Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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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 ,,,,,,,,,,

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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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HYU H and ECU D Ul-QINAWA CHUI CRUISE 14 l t May 9-June 13, 1945 in the struggle for Okinawa. On May 9 task group 58.1, with the same ships as had arrived a week and a half earlier, steamed off to relieve another task group still in HUSE ten days at Ulithi were simply an intermission the battle area. We picked up where we had left off in April on the mission of intercepting and destroying aircraft, airheld facilities, shipping, and defenses in the Empire and Nansei Shoto, and providing support for the expedif tionary forces in capturing Okinawa. '1 ' 'H-- - - aww-::. 1. gk