Story about the USS Fuller during World War ll.

1. The World War Two Story of
William Gustuve Kappel

2. I recently learned that many of us truly do not know
exactly what Grandpa did during WWII. It seems
Grandpa did not talk much about it. Over the years his
heroism and service to our country became a mystery
and lost in time.
The following slides will allow me to share the story with
you and many will contain images of some of the
documents I obtained that show what he did and where
he was. I have also included historical information about
some of the events he was a part of and what his ship
did in those battles.
Click through at your leisure and enjoy!

3. The story begins December 14, 1942.
Grandpa began his journey at the Naval
Reserve Station in Manhattan. He was
described on paper as being 5’10”
weighing 158 pounds with a “Ruddy”
complexion.
He enlisted for a duration of 2 years as a
F3c (Fireman Third Class)
Classification V-6. The rate of F3c
would not last long. The classification
of V-6 is simply one of twelve
classifications given to reservists to
describe the type of rate they will
hold. V-6 is “General Service and
Specialists”.
Some of this information is seen here on
an original enlistment document.

4. Since he was under the age of 21 Grandpa needed
permission from his parent of guardian to enlist.
His father was in Iceland on a construction job and
could not sign anything. Therefore, sister
Henrietta Kappel signed all the necessary
documentation to allow Grandpa to enlist. She also
became his principal beneficiary on all life
insurance Documents.
Grandpa left the Naval Reserve station with a
payment of $54.00 for his enlistment.

5. Fingerprints from Enlistment

6. On January 8, 1943 Grandpa was called to active
duty. He was transferred to the Naval Training
Station (Boot Camp) in Great Lakes Ill. He began
there on January 9, 1943 and would remain there
until April 15, 1943.
LEFT: Transfer paperwork from Naval Reserve
Station to Naval Training Station
BELOW: Test Scores

7. Once he finished boot camp he was off to a
service school to learn his rate or job.
Instead of going to school for his rate of F3c
Grandpa was transferred to a different
service school. He would become a MoMM
(Motor Machinist Mate). As a MoMM Grandpa
would have had the responsibility of
maintaining and operating machinery for the
propulsion of ships and any other machinery
on the ship. The top half of the document on
the left shows his arrival at Boot Camp and
apparently qualifying him for a 50 yard swim.
The bottom half shows his transfer to his
service school. He would be learning about
Diesel Propulsion at the University of Illinois
in Urbana, Ill. He was officially transferred
on April 15, 1943 and began the school on
April 19, 1943.

8. On June 12, 1943 Grandpa completed his
service school. He graduated 38th
in his
class of 127 and qualified as a MoMM2c
(Second Class). His final mark of 87.182
and his test scores can be seen on the
right. Below is his official change in rate.
His reservist classification remained a V-6.
As of June 12, 1943 Grandpa was now a
MoMM2c and off to yet another school.

9. After his service school Grandpa was then
transferred to a destroyer base in San Diego,
California for a more detailed course on diesel
propulsion. This time he would study the diesel
engines on the Landing craft. Based on his leave
sheet he was put on leave for a brief period from
June 15, 1943-June 24, 1943 before he officially
began this new school. It is this school that we
begin to see more details of what Grandpa really
did during the war.
Here he would learn more about the engines on a
landing craft. A landing craft, sometimes referred
to as a Higgins boat can be seen below.

10. On June 26, 1943 at 11:53 Am Grandpa arrived
in San Diego, California for his course in internal
combustion for landing crafts. He would remain
in this school for four weeks until he completed
it on July 24, 1943. He was ranked 50 out of 75
in his class and scored a 78.50 on his final test
as seen on the right.

11. After completing his course in the
engines of the landing craft it was
time for Grandpa to learn everything
he would need to know about this type
of boat. Based on the future events
that Grandpa encountered this school
would become the knowledge base for
Grandpas experience while out at sea.
He was transferred to landing craft
school on July 24, 1943. He reported
on the same day due to the fact that
the school was in the same location he
has been in since June 26th
.

