Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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Y. l l 5 l E v fl l, is 'n I gate: from the other task groups finished the slaughter. Wlicxi darkness fell only two destroyers remained afloat. Sunk almost within sight of the homeland, the YAMATO met an inglorious end before she had scarcely started on her mission. fThat mission, it was later learned, was a fantastic scheme in which these ships were a suicide fleet to run aground at Okinawa and serve as steel forf tressesj One of our torpedo planes, piloted by Lt. Qjgj Ernie Delaney, was hit by AA during his run on the YAMATO. The entire crew parachuted, but only the pilot survived. Edward J. Mawhinney and William Tilley were never seen again. For four hours by his life raft Delaney watched the drama of a dying Jap task group five miles away. A destroyer approached to within 400 yards of him-then suddenly turned away-perhaps thinking the raft was unoccupied since Ernie was in the water on the other side concealing himself. When two PBM's flew over, Delaney climbed into the raft to wave wildly for recognition. One PBM swung off, drawing the fire of the Jap force which had observed what was going ong the other landed and taxied by the raft. Fed, clothed, and bandaged by her crew, Ernie asked for news of his crewmen, but the PBM pilot, who had searched the area for some time, reported seeing no trace of the men. Low gas reserve of the rescue plane prevented further search. Back at our ships that afternoon there was sudden exf citement. A lowfflying torpedo plane heading for the BENNINGTON was checked by gunfire from the INDIANA. Another plane, apparently an inexperienced pilot, pulled up on the starboard side to become an easy target for destroyer gunfire. For the next three weeks, April 7f27, the task force maneuvered east of Okinawa just over the horizon, poundf ing the Jap defenses and lending daily air support to the Army and Marines fighting ashore. Daily strikes feaf tured napalm fire raids as well as rocket, bombing, and strafing runs on Jap Army headquarters areas, barracks, gun emplacements, warehouses, vehicles, and caves. 89 Owing to the steady recurrence of attacks from Kyushu airfields, daily intercept patrols were flown over Amami Oshima to cut off these raids before they reached Okinawa or the task group. That funnel through Kyushu had to be chokesl. In the first five days our planes on this beat caught 21 Jap aircraft. A sweep up to important Kanoya on April 15 rocketed hangars and destroyed ten planes in revetments. On the Zlst our task group moved in close to Minami Daito Shima which received a shelling from our destroyers standing just a few hundred yards off shore. This was our first glimpse of land since March 14 and was the first bombardment most of us had ever witnessed. Sporadic raids at the ships were infrequent-but enough to be annoying. During the three weeks, seven Kamikazes and snooping fighters were shot down around us. One interception at night was especially dramatic. CIO reported to the bridge, Bogey at 4 o'clock, 7 miles. Night fighter on his tail. This was passed on to the gun mounts where all hands peered out at 4 o'clock fsomewhat abaft our starboard beamj. Suddenly a brief burst of tracers streaked a short distance across the dark' ened sky. Orange flames broke out in that spot of dark' ness where the tracers disappeared. The flame grew,- plummeted down to the sea, glowed for a while- and disappeared. Occasionally the Japs revived their 'lamp' lighter's Serenade -dropping numerous flares to illumif nate the group with a weird incandescence which made each ship stand out. It was worse than daylight for we couldn't see past those flares to spot what was behind them. But every now and then the Sfinchers boomed forth and tracers ripped the sky. Once a plane roared above, and guns from surrounding ships opened up with frightening bursts directly overhead. The rockets' red glare, the bombs' bursting in air took on significant meaning. . .. .... .. .... . . . . . . . . I J .. -.-......-..............,......,.

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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

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1 2 'I i v 5 S E 5 x 3 il l 1 4 l il 4 l l ia .z l Too much cannot be said for the picket destroyers- the watchdogs and tomcats -stationed at lonely out' posts 20 miles or more ahead of the task group. Vectoring out our combat patrol planes, these destroyers directed the destruction of numerous enemy raiders. They also were havens of mercy to returning carrier planes which, shot up over the target, could not make it home. Numerous pilots were saved by waterflanding near these destroyers. Occasionally the pickets took a vicious pounding from the Nips who, hesitant to drive through to the big force, ganged up on the sentinel destroyers. One such assault occurred on April 14 when the U.S.S. S-IGSBEE, after vectoring out carrier planes to shoot down eight foes, found herself smothered under six scorching dives. The gallant little can destroyed five of them-but the sixth got her stern. With the admiration of every other ship in the group she left us for a merited rest. Floating mines were a nuisance on this cruise. Sharp lookouts detected several in the waters through which we steamed, but not a ship was struck. Each sighted mine- most of them were angry, rusty, horned affairs-was sunk by destroyer gunfire. A good percentage exploded, launching geysers of water hundreds of feet into the air. The last half of March and the entire month of April was a busy and tiring period for all hands. Probably the most bored men were the gunners who spent practically every day ffrom an hour before sunrise until an hour after sunset-and then somej at gun stations in Condif tion OnefEasy. Gunnery Department remain in Condif tion 0nefEasy came to be a clause which every gunner loathed. I miss the sight of tall corn growing, Of waving trees against the sky: Of hay Qhelcls just before the mowing And peaceful cattle wandering by. Some other things my poor heart misses Are ried eggs mil and honey 9 isses Gib Hughes After a long period at sea, Task Group 58.1 returned to Ulithi for a breathing spell. It had been a hectic seven weeks, and even the coral sands of Ulithi Anchorage looked good as the BELLEAU WUOD steamed toward her berth on the 30th of April. Since our last sight of this place, the task group had steamed over 20,000 miles, shot 528 planes out of the air Q15 4 in one dayj, destroyed 238 on the ground, bombed hangars, shops and other airfield facilities, sunk important units of the shrinking Jap fleet, taken a heavy toll of merchant shipping. AA fire of the ships had brought down 38 attackers. Cur control of the air was assured wherever we op' erated. 90 I - . V f . I l kr Y- k 1 . l , K , ,,,,, Q , . A- M-4 mm, ,,,.,,,s,,,,,,h,,,r,,,,a ..,. 2 ,W-.xx .,,, ,T mg I A ,,,,,,,,,,