Outside the bay, the sailors saw the kamikazes coming, so Lieut. Commander Alvin W. Fargo, Jr., commanding Squadron Thirteen, ordered the PTs still escorting the convoy to get between the LSTs and the approaching planes. Seven kamikazes strafed the PTs ineffectively, and the boats brought down three of them. Of the four that penetrated the screen, two were shot down by the combined fire of the LSTs and the PTs. The other two dived into LST 472 and LST 738, setting them afire. Eventually, destroyers had to sink the burning hulks with gunfire. PTs picked up a hundred survivors.
Next morning all the PTs were in Mangarin Bay at Mindoro, site of the landings, and the LST 605, destined to be their base ship, was unloading on the beach. PTs 230 and 300 were entering from the night’s patrol, when a single plane glided out of the sun and strafed the 230, without hitting it. The kamikaze circled and started his dive on the LST 605. The landing ship and all the PTs opened fire and shot off the plane’s tail. The kamikaze crashed on the beach fifty yards from the LST, killing five men and wounding 11.
Half an hour later eight planes came after the PTs.
Lieut. (jg) Byron F. Kent, whose 230 was a target, tells of applying broken-field running football tactics to the problem:
“Three of the planes chose my boat as their target. All our fire was concentrated on the first as it dove for the boat in a gradual sweep, increasing to an angle of about seventy degrees. I maneuvered at high speed, to present a starboard broadside to the oncoming plane. When it was apparent that the plane could not pull out of the dive, I feinted in several directions and then turned hard right rudder under the plane. It struck the water thirty feet off the starboard bow.
“The second plane began its dive. When the pilot committed himself to his final direction, I swung the boat away from the plane’s right bank. The plane hit the water fifty feet away.
“The third plane came in at a seventy-degree dive. After zigzagging rapidly as the plane came down, I swung suddenly at right angles. The plane landed in the water just astern, raising the stern out of the water and showering the 40-mm. gun crew with flame, smoke, debris, and water. All of us were slightly dazed, but there were no injuries and the boat was undamaged.”
Lieut. (jg) Frank A. Tredinnick, in 77, was attacked by a single. He held a steady course and speed until just before impact, and then chopped his throttle. The kamikaze pilot, who had quite properly taken a lead on the speeding boat, crashed ten yards ahead.
Lieut. (jg) Harry Griffin, Jr. swung his 223 hard right just before impact, and his attacker showered the boat with water.
With two planes after him, Lieut. (jg) J. R. Erickson maneuvered at top speed.