October 2, 2008-Henry Forbis Bonner and The U.S.S. Gambier Bay-Part One

The U.S.S. Gambier Bay sank on October 25, 1944 after being bombed by the Japanese. My father, Henry Forbis Bonner, was aboard the Gambier Bay. In 1982, he wrote of his experience aboard the Gambier Bay and aboard the life raft as he awaited rescue. Today, I will honor him by posting his own words.

February 1982, Henry Bonner wrote:

Henry F. ("Hank") Bonner
MM 3C
U.S.S. GAMBIER BAY
A- Division (Inert Gas Station)

I went in the Navy June 6, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the age of 18. Basic training was at The Naval Training Station at San Diego, Calif. After "boot" camp, I was sent to the Machinists' Mate Training School in San Diego and graduated with a Fireman First Class rate.

From there, I went to Bremerton, Washington to an engineer's class using the type of equipment that was aboard the GAMBIER BAY. I was made the Inert Gas machine operator, trained by men who had operated the equipment on sister ships of CVE 73. Later went aboard the GAMBIER BAY as the first "skeleton" crew of engineers (I don't remember if it was at Bremerton or Astoria, Oregon). The ship was being demagnetized. Later, we took the ship up the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean where we went down the coast and picked up (in a period of time) full crew, planes, ammo., supplies, and then to the Pacific War. Of course, I was at Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Palau (and all the stops in between), then to the Phillipine Invasion.

My General Quarters Station was on the tank top level (on top of 200,000 gallons of aviation gas) manufacturing Inert Gas to put in a void space which was around the gasoline tanks. See drawing:



This Inert Gas (gas that won't support a spark of a flame - no oxygen - is made by taking the exhaust from a little 4-cylinder Hercules engine and by washing it and filtering it through activated charcoal and aluminum chips, we took all oxygen from it and put it around gasoline. We also had two large storage tanks in the Inert Gas Shack to store an extra supply over and above what was in the void tanks. I had equipment to test the gas that was in the void tanks to make sure it was oxygen free and no gas fumes and at the right pressure.

My General Quarters job was to make these tests and bring them up to proper pressure and pureness. I did this during every call to G.Q. and I monitored these tests all during the battle in which we were sunk. By the way, there were no aviation gas explosions of fires during the time we were sunk. The last three months before we were sunk, I had an assistant named James Burcher (Fireman F.C.). We were also on the same raft together. Here is what happened:

After checking all my equipment and gas, I continued to monitor and make checks after every hit that we were told about by the Chaplain or that we could feel down there. After a long while, a shell came through the port side at our level-no explosion (that I heard), just knocked a gaping hole in the side of the ship. We were the only ones in this part of the ship and there was no way we could control the flow of water, so we went up to the next level through the open hatch and sealed off this officer's quarter and Inert Gas shack level. Met a repair crew on the next level and tried to assist them in repairing another large hole at this level. Being unable to, we all went to next level through a small escape hole in the hatch. One shipmate had on a large kapok life jacket, wouldn't take it off and we couldn't talk him out of it, so with a lot of grunting and groaning we all pushed him through the hole. We finally ended up on the Hanger Deck near the forward elevator which had been knocked out and wouldn't go up to the Flight Deck, and had an aircraft sitting on it. The Hanger Deck had about two inches of water on it, where they had put out a fire earlier. After passing the forward elevator to about mid-ship, a shell hit the aircraft on the elevator and I was hit with a large fragment from the explosion. I knew I had been hit but it didn't seem to hurt. The ship was listing badly to port. I didn't look at my wound but ran to an open hatch to a sponson, which by this time, even though this was a Hanger Deck level, was only about three or four feet from the water. I jumped off. I had all my clothes, shoes, and a small waist size life belt on. This was the same life preserver that was issued me the first day aboard. Never thinking I would ever need it, I guess I didn't take very good care of it. At any rate, I blew and blew on that thing for 10 minutes and it wouldn't hold air. I would try to swim away from the ship and would be slapped right back underneath the gun sponsons above me and up against the side of the ship. We had always been told to get away from the sponsons and away from the ship fast. I finally got away and spotted a raft some fifty yards away and headed for it. There is no way I could have swam fifty yards then - but I did. I felt like I made it with my last stroke and grabbed a shirttail that was flapping from the back of a shipmate. They helped me into the raft and I finally looked at my leg and got very sick. All the flesh had been torn off the left side of my left leg from about two inches below my knee to my ankle. Both bones were exposed the entire length of the wound and flesh between the bones had been torn out exposing one of the tendons that operate the foot. It was bleeding badly so the men on the raft put a tourniquet made from a belt on it to stop the bleeding.

End of Part One