History Trails Morison to Dangers of Pacific Sea War

Why here's old Professor Morison. We must be going to have a battle." This is the way Commander Samuel Eliot Morison '08, USNR, was greeted once as he boarded a Navy cruiser. In his position as historian of naval operations of the second world war, Comdr. Morison has seen the dangerous center of nearly every major sea battle, from Casablanca to the Gilbert Islands, from Tarawa to Okinawa.

In a letter to the SERVICE NEWS, Comdr. Morison, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, revealed that he saw the landing on Okinawa from the highest point of the U.S.S. Tennessee: he described the action as a "superb naval spectacle full of movement, life and color." The Kamikaze boys "seemed to have a special spite" against the Tennossee, and "one got through, missed me on the bridge by a few feet and crashed amidships, killing and wounding a number of fine young men."

Nor was this the closest Comdr. Morison came to peril. He was on the U.S.S. Honolulu when she sustained two torpodo hits in an engagement with a Japanese task force. "One 'fish' knocked the Honolulu's bow off, and the other hit her square on the fantail, where it hung for about ten minutes, though it fortunately failed to explode." Comdr. Morison ventured to call the engagement "quite a hot fight."

Prepares Naval History

Until next fall, when he expects to resume teaching in the University, Comdr. Morison, with his staff, will be occupied writing the history of the various naval operations. This work is expected to run to 12 or 14 volumes. Although he has been piecing it together intermittently since he joined the Navy in 1942, finding time to write "during the intervals between sea duty," Comdr. Morison was not able to devote full time to the writing the history until last June.

Much of his time on sea duty he has spent "picking up the sort of information that seldom gets into the formal reports." Collecting this data has taken him, aside from the hot spots already mentioned, to "headquarters such as Guadalcanal, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, and Brisbane," and he has witnessed the invasions of Morocco and Saipan.

Native Was Irreplaceable

One of Comdr. Morison's adventures was unique in that it didn't quite happen. On the staff of Rear Admiral Walden D. Ainsworth aboard the U.S.S. Honolulu, he was on hand for the initial bombardment of Guam. "By that period of the war our fire support ships steamed so close to the coast that a native of Guam on the Honolulu could see his house, and proposed that he and I go ashore in a rubber boat as a two-man task force to give his friends the good word. Fortunately this plan did not appeal to Admiral Ainsworth, as the native in ques- tion was an excellent cook, and his loss would have been irreplaceable.

Won Pulitzer Prize

Comdr. Morison is well equipped to observe and write about naval matters. He has written a "Maritime History of Massachusetts," and sailed on four special trips while gathering material for his "Admiral of Ocean Sea," a biography of Columbus which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942. Aside from his own double-volume history of the United States, he has written one with Henry S. Commager. During the years 1930-1936 he wrote the "Tercentennial History of Harvard University," a massive five-volume work.

None of Comdr. Morison's courses are being given in his absence. He taught History 60 and 61, both concerning early American history. The first covers the thirteen colonies through the Revolution, while the second deals with the discovery of America.

Although Comdr. Morison's return will fill an important gap in the History Department, it will by no means end the list of members on leave of absence. Among these are: John K. Fairbank '29, associate professor of History, who is in the Far Eastern Section of the OWI, and has also worked for the Office of Strategic Services in China; Lieutenant Richard W. Leopold, USNR, faculty instructor in History, who is serving in Washington.

Members of the staff who have already resumed their teaching chores are: C. Crane Brinton '19, professor of History, who served in both the Washington and London branches of OSS; Sterling Dow '25, associate professor of History, who spent six months in Italy and some time in Washington with the OSS.FRANCIS THOW SPAULDING '16, dean of the Graduate School of Education, will return to Cambridge tomorrow for a conference with other members of the School prior to leaving for another overseas jaunt. Director of the U. S. Armed Forces Institute, which has given correspondence courses to G. l.s during the war, Dean Spaulding has made three visits to European military schools and is now slated to go to the Pacific. He is not expected to return to Harvard until next fall at the earliest.