edward Stettinius, the U.S. Secretary of State; W. Averill Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia; George C. Marshall; Harry Hopkins; King Farouk I of Egypt; Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia; and King Ibn Saud of Arabia.

At Malta, Roosevelt left the Quincy and flew to Yalta. He returned to the Quincy in Egypt and remained on the ship until it reached Newport News on February 27.

A hoped for leave was dashed when the Quincy received orders to leave for the Pacific. The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor on March 20. On April 18, the Quincy’s tasks force entered the battle for Okinawa. The ship downed its first kamikaze on May 14 off Southern Kyushu. The fleet was then caught in the terrible typhoon of June 5. One roll of the Quincy was reported to have been as much as 40 degrees but, unlike some of her sister ships, she suffered no serious damage.

Near the end of June, the Quincy joined another task force that included the U.S.S. South Dakota on which Fred Schmidt was serving. For the remaining fifty-eight days of the war, this force cruised along the Japanese coast bombarding Hamamatsu and Kamaishi. With the shelling, the Quincy became the first ship to fire against the enemy at both Fortress Europe and Fortress Japan.

At 9:08 p.m. on August 10, the message “Japan has surrendered providing the emperor stays in” passed through the ship. It was followed by “Rumor confirmed by Guam Radio, Good Dope.”

Delayed by another typhoon, on August 27, a long column of a mighty fleet led by the U.S.S. Missouri and Iowa and the British ships King George V and the Duke of York steamed cautiously into the edge of Tokyo Bay. Behind them came the South Dakota and in the middle of the formation was Quincy. As it entered the harbor, The Quincy’s band played Remember Pearl Harbor. The Quincy anchored in the harbor at 2:09 p.m. at a point called Sagami Wan.

Two days later, the Missouri, Iowa and South Dakota raised anchor and moved into the heart of Tokyo Bay. On September 2, 1945 the formal surrender of Japan took place on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri. Chambers watched through binoculars from his ship. Schmidt watched from the South Dakota anchored alongside the Missouri. Gayle McGinnis was unloading freight from his ship the U.S.S. Bergen and saw the plane caring Admiral Nimitz arrive.

But perhaps the best view held by anyone form this area was that of former De Leon School Superintendent, K.H. Rowland. Serving on Admiral Nimitz’s staff, he stood on the deck of the Missouri during the proceedings.

Soon after entering Tokyo Bay, a correspondent came aboard the Quincy and offered to take some men with him into Tokyo. Chambers and three other crew members decided to accompany him, even though the U.S. did not have full control of the city and no one knew what threats and dangers they might encounter. They were able to view the destruction and meet some of the people. The had a Japanese youth who had attended U.C.L.A. interpret for them. He took them to a Japanese home for an evening meal.

When the Japanese family found out Chambers was from Texas, it was all they could talk about. They believed him to be the stereotypical rancher with thousands of acres of land.

Did American authorities know that the Japanese were going to attack Pear Harbor? Or more importantly, should the military commanders at Pearl have been better prepared? Wayne didn’t think so. Before the attack, he had been assigned the task of decoding every message received from Washington pertaining to their area of concern. In all the messages received, instructions were given to continue to place 75% of the crew on weekend liberty from Saturday noon until 8:00 a.m. on Monday and not to worry about the situation. The messages indicated that if the talks in Washington broke down, potential Japanese action would come in the far east. Yet, the Army and Navy Commanders at Pearl became the scapegoats for following Washington’s instructions.

Following the war, Wayne Chambers who was a graduate of Howard Payne College (now University) became the Principal of De Leon Elementary School replacing Miss Bertha Ross. I was a fourth grader at that time. Each morning he would come to each class room to make announcements, take a lunch count and count the money. I remember distinctly that he wore a Lions Club pin in one of the notches of his belt.

After retiring, he built a home at Austin and Labadie on the former home site of Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes. As one of the 57 men who were at both Pearl Harbor and Tokyo Bay, he participated in numerous events celebrating the anniversary of the end of the war.

Material for this article was contributed by Wayne Chambers, Roger Mae Smith, Dolores Wickline, Edna Nabors, Mary Tate, Bud Morrison, Joe and Mary Francis Morgan and Mrs Whit Sides. Events detailing the attempt by the officers of the Henley to reach their ship came from December 7, 1941 by Gordon W. Prange. Other material came from Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, At Dawn We Slept and Odyssey of the U.S.S. Quincy.

The U.S.S. Henley just before Pearl Harbor.

Above: The USS Quincy during the Battle of Okinawa. Below: A Japanese kamikaze plane shot down by the gunners of the Quincy.

The crew of the U.S.S. California abandons ship as a wall of flame nears the beached ship.

Location of De Leonians at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The top left arrow marks the location of Wayne Chambers on the USS Henley. The bottom left arrow marks the location of the Medusa and Fred Schmidt. The top right arrow marks the location of the California and Arthur McKamey and the bottom right, the USS Pennsylvania, the location of Herschel H. Moore. The shorter fifth arrow located on the upper right of Ford Island marks the location of the USS Arizona. Fred Schmidt had been assigned to the Arizona but had transferred to the Medusa. Roger Chambers was in Honolulu.

This article was written for The Messenger issue of September/October 1995 as part of the remembrance of the 50th anniversary of V-J Day.

The USS Pennsylvania in dry dock at Pearl Harbor behind the USS Cassin and USS Downes (the Downes has collapsed onto the Cassin). Herschel H. Moore, son of O.H. and Vida Moore was on the ship during the attack and remained on the Pennsylvania throughout World War II. The USS Arizona is burning in the back.

Above: The officers of the USS Henley dining. Below: The officers on the deck of the USS Quincy. Chambers is on the far right in both photos.

Presidential Certificate signed by Franklin Roosevelt.

General Dwight Eisenhower onboard the USS Quincy.

Above: The Quincy firing its guns on D-Day. Below: The Normandy Coast as seen from the Quincy on D-Day.

Above: Winston Churchill (Center) being greeted on the Quincy. Below: Churchill (R) and Roosevelt (Top) with their daughters on the Quincy.

The Quincy’s cook preparing birthday cakes for President Roosevelt.

Above: The Quincy participates in the first bombardment the coast of Japan at Kamaishi. It and the South Dakota destroyed the Imperial Iron and Steel Works rolling mill at Kamaishi 275 miles north of Tokyo.

Above: The Quincy sailing near Eno Shima as it enters Tokyo Bay after the Japanese surrender.

Below: Chambers on the left with the other crew members of the Quincy that accompanied the correspondent into Tokyo. Pictured here at the home of the Japanese family they visited.

The old USS Quincy that was sunk at the Battle of Savo Island.

Wayne Chambers (R) at a 1995 gathering at the Comanche County Courthouse honoring World War II veterans. On the left and partly out of the photo is James Miears who taught various science courses at De Leon High while Chambers was principal at the elementary and taught physics at the high school.