Monday, May. 03, 1943
One of the Best
The full story of a great all-Negro gun crew of the U.S. Coast Guard was told for the first time last week on CBS' radio program The Man Behind the Gun.
The program re-enacted the Coast Guard cutter Campbell's 12-hour scrap with six U-boats in the North Atlantic. Of the Campbell's attack on the sixth submarine, the eyewitness account said:
"The searchlight bridge opens up now, and the wallowing hulk of the U-boat is clearly outlined in the glare. It shudders and rocks as the three-inch shells pour into it at the water line. Everybody on the cutter is yelling like a madman. Up forward you can see the Negro crew of number five gun, working like a machine, and grinning all the while. They throw the shells into the gun in a steady stream--the fastest gun crew on the cutter. And their lips move as they pour hot steel into the submarine. They're singing."
The account might have added that the gun crew, volunteers all and, according to U.S. Navy tradition, messmen, had emptied the entire contents of their "ready box" (32 shells) into the sub in one minute. Exclaimed a Coast Guard officer: "Those boys are one of the best gun crews you ever saw!"
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