Prev | Current Page 231 | Next

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945

"The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt"

S.S. SAILFISH. Today, she is a
potent and effective unit of our submarine fleet in the Southwest
Pacific.
The SAILFISH has covered many thousands of miles in operations in
those waters.
She has sunk a Japanese destroyer.
She has torpedoed a Japanese cruiser.
She has made torpedo hits--two of them--on a Japanese aircraft
carrier.
Three of the enlisted men of our Navy who went down with the
SQUALUS in 1939 and were rescued, are today serving on the same
ship, the U.S.S. SAILFISH, in this war.
It seems to me that it is heartening to know that the SQUALUS, once
given up as lost, rose from the depths to fight for our country in
time of peril.
One more story, that I heard only this morning:
This is a story of one of our Army Flying Fortresses operating in
the Western Pacific. The pilot of this plane is a modest young man,
proud of his crew for one of the toughest fights a bomber has yet
experienced.
The bomber departed from its base, as part or a flight of five
bombers, to attack Japanese transports that were landing troops
against us in the Philippines. When they had gone about halfway to
their destination, one of the motors of this bomber went out of
commission. The young pilot lost contact with the other bombers.
The crew, however, got the motor working, got it going again and
the plane proceeded on its mission alone.


Pages:
219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243