Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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CRUI E 4 January 16-February 4, 1944 HE Marshall Islands, like the Gilberts and Oarolines, are a cluster of lowflying, ring shaped, coral atolls crown- ing the summits of submerged volcanic peaks. Flat, low, and palmfstudded, these atolls are a strange geographic feature unique to the tropics. In the midst of the Marf shalls was Kwajalein, nucleus of the island group and largest atoll in the Pacific-65 miles across. The ,laps were dug in on Kwajalein as solidly as on Tarawa. The battle for Kwajalein opened with a roar on January 29. Sporadic carrier thrusts had been thrown its way in preceding weeks to sound it out , soften it up, and def tract Jap attention from bigger operations at Makin and Tarawa. Kwajalein had always been on the list,-now it was on top. On hand for the big push were two new carriers, the INTREPID and the OABOT, which had joined the Force now part of Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Fifth Fleet and designated the destinedftofbeffamous Task Force 58 , A new face appeared to boss the car' riers, Rear Admiral Marc A. Mitscher with his flag in the YORKTOWN in group 58.1. The BELLEAU WOOD was mighty proud to be in this group which also included the ENTERPRISE. On january 29 carriers struck the heart of the Mar' shalls so swiftly and suddenly that Jap air power in the area was completely destroyed within four hours. Proof of this victory is that not a single enemy plane attacked any of our ships during the entire operation. BELLEAU WOOD planes were assigned Taroa Ovfaloelapj on opening day and then moved over to help r27 WAIALEI gang up on Kwajalein where, from January 30 through February 3, we gave the place all we had. As the doughf boys and leathernecks battled on the coral sands below, planes from our air group blew up four ammunition dumps and sank five vessels in the lagoon. The ammunif tion dumps were serious business, one exploded as Lt. fjgj Doc Herr pulled out of his run. Doc was lucky to get out alive, limping home with the bottom of his fuse' lage shot up like a screen. Without a doubt the highlight of our Kwajalein per' formance was strafing the invasion beaches, laying down a carpet of fire to clear the Japs from the path of the Marines. Requiring perfect timing-to be there the moment the Marines need support, requiring perfect aim' ing-to shoot the Nips and not our Yanks-beach strafing is a ticklish assignment. Best strafing exhibition I've ever seen -from the Admiral. Kwajalein was safe in U. S. hands on February 4. That afternoon the Task Group anchored in Majuro Atoll, the first time we had stopped for rest without ref turning to Pearl Harbor. At sea there is always speculation and rumor about when and where we return to port. No sooner is the hook down in the anchorage than scuttlebutt flares again about when we leave and where we go on the next cruise. During this brief stay in Majuro everyone began to won- der what our next target would be. Around the ship flew the scuttlebutt---Marcus? New Guinea? Marianas? And the perpetual hwordl' that we were going back to the States to train air groups.

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BHK, AIPAN, HE objective of the next cruise remained shrouded in secrecy as, on February 12, the giant hook lifted from the water, the engines throbbed, and the ship crawled into the long column of ships steaming out of Majuro. Two Groups of Task Force 58, 158.2 ESSEX, YORKTOWN, BELLEAU WOOD, and 58.5 BUNKER HILL, COWf PENS, MONTEREYJ headed west-but where? That is what the crew wanted to know. Then came the shattering announcement that we were on our way to Truk! A brief description of Truk as we felt it existed was a group of islands, packed with major warships, loaded with enemy planes, bristling with guns manned by highly trained personel. The greatest drawback for us was the lack of information--the Japs had made Truk such a guarded bastion for so long that no one had penetrated its secrets. Knocking out this fortress was imperative-a vital bridge on the Road to Tokyo . But there were other reasons for slugging Truk. Far to the eastward our landing forces were primed for a February 17 assault on Eniwetok. It was our job to touch off the fireworks at Truk on February 16 and draw Jap attention, air' power, and surface forces away from Eniwetok. And there was an added attraction at Truk. For the first time in months we had reason to believe we 29 TINIAN CBUlSE 5 February 12-February 26, 1944 might trap the enemy fleet which for so long had refused to fight. Photographs taken by a daring Marine search plane the previous week revealed that many of Nippon's major ships were there. f Corner the fleet. For three days the fleet sneaked westward through the Oarolines stealthily approaching Japan's Pearl Harbor. Secrecy of the operation was threatened once when a Jap patrol plane approached within a few hundred miles, but Lt. Bill Sours and his division found him first and shot him down before he could discover the task force. At dawn on February 16 the target lay only 46 minutes flying time away. Fortyfsix minutes after the first ight-er sweep took off there began one of the' fiercest battles ever fought in cloud country. A By midfafternoon over 204 enemy planes had been destroyed, 127 of them in the air. That was the finish of Jap air power over Truk. The Task Force had lost only 19 planes. From then on the targets were picked at ran' dom. For two days showers of bombs rained down on Truk. Long spirals of smoke surged upward from supply dumps, barracks, blazing planes, and burning ships in the lagoon. In the vicinity of our ships the BELLEAU WOOD patrol shot down a Betty and a Kate. if xl