Poseidon and the Pc: The Letters of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt

By Gary W. Neidhardt

Poseidon and the PC documents the adventures of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) through one hundred and fifteen of his letters written to his wife during World War II.

Long before PC became equated with a personal computer or politically correct, the two letters were associated with Patrol Craft. These World War II ships had the mission of performing convoy escort duty and antisubmarine warfare. The PCs were meant to relieve the larger, far more valuable ships from the often monotonous duties of sailing at the speed of the slowest ship in a convoy. The 174 foot long PCs were so small that they were considered safe duty as more worthy targets were always available.

In high seas PCs floated as light as a cork in a bottle and as rough as riding a bull. A PC could entirely disappear from view in the trough of a large wave. The seasickness that resulted from the pitching and rolling of the PC was truly gut wrenching. If you didnt get sick on a PC, you were seaworthy on any other Navy ship in the fleet.

Had the war not ended when it did, Poseidons typhoons might have substantially prolonged the war in the Pacific. A great typhoon sunk, beached or damaged more than two hundred American ships at Okinawa after the war had ended that were to be used for the invasion of Japan. Paul was the executive officer on one of the many PCs destroyed by this great storm, which struck on October 9, 1945. When Poseidon showed his power, Paul knew his PC needed all the help and good fortune there was to be found if they were to survive the fury of what Americans came to call Typhoon Louise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481740432

Gary W. Neidhardt

As early as the 1950’s, Gary W. Neidhardt can remember his father Paul speaking in the highest terms about America’s naval victories during World War II. Many of Paul’s books had a particular emphasis on the great naval battles of World War II, and when he talked of that time, he spoke with reverence and authority. But with regards to his own activities during his three and a half years in the Navy, he said very little, and only a large family barometer kept in the living room provided a visible clue to some of his memories. Only after Paul’s death in 1997 did Gary start to explore his parent’s house in Chagrin Falls, Ohio to see what memories there might be remaining. Hundreds of letters written by family members in the 30’s and 40’s were discovered. Of the hundreds of letters, one hundred and fifteen were written by Gary’s ocean-sailing, naval-officer father to his wife Phyllis beginning from the Great Lakes in September of 1943, the Atlantic soon thereafter, and ending from the Pacific in November of 1945. Poseidon and the PC is the result, which contains so much more than just family history. Gary W. Neidhardt is a retired software executive and long-time American history lover living in Lilburn, Georgia. Gary is the youngest of three children. Sister Carol Neidhardt, born in 1941 and the toddler of this book, lives in Mission, Kansas. Brother Paul, born at the end of this book in 1945 and known herein as “Little Two,” lives in Chagrin Falls. Gary is grateful to be married to his lovely second wife Mary, and is the father of three children. Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) is revealed by these letters to be a man his children never knew while he lived. By the publication of Paul’s letters, his children, their descendants, and friends and acquaintances can get to know him in a way none of us ever imagined.

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© 2013 By Gary W. Neidhardt. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 5/16/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4045-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4044-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4043-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013906556

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Preface

List of Letters

List of Photographs

1 Introduction and Background

2 Summer 1943

3 Letters of September, 1943

4 Letters of October 1943

5 Letters of November 1943

6 Letters of December 1943

7 Letters of January 1944

8 Letters of February 1944

9 March through August of 1944

10 Letters of September 1944

11 October and November 1944

12 Letters of December 1944

13 January to March, 1945

14 Letters of April 1945

15 Letters of May 1945

16 Letters of June 1945

17 Letters of July 1945

18 Letters of August 1945

19 Letters of September 1945

20 Letters of October 1945

21 Letters of November 1945

22 Epilogue

23 Bibliography

24 About the Author

Endnotes

Dedication

To the memory of Paul Woodrow Neidhardt and Phyllis Burns Neidhardt of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Preface

Long before ‘PC’ became equated with a personal computer or politically correct, the two letters were associated with Patrol Craft. These World War II ships had a crew of 60 enlisted men and 5 officers. Their most common mission was to perform convoy escort duty and antisubmarine warfare, though some served in very hazardous landing invasions such as D-Day. Poseidon and the PC documents the adventures of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt, USNR on two PCs through 115 of his letters written to his wife during the great war.

