Chester W. Hill World War II Memoirs

Chester W. Hill was born in 1921, and grew up in Ahoskie, North Carolina. He attended Wake Forest University, and after completing his degree, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve. He was then sent to Midshipman School in New York City, where he was instructed in naval communications. Approaching completion of the naval school in late fall 1942, he requested three choices for duty assignment: destroyers, North Atlantic; destroyers, South Atlantic; or destroyers, Pacific. Hill received his first choice and was assigned to the USS Swanson in January of 1943 as a communication officer, with the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade (LTJG). His duties entailed coding and decoding messages ship-to-ship and ship-to-headquarters.

On January 6, 1943, the Swanson embarked on an assignment to escort a convoy of troop ships from New York to Casablanca. The vessel's primary mission from January to July 1943 was to serve as an escort in Task Group 65.5 of the convoy UGF9A patrolling the Straits of Gibraltar and the coast of northern Africa. A number of the missions included transporting captives of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps Casablanca to New York.

Between July and December 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily, in "Operation Husky," and the USS Swanson was part of a naval armada off the coast of Bizerte, Tunisia during that invasion. The vessel assisted in shooting dive bombers, as U.S. troops marched on the beach. Hill and other communication officers determined from which direction the enemy planes originated, and assisted in providing coordinates to attack enemy aircraft. Also during the campaign, the Swanson participated in sinking the German submarine U-173, which had sunk the transport, USS Hewes; damaged the fleet oiler USS Winooski; and torpedoed the destroyer USS Hambleton amidships, which almost gutted her, but she made port.

In December of 1943, the battle in the Atlantic was turning in favor of the allies, and in January of 1944, the USS Swanson received orders to depart to Milne Bay, New Guinea. In the Atlantic and Mediterranean the threat had been the efficient German U-boats. Now, in the Pacific, the Japanese air force and surface naval units were the danger. Also, the Japanese forces used different military tactics than the Germans. For instance, if captured, a Japanese soldier vowed never to surrender to the enemy. Instead, he would commit hari kari (suicide).

Between May and June 1944, the Swanson assisted in the invasion of Hollandia, New Guinea, islands off the Bunis, and Siapan, which is located to the northwest of New Guinea. In August of the same year, the vessel assisted troops to the East of three volcanic islands (a part of the Bonis Islands) and aided aircraft striking targets ashore.

During Hill's military service, in August of 1943, he had a "blind date" with Mary Becker from Brookhaven, Mississippi. After the date, they wrote regularly, and then were married on March 3, 1945. Once discharged from the military, the couple moved to Mobile, Alabama, and Hill began working for Merrill Lynch as a stockbroker. At this writing, Hill has retired and continues to live in Mobile, where he enjoys his six children and eight grandchildren.