Poseidon and the PC
The Letters of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt
by
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Long before ‘PC’ became equated with a “personal computer” or “politically correct”, the two letters were associated with “Patrol Craft.” These World War II ships had a crew of sixty enlisted men and five officers. Their most common mission was to perform convoy escort duty and antisubmarine warfare, though some served in very hazardous landing invasions such as D-Day. Poseidon and the PC documents the adventures of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) on two PCs through one hundred and fifteen of his letters written to his wife during the great conflict. PCs were produced in 16 different locations throughout the United States in some unlikely locations such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee. They were built in a hurry to help protect Allied convoys from enemy submarines. PCs were staffed predominantly by citizen soldiers known by the designation USNR or “United States Naval Reserve.” All their duty was considered temporary since they were to be returned to civilian status upon the end of the war. PCs weren’t even built in a traditional, dignified way: they were built upside down so that the top of the hull was constructed first and the keel last, and then the ship was flipped one hundred and eighty degrees to build the superstructure. Obviously these ships were pretty light if they could be flipped like hamburgers! Many regular Navy enlisted men thought it was beneath their dignity to serve on such puny ships with a crew of temporary citizen soldiers being bossed around by “90 day wonder” officers some of which had never been to sea or commanded even a rowboat. The PCs were meant to relieve the larger, far more valuable DD Destroyers and DE Destroyer Escorts from the often monotonous duties of convoy escort. The 174 foot long PCs, with a beam of 23 feet and at just 280 tons (450 tons displacement fully loaded), were so small that they would be relatively safe duty: the enemy would almost always be able to find more worthy targets. While some PCs sustained battle damage and three were sunk by torpedoes, a majority of the 35 PCs that were damaged or destroyed during World War II had a much more effective enemy than the Axis Powers: Poseidon, the god of the ocean. In a hurricane or typhoon, PCs floated as light as a cork in a bottle and as rough as riding a bull. Any bone that could be broken as a contestant in a rodeo could be broken as a crewman on a PC in rough seas. Stories of going airborne while attempting to ride the enlisted men’s toilet were among the documented hazards. Sudden 25 foot drops of the bow were to be expected. When waves in a hurricane might be as high as 70 feet, the mast of a PC was only 55 feet high from the water line, thus a PC could entirely disappear from view in the trough of a large wave, and then be high as a kite on the next wave crest. A PC had one significant virtue, however, it was designed to roll beyond horizontal to 110 degrees and still right itself. While that led to the safety of the crew, the seasickness that resulted from the pitching and rolling of the hull was truly gut wrenching. If you could hold your lunch on a PC, you were more than seaworthy on any other Navy ship in the fleet. However, your chances of transferring to a more prestigious ship in were almost nil. USNR officers and enlisted were, after all, just temporary citizen soldiers. Poseidon and the PC is also a love story. Paul loved his wife more than he could express. He wrote as an absentee father who knew that there was a cost to his being separated from his toddler daughter Carol. He missed bonding with this young life, he missed the simple highs and lows of being a parent and he knew he was becoming a stranger to his daughter. His wife Phyllis did what she could to chase her husband around the country with their daughter until his constant sea duty made the sacrifice and expense futile. Phyllis returned to her parents in Peoria, Illinois and experienced the friction with her parents about how her daughter should be raised until she finally took refuge in her own rented house. Phyllis became pregnant during her husband’s visit when he transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the late winter of 1945. As the war ended, the race was on to see whether or not Paul could make it home in time for the birth of this new child “Little Two.” Poseidon and the PC is based on the one hundred and fifteen surviving letters of citizen officer Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) and his adventures in the Atlantic and Pacific on two PCs from September, 1943 until November of 1945. While Paul never was on a ship that fired a shot in anger (they might have mistaken a whale for an enemy submarine and fired depth charges), he often experienced substantial danger and as an officer that was responsible for his ship and the lives of the crew. His PC was able to ride out the first hurricane that ever had a name, “The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944,” in which hundreds of US Navy personnel drowned. Upon his transfer to the Pacific, he was stationed at Okinawa when typhoons menaced the American fleet. Ultimately the ocean god Poseidon could have greatly impacted the end of this great war in a manner often overlooked, since so many end their study of World War II with the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Typhoons might have otherwise substantially prolonged the war. A great typhoon sunk, beached or damaged more than two hundred American ships at Okinawa in October, 1945 after the war had ended. These were mainly smaller ships such as PCs that were to be used in the invasion of Japan. Many more ships would have been present and more lives lost had peace not been declared. Any invasion of Japan would have been substantially delayed. The potential cost in American lives had the war continued is obviously a subject for speculation, but nevertheless, a subject this author takes very seriously, since he might never have been born had the invasion of Japan been necessary. Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) was the executive officer on one of PCs grounded and damaged beyond repair by the great typhoon, which struck on October 9, 1945. When Poseidon wished to show his power, Paul knew his PC needed all the help and good fortune there was to be found if they were to survive the fury of what Americans came to call Typhoon Louise.
