World War II account of Roy Duane Stout
7th US Naval Beach Battalion
I was one of those patriotic young men of the
forties who joined the Navy, not really to see the
world, but to help save our country and to win the war. I was born in the Highland
Park area of Los Angeles,
California, on June 7th,
1924. My father was Carl Thadish Stout. My
mother was Mary Lydia Buddemeyer. I attended grammar school in California and Missouri,
as we seemed to roam between my grandmother’s home and California.
My folks divorced when I was 5 years old.
Then, later, while in California
my mother met and married Henry Chester Hoekstra, better known as “Blackie” to
all. He was in the U.S. Navy stationed
in San Pedro, California,
where I attended Richard
Henry Dana, Jr
High School. I did the normal things, such as being a Boy
Scout, having a paper route, and selling magazines, — which was the thing to do
in the thirties, in 1938. Blackie was
transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, which meant my mother and I traveled to Tsingtao, China. There, I learned that Japan was occupying China, and I was able to see the
atrocities of war. One time, a Japanese
soldier put his bayonet to my body, telling me I was not allowed to go any
further in that direction. At night, the
Japanese tanks would patrol the streets, firing machine guns at nothing in
particular, just to remind people that there was a curfew. I spent some time in Shanghai,
which was a real experience in international living as there were refugees from
European countries and Russia. We then moved to Manila,
P.I. where I attended high school for a year before the U.S. Navy evacuated us
to the U.S.. We ended up in Long Beach, Calif where I attended high
school and worked on the Long Beach Pike in an amusement zone running various
chance games for a whole dollar a shift.
Then, I got a real job working as a helper in a trucking company for
fifty cents an hour. It cost me fifty
cents a day to ride the red car to L.A.
That job didn’t last long as the unions were coming in strong and I, being 17,
wasn’t old enough to belong. So, back to Long Beach
as “fry cook” in a drive-in restaurant.
Then, along came Dec. 7th, the big day.
My mother, Blackie, and I were at the Arizona
border returning from a Missouri
vacation, when we heard the news. Of
course, I wanted to join the Navy, but with my stepfather in the Navy, Mother
didn’t want me to sign up. However, when
the draft was getting close, I joined the SeaBees,
which had an attractive sound. When they
sent me to Camp Bradford for boot training, in January
1943, I saw the first casualties, returnees of the Pacific War. I didn’t want to be a Marine! The navy appealed to me, and as they were
recruiting men, I joined the regular Navy for 6 years, and so, I became a
“real” sailor. As I talked with some of
my new friends about making this big switch, I met Gene Keith. We are friends to this day.
We were sent to Bainbridge,
MD to do our “second” boot
training. As we were old salts, I became
the company drill master. We would put
on a show for the new recruits for about 10 to 15 min., of close-order drill,
and then stand at rest for the rest of the time watching them try to learn
close-order drill, as the instructors had them watch us. After boot camp, I was assigned to Signalman School, because of my semaphore and
light-training in the Boy Scouts, which was, and was not, a good thing. The Navy needed signalmen in the
newly-organized part of its Beach Battalion structure in the amphibious forces. Of course, they sent me right back to Camp Bradford, VA.
For marine assault training, in addition to our learning what a beach battalion
did. I was assigned to the 7th Beach
Battalion, a newly-formed battalion from the earlier ones and new-comers,
fitting us all in.
A beach battalion was made up of about 450 men, divided by a company staff
which was headed by the Beach Master, assistant BMG Doctor, all officers, and
nine platoons A1, A2, A3, B1, B2 (which I was in) and B3, and C1, C2 and
C3. Each platoon had about 42 men,
including a Hydrographic section, a boat repair section, and a communication
section made up of 4 radiomen and 4 signalmen ( I was
a signalman, 3rd class). We also had a
medical section of 8 men.
We were all given a short leave, then transferred to Lido
Beach, Long Island, New York,
a staging area, before going overseas.