12. So what exactly is a landing craft? As
stated earlier a landing craft was also
known as a Higgins Boat. It was most
popularly depicted in Saving Private Ryan
and other D-Day movies as the small boats
that carried men ashore during an invasion.
These boats were carried by attack
transport ships and hung off the sides of
the Ship much like a life boat on a cruise
ship. At the beginning of the war the
landing crafts had a slightly different
design but acted in the same way. They
were originally manned by a crew of 4. A
driver, 2 gunners, and a MoMM to monitor
the
engine. Eventually, by the time Grandpa entered the war they realized the crewmember operating the
engine could just man the second gun while the invasion is taking place. When the invasion began the 3
crewmembers would lower the boat into the water with a pulley system. Once in the water a cargo net was
lowered into the water and the platoon of up to 36 would climb down the cargo net and enter the boat. The
large numbers of landing crafts would then
proceed to the hostile beach under heavy fire.
Once at the beach the door on the bow would
drop and the men would charge out. The
landing crafts would return to the anchored
ship to pick up another wave of men to
continue the invasion or to continuously
resupply the troops. These boats were not well
armored and only made of plywood. They would
travel at a speed of 9 knots. This was to
become Grandpas life in many historic battles
in the Pacific theatre.

13. The next chain of events happened fairly quick. Once Grandpa
completed landing craft School he was transferred to the
Naval Receiving Station in Treasure Island, San Francisco,
California on August 26, 1943. This island is located mid span
of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and became a Naval Base
during World War II. He would remain here for almost a month
doing jobs around the base simply waiting to get his ship
assignment.
On September 20, 1943 he was be sent to Noumea, New
Caledonia. This is an island in the middle of the Pacific, East of
Australia. Grandpa has now arrived in the Pacific and will be
meeting up with his ship.
Seven days later on September 27, 1943 Grandpa would board
his ship, APA-7 The USS Fuller.

14. The USS Fuller was a Heywood Class attack transport. There were many of these ships built
strictly for WWII. They were mostly passenger and freight cargo ships that were converted
into military transport vessels. The attack transports were all named after presidents,
signers of the Declaration of Independence, distinguished Generals and Admirals, famous
women, and historic places. The Fuller was named after Major General Ben Hebard Fuller who
graduated the Naval Academy in 1889 and became the commander of the Marine Corp. The
Fuller would deliver its troops to the beach and then remain anchored in hostile territory to
continue to deliver supplies or reinforcements as the battles progressed. The Fuller was 507’
long and traveled at a speed of 16 knots. She was operated by 43 Officers and 337 Enlisted
members. She was able to accommodate 60 Officers and 818 Enlisted troops to put onto the
beaches.

15. The first battle Grandpa would participate in was the invasion of
Bougainville Island. Part of the Solomon Islands chain this island was
important for the Allies to capture because it provided support for
the rest of the Japanese Occupied Solomon Islands with Naval bases
and airfields. The invasion began November 1, 1943 and the Fuller was
right in the heart of it. They loaded up the Higgins boats and put
Marines on the island at Empress Augusta Bay. They did this under
heavy mortar and machine gun fire. The Fuller moved out and headed
to Tulagi Island to resupply and load more Marines. On November 8,
1943 the Fuller was underway again back towards Empress Augusta
Bay. This next invasion was known as Echelon 2A (some readings refer
to it as 3). On this invasion they were able to easily unload onto the
island until numerous planes moved in towards the Fuller. Most of the
planes were taken care of but numerous Japanese dive bombers
appeared from the clouds moving towards the Fuller. One dropped a
bomb right off the bow and shrapnel from the bomb damaged the ship
and killed a sailor. The final dive bomber was more destructive. Its
bomb dropped into the ships crew compartment and exploded killing 7
men and wounding approximately 30. The damage control team aboard
the ship made quick repairs to get the ship back to Tulagi again.
Further repairs were made before the Fuller continued her duties. The
men would again return to Bougainville island for the 6th
Echelon on
November 19th
.