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About the Book
Poseidon and the PC documents the adventures of Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) through one hundred and fifteen of his letters written to his wife during World War II. Long before ‘PC’ became equated with a “personal computer” or “politically correct,” the two letters were associated with “Patrol Craft.” These World War II ships had the mission of performing convoy escort duty and antisubmarine warfare. The PCs were meant to relieve the larger, far more valuable ships from the often monotonous duties of sailing at the speed of the slowest ship in a convoy. The 174 foot long PCs were so small that they were considered safe duty as more worthy targets were always available. In high seas PCs floated as light as a cork in a bottle and as rough as riding a bull. A PC could entirely disappear from view in the trough of a large wave. The seasickness that resulted from the pitching and rolling of the PC was truly gut wrenching. If you didn’t get sick on a PC, you were seaworthy on any other Navy ship in the fleet. Had the war not ended when it did, Poseidon’s typhoons might have substantially prolonged the war in the Pacific. A great typhoon sunk, beached or damaged more than two hundred American ships at Okinawa after the war had ended that were to be used for the invasion of Japan. Paul was the executive officer on one of the many PCs destroyed by this great storm, which struck on October 9, 1945. When Poseidon showed his power, Paul knew his PC needed all the help and good fortune there was to be found if they were to survive the fury of what Americans came to call Typhoon Louise.
About the Author
As early as the 1950’s, Gary W. Neidhardt can remember his father Paul speaking in the highest terms about America’s naval victories during World War II. Many of Paul’s books had a particular emphasis on the great naval battles of World War II, and when he talked of that time, he spoke with reverence and authority. But with regards to his own activities during his three and a half years in the Navy, he said very little, and only a large family barometer kept in the living room provided a visible clue to some of his memories. Only after Paul’s death in 1997 did Gary start to explore his parent’s house in Chagrin Falls, Ohio to see what memories there might be remaining. Hundreds of letters written by family members in the 30’s and 40’s were discovered. Of the hundreds of letters, one hundred and fifteen were written by Gary’s ocean-sailing, naval-officer father to his wife Phyllis beginning from the Great Lakes in September of 1943, the Atlantic soon thereafter, and ending from the Pacific in November of 1945. Poseidon and the PC is the result, which contains so much more than just family history. Gary W. Neidhardt is a retired software executive and long-time American history lover living in Lilburn, Georgia. Gary is the youngest of three children. Sister Carol Neidhardt, born in 1941 and the toddler of this book, lives in Mission, Kansas. Brother Paul, born at the end of this book in 1945 and known herein as “Little Two,” lives in Chagrin Falls. Gary is grateful to be married to his lovely second wife Mary, and is the father of three children. Lt. Paul W. Neidhardt (USNR) is revealed by these letters to be a man his children never knew while he lived. By the publication of Paul’s letters, his children, their descendants, and friends and acquaintances can get to know him in a way none of us ever imagined.