PCs were produced in 16 different locations throughout the United States in some unlikely locations such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee. They were built in a hurry to help protect Allied convoys from enemy submarines. PCs were staffed predominantly by citizen soldiers known by the designation USNR or United States Naval Reserve. All their duty was considered temporary even though their potential deaths would be rather permanent.

PCs weren’t even built in a traditional way: they were built upside down so that the top of the hull was constructed first and the keel last, and then the ship was flipped one hundred and eighty degrees to build the superstructure. Obviously these ships were pretty light if they could be flipped like hamburgers! Many regular Navy enlisted men thought it was beneath their dignity to serve on such puny ships with a crew of temporary citizen soldiers being bossed around by 90 day wonder officers some of which had never been to sea or commanded even a rowboat.

The PCs were meant to relieve the larger, far more valuable DD Destroyers and DE Destroyer Escorts from the often monotonous duties of convoy escort. The 174 foot long PCs, with a beam of 23 feet and at just 280 tons (450 tons displacement fully loaded), were so small that they would be relatively safe duty: the enemy would always be able to find more worthy targets. While some PCs sustained battle damage and three were sunk by torpedoes, a majority of the 35 PCs that were damaged or destroyed during World War II had a much more effective enemy than the Axis Powers: Poseidon, the god of the ocean.

In a hurricane or typhoon, PCs floated as light as a cork in a bottle and as rough as riding a bull. Any bone that could be broken as a contestant in a rodeo you could break as a crewman on a PC in a storm. Stories of going airborne while attempting to ride the enlisted men’s toilet were not all that uncommon. Sudden 25 foot drops of the bow were a real hazard. When waves in a hurricane might be as high as 70 feet, the mast of a PC was only 55 feet high from the water line, thus a PC could entirely disappear from view in the trough of a large wave, and then be high as a kite on the next wave crest. A PC had one significant virtue, however, it was designed to roll beyond horizontal to 110 degrees and still right itself. While that led to the safety of the crew, the seasickness that resulted from the pitching and rolling of the hull was truly gut wrenching. If you could hold your lunch on a PC, you were more than seaworthy on any other Navy ship in the fleet.

However, your chances of transferring to another ship in the fleet were almost nil. USNR officers and enlisted were, after all, just temporary citizen soldiers.

Poseidon and the PC is a love story. Paul loved his wife more than he could express. He wrote as an absentee father who knew that there was a cost to his being separated from his toddler daughter. He missed bonding with this young life, he missed the simple highs and lows of being a parent and he knew he was a stranger to his daughter. His wife Phyllis did what she could to chase her husband around the country with their daughter until his constant sea duty made the sacrifice and expense futile. Phyllis returned to her parents in Peoria, Illinois and experienced the friction with her parents about how her daughter should be raised until she finally took refuge in her own rented house. Phyllis became pregnant during her husband’s visit when he transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the spring of 1945. As the war ended, the race was on to see whether or not Paul could make it home in time for the birth of this new child.

Poseidon and the PC is based on the 115 surviving letters of citizen officer Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt and his adventures in the Atlantic and Pacific on two PCs from September, 1943 until November of 1945. While Paul never was on a ship that fired a shot in anger, he often experienced substantial danger and as an officer was responsible for his ship and the lives of the crew. His PC was able to ride out the first hurricane that ever had a name, The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 in which hundreds of US Navy personnel drowned. Upon his transfer to the Pacific, he was stationed at Okinawa when typhoons menaced the American fleet that had been assembled for the invasion of Japan. Ultimately the ocean god Poseidon could have greatly impacted the end of this great war in a manner very few seem to notice, since so many end their study of World War II with the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Had the war not ended when it did, typhoons might have substantially prolonged the war. A great typhoon sunk, beached or damaged more than two hundred American ships at Okinawa in October, 1945 after the war had ended,¹ Many more ships would have been present had the war not begun to wind down. Any invasion of Japan would have been substantially delayed. The potential cost in American lives had the war continued is obviously a subject for speculation, but nevertheless, a subject this author takes very seriously, since he might never have been born had the invasion of Japan been necessary.

Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt was the executive officer on one of the many as seven PC destroyed by a great typhoon, which struck on October 9, 1945.² When Poseidon wished to show his power, Paul knew his PC needed all the help and good fortune there was to be found if they were to survive the fury of what Americans came to call Typhoon Louise.

List of Letters

List of Photographs

Note: All photographs in this book are copyright Gary W. Neidhardt, except where otherwise noted. All photographs were either taken by Paul W. Neidhardt, or were found in the family possessions at 107 Kenton Road, Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

1. Introduction

1. Paul as cadet colonel.

2. Paul with cadet colonel sword.

3. The 1937 military ball led by Paul and Phyllis.

4. One of the very many newspaper articles about Phyllis and Paul at the 1937 Military Ball.

5. The University of Illinois parade field featuring the Army ROTC Brigade. Note the PN—a company is honoring Paul by forming his initials.

6. A second view of the University of Illinois parade field with the Army ROTC Brigade in formation. The Illini football field is pictured as well. Note the amount of surrounding open spaces.

7. Phyllis’s 1937 Military Ball dress and picture of them dating.

8. Two Fort Oglethorpe pictures. Written on the back of one of them: Here’s tangible evidence of ‘thinning of you’ 8-2-40. Just after pay table and just before napping off. Very probably Paul’s training included cavalry exercises.

9. The graduation picture from Paul’s initial Navy indoctrination, Ithaca, New York, taken on or just before August 29, 1942.

10. Two pictures of father Paul with daughter Carol at the Minuteman Bridge in April 1943.

11. Ensign Paul and Phyllis at Paul’s parents’ in Chicago, and Ensign Paul’s official Navy photograph.

2. Summer 1943

1. Newspaper article.

2. Paul and Phyllis, Phyllis and Carol, Carol saluting in Miami Beach, July 1943.

3. The two parents with their daughter, Carol, in Miami Beach at 1425 Meridian.

4. PC-1172 undergoing sea trials on Lake Michigan, September 1943.

3. Letters of September 1943

1. Paul and Al Goldstein, Captain of PC-1172, at Sturgeon Bay, and a similar picture of Paul by himself.

5. Letters of November 1943

1. From left to right, the officers of PC-1172 in Key West, Florida, 1943: Neidhardt, Goldstein, Gibbons, Hartman, Frost.

6. Letters of December 1943

1. Cartoon drawn by Phyllis. The caricature of the man is unmistakably her husband, Paul, and the female is unmistakably Phyllis with her glasses.

2. Paul’s 1943 Christmas card to Phyllis.

7. Letters of January 1944

1. Marked in Paul’s handwriting: Cuba 1944. He said elsewhere that he made as many as thirteen round trips from Guantanamo to Norfolk, Virginia. Paul is on our left.

2. He wrote that he might be too shy to take a bath with Carol. Here’s one time when he wasn’t, probably Miami Beach in the summer of 1943.

3. Carol at the water’s edge at Miami Beach.

4. Officers and Crew of PC-1172, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, early 1944. Paul is standing third officer from the right.

8. Letters of February 1944

1. Superstructure of PC-1172 in New York Harbor after the ice storm.

2. Three PC-1172 officers, with Paul in the middle, after the ice storm in New York Harbor.

3. Third shot of the ice on PC-1172. There was no way the ship could be battle ready when the guns and anti-submarine warship (ASW) gear were frozen solid.