17. Not the Fuller, but
this photo is of
Marines Climbing
aboard Higgins boats
ready to invade
Bougainville Island in
November 1943.

18. Marines landing in Empress Augusta Bay

19. On November 12, 1943 Grandpa supplied
himself with clothing and other
necessities.

20. The Fuller was now headed to Auckland, New Zealand. This was not the Fullers
first time in New Zealand but would be Grandpas first and last while in the
service. The ship was running on temporary repairs from Tulagi and was waiting
for the repairs it needed until things calmed down in Bougainville.
Once the repairs were made the Fuller was back to the Solomon Island chain to
continue supplying the Marines. On Christmas day of 1943 the Marines in
Bougainville were replaced with Army units. Later in the day the men aboard the
Fuller were notified that they were going to be heading back to the United
States for some time. Grandpa and the Fuller were headed back to San Francisco
and arrived in the harbor on January 17, 1944.

21. Grandpa was officially put on Leave from February 19, 1944-March 8, 1944
while the Fuller received a full overhaul to make much needed repairs and
updating. I do not have any details on what Grandpa did or where he went during
these dates but he did return to the Fuller and continued his service in March
of 1944. Half of the men aboard the fuller were transferred to other ships.
The Navy felt the need to spread out the experienced sailors throughout the
Navy meaning the Fuller had to train these new Sailors for what was to come.
Once the overhaul was complete the Fuller sailed to San Diego for training on
what would become larger invasions than what they did in the Solomons. From
San Diego the Fuller sailed to Pearl Harbor for more training where they
encountered more ships and men then they had seen to date.
On May 29, 1944 the Fuller was leaving Pearl Harbor and Headed to Saipan
Island in the Mariana Island chain where Grandpa was to fight in his second
battle of his war.

22. On June 8, 1944 the Fuller arrived at Eniwetok Island, which is
a small island in the Marshal Islands chain. Here the large
number of ships for the invasion of Saipan assembled. There
was battleships, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers. The men of
the Fuller had never seen this many ships for an invasion before.
On June 13, 1944 fifteen battleships began bombarding the
island of Saipan to prepare for the invasion. On the morning of
June 15th
the landings began on the south west portion of the
island. While these landings were going on the Fuller was making
a feint landing on the northern point of the island. This landing
was made to draw some of the forces away from the main
landing to be sure the main landing was a success. The feint
landing wasn’t as much of a success as anticipated but it did
occupy one entire infantry regiment. Once the main invasion
commenced the Fuller was ordered south to the main landing
area where she unloaded her boats and began landing Marines on
the beach under heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Twenty
minutes after the invasions began 8,000 Americans were
fighting on the beach.
At nighttime the Fuller loaded up boats in the area and left
whatever boats were still near the beach along with its crew
members. It is not clear if Grandpa was aboard one of the ships
taken aboard or left on the beach.
By the morning the Fuller returned and continued loading the
boats left the night before.
The Fuller would continue in Saipan until June 24, 1944. They
transported prisoners back to Eniwetok and continued to
reinforce Saipan with Marines and Army Units.

23. Battleships bombard Saipan Island while Higgins boats head in to
land the marines.

24. Higgins boats await orders to begin the landings in Saipan.

25. The Fuller was then ordered to load troops of the
2nd
Marine Division in preparation for the invasion
of Tinian island another island in the Mariana Chain.
On the morning on July 24, 1944. The Fuller was
once again ordered to take part in another feint
invasion on the south-west part of the island near
Tinian town while the main invasion took place
further north. The island is only 3 miles south of
Saipan allowing for artillery shelling from across
the Saipan Strait along with Naval bombardment.
The feint landing in Tinian was more of a success
than the one in Saipan. The Japanese were pulled
so far south that by the time the main invasion
took place there were very limited defenses up
north. The Fuller loaded up its boats and headed
north to the main invasion site and sent her troops
and cargo ashore.
Capturing Tinian was extremely important for the
Allies. It was needed for a launching site for an
aerial assault on Japan. Six runways were built and
50,000 support troops were stationed here after
the invasion was successful. The island would be
the point of origin of the Enola Gay which took off
on August 6, 1945 for the bombing of Hiroshima.
On August 9, 1944 the Fuller transported
casualties to the island of Espiritu Santo. They
then continued on to Guadalcanal to participate in
landing training exercises to prepare for the next
battle.

