By Ed Palattella
Erie Daily Times staff writer (1999)
Soon after the sun rose on Dec. 7, 1941, 19-year-old Lawrence Eller learned that war cares not
about homecomings.
Eller, an Erie native, had been stationed for two years aboard the destroyer USS Zane. On Dec. 8 the Zane was to travel from Pearl Harbor to Long Beach, Calif. There the ship would undergo a month
of repairs while its crew enjoyed days on liberty in a place known for its hospitality.
"We were going home (to the United States)," said Eller, of Wesleyville. "Hey, we were excited just to get out of
Hawaii. Long Beach was a great liberty town."
At 7:55 a.m. Dec. 7, Eller watched as his plans for liberty were ruined by the Japanese.
"I was on the ship's bridge sewing my stripes on -- I had just made
boatswain, third class," Eller said. "Man, all of the sudden, just out of the blue sky they started bombing."
The Navy pilots "had drills out there (beyond Pearl Harbor) all the time," he
said. "So I thought, `Wow, that's a good drill.' Then all of the sudden you saw the bombs going off."
Battleships burned around the Zane as the first and then second wave of Japanese Zeros blasted the huge
naval base.
The Zane maneuvered toward the harbor's channel and the open sea beyond, while the Japanese pilots strafed the ship. The destroyer cruised on.
Eller and his mates ran to their gun stations. The
ammunition boxes were locked, secured the day before by sailors not yet at war. Eller and others knocked off the locks and loaded. They started firing.
Of the 350 Zeros that flew over the island of Oahu on Dec. 7, 29
were destroyed.
"They credited us with shooting down one plane," Eller said in a reserved tone, "but I don't think we got him."
The Zane continued its approach to the ocean.
To one side of
the channel, the massive battleship USS Nevada had beached itself upon orders from the harbor control tower. The Navy feared the damaged vessel would block the only entrance to Pearl Harbor.
On the north side of Ford
Island, in the center of the harbor, the Zeros had crippled the USS Utah and turned the former battleship into a hulk of steel rolling over in the water.
The USS Arizona, moored along the southeast side of Ford
Island on Battleship Row, exploded, buckled, and sank. To this day it remains there, a memorial to all those who died in the attack.
"Everybody was scared," Eller said. "I was scared. I
don't know what to call it. But if you weren't scared, you were a liar.
"A lot of guys, they were mad," he said. "But there was not much you could do about it. We're supposed to be going back to the
States the next day and here are these Japs attacking."
Out at sea
Unlike nearly all the other ships of the Pacific Fleet, the Zane did reach the ocean that day. It remained in open waters
for several hours, patrolling for the Japanese submarines and cruisers that never came.
Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the attack, ordered his fleet to remain 200 miles north of Oahu.
Even as
the last Zeros zipped back over the horizon, disbelief continued to sting Eller and his mates.
"I couldn't believe it was happening," Eller said, "but when those bombs started falling, you knew it.
When you saw that big rising sun on the Jap planes, on the wings, you knew what it was right away."
Until the Enola Gay flew over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and dropped the atom bomb, Eller and the other sailors
on the Zane saw many Zeros cloud the sky with rising suns on their wings. For four years, the Zane fought its way across the South Pacific as the Navy moved from island to island en route to Tokyo.
Solomon Islands,
Russell Islands, Marshall Islands, Saipan, the Philippines, Okinawa -- Eller lists his battles one after another, as easily as if he were ticking off the 50 states.
Through all of the fighting, only three members of
the Zane crew suffered injuries.
"We had a close-knit crew," Eller said. "We were like family."
Perhaps the Zane's most famous son is Herman Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The
Caine Mutiny" and "The Winds of War."
Wouk, Eller said, joined the Zane in the South Pacific. While on deck, according to Eller, Wouk would work at his typewriter, banging out the pages that one day
would become "The Caine Mutiny."
Lucky to be alive
In 1939, 17-year-old Lawrence Eller joined the Navy on a $1 bet. A neighborhood friend boasted to him that he, and not Eller, could
pass the Navy physical. Eller won -- and he enlisted.
More than 50 years later, Eller -- who retired from the Navy in 1959 -- laughs when he explains that he never received the dollar from his friend. He says he
certainly doesn't need the dollar now; he already has enough memories of Pearl Harbor and the war that followed.
"You try to forget about it now, but I'll never forget it," he said. "When December
starts to roll around again, that's when it gets to you. You figure (how) all the guys got killed there, how they were bombed.
"Oh, man," Eller said, his voice trailing off. "I don't know. I can just
close my eyes every night and Dec. 7 -- you can just picture it. Everytime. Just as clear as day."
