Bataan (CVL 29) - Naval Cruise Book

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20 March '45- The enemy comes out in force with bombers and kamikazes. One of them, a jill, makes a suicide dive on the HAN- COCK, is shot down by the BATAAN's batteries, crashes in flames on the HANCOCK's starboard side, hitting the stern of the destroyer HALSEY POWELL. Three other laps attack the BATAAN with bombs and are shot down by our gunners. What the hell, are those our guns Bring? The answer came a few seconds later with the rapid and excited rendition of G. Q. by the bugler. Before this day when we found out the kamikazes made no distinction between a CV and ra CVL, all the anti-aircraft battery meant to the ship was a bunch of guns that occa- sionally fired at a sleeve. After this day Tor- pedo Defense and the words, Set Condition l in the AA battery. brought with it the reali- zation that these few automatic weapons-40 and 20 millimeter-and the men manning them were the last defense against a Divine Wind class graduating on the flight deck of the BATAAN. Yes, March 20, I945. was an important one in the life of the ship. The gunners had tired at many sleeves. sent plenty of them into the deep six. Training and drilling had gone on for months and the deck apes knew their sta- tions. guns and directors and performed with an effortless precision. But still the test hadn't come. How would they re-act when a Jap with no sleeve came diving through clouds and l0 seconds of Bring would mean so much? The ship wondered with the battery. Early in the afternoon. when things seemed serene and the CVs were topping off tin cans. this question was answered. C. l. C. reported a bogey at l2 miles. The condition watch was alerted. mounts shifted to automatic. the guns pointed skyward and ammo broken out. Before G. Q. could be sounded a Jap plane was sighted diving on the HANCOCK. Sky Con- trol gave the order to track the target. the mounts swung nervously for a moment and then settled down as the director operators be- gan tracking the target. Commence Firing : the whole port battery opened up instantly and effectively. The Jap burst into flame, lost con- Page Eighty- two trol and plunged into the DD fueling along- side. It was the No. l kill for the gun club and scored by the condition w-atch crews. The first team came racing to stations as soon as G. Q. sounded. Soon this first team knew too what a red meat ball looked like. A Judy dove through intense fire and dropped his bomb only 200 yards from the ship, and crashed in flames 1000 yards away. Another divebomber made his run, missed with his bomb by 300 yards, and burst into flames. Directly overhead came another Jap and his bomb missed by feet. As he tried to escape, the guns started him smoking and he was finished off by nearby ships. Over 5,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at Japs this day by our battery. And more were to come, not only this day. but into the next two months. Months of hell with kamikazes barely missing the ship and crashing off our beams and fantail. The Task Group was attacked almost a hundred times and our battery fired 22 times at Japs within our range, shooting down nine and assisting in the destruction of others. The gunners and the marines knew there couldn't be any tougher tests and they swag- gered with a new confidence. It made easier their less glamorous jobs of fueling. taking tin cans alongside. keeping the guns and directors in shape. operating the whale boats, rigging the gangways. mooring the ship. manhandling the bombs. rockets and torpedoes from an AE to the magazines below. Like the gunners, the fish men had to wait a long time, but the torpedoes sent into the YAMATO were well worth it. And the ship too had confidence in the gun club and renamed the BATAAN the CVL fAAj.

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r L ls l ERETIRE T CF THE BIG BE fa' 44.3 , ,,,. . l H ' K, , :ge x . r c ,radlitfiv ' eg A e 'i M, as-V-W K 4' ...WQV D ' . Q , .JI . P N fi Hi ,I V ,Li 4 , f rr Q f gg J ,tfsw .- an-nw. f .A E- 5 ,. fl-'s ize :rf ,4 ,fi , . , 3 jV s.2fff?- - A L t r: M W 1 1 ' Q .f2.Af' a,. 'Q s ' 'S H Q .r.The flamers made a beautiful picture - for the photographers. .. The l'dives seemed like eternity and hope was perpetual - that the Divine Wind Class would fall short . .Plak was so thick you could walk on it. . . I 9 Page Eighty-one

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