May 13, 1945

13- _____ At 2415 this morning while on watch we could see LCTs firing on an object _ turn out to be an Q boat _ we could see it going t[h]rough the water once it turned & came to[wa]rds us _ we turned on our search lights & open fire _ AA defense was sounded & later GQ. We kept firing _ when fire stop the Q boat was gone so were pretty sure she was sunk. We got out of GQ at 145 a few minutes later another Q boat was sighted _ It was sunk close to beach.
_____ At 200 one plane was pick up 48 miles coming in on our port bowe AA defense was sound & GQ right after. A sm[oke] boat lade a sm[oke] screan _ we could hear the Jap planes right over us they were really low but they couldn't see us. Heavy AA firing could be seen over island. Jap plane was shot down by eather shore battery or ships.
at 420 we got underway & Cond. II was set for bombarding at 600 we begin firing at 700 five inch fired most of the time. Also heard New Mex. had heavy cas. last night. We shifted births twice this morning.
_____ At 1200 we launched one plane _ 6" fired most of the afternoon. At 1800 (6PM) I went on watch & a few minutes later saw a (Piper Cub grass hopper) plane go down in flames over the island. It was shot down by Japs. We had AA defense & GQ for night alert _ it lasted till 2100 _ AA went again at 2200 (10PM)
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Q boats were decoy crafts disguised to look like civilian ships used by America against Germany mostly in WWI. Here the term describes a Japanese suicide boat disguised as a civilian vessel. Photo shows the incident as the Mobile trained their lights on the target.

cas. = casualties. The Battleship New Mexico had just returned to Point Bolo from Kerama when she was attacked by 2 kamikazes. One crashed on the gun deck, killing 54 and wounding 119.

Piper Cub = This was actually an American L-4 Grasshopper, a small plane made by the Piper company. The civilian version was called the Cub.