4. Possibly the picture passed around at the Goldstein house in Brooklyn, New York.

5. Likely the picture of PC-1172 received by Phyllis.

9. March through August 1944

1. Acceptance letter from the Navy Department for publication of Paul’s article in Fleet Review.

2. Paul and Phyllis dining together.

10. Letters of September 1944

1. Track of the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 (from Wikipedia).

2. PC-1172 in the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944.

3. Happier times—Paul and his daughter on Miami Beach, July 1943.

12. Letters of December 1944

1. Lovely picture of Carol.

2. A second lovely picture of Carol.

13. January to March 1944

1. Orders transferring Paul to the Pacific Theater.

2. This photograph was probably taken in February 1945.

15. Letters of May 1945

1. List of Naval personnel under the command of Paul traveling from San Pedro, California, to Portland, Oregon.

16. Letters of June 1945

1. Commission officers for PC-814, June 5, 1945, at the Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Oregon.

2. PC-814 commissioning invitation.

3. Very informative newspaper article about PC-814. Copyright The Oregonian. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

18. Letters of August 1945

1. Paul on the PC-814 bridge with his pipe.

2. Paul playing a game of chess onboard PC-814.

20. Letters of October 1945

1. Paul W. Neidhardt’s chart of Okinawa. Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku-Wan) is in the southeast portion of the island.

2. Paul with his omnipresent pipe off duty with his feet up in PC-814.

3. Buckner Bay, Okinawa (Nakagusuku-Wan). Looks rather tranquil taken before the wreckage of Typhoon Louise.

4. Paul with Lieutenant Schulenburg, captain of the first PC of WW II, PC 461, and captain of the last PC produced, PC-814.

5. The area Americans called Buckner Bay (Japanese Nakagusuku-Wan) showing how the USS Nestor (ARB-6) has cut the USS Ocelot (IX-110) in half. Wreckage from the Ocelot is on both sides of the Nestor. A tug is pictured, as well as a fourth ship, APL-14, to the right.

6. A second view of the Nestor and the Ocelot with the surrounding debris. The Nestor has cut the bow off of the Ocelot.

7. A third view of the Nestor and the Ocelot. One wonders just what an effort it was to clean up such wreckage.

8. A grounded PC-814 many miles off the shore of Okinawa.

9. Close-up view of grounded PC-814.

10. Grounded PC-814 looking rather serene with the nine degree list

11. Buckner Bay (Nakagusuku-wan). PC-814 was blown eight miles from west to east by the typhoon, making it highly likely that the ship grounded to the northeast of Kutaka Jima or in a small area in the center of Buckner Bay.

12. American Tent City, Okinawa, after Typhoon Louise, with a view of Katchin Hanto on the horizon, taken in the vicinity of Kuba Saki.

13. Train Depot at Naha, Okinawa, with the surrounding damage. This narrow-gauge train ran from Itoman in the south up through Naha (main depot) to Nago. All was destroyed during the war and never rebuilt. The city of Naha was pretty much totally destroyed by the war.

14. Picture of a capsized ship in Buckner Bay.

15. American Tent City, Okinawa. after Typhoon Louise. It is probably Lieutenant Schulenberg who is pictured to the left.

16. Probable PC-814 security team. Note the list. It is probably Lieutenant Schulenberg to the left with hat.

17. Buckner Bay capsized ship, probably PC-1238.

18. Okinawa Area Four Months After. Picture of the battle damage around where Paul was stationed.

19. Butoku Den, or judo gym, located in Naha, Okinawa. It was repaired after the war and became the police gym.

20. IX 163, a 366-foot, non self-propelled barge, grounded on Baten Ko, Buckner Bay, Okinawa, October 9, 1945. Additional wreckage visible.

21. An Okinawa family tomb. The ceramic object on the front left is a funeral urn probably about two feet tall. It contained the bones of the dead ancestors and was placed inside the family tomb.

