"I sat on the side of the bunk, addressed a letter to my mother.
I no sooner got the letter addressed, I heard general quarters. Naturally I hurried to my battle station. I got there and got set up. I wasn't there over 10 minutes and I felt a torpedo hit, and then another one, and when the 4th one hit. It hit 20 or 30 feet from where I was. The water started coming in. Of course we dogged down the hatch to keep the water from coming through.
The lights went out, the speakers went out, and they would come back on a few moments at a time.
There was a armored hatch right over us. The damage control party had gone through, and they left the hatch because they couldn't close it all the way or couldn't open it. It was hydraulic operated. I saw that it was open.
I told the guys in there.
You guys can stay in here if you want to but I'm getting the hell out of here!
So I got over there and then on the ladder you have to wiggle yourself around because you had a space where maybe it opened about 12 inches. Squeezed up through there. So its good to be short , slim, and agile at the time. I got through there. We had a lot of the other boys about my size they got through. A lot of the cooks couldn't get up through there they were just too fat, and when they would try they would scratch the skin trying to shove there fat bodies through there and they started bleeding.
Hell of a site, the lights would come on for a little while and then go off.
That was the most horrible scene that you could ever think of.
Shipmates there you can't help them."
S/C 3/C George A. Brown
ships cook
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