~A True Story About the Splinter Fleet During WW2 ~

by Wesley E. Hall Publication date: September 6, 2000 Retail price: $17.95 War and peace/trade paperback. Size: 6X9. Length: 368 pages. ISBN: 0-595-13196-4. On-demand publishing (iUniverse). Available: Barnes & Noble Bookstores, Amazon.com, Borders, etc.. Synopsis: The radio call of the Subchaser 995 was Splendid Five, but to the twenty-one men and three officers that rode her from New Caledonia to the Philippines, a distance of four thousand miles, then back-tracked another thousand miles to the Marianas, did not use such complimentary words to describe their wild mustang. Unlike sailors on larger ships-of-the-line, they had no diversions on the long convoy trips and very little storage space for fresh water and food. Their job was to move in close to the invasion beaches and relay landing instructions from the task force commanders to the unit commanders. In the initial stages of island landings they were within range of the Japanese defenders, and since a .22 bullet was capable of penetrating any part of their little ship, they did a great deal of praying and cussing. This is the wild, true story of the twenty-thousand-mile odyssey the "Splinter Fleet" took after leaving New Caledonia. It is a trip that ran the gamut from kamikaze raids and typhoons to days and even weeks without seeing a sign of anything but gooney birds and flying fish. Living conditions aboard the little 110-ft. ships were the worst in the Navy. There was no fresh water for bathing, no storage space for food supplies, no recreation facilities, and, indeed, no room to turn around in. For the old Navy veteran this story is a nostalgia trip. For anyone interested in true stories of WW2 it is an exciting trip back in time. Wes Hall, second radio on the SC-995, was a gunner first and a radioman second. He manned the starboard 20mm. antiaircraft gun during General Quarters, and assisted Harold Jines, first radio, with sixteen U. S. Army transceivers during island landings.

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