Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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McDavid and L. L. Burton. From Rear Admiral L'Jocko Olark: U. S. Naval Communication Service THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR SEARCH PLANES TODAY WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CONVOY X TO' YOUR PILOTS MY CONGRATULATIONS X WELL DONE FROM CTG 58.1 C4-D Invasion of Okinawa March 24 was an important day for another reason. Task Force 58 stationed itself east of Okinawa and comf menced a long period of sustained attacks at the island in preparation for the invasion scheduled just one week later. During the early morning of March 27 a flurry of enemy planes broke through to attack our task group. The AA opened up. One dove into the water near the BENNINGTON, two crashed near screening destroyers, and four were shot down on the horizon by the combat air patrol. A11 in a few minutes, this was one of the liveliest skirmishes we saw. ' Easter Sunday, April 1, was DfDay for Okinawa. For a week Task Force 58 had prowled up and down the Nansei Shoto from Sakashima to Kyushu sweeping for planes and busting Jap defenses For days after the Army and Marines swarmed ashore vie bombed rocketed and strafed enemy positions Our daily job while cruising 60 miles off Okinawa was supporting the occupation by attacking enemy installations and shipping all along the defense against enemy planes flying down from Kyushu This was important No Jap planes remained on Okinawa The Army in Luzon kept Formosa covered the other place from which they would come was Japan itself with Kyushu the springboard For the first few days air opposition over the island was surprisingly light. Absent was the fury of airborne resist, ance which had marked those four days off Kyushu two weeks earlier. But not for long. QSQ Kamikaze On April 6 the ,Taps threw their first big thunderous punch, a mass flight swooping from Kyushu. The Yellow Cloud split into two prongs, one pointing at Okinawa, the other swerving east at the fleet. While the BENNINGTON was conducting landing operations an enemy plane dived at her fantail. It was touch and go for several seconds as the Nip rode down a curtain of AA fire. The gunners won. Another Jap, taking advantage of the interrupted cloud cover, slipped through on a glide for our starboard side. An alert Dick Saunders on Director 3 spotted him first. Mount 3 immediately opened fire. The other mounts quickly joined. Five hundred yards from the ship the plane's engines burst aflame. Men on the flight deck and catwalks dashed fore and aft trying to escape a sure hit. It was hell on water for a few seconds. But the 40's stayed with the Nip fidentihed as a Zekej. He crashed with a violent explosion in a tremendous fountain of water SO yards from the stacks The plane must have carried a bomb for shrapnel bomb fragments and other debris shot out in all directions The propeller careened high in the air spinning and dancing across our flight deck slashing deep gashes through the deck planks and underlying metal plates directly inboard of mount 9 Paul Stubbs Slc range setter on Director 5 when asked after It was all over what range he had used merely turned his head and with excitement filled eyes replied I don t know It all happened so quick I dont know what I did . ,gt n Y ' . - ' . . ., . . , , , 3 island chain. Some planes patrolled as the first line of ' ' ' I . , ' . ' 9 9 l , . 7 u n LL 5 . 1 !

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Two other suiciders followed the example by crashing dangerously near the SAN JAOINTO and MIAMI- When it was all over, Everett Brinkman, Slc, second loader on mount 9, looked down to see what had been under his feet as he passed ammunition for firing at these last two japs. What he found was a heavy piece of shrapnel about IM ft. long, 6 wide, and 2 thick. Numf erous chunks of metal were found scattered around the mount tub and adjacent catwalk, Not a man was hurt. This was 'LBattling BeuIah's narrowest escape from a Kamikaze. Q61 Turkey shoot But the excitement over the fleet that day was tame compared to the drama of the skies over Okinawa where our afternoon TfCAP ftarget combat air patrolj of I4 planes had encountered a flock of bandits fenemy planesj. Attacking immediately they smote 47 japs out of the air. Of all weird jap demonstrations, this was the weirdest. The flight of the mass was completely unorganized. They flew singly trying to takeadvantage of the cloud cover. Owing to their apparent inexperience and lack of coordif nation they made easy victims. A few planes which had been thrown into the attack were uancient models and extremely slow. The Hnal box score of the Turkey Shoot was: 26 Vals, 14 Zekes, 5 Tojos and 2 Oscars. This bag of 47 in one day is one of the largest scores ever tallied by any fighting squadron anywhere, land based or carrier based, including both OV's and OVL's. I T Ensign Carl Foster had scored six of these 47. That night some wag scribbled the following couplet in chalk on the squadron blackboard: KK Never fear- When Foster is nearf'- The report to the flag concluded with CAPTAIN WANTS TO KNOW IF THIS EXOEEDS GAME LIMIT. Came the reply: NEGATIVE THERE IS NO GAME LIMIT X THIS IS OPEN SEASON X WELL DONE. That evening our weatherman, Rainmaker Igwell Riggs, issued the following weather report: Weak japanese front approaching Okinawa this . afternoon was broken up by converging F6F's, Shattered to broken japanese planes at 2000 feet lowering to sea level. Large reduction in visibility was due to rising suns falling into japanese current. WAAIR csnfipri, p , i if aaleiil Li ,-- J if I if I . . I Yi Q..-ix if - - h I i,Sf wlll' ' IH 'FLASHU OUR AIR FORCE is MISSING? C71 The Yamato task force It had been six months since the jap Navy put in an appearance. Since the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea fBattle of Leyte Gulfj our task force had roamed at will unchallenged by the enemy navy. Where's the jap Fleet? A partial answer came on the night of April 6 when the U. S. submarines THREADFIN and HACKLE BAOK reported an enemy force southeast of Kyushu racf ing toward the Ryukyus at high speed. Task Force 58 dashed north toward the approaching opponent. This was a wonderful opportunity-the chance for which we had been waiting. After a 240 mile flight the planes spied the enemy force observed to consist of one battleship, two cruisers, and eight destroyers. The battle' ship was the great YAMATO, mightiest of the jap NHVY- One of the most powerful warships in history, it boasted a main battery of over 16 guns. In the famous battle of last October she and her sister ship, the MUSASHI, had slipped through San Bernardino Strait with the shipS which had hurt our OVE's. We got the MUSASHI back there. Now at last, revenge with the YAMATO was Ht hand. As the planes began their attack, the big battlewagoll and her escorts unloosed a barrage of AA fire with every available weapon, including the heavy guns of their main batteries! But the planes dived through to score with their rockets and bombs. As the fliers of Task Force 53-1 orbitted before leaving the target, one cruiser and one DD had been sunk and the YAMATO, slowed to eight knots, had a heavy list. Twisting wakes showed their desperation in trying to avoid the heavy blows. Planes 88