Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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kc , liant streaks of darting tracers converging around the plane. When SOO yards away the Betty burst into flames and crashed directly ahead of the ship. With a sharp turn we avoided the floating bits of wreckage. Minutes later a Tony dived at the ESSEX. He dropped a bomb, cried the masthead lookout. But the bomb was a far miss. Pulling out at IOOO feet, the Tony turned our way. Antifaircraft guns chattered. With smoke streaming from his engine, the plane plunged into the water 400 yards off our starboard bow. He was the last to attack. The next day there appeared on the dull gray wing of the bridge three freshlyfpainted red and white Jap flags-- for the guns . Qver Saipan that February 22nd morning the strikes ran into discouraging weather. A three hundred foot ceiling with but few breaks concealed the airfields and installations. Indiscriminate bombing by 'sguessworku wouldn't work eitherg besides being wasteful it would enf danger a mass of civilians--the first sizable civilian settlef ments we had as yet encountered. But the planes did slip through the cloud cover to find fields flush with planes. Why more weren't airborne is a mystery. The blasting that followed destroyed over ZOO enemy aircraft. The Force lost 45. Shortly before ten o'clock the BELLEAU WQQD patrol shot down two Lilys thirty miles from the ship. Cn February 26 the L'Battling Beulah returned to Ivlajuro, concluding the two most exciting and successful weeks in her young life. 4 V3 .yggfggq ef A f ws, pf .V ., 4.' ,iff ff ..... 1 '-5?-45 - 2:1177 ,X , fm I f?Wf'f fn- Z , in X My X ,f'cW 9'1f?w1' few fag? iP ,fy,T fm . ..'15f ,f,Z??..fm,fW.f, , ,,, i 3'

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air. f , - I , ff , A 2,41 , ,fi ig,-iff 4:5 ' , , X . V ,fj qi f.Jw :1r51-::f,'f'5?Q1L , , f ,,,, .,, . A, I , ., X, 4,f,f,, I M ,,, ,, I ,, ,f-5, ,z,,,,w by X77 wifi, I X - ,I M 11 -5 ,Mem M ,, , 13-: 4 w ,MU ' vfifff- X V450 CRUISE 6 THE next item on the Southwest Pacific timetable was the landings on New Guinea Qat Aitape and Hollandial scheduled for April 22. The Army's land based planes could soften up Jap bases on New Guinea but they could not reach the Japs in the Carolines where there were plenty to swarm down and choke off a landing thrust. Truk and the Eastern Oarolines had already been swattedg but the Western Oarolines were spotted with enemy bases which were virgin soil -had never seen an American plane, had never felt an American bullet. Here's where Task Force 58 came in. Preparatory to this operation the BELLEAU WOOD had moved south from Iviajuro to Espiritu Santo where the force was assembling. Here for the first time task groups featured four carriers each: 58.1 ENTERPRISE, BELLEAU WOOD, and OOWPENS 58.2 BUNKER HILL, HORNET, MONTEREY, and OABOT 5 8.3 YORKTAOWN, LEXINGTON, PRINCETON, and LANGLEY