26. Reinforcement Marines coming ashore to Tinian

27. On September 15, 1944 Grandpa was on his way to the
island of Peleliu in the Pelau island chain. The battle of
Peleliu, also known as Operation Stalemate II was
planned to last only four days but would go on for over
two months. It had an extremely high casualty rate.
This island was needed to protect the liberation of the
Philippines.
By this time the Japanese realized by heavily arming
the beaches they were only losing men and equipment to
the bombardments. Instead they lightly armed the
beaches and took well fortified positions inland. This
island was considered extremely important to the
Japanese National Defense. They defended Peleliu and
the surrounding Pelau islands with 38,000 men and the
US invaded with 47,561 men. Heavy Naval
bombardments took place on September 12th
and were
believed to have been a success. However, the Japanese
remained in the inland position and were nearly unfazed
by the bombardment.
The Fuller helped deliver Marines to the southern part
of the island due to the location of the airfield. The 1st
Marine division lost 1,749 men within the first five
days. Of the large amount of defending Japanese
forces only 202 lived and were taken prisoner on Peleliu.
The Fuller completed its job in Peleliu and transported
casualties to Hollandia and began training exercises for
the next invasion.

28. First wave of Higgins boats make way towards Peleliu

29. On November 1, 1944 Grandpa received his
endorsement to be promoted to MoMM1c (1st
Class).
The “(T)” stands for temporary. This supposedly was
popular during the war to fill vacancies in rate and
ranks rather quickly.

30. The Fuller was now underway towards the Philippine
islands on October 13, 1944. These islands were
occupied by Japan for the past 3 years and the
islands were a main source of rubber and main route
to transport petroleum to Japan. The US under
General Douglas Macarthur sought to liberate the
Philippines. Taking Leyte Island first allowed Allied
forces to be within striking distance of any of the
other islands in the Philippine archipelago.
On October 20, 1944 the Fuller was one of many ships
that landed Army forces on Leyte island making this
the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific to date.
The Japanese were caught off guard making these
landings easy in comparison with the previous three.
Within two hours forces had moved two miles inland
meeting very little Japanese resistance.
Back on the Fuller there was some air attacks which
were fought off by Allied planed a long with heavy
anti-aircraft fire from the Fuller.
The Fuller unloaded troops and cargo faster than
usual and was underway back to Hollandia by Nightfall.
On November 14, 1944 the Fuller returned to Leyte
island in the middle of an air raid and off-loaded more
troops and completed this in 5 hours and 26 minutes.
On December 13, 1945 Grandpa was officially held
beyond enlistment.

31. General Douglas MacArthur landing on Leyte Island

32. On January 9, 1945 the Fuller unloaded its Higgins boats in
the Lingayen Gulf at Luzon island for a second invasion of
the Philippine islands. Due to heavy well aimed Naval
bombardments the opposition was limited. Three total
waves of Army troops landed at one minute intervals
totally 175,000 troops.
The Fuller remained anchored in the gulf all night
unloading cargo while constant suicide aircraft attacked
the ship. By the morning the Fuller and the rest of the
ships were able to leave the gulf. While leaving the gulf
the Fuller was supposed to lead the convoy of ships.
However, due to a last minute change the USS DuPage
wound up as the leader. Just over an hour after leaving the
gulf an enemy aircraft was heading right towards the
DuPage and directly hit the ship lighting it up in an
explosion. All the Fuller could do was drop life jackets in
the water to the few survivors. If there was not a last
minute change in plans this would have been the Fuller.
After the Philippines liberation Grandpa was ordered to
wear the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with two Bronze
stars. This meant he participated in two campaigns in the
Philippines.
In February of 1945 the Fuller was off to the Caroline
Islands to participate in training for the battle and
invasion of Okinawa.

