World War II: Interview with Burdick Brittin

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MH: What was your next major operation?

Brittin: As I recall, it wasn’t until we were getting ready for the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 that I saw more than that one carrier, Enterprise . We went with Lexington, and that was a proud ship. We thought she was great–but then she was sunk by Japanese carrier planes!

MH: In the last couple days of the battle, the opposing carrier forces squared off, launching an equal number of aircraft at each other. Was Aylwin caught in the middle?

Brittin: Yes, we were in the carrier screen, about 3,000 yards from Lexington. I remember during daylight we were firing at planes that had made their run on the carrier, or coming at her, low on the water. A couple of them flew over us, and I fired my .45 at the airplanes that went by. I wasn’t alone in doing so…but what an imagination it took to do that! That night, a plane came over us, real low, and there was confusion as to which airplanes would be in the air. I remembered that our planes had twin exhausts, and this one that flew over us had one exhaust, so we reported that this plane was coming in and we were pretty sure it was Japanese. And it was.

MH: In the end, Lexington was fatally torpedoed by the Japanese. Did you assist in her evacuation?

Brittin: A lot of survivors ended up aboard Aylwin. Two heavy cruisers, Minneapolis and New Orleans, rescued a lot of them. A few other destroyers, Anderson, Hammann and Morris, also got a lot. And it was Phelps, our squadron command ship, that finally finished off the Lex with her torpedoes. We were going to go to Brisbane, Australia, to offload the survivors, and that was great–civilization! But about 100 miles from Brisbane our orders were changed to go to a small island, Tongatabu.

MH: I suppose Aylwin was needed for the upcoming ‘Round 2′ with the Japanese Combined Fleet?

Brittin: We all raced back from the Coral Sea to Pearl just as fast as we could go without running out of fuel, with the other damaged American carrier, Yorktown, leaving a stream of oil in her wake. We went in and, like on December 7, there was no demand that couldn’t be met–provisions, ammunition, fuel. I think we stayed there about 36 hours, then headed north to Midway.

MH: Of the carriers damaged at Coral Sea, Japan’s Shokaku and Zuikaku were not repaired in time for the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, but Yorktown was. Were you still with her?

Brittin: At Midway we had Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet opposing the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu. Yorktown operated with her own destroyer screen. Enterprise and Hornet operated closer together; we were part of their screen. I think they had enlarged the circle of destroyers around the carriers, making it about 4,000 yards instead of 3,000 yards. We did a lot of shooting, and it was all anti-aircraft fire. We put up a pretty good screen, using all of our 5-inch guns. We used the 40mm and 20mm secondary armament, but I don’t think we did very much damage with them. We also picked up downed fliers from both the Coral Sea and Midway battles.

MH: What did you do after Midway?

Brittin: As a solitary escort, we had to rendezvous with a supply ship or a tanker and head toward the Aleutians. I remember when we got there it was cold, and we really didn’t have the right equipment and clothing. But in June 1942, the Japanese had raided Dutch Harbor and landed at Attu and Kiska islands in an attempt to decoy part of our carrier force up there and thus divide and reduce our force at Midway–a ruse that failed. We went into Dutch Harbor, and there was the wreckage of a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter right up against the coast. I thought it had been shot down. I later heard that a Zero that was in great shape had been recovered, but whether that was the one I saw or not, I don’t know.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Figures, People, World War II

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