On Dec. 24th the last troops were being taken off and the artillery was blazing away at the Reds who were now coming down on our side of the hills. All the ships were out of the docking area by now and only the amphibious boats and tractors were left on the beach to take the last troops.

A mile and half from us explosions began rocking the city for fires had been set to destroy everything of value, and ammunition and other explosives began going off. In another area, a huge ammunition dump went off unexpectedly or prematurely and the troops were showered with debris and things were still dropping in the water a half a minute later in and around our evacuating boats.