Landsale's End

At dusk the German torpedo planes came in, skimming the grey, becalmed Mediterranean. One torpedo went by. Another hit the U.S.S. Lansdale square amidships, nearly split her in two. The destroyer began to sink.

When orders came to abandon ship, few were prompt to obey. "Yes, sir," mumbled the Negro mess attendants manning an antiaircraft gun; they kept on firing. A19-year-old steward's mate with a broken leg dragged himself back to his post with them. Only when two planes had been shot down and the decks were awash did the men jump into the oily sea.

There was little confusion, but some men did strange things. One officer swam about in a heavy steel helmet. After two men jumping from the ship had landed on his head, he threw his helmet off, swam about bareheaded.

Most of the 200-man crew were saved --including the skipper, 33-year-old Lieut. Commander Douglas M. Swift, and his "exec," Lieut. Robert M. Morgenthau, 24-year-old son of the Secretary of the Treasury. Among the missing: Lieut. George E. Haines, 24, who swam-about with a life preserver, helping the injured. When rescue came, he was gone.

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