USS Houston in 1935. U.S. Navy.
The USS Houston (CA-30), a 600-foot-long Northampton class heavy cruiser, was commissioned on June 17, 1930. She was President Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite warship, taking him on a 12,000-mile cruise from Annapolis, Maryland, through the Caribbean and Hawaii to Portland, Oregon. She was present during the festivities surrounding the opening of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in May 1937. In August 1941, Eastern Washington native Albert H. Rooks would take command of Houston, the Flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. In six months, both would be lost in one of the most costly battles in U.S. Naval history.
One of the survivors from Houston was Wilbur George “Snuffy” Smith, Fireman Second Class. Born in Umapine, Oregon, he attended a few years of school in Walla Walla, moved away and returned, and graduated from Walla Walla High School. In September 1939, Smith joined the Navy to see the world. He took the Union Pacific from the depot on West Main Street to Portland and was sworn in March 1940. After boot camp in San Diego, Smith signed aboard a ship going to the Philippine Islands. He sailed to Pearl Harbor where his assigned ship, Houston, was waiting to receive her crew.
Smith recalled in his diary, “We returned to Manila, had a trip to Shanghai. It was during this time that Captain Albert Rooks, from Walla Walla, relieved Captain Olendorf. One day during an inspection, Captain Rooks saw my copies of the Walla Walla Union Bulletin I had been receiving. When he inquired who those belonged to, he was told, ‘Smith.’ He then asked to have Seaman Smith report to his (Rooks’) quarters. The message [was delivered to me, and I] had no idea what to expect, nor did anyone else. Upon reporting to the captain, I was cordially invited into his compartment and told to relax! We then talked about Walla Walla and his mother, who at that time was living there, and how as a youngster, Rooks had more or less grown up in Walla Walla. He had attended school in Walla Walla. He asked me about different places and just a general conversation . . . and then told me things did not look well in the world situation and that he was going to keep his eye on me—which he did.
“Captain Rooks took me aside and told me that if I had pictures and personal things I wanted to send home, do it now. However, not to say anything to anyone else. This is the only reason I have the pictures and the [partial diary] today.” Three months later the attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed the Pacific Fleet. Houston set course from the Philippines to Australia to thwart the Japanese invasion.
On February 4, 1942, Houston was hit by two waves of Japanese bombers. Forty-eight men were killed and twenty injured, and the ship’s number 3 turret was badly damaged. Houston was now the largest warship left in the ABDA (Australian, British, Dutch, American) Alliance in the Southwest Pacific. Despite the damage sustained by the ship, Rooks declined to withdraw. Instead, Houston headed back to Darwin, Australia, to refuel and resupply. The ABDA forces were low on fuel and ammunition and significantly outnumbered, and Houston was needed to defend against the impending invasion of Java.
Alerted that Japanese forces were moving on Java in Banten Bay, Houston and Australian cruiser HMAS Perth headed toward the Sunda Straits, hoping to damage the incoming Japanese fleet. Under the cover of darkness, the two ships were surrounded by the Japanese Navy. In the vicious battle against numerous destroyers and cruisers, the Allied ships fought with all they had. Perth, battered by torpedo and gun hits, went down first. Houston fired on the destroyers and received torpedoes and gunfire in return. With the main batteries depleted, the crew fired small ammo and flares. Captain Rooks was fatally injured after a shell hit the starboard 1.1-inch gun mount. After several successive torpedo hits, Houston rolled over and sank in the early hours of March 1, 1942.
Of the approximately 1,100 men aboard Houston, the 368 who survived the battle were sent to brutal work camps. POWs building the Burma- Siam Railway performed hard physical labor for hundreds of miles. Wilbur Smith was one of these men. Disease was rampant, as was hunger, dehydration, and exhaustion. Punishment by guards was common, and escapees were routinely killed. Tropical ulcers resulted in amputations. Around 61,000 POWs were put to work on the railroad; of those, an estimated 13,000-16,000 died.
Smith was later sent to a camp in Kanchanaburi where they were building a steel bridge over the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai in 1960). The POWs were shuttled between camps to rebuild bombed bridges and roads. Smith recalled the prisoners put on plays and performed music to pass the time and keep spirits high. He survived the POW camps, starvation, and allied bombings and was rescued in August 1945. He returned to Walla Walla and lived here for the rest of his life.
Of the initial Houston survivors, only 290 would live to the end of the war. Captain Rooks was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. USS Houston was awarded two battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Wilbur Smith dictated the story of his time aboard Houston and as a POW to a friend in 1990, with the help of the partial diary Rooks insisted he send home in the fall of 1941. Captain Carl Bisgard (ret.) met Wilbur Smith through a mutual acquaintance. It wasn’t until later that Smith shared his remarkable story of survival. Bisgard remarked that Smith “was a strong and steadfast man, you never would have known he lived through something like this. He said it was just something you did for your country, and that was that.”
Smith passed away in Walla Walla on June 16, 2006, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery. In memory of Smith, Rooks, and all of the men aboard Houston, Bisgard connected with Jim Sonne, a skilled model maker. Sonne found a model kit for USS Indianapolis and configured it to match Houston. Bisgard and Sonne donated the Houston model and a copy of Wilbur Smith’s diary to the Museum to preserve these local connections to a world at war.