From the farm to the Pacific: 100-year-old recalls service on heavy cruiser during World War II

After a week-long train ride across the United States from Florida to San Francisco, Robert “Bob” Chamberlin, 100, remembered the first time he set eyes on the USS Louisville. It was the ship he served on until the end of World War II.

The heavy cruiser was in dry dock at Mare Island Navy Yards for repairs after being heavily damaged in battle at the time.

Chamberlin had just completed radar training in Florida and had traveled on a “slow train” to reach his new assignment.

“Radar was a brand new thing so I went to radar school and got my rating. I took a train from the East Coast to the West Coast and it took seven days to get to the Navy shipyard in San Francisco where the ship was under repairs,” Chamberlin said as he visited Robert’s Armory, a World War II museum in Rochelle, in August.

“I remember my first sight of the ship and it shocked me,” he said. “It was in dry dock for repairs, just coming home from a major battle and had suffered heavy damage. Being young, I believe I realized for the first time how serious things could get.”

Chamberlin was born March 21, 1924, in Oregon, Illinois, and grew up on a farm along Watertown Road, east of town. He graduated from high school and was attending college in DeKalb – now Northern Illinois University – when he enlisted in the Navy in November 1942 at the age of 18.

“I knew I was going to be drafted, but if I enlisted I could choose. They let me finish the school term. I thought the Navy would be better for me. I chose the Navy. I didn’t like sleeping in the dirt,” Chamberlin said, breaking into a big grin as he sat in a chair at the museum surrounded by World War II vehicles.

The teenager from Oregon would spend two years in the Pacific Theater as a radar operator on the Louisville, one of the Navy’s heavy cruisers. Heavy cruisers were built for “long range and high speed” and carried guns up to 8 inches in diameter in addition to anti-aircraft weaponry. The Louisville also carried three airplanes used for targeting intelligence. All cruisers were named after American cities.

The Pacific Theater was fought in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and Oceania.

Chamberlin said he had to adapt quickly to life on the ship.

“The passageways were really narrow,” he recalled. “We eventually headed to Japan. I remember being close to Iwo Jima. We were so close that the Japanese planes would dive at our ship. They couldn’t take out a heavy cruiser or battleship, but they could do heavy damage.”

He recalled one incident when a Japanese plane crashed in the water near his ship and was within swimming distance. One of the plane’s occupants, a Japanese man who had traveled to the U.S. and spoke English, swam to the Louisville and was on the lower deck yelling to the two other men on the plane in Japanese who were standing on the wings of the plane as it slowly sunk.

“He was trying to get them to come over and was telling them that Japan was going to lose the war and they were going to be needed to help rebuild the country,” Chamberlin said. “But they were Japanese and they were supposed to fight to the death. They finally looked at each other, jumped off and swam away from help.”

That poignant memory and typhoons are still fresh in Chamberlin’s memory.

“I remember the storms in the Pacific and how violent they were,” he said. “You would have to grip on to something.”

Chamberlin was discharged in April 1946 as a seaman third class petty officer. He went back to NIU and commuted to NIU from Oregon on a motorcycle in January, with his brother, and earned a degree in education.

“I was a teacher in Fulton for one year when I realized that wasn’t for me. I went back to farming with my brother. Basically a grain farm, but we had some dairy. There weren’t any days off,” he said. “What I am happy about now is that I am 100 and I still have my marbles as well as I think I ever did.”

In 2008, Chamberlin wrote down some memories for his niece, Sue Andrew, also of Oregon.

In Bob’s words

(Here is a selection of passages from Chamberlin’s written recollections of his World War II service)

“World War II was the most patriotic time I have ever known. With so many of the military being killed and injured, people did everything possible to help you.

“Hitchhiking was quite common and I did quite a bit of it. Even with gas rationing I never had trouble getting a ride.

“Another example of the patriotic feeling people had was experienced on my last trip home. I got off the train and caught a ride uptown in Oregon. At that point, I was wondering what to do, as like many people then, my folks had no telephone. Finally, I decided after coming 10,000 miles I could make the last six on foot. With the sea bag over my shoulder and carrying my souvenir rifle, I was just crossing the Rock River. There an older man stopped who was driving the worst old wreck of a car (no cars made during the war). He asked if I needed a ride and wanted to know where I had been, etc. On reaching Daysville Road I thanked him and said ‘here I get out’. He said ‘Oh no, you have been in the Pacific war and I don’t let you walk’. He insisted on taking me where I needed to go. That feeling was not there for the Vietnam vets.

“For a long period, I was in various Navy camps and schools in this country and was able to get home pretty often.”

