Story also posted on Fold3.com Leo Nicholas survived one sinking but was KIA by a kamikaze on the USS Hadley. Leo Arnold Nicholas was among the thousands of young men who enlisted in the Navy after the attack at Pearl Harbor. He was born February 20, 1917, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was 24 when he enlisted on 15 December 1941in …
Bob Bell recalls the Black Widow night fighter
Bob Bell was a sonarman on the USS Hadley. He shared an updated story recently. On the night of 10-11 May 1945, a Night Fighter plane based at Okinawa was scrambled to intercept a Japanese patrol plane/bomber 75 miles out. Bell was on mid-watch outside the sonar room. “I had the mid-watch from midnight of the 11th to 0400. I …
New book includes Hadley battle at Okinawa
I met Ron MacKay at the LSM/LSMR Association Reunion in Buffalo. My father served on LSMR 411. Ron has authored the book “The U.S. Navy’s Interim LSMRs in WWII”. He shared the following excerpt from his book describing the scene on 11 May 1945 after the Hadley’s famous battle. Ensign Paul S. Vaitses, Jr., the Executive Officer aboard LSM(R) 193, …