Liberty Ship, Juan Cabrillo 5

Liberty Ship, Juan Cabrillo 5

Naval ships

Silhouettes

"Two Liberty ships, as seen over AA gun sight" From "Darkroom Soldier": "On the SS Juan Cabrillo. Luminous clouds above, Liberty Ship a far silhouette, 20 mm anti-aircraft gun up close -- the young photographer documented these apparently commonplace daily images en route to Leyte. The ship and those anti-aircraft guns, however, would come to hold uncommon significance for Hill because of an event the night after docking at Tacloban. As he later told Martha, 'From my cot, through the open hold, I could see the tracers of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns going straight away, meaning that an enemy plane, no doubt a kamikaze suicide plane, was coming directly at the Juan Cabrillo. If it hit our ship and blew up, or even just engulfed the hold with flaming gasoline -- well, you can say I was scared. But thanks to the training and skill of the Marine gunners, they dropped the attacking plane in the sea before it reached us." ("Darkroom Soldier" caption authored by George Venn)

Hill, Fred

4/21/1945

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2010.1.363