Lt. Sam Byrd who was a Broadway actor, was a
member of the 7th BB and also a member of the Lambs Club. He invited anyone who wanted to go to the
club for a night’s entertainment—which was great. In early 1944, we sailed for Green Rock, Ireland aboard the former Cunard
liner, HMS Acquitania, then aboard a train to
southern England, through
the narrow streets of Scotland
and England
to Salcombe. Salcombe, England was our home base. As we passed through towns, the streets would
be lined with people waving flags and giving the V for victory sign. We, in return, tossed candy and gum to the
kids.
In the Spring of 1944, we
had extensive training in and around Salcombe,
including Slapton Sands, where a German submarine
battle and our ships’ landing troops had an incident. This incident was kept a secret for many
years but now is being told. In May of
1944 we were transferred to staging areas around southern England. I left Southhampton
prior to the invasion of France.
My platoon was supposed to have landed in the
third wave on Omaha
Beach on D-Day, the 6th
of June 1944, but due to bad weather, and confusion on the Beach with the
fierce battle going on, most of the Battalion did not
land on D-Day. Most of the 7th
Beach Battalion landed “D-Day plus One” (my 20th birthday) and was
on the beach for 21 days. I, along with
about twenty others, volunteered to stay for another 72 days. My first days on the beach, when not
signaling and standing watch, were taken up by carrying the fallen soldiers to
the first cemetery on Normandy,
which was just yards from our bivouac.
We were attached to an engineering company of the Army, but they never
claimed us. As we had no cooks, there
was no need of a kitchen, so we were left to our own ideas. We soon developed our ideas! As we signaled the ships and boats where to
land we always asked what they were carrying.
If it was food, then our food larder, too, became well stocked. In other words, we stole or begged for our
food until the beach battalion returned to England. Then, plans were made for the volunteers to
be fed by the engineering company for which we were doing the
communications. There wasn’t too much
time for sight-seeing, so you might say we just spent the summer of 1944 on the
beach of France.
Upon my return to England
I was transferred to Oceanside,
California, for leave and more
training. On March 17th,
1945, Betty Scott and I were married.
(My wife, Helen, thinks it’s interesting – amusing(?)
– that during the war we were considered “men”, but when I
got married, before my 21st birthday, my mother had to sign for me.) Shortly thereafter, my group was sent to Hawaii to form beach parties for the invasion of Japan. While waiting for the time of the invasion,
we were stationed in the Philippines. The US
dropped the Big Bomb on Japan
in 1945. After peace was declared, we
landed on the beach
of Wakayama, Japan. Some landing
of troops and supplies was directed by our beach group. Our unit was sent to the Port of Nagoya
where we set up a port director’s office and opened the port to US ships. After a couple of weeks, I with others,
transferred to the USS Blue Ridge, an Amphibious Flagship. We proceeded to Shanghai,
China, to repatriate the
Koreans back to Korea.
I, later, returned to San Diego aboard the Mount McKinley,
another flagship.
As out family was growing, I was interested in
better wages, so in 1949 I put in for submarine duty and was sent to New
London, Connecticut for training. Eventually, I was sent back to San Diego and assigned to
the USS Charr.
Following this short assignment, I went aboard the USS Perch SS 313, a
submarine designed for amphibious landing of troops. We were known as the pregnant Perch, as a
large tank was attached to the submarine behind the sail. In the tank they experimented carrying
various types of vehicles from airplanes to rubber boats and motor boats. We were sent to the Alaskan waters off Point
Barrow on the North coast of Alaska,
to test ice swimming clothes in pancake ice seas. The Marines were the testers. A photo of the icy Perch made the front page
of the New York Daily News, May 29, 1952.
The photo showed our superstructure fully covered with ice, which made
for an unusual time. We tried to
submerge but couldn’t. We would only go
under a few feet. We didn’t know why,
‘til the bells rang and we heard, “Oh, the ice is keeping us up.” We flooded all the ballast tanks and waited
until the ice broke loose from the hull.
It was a very quick ride to the deep when the ice broke loose! Then, it was a flurry to blow all the water
out of the ballast tanks to compensate.
After this, we were sent to Japan and trained British Royal
Marines to submarine life for their unloading and loading rubber boats with
their equipment and explosives for a landing above the 38th Parallel
on Korean shores. It took intensive
practice for their landing, as it all had to be accomplished in 4 minutes. We would surface, open the hanger door for
the skimmer to be launched, rubber boats inflated and loaded with the marines,
then, submerge – all in four minutes.