22. The Naminoue Shrine in Naha with a large torii (shrine) in front. A smaller torii is the actual entrance.

21. Letters of November 1945

1. November 2, 1945, Red Cross letter received by Paul. It may have expedited his return.

22. Epilogue

1. Paul D. Neidhardt, born December 2, 1945.

2. Letter of congratulations from the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.

3. Paul and Phyllis together around Memorial Day on their front walkway at 107 Kenton Road in front of the rhododendron, taken in the late 1980s by their granddaughter, Meredith Neidhardt Connerton.

4. The last picture of Paul and Phyllis taken together, probably around the early to mid 1990s.

Special thanks to John Scruggs, Kubasaki Websites Administrator, Okinawa and Donn Cuson of Okinawa for their help in the valuable identification of Okinawa sites that help explain the meanings behind pictures that Lt. Neidhardt took in October and November of 1945. For more information on Okinawa and Typhoon Louise, please visit http://www.rememberingokinawa.com that Donn Cuson maintains.

Introduction and Background

Image01.jpg

Paul as cadet colonel.

Paul W. Neidhardt was born on November 7, 1916, to a modest family who lived on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. His father didn’t work much during the depression, and Paul ended up having to help the family out financially by working a paper route at a very early age. He graduated from Fenger High School on 112th Street South in Chicago at the tender age of sixteen, having been promoted a grade some years before. He entered the University of Illinois in the fall of 1932. (How this education was financed remains a family mystery.) His talents were soon recognized, and he joined a number of college activities, many of which he was destined to eventually lead. Having been in Army ROTC in high school, he immediately joined Army ROTC at the University of Illinois and rose to the rank of cadet colonel to command the brigade during the 1936–37 year, which consisted of at least 3,500 students.³

A newspaper article read, "In addition to this distinction, Colonel Neidhardt is president of the Rho Chapter and senior news editor of the Daily Illini, one of the country’s largest student publications."⁴ He was president of his fraternity, Theta Chi, and was involved in a number of other campus activities.

Image02.jpg

Paul with cadet colonel sword.

In April 1936 he met Phyllis Lucille Burns, born on July 2, 1916, in Peoria, Illinois, where she had lived all her life. Our best interpretation of the letters he wrote to her during that summer indicates that he was committed to her from the very start. She, on the other hand, seemed to continue to date other men, including a boyfriend who ended up graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1940.⁵

Phyllis had entered the University of Illinois in 1933 with a high school sweetheart who didn’t have the financial resources to join a fraternity and couldn’t travel in the circles that Phyllis pursued. She started off being rather shy, but soon it was not unusual for her to have a date from six to nine in the evening and then be picked up for a second date during the same evening. She eventually went steady with a boyfriend right up until near the end of her sophomore year when she met Paul. When Paul became cadet colonel in mid May of 1936, he asked Phyllis to be his date at the upcoming Military Ball. Phyllis wrote that was something about which I have always dreamed but never thought might ever happen to me. Paul also offered her his pin at that time, but she refused.

Image03.jpg

The 1937 Military Ball led by Paul and Phyllis.

Image04.jpg

One of the very many newspaper articles about Phyllis and Paul at the 1937 Military Ball.

Image05.jpg

The University of Illinois parade field featuring the Army ROTC Brigade. Note the PN—a company is honoring Paul by forming his initials.

Image06.jpg

A second view of the University of Illinois parade field with the Army ROTC Brigade in formation. The Illini football field is pictured as well. Note the amount of surrounding open spaces.

75178.jpg

Phyllis’s 1937 Military Ball dress and a picture of them dating.

