Page:An account of the action off Cape Lookout.djvu/17



Ensign E. Wiemers, USKR, First Lieutenant, carried out all orders efficiently and promptly. He was diligent in maintaining the materiel condition Affirm throughout the action. He spent long stretches of duty as Officer of the Deck and in this respect was especially trusted. His performance of duty had no highlights. It was uniformly dependable and quietly effective. He has proved himself to be an able officer, a good ship handler and, in all, a valuable part of this ship. An early promotion to Lieutenant [Junior grade] is recommended for this officer.

When this ship returned to port under the orders of Conowestseafront, she was received with considerable skepticism. Her records had not been examined, her crew had not been questioned and no qualified report had been made.

This ship was handicapped by the lack of outside aid from anti-submarine warfare officers. The only anti-submarine warfare officer present being Lieutenant (junior grade] Kroepke of the S536. This officer, naturally able, and trained in ASW was our biggest help while in command of the S536. When the regular commanding officer of that ship was brought to it by the PC788, cooperation from that direction ceased.

The captains of K-59 and K-33 were diligent, particularly the latter whenever he assumed command, but they showed a deep blank on the usual knowledge of ASW one might aspect of them. They did, however, beautiful coordination work when cooperating with surface ships.

The radio intercepts from shore stations near the scene were garbled because the blimps operated on 5 watts and could not reach. Therefore only a fragment of their orders, confirmations, etc. reached shore stations. The garbled conditions of such logs seemed to be due to static. This garble led to erroneous opinions.

The Astoria Naval Station did all possible to aid. Additional ammunition was not sent because the bar was running too high after the first load of 23 charges was delivered.