This took a lot of training! On
land, the British Royal Marines blew up a railroad bridge. Unfortunately, in the return to their boats,
a marine was killed. They returned to
the submarine with his body and we buried him at sea. This, too, made the cover of Life magazine.
After the Perch, I was transferred to Vanderbilt University as an Assistant Instructor in
Navigation, for three years. Then, I
returned to Pearl Harbor aboard the USS
Gudgeon for another tour on submarines.
In July of 1957, we left Yokosuka, Japan for a cold war spy run off the coast of Russia, near Vladivostok.
(In 1998 the book “Blind Man’s Bluff”, 2nd
chapter chronicled our events for the public to read about the cold war and the
submarines part.)
We
had been patrolling for some days when, for whatever reason, the Soviets spotted
our periscope, on a sweep. We
submerged for what would be almost 72 hours.
We were submerged without fresh air, and unable to charge the batteries.
Four Soviet Escort ships had spotted us and we were in a battle of wits
to outmaneuver the Russians and escape out to sea, away from the ships.
An outer door for the garbage ejector jammed which prevented us from going
down beyond 200 feet to look for temperature layers so we could hide from sonar
detectors. We had what we called
“Spooks” aboard who recorded and deciphered Russian ships’ noise to
identify them by other subs. “Spooks”
put all the secret papers in canvas bags and weighted the bags, so they would
sink when we surfaced. The word was,
“We will sink the sub before being captured”.
Luckily, that didn’t happen! When
we did surface, I, being the senior quartermaster/signalman aboard, had the duty
of being the first one out of the hatch to the bridge.
I reported what I saw to the officer of the deck, (who was immediately
behind me). Closely following was
the Captain. We immediately started
communication with the Russians identifying each other as “
US
ship” and “Russian” by flashing a light which I had brought to the bridge
with me upon surfacing. Again, by
Morse code, we told them we were on the way to
Japan
. They flashed back, “Thanks for
the ASW exercise”. What the book,
(Blind Man’s Bluff) never really said was that, as we were surfacing, the
radioman had sent an MSG to our Admiral in charge, as to what and where we were.
The Admiral happened to be eating dinner, but immediately informed the
air force that we were under attack. Within
about ten minutes, as we were still doing our thing with flashing light, three
US planes were flying overhead.
We
proceeded back to Yokosuka. The captain, who was slated for
transfer upon our return, was transferred along with the radioman, as they have
a signature in their Morse Code sending.
We
were rewarded with a trip to Pakistan
for a large naval maneuver with other countries.
Actually, they wanted us out of the way.
As I was also the Assistant Navigator, it was my job to plot the course
to Pakistan, with my Third Class. We looked at
the large-scale chart of the world as to where we were going and then back to
Pearl Harbor. I noticed it would be less mileage
to continue around through the Panama Canal back to
Pearl Harbor. I informed the Executive Officer,
who went to the Captain, and higher powers.
The OK was given. Eventually,
we were the first
US
submarine to circumnavigate the world, going through the Suez Canal, the
Mediterranean Sea, eight countries, and the
Panama Canal
. Upon arriving in
Pearl Harbor
our steaming time was 80 days. The
city of
Honolulu
was having the opening of the picture, “Around the World in 80 Days.”
Timely!
I
was transferred to Submarine Squadron One Flag and retired (1962) after twenty
years service. While in the Navy (in
1957) I had begun officiating basketball, baseball, and softball games.
So, after Navy retirement, I officiated professional basketball and
baseball until, in 1965, I joined the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department as
a Correction Officer. To this day,
in April 2001, I continue to umpire fastpitch softball, a most enjoyable hobby!
In
1994 my wife, Betty, died after 49 years of marriage.
Together we had four children: Fred Duane, Jeanne Roi Ann, Donald Scott,
and Mary Suzanne. Later, we adopted
Sean McCarthy. In 1997 Helen Keeton
and I were married and now live in Lake Elizabeth, California.
TOP OF PAGE
HOME PAGE