In the summer of 1937, after graduating with honors from the University of Illinois, Paul went to work for General Electric as an advertising copywriter in Schenectady, New York. He wrote to Phyllis throughout her senior year at the University of Illinois⁶ while she dated and enjoyed numerous honors of her own, such as earning one of three most popular on campus awards and becoming president of her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. She was also a member of the Mortar Board, Inc.—the National College Senior Honor Society—and a member of the Torch student newsletter, honors that carried much distinction during those times.

While in Schenectady, Paul became a second lieutenant in the Army Calvary Reserve on December 27, 1937. Meanwhile, Phyllis graduated from the University of Illinois in May of 1938 and decided to pursue her masters in psychology at Columbia University in New York City. The 1938–39 academic year at Columbia was filled with exciting weekend visits by Paul to Phyllis in Manhattan. In June of 1939, as Phyllis was graduating from Columbia, Paul transferred within General Electric from Schenectady, New York, to Cleveland, Ohio. In December 1939, he went to work for D’Arcy Advertising Company with offices at 1142 Terminal Tower Building on Public Square in downtown Cleveland.

Paul seemed to be proposing marriage from the time he and Phyllis were together at the University of Illinois. Phyllis, however, didn’t seem terribly interested in the subject, and as they were going to be apart because of his graduation a year ahead of hers, she didn’t seem in any hurry to become tied down. Then, upon going to Columbia, she still wanted to remain free. In early March 1939, Paul’s letters indicate that he had formally proposed to her. She apparently remained uncommitted but interested. Sometime in the following months, she did say yes.

They were married on April 20, 1940. They spent part of their honeymoon at Mammoth Caves, Kentucky, before they moved to a rented cottage in Willoughby On The Lake within walking distance of Lake Erie. Soon afterward, they lived at 4417 Groveland Road in University Heights, Ohio. Every indication was for a bright future for them as Paul had become a young up-and-coming advertising executive.

Paul attended two weeks of Army Reserve training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, a few months later, in the summer of 1940. It was here that he learned the contingency plans were that the United States would be involved in the World War. Army reservists, he understood, would be among the first officers sent overseas. He learned that the vast majority of West Point graduates would be retained stateside for purposes of training the huge numbers of new soldiers who would be entering the service. He resigned his Army commission effective February 25, 1941, which was just about the same time he learned that he was going to be a father. His daughter, Carol Burns Neidhardt, was born on September 16, 1941.

75189.jpg

Two Fort Oglethorpe pictures. Written on the back of one of them: Here’s tangible evidence of ‘thinning of you’ 8-2-40. Just after pay table and just before napping off. Very probably Paul’s training included cavalry exercises.

After Pearl Harbor spurred the United States to declare war, Paul started seeking an officer’s position in the military, possibly to avoid the potential of being drafted, but also because he was motivated, as so many were, to defend our country. He requested to serve even though there were deferments for married men with children at the time. He applied to the Army Air Force without success. He applied to the US Naval Reserve in late April 1942 and was accepted. On June 16, 1942, he received orders dated June 9, 1942, to report to the central armory in Cleveland, Ohio, for a physical. He took the physical the next day. Having passed the physical, he was ordered to naval training school at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he reported on July 1, 1942, with the rank of ensign.

Paul was to serve in the United States Naval Reserve for the next three and one-half years until late November 1945. He left his wife of two years and their ten-month-old daughter when most every able bodied man was dedicated to joining the military to serve his country but also to ensure that if he did serve, he would serve as an officer. His letters, which follow, document this service in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during the great worldwide war.

Paul received his initial military training in Ithaca, New York, for a little less than two months. We know very little about this period. We do have a group picture that clearly shows Paul third from the right in the fourth row.

Image80.jpg

The graduation picture from Paul’s initial Navy indoctrination, Ithaca, New York, taken on or just before August 29, 1942.

Next he received orders to report to a training school in Northampton, Massachusetts, beginning in September 1942 for duty as an instructor. Just what he was instructing isn’t known, but having been an officer in the Army Reserves may have provided qualifications for his six-month assignment. Soon after he arrived there, Phyllis