The Louisville

“My ship was equipped with three airplanes. These were slow planes with floats for landing on water. They were launched airborne by sliding down a catapult ramp that I think I remember as being only 70 feet long. We used those planes for observation and spotting accuracy of gunfire.

“The planes were stored in tow hangars on the well deck. The third plane had to sit up on the catapult. The catapult had a powder charge mechanism to get the aircraft airborne in such a short distance. In launching, the pilot would sit straight with his head firmly on the headrest. With the engine at full throttle, the charge would fire, the plane would sail down the ramp and be flying.

“On returning to the ship, airplanes would land in the water and taxi alongside. The ship had a crane to pick them out of the water and also lift them up onto the catapult.

“My ship was at the heavy cruiser Louisville. Cruisers are gunships next in size below battleships. The Louisville was 66 feet wide (at mid-point) and 600 feet long. She carried a main battery of nine, 8-inch diameter bore guns. There was also a second battery of smaller 5-inch guns and other numerous anti-aircraft weapons.

Pacific battle

“I did experience the last big battle campaign of WWII at the island of Okinawa. It was continuous fighting for the last of March 1945 and the next three and one-half months.

“Mostly my ship’s mission was day-to-day to shell gun emplacements, cement bunkers, and other targets on the island assigned to us. Our main hazard was the Japanese kamikaze aircraft and eventually did suffer death and ship damage in an attack.

“Okinawa is a long, narrow island 60 miles long and varying in width. The south half was heavily defended. It was the last ditch defense for the Japanese before the expected invasion of their homeland. More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers there.”

Radarman

“My ship had a wartime complement of approximately 1,200 men. All were assigned to various ship divisions according to the work they performed. I was in the security division which had to do with information getting and security of the ship. My role was Radarman Third Class. I operated both surface and air-search radars. My battle station was a radar plot table. There was a large circular, frosted glass table lighted underneath and marked for distance and degrees around the outside.

“I was on the phone circuit with the radar operator and at times he would be feeding ranges and bearings of targets to me. I plotted both bogies and friendlies on the table.

“Basically, my main job was to figure out the courses and speeds of their bogey raises. If they appeared to be on a course that would approach us, project ahead closest approach to the ship and range, bearing and time. An officer watched over my shoulder and reported info to the bridge, captain, gun crews, lookouts, and others. Protecting the ship was very much a team effort.

“In all, I remember two or three rips between the states and the area near Japan. It would take more or less 2 1/2 weeks to cross at a fuel-saving speed of 17 knots. During the war, it was necessary to steer much of the way using a zig-sag course to help protect against submarines. More than once we did pass through minefields. When possible we would explode them with gunfire and you could certainly see how dangerous they were.

“Once we returned home with a big load of Army troops that taxed our ability to feed and house them. Many were not used to the water and miserably seasick.”

Typhoons

“Twice during my time on the ship we experienced Pacific typhoons. These were raging storms that produced waves 40 or more feet high breaking over the ship.

“The rolling and pitching of the Louisville was so severe that any movement about the ship was extremely difficult. The first time I was pretty nervous on hearing popping and cracking noises. This I am sure was the steel members stressing. I felt much better when I realized they had to be normal and we were OK. One time we did hear an SOS from a sinking ship. Along with other ships, the Louisville set up a search pattern and searched for a day but found nothing.”

After the Battles

“Later the Louisville headed south along Mexico and through the Panama Canal. We then traveled up the East Coast to the Philadelphia Navy yards where the ship went into storage.

“Soon after I left the ship for the last time and traveled by train to Great Lakes Naval Training Station near Chicago. There in April 1946, I received my discharge from the service and boarded a train for home. I remember about them being issued little bronze-colored pins in the shape of a bird. You pinned it to your uniform and it indicated you were a discharged veteran. The guys commonly referred to it as their ‘ruptured duck.’

“One note of interest. From the time I left the ship, I carried my heavy canvas sea bag and a Japanese rifle wrapped in canvas. The wrapped rifle was obviously recognized as a firearm. I carried it with me everywhere. I went on and off all public transportation. In that long-ago period this raised no more notice than carrying a garment bag. How times have changed.”

Family and Military Service

“My dad was in WWI. My brother was also in WWII and in the same Pacific theater area I was but I never saw him there.

“In WWI, Dad served in France, first landing from a troop ship in England. Before joining the Army he had just completed pharmacy school so was assigned to the medical department. He told me he trained in Fort Riley, Kansas, and then at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Following that he was shipped overseas. He worked in a field hospital not far from the front battle line. He said close enough to hear the guns. They did the best they could with limited equipment and supplies available then. Many would die of infection because there were no antibiotics at that time. After the war, he returned with numerous items we still have. This includes his 45 Colt pistol, trench helmet and German parade helmet.”