Below is the transcribed diary. We would like to give a special thanks to Brooksie Conery for the wonderful job she did transcribing George Crane's diary.

Nov. 20th , Early G.Q. at _____ when we arrived off the shore of Makin Island which was the uppermost top fortified island in the Gilbert chain.  Troop ships arrived on Nov. 22 and started landing marines on Makin and Tarawa Islands meeting very strong resistance that turned into a bloody battle.

Nov. 29th.  GQ at dusk, Jap planes coming from everywhere attacked – many were shot down by our gunners.  We heard that the CVE carrier Liscomb Bay was torpedoed and it sunk in about 18 minutes.  Five hundred of the crew was saved.  Crew members topside said the whole horizon ____ up.  Later the same evening, while top side in pitch darkness suddenly a light coming toward us on the port side that came passed us was the hospital ship Mercy headed for the many injured troops at Tarawa. 

Dec. 4th.  Our carrier planes bombed the Marshall Islands at 1210.  We were attacked by Jap planes.  From top side we watched the CV Lexington shoot the Jap planes down all around us.    _____ defense at 2115 we were attacked by torpedo planes for 7.5 hours  G.Q.  One of the torpedoes crashed into the CV Lexington.  We were dispatched to escort it back to Pearl. 

Dec. 9th – We arrived back to Pearl for rest and relaxation (R&R) off and on for two weeks.

         
Dec. 25  Christmas Day, the crew had a special Christmas party for the children from Honolulu  with a big chow and Santa Claus.

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