Cleveland man remembers attack on Pearl Harbor like it was yesterday

Pearl Harbor attack survivor George Allen, an accomplished musician and arranger, displays a copy of one of his instructional manuals. After his discharge in 1945, Allen began a 55-year career in the music industry.
Pearl Harbor attack survivor George Allen, an accomplished musician and arranger, displays a copy of one of his instructional manuals. After his discharge in 1945, Allen began a 55-year career in the music industry.

God almighty, they blew the hell out of that place. It was a disaster.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - It's been 75 years, but retired musician George Allen can still describe the attack on Pearl Harbor just like it was yesterday.

Days before the infamous anniversary, 93-year-old Allen readily shared his story between sips of coffee during his regular morning visit to American Legion Post 81. At times, he used animated gestures when recalling the day, but some memories left his voice trailing off quietly.

photo At his home in Cleveland, Tenn., in this 2011 file photo, George Allen describes the movements of troops and planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Allen, a private in the U.S. Army hailing from Portland, Maine, sat outside the mess hall peeling potatoes as part of his Sunday morning kitchen duties the fateful morning of Dec. 7, 1941. He and his comrades, stationed at Schofield Barracks on the Hawaii island of Oahu, saw what they thought was a large flock of geese winding its way through a nearby mountain pass as they shaved potato skins.

"God, we're back in Maine," Allen told his buddies, remarking on the sight. "I thought they were birds coming across. It was [Japanese] bombers."

Allen and his comrades soon realized the truth when a Japanese Zero fighter plane strafed them, blowing holes in the nearby building with large-caliber machine guns. The shots just missed their heads because they only had foot stools to sit on that morning, Allen said.

"We're all shook up, we don't even know what is going on," Allen said.

The fighter pilot came back around for a second pass, but he only gestured at Allen and his stunned comrades.

And then the bombing started.

"God almighty, they blew the hell out of that place," Allen said, describing how Japanese aircraft bombed and torpedoed the American warships neatly lined up in Pearl Harbor. The explosions ripped through ships and burning sailors jumped overboard. "It was a disaster."

More than 2,400 U.S. servicemen died.

During the attack, which lasted a little over an hour, Allen and the other soldiers tried to get their rifles, but they were locked up in the armory.

Afterward, his unit was ordered to take up positions in the hills overlooking the harbor. The move, he said, served to get them out of harm's way of another bombing attack and to prepare for an invasion, which never came.

While in the hills, Allen and his friends listened on shortwave radio while President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a nation now fully involved in World War II, describing Dec. 7, 1941, as "a date which will live in infamy."

A WORLD AWAY

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the late Chattanooga broadcast legend Luther Masingill described what it was like to learn of the bombing.

Masingill, an 18-year-old Central High School student working at the WDEF-AM radio station, said the day was like any ordinary Sunday broadcast when the news came in at the end of his shift, according to previous reports. He deleivered news of the attack that took place more than 4,000 miles away to listeners in Chattanooga.

"The Japanese have attacked the island, our military installation in Oahu, known also as Pearl Harbor," Masingill read over the microphone.

Bulletins poured in, creating a clearer and more severe picture of what happened at the American naval base, Masingill said. He described how people gathered around newsboys hawking special editions of the Chattanooga Daily Times and Chattanooga News-Free Press that evening.

Masingill reflected it was soon evident the attack on Pearl Harbor would become the story of "the whole century."

GEORGE ALLEN'S WAR

Pearl Harbor was just the beginning of the war for Allen.

He joined the Army a few months before the Japanese surprise attack. And as a member of the 24th Infantry Division, he would partake in six island assaults before the U.S. Army discharged him on June 6, 1945. Allen fought in several famous battles before the end of the war, including New Guinea, Malay, Luzon and Mindanao.

Allen volunteered for foreign service in the Philippines, which fell to Japanese forces before he was deployed. The division's Pacific campaigns would eventually get him there.

"You had to be ready all the time: training, living in foxholes, or ready for invasions," Allen said. "We had it rough."

He laughed when he said he never saw a bed for the entire time he served overseas. If you got lucky, you got to sleep in a cot if you wound up in the field hospital with an injury or malaria, Allen said. Otherwise, you slept on the ground or in foxholes.

He never went home during that time, he said. There was no phone and he couldn't send letters from battle zones.

"My parents didn't know where I was for four years," Allen said.

During his Pacific campaign service, his job called for him to guard an artillery battery, he said. Since he was too light to lug the heavy shells, they gave him a .50-caliber machine gun instead.

"They made me the machine gunner to protect them," Allen said. "I had the worst job of all, because if the [Japanese] come in, I had to stop them all."

The Pearl Harbor strafing was only one of many close calls he had during the war. He had plenty more opportunities while fighting on Japanese-held islands.

"I got creamed almost 11 times," he said.

In one instance, an unseen Japanese infiltrator came within a dozen feet of a foxhole Allen shared with a soldier armed with a Thompson submachine gun, Allen said. It was night and his unit had just fought its way ashore earlier in the day.

His partner told him he thought he heard something, which Allen said could have been anything since they were only 50 yards from the shore, but instructed his comrade to fire a burst toward the possible source of noise. He did.

The next morning, they found a dead enemy soldier with a grenade in his hand and a pack of explosives on his back.

photo George Allen talks with the Times Free Press at his home in Cleveland, Tenn., in 2011. Allen was peeling potatoes at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese 75 years ago. He survived the attack and went on to play and teach guitar.

A LIFETIME AWAY

After the war, Allen said he was able to pursue a music career through a German music professor who offered free lessons to discharged veterans and a grateful government that paid for his textbooks.

"I got lucky at the end of war," Allen said.

From there, he launched a 55-year career as a music arranger and guitarist who traveled around the world with big bands, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Les Paul and other legends.

"I loved it," Allen said. "It wasn't work to me."

After his coffee, Allen proudly displayed a dictionary of 650 guitar chords he composed, along with other instructional manuals he has written.

He retired after a stint in Las Vegas and joined his daughter in Cleveland. She had no idea about his service until about 10 years ago, he said.

He struggled to explain how he reconciles the war with his normal life. He said no matter how vivid his war stories might be, it's still hard to truly make people understand what it was like.

"It was hard to explain," Allen said. "You had to be there, really."

Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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