33. The first wave of troops approach Luzon Island, note the two crew members in
the rear of the boat. That would be Grandpas position during all of these
invasions.

34. On April 1, 1945 the battle of Okinawa began code
named Operation Iceberg. The Allies planned to take
Okinawa and use it as an airbase only 340 miles from
mainland Japan. The kamikaze air attacks were going
strong by this time and there were numerous attacks
on Allied ships resulting in the largest number of
casualties in the Pacific. The Japanese suffered a
loss of 100,000 while the Allies suffered 50,000
casualties.
Early in the morning the first wave of Army and
Marines were sent ashore. The Fuller had a special
unit of a Marine aviation unit that was to be put
ashore at a specific point in the battle. This caused
the Fuller to have to sit at a single position while the
initial landings took place. This made the Fuller a
sitting duck to enemy aircraft which they had to
fight off. This position was held for eight days and
nights. The worst attack came on April 6th
when
numerous suicide aircrafts were attempting attacks
on the Fuller. One in particular was making its way
directly towards the Fuller but was shot down by the
crew.
Finally on the night of April 7th
the Fuller was to off
load the special unit. They put the Marines ashore in
record time.

35. USS Idaho bombarding the island of Okinawa

36. Marine reinforcements coming ashore to Okinawa

37. On April 13, 1945 the Fuller arrived in
Saipan but was ordered to again go home on
April 15th
. The Fuller was now headed back to
Pearl Harbor. While making good headway
the orders changed and they got news that
they would be headed back San Francisco.
The Fuller arrived in Honolulu where they
off-loaded casualties, Coast Guard, Marine
and Navy personnel. Finally, on May 6, 1945
the Fuller sailed under the Golden Gate
Bridge into the San Francisco Harbor.
Grandpa would take a well deserved leave
from May 7, 1945-May 22, 1945 while
repairs were made to the ship. Upon his
return there was a command change made
the ship and on July 16, 1945 the ship would
rejoin its fleet.
Just like before the Fuller was off to San
Diego for training exercises, this time
without any troops.
The Fuller loaded up with 66 Army officers,
a Naval passenger detachment, and a cargo
of lumber. On July 26, 1945 the Fuller was
on its way back to Eniwetok in the Marshal
Islands.

38. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
the surrender of Japan the Fuller was headed into
Tokyo bay on September 13, 1945 where it unloaded
at the Yokohama docks. This marked the first time
in Japans history that the island nation had been
occupied by a foreign power and Grandpa was a part
of it. This was simply a transport assignment and not
an invasion.
Just like Japan, the Fuller headed to China on a
transport assignment on October 3, 1945. Here 49
“high point” men were transferred for return to the
United States.
On December 13, 1945 Grandpa completed three full
years in the Navy. He was transferred to a receiving
station in Seattle Washington on December 29,
1945 to be discharged where he was then sent to
Lido Beach, New York to the Naval Personnel
Separation Center where he was finally granted his
Honorable Discharge from the United States Navy
on January 10, 1946.

39. Ribbons that were awarded to Grandpa
from left to right:
American Campaign Medal is awarded to
service members performing either one
year of consecutive duty between
December 7, 1941 to March 2, 1946 within
the continental borders of the United
States, or performing 30 days consecutive
or 60 non-consecutive days of duty
outside the borders of the United States
but within the American Theater of
Operations.
Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with 7
stars is awarded to any member of the
United States military who served in the
Pacific Theater from 1941 to 1945
denoting 7 battles.
Philippine Liberation Medal with 2 stars is
awarded to any service member, of both
Philippine and allied militaries, who
participated in the liberation of the
Philippine Islands between the dates of
October 17, 1944 and September 2, 1945
denoting 2 battles.
Not shown is the victory ribbon he was
awarded along with a good conduct medal
he was awarded.

43. The End