Account of Andy Judd

We separated a lot from drifting. The group I was with had about 150 men.

Approximately 6,000 yards away, we could see a cruiser that was dead in the water and next to it was a destroyer. There also was another destroyer that would come towards us about half way and we were sure they would finish us off, but they always turned around and went back near the cruiser.

The cruiser or destroyers would shoot at us with phosphorous shells which would explode in the air and burn us as they would come down. Then at times they shot concussion shells which would explode maybe 6 to 10 feet under water.

The first night we heard a loud explosion and saw a large flash in the direction of the ships. The next morning as daylight approached we were all looking in the direction and were relieved when the ships were all gone.

In our analyzing the situation we figured that the two destroyers took off the crew from the cruiser . We also figured most of the shelling had been shells from the cruiser to empty their load and they saved enough explosives to blow it up.