The Story of the U.S.S. Nicholas
By ROBERT E. TAYLOR, RM2C
Transcription from the Nicholas’s World War Two cruise book

   On June 4, 1942, the U.S.S. Nicholas, named after Marine Major Samuel Nicholas and bearing the number 449, hugged the docks of the Boston Navy Yard as a green crew of officers and men stood in a drenching downpour to witness a brief ceremony which commissioned her 2,100 tons of steel into the naval service of the United States.
   Entering the South Pacific in September 1942, the Nicholas commenced her combatant activities in the Solomon Islands area, taking part in the defense of Guadalcanal. The Nicholas spent seemingly endless days off that long finger of death. Her powerful guns showered tons of explosives upon the bloodstained beaches, blasting gun positions and scattering concentrations of the monkey-like men from Nippon.
   On February 1, 1943, she fought with fury as enemy dive bombers pealed off and thundered downward in their attempts to send the Nicholas to a watery grave. This was her first real taste of war; and although an accompanying destroyer was blown to bits, the “Nick,” herself riddled with shrapnel, two men killed and others injured from a near miss, managed to drive off the enemy.
   The Japanese navy was still very strong and aggressive. It was well entrenched in the Solomons area and determined to stay there. The Nicholas acquitted herself with honor and distinction in many clashes. Time and time again she met the best the Japs could offer under their favorite conditions of darkness and landlocked waters. It was a difficult and hectic period and all hands on board worked hard to perfect her as a fighting ship.
   As American forces moved up through the Solomons, driving before them the Japanese forces, the Nicholas played a part in almost every action. She was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for her actions in the battle of Kula Gulf in July, 1943. This award is the most coveted of all decorations in the navy, and is the mark, not of individual bravery, but of fighting ability, courage, and the teamwork of all members of the crew.
   Much has been written about the first battle of Kula Gulf, and the victory that came to our small task force is now history. Outnumbered nearly three to one, our battle fleet pushed its way to victory in one of the most vicious engagements of the Pacific war.
   Who can ever forget the magnificent barrage our cruisers thundered through the black, early morning hours; the ring of fiercely burning enemy ships; the fantastic patterns of red and white tracers that poured endlessly from the powerful guns of our task force. The destroyers sped in to point blank range to loose their torpedoes, then turned away in a blaze of yellow fire from their five inch guns. The Helena survivors who came aboard, cut and bleeding, from the oil soaked waters, lent a hand in the magazines as the Nicholas and a sister ship sent a Japanese cruiser and two destroyers to their death in a series of violent explosions.
   In October, the Nicholas joined the newly organized Fifth Fleet and participated, as a part of the greatest armada ever assembled up to that time, in the occupation of the Gilbert Islands. After backing up the landings on “bloody” Tarawa and Makin, she saw action in the December fourth carrier strike on the Marshall Islands.
   On December 15 a happy crew stood topside, “bell bottom trousers” flapped briskly in the early morning breeze as the Nicholas steamed under the Golden Gate. That long awaited dream had at last become a reality—liberty and leave in the good old U.S.A. The time went by too rapidly and before we knew it, it was January 21 and the “Nick” was headed out of San Francisco Bay towards Pearl Harbor. Many of the old faces were gone and new ones had taken their places. We spent a month in Pearl whipping into shape for combat. During this time we made an eventful trip to the Marshall Islands on which we succeeded in damaging an enemy submarine.
   Finally in March the Nicholas left Pearl Harbor for her old haunt, Purvis Bay in the Solomons. By this time, the Japanese had been cleared out of this area, and the Nicholas soon received orders to report to the Seventh Fleet then operating in New Guinea.
   The Nicholas first went back into combat with the occupation of Aitape, New Guinea in May. Our bombardments and the subsequent landings were in phase with occupation forces driving ashore at Hol-  (continued)