Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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'Theres one heck of a racket and will be for the next twenty minutes or so as the growling engines, with flamf ing nostrils, pull the planes into position on the catapult. Squee0nk, Squeeonkn on the howler gives the catapult offlcer his gofaheadg and the first plane hurtles into the sky with a thunderous roar. Twentyftwo, twentyfthree, twentyffour. They're all off. And now, except for the aggravating whistling of the wind, a sudden quietness settles about the flight deck and the gun galleries. The planes are out there circling with the other car' riers' planes for a rendezvous. Already the ordnancernen are bringing up the born-bs for the next strike, and the flight deck crews are spotting the remaining planes. At sunrise: Secure from General Quartersl'-all except Gunnery Departrnent which remains at their guns in Condition OnefEasy all day long. It's daylight now, and we can see. Q

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For thc rcst ol May .ind rarly ,lnnv the Alaps' .nr opf position tapered otll, .ind they rarely disputed our conf U-01 of the air. Their niafoi' clloris had tailed and there was not much tight left in them. From May l7fjune 10 our planes continucd to roam the Nansci Shoto, scclcf ing lucrative targets and dishing out the dive homhing and rocket trcatnicnt. l-langars were wrecked and land' ing strips cratcrcd. XVhcn these were nearly repaired, we would hit them again, Small cargo hoats were caught and sunk as they tried to slip from cove to cove. While over Okinawa our planes hlasted the Nips and cracked strong points ahead of our advancing troops. A day of such action was called a strike day. Heres Ensign Dick Saunders' version of a typical strike day in june, 1945: Plan of the day: 0130 Reveille 0145 Breakfast 0230 Flight Quarters 0300 General .Quarters 0330 Start flight operations 0402 Sunrise 0900 Dinner 1615 Supper 1853 Sunset Vwlell, it's another strike day-- Reveille at the awful l'Start eng time of 0130. lt seems as though we just crawled into the sack. But welve got to get up and do it all over again. Doesn't seem like much sense to sit up there on the gun mount all day long just to watch our planes come and go, strike after strike. Breakfast is good. Helps one last the day out. Gunnery Department, Man 'Your Battle Stationsu-6 three minutes later the alarm clangs for routine dawn alert. I know itls dark as Hell topside, but they say that is the most likely time for air or sub attack. The way l feel, you'd think I was the first person in the world to be up this morning. But there you-'re wrong, for the aviation meclis have been up all night in that hot, poorly ventif lated hangar, repairing planes--preparing them for the dawn launch. The ordnance gang has been up for several hours too, arming the planes that leave before sunrise on Strike OnefAble. You've got to hand it to the ordnance- men-tliey get up before we do, work like beavers all day and get less sleep than anybody else-especially dur' ing these days of seventeen and eighteen hours' daylight. l'Stand by to start engines , the Air Ofricerls voice roars out through the darkness over the flight deck bull horn. 'Stand clear of propellersf' inesfl .- I l E 9 3 1 V -a YY,., . ,-.,,,t ,W Q. ..-1. ,.....-.r- Y,.-.-.,,.w........,.........-,,,,.., , V YM-MM Y , ,AK V 5-W -l E W Wm- mr , . ' ' ' ' '

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3 The bridge just sent word down that ive're only eighty miles off shore. fap planes make that run in about fifteen minutes. Doesnlt give the combat air patrol much time to intercept. Those low clouds up there are perfect Kamif kaze cloaks too. Over the phones from Gun Control on the bridge: 'CIC reports bogey at 3 olclock, 60 miles. Moments later, Bogey is now in to 40 miles, closing fastf' K'Set Condition One, stand by for attack! Is this fap going to suicide us, or will our guns get him first? It's a deadly game with the fap carrying the ball and God the referee. And don't think were not trembling. 'You'd have to be an idiot to be out here and not get scared. The bogies turned out to be some of our own planes coming back from the strike, thank God. Time for dinner. USend one quarter of the men to chowf' Down in the ship men have helmets and life belts handy. A few have flash cream on their faces. 'Stand by to land aircraft. Our planes are coming in. Looks like they're all back, but a couple are pretty well shot up. And brother, don't think we don't sweat those babies inl 'The pilots and crewmen are OK., thank God, but one plane has most of its rudder shot away. It's a miraculous and splendid job these pilots out here are doing-amazing the way they handle themselves and their planes. This evening they'll be painting some more Jap flags on the island structure. It's afternoon now, and the sun is boring down. We've been up here ten hours and that leaves six hours more on these rotten gun tubs. 'cCondition OnefEasyf' Hope I never hear those words again. 'You sit here with nothing to do but watcher-watch the sky and its clouds, the water and its flying fish, the planes and their markings. 'You get bored and tired, and mad and sick. All day long the ships steam back and forth, into the wind, out of the windf-leaving long wakes clear to the horizon. One's brain gets numb doing nothing but stare at the sea and the sky for 16 hours day after day. And when the action does come, it happens so quickly you are never quite ready for it. It's all over within a 95