Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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The first play called for a twofday dash on May 13' 14 at Kyushu, where BELLEAU WOOD planes struck Ohiran, Kanoya, Izumi, Sacki, Ashiya, Gannosou, Ronchifk and Tachiari fields. In sharp contrast to pref vious visits, there was scarcely any airborne opposition--- most probably because of the damaging B429 raids the previous week. There were planes on the ground but when strafed they didn't burn! Maybe the .japs were out of gas! In the photographs they didn't look like dumf mies either. Moving over to Shikoku we pasted field inf stallations and ground targets at Matsuyama, Kochi, and Kokobu airhelds. Over lMatsuyama many phosphorous bursts were observed in the AA barrage thrown up from the AA guns whose fire made the hills appear to blaze. Again there was scarcely any air oppositiong per' haps they were low on pilots as well as gas. IvIay 14 was also a busy day for the ships' gunners. At 0705 twelve Zekes were reported twelve miles away. About that moment a planed dived on the BENNINCH TON. The initial burst of AA exploded him at 2000 yards. On the horizon we could see Task Group 58.3 receiving the brunt of the attack and swatting down seven. Later in the day two more Divine Winds were extinguished in their dives at our group. if In the attack on Ronchi Airfield, the Hellcat piloted by Lieutenant Russell Stephens was hit by AA fre, began to burn, and spun towards the earth. 'Stephens was seen to bail out, his parachute opened, and he landed in the trees of a wooded hill. lNone of the other Hellcat pilots could determine his fate. The Belleau Wood heard nothing more concerning Lt. Stephens until December, 1945 when the following news item from the Chicago Sun edif ition of November ll was received: Lt. Stephens was flying a Hellcat based on the carrier Belleau Wood and was on his 55th bombing mission over enemy ter' ritory, attacking the kamikaze airfields, when his plane was brought down by antifaircraft fire on March 13, 1945. As a wing fell off, I went into a dizzy spin, but bailed out, landing in a tree, he said. A Jap sniper shot at me, but I ducked and sent a bullet t h r 0 ug h h i s h e a d. I W a s trying to make my way to a hilltop to get my bearings w h e n a b o u t 1 ,0 0 0 I a p s came out of hiding. I ran-like a fox pursued by dogs --but they dragged me down and began to beat me I thought it was all over then and said a prayer. It was answered when a civilian policeman, whom I first mistook for a priest, made them lay off. Blindfolded, his hands wired behind his back and a rope drawn tight around his neck, Stephens was marched, shoeless. over stony paths to a village jail. Civil' ians, lined up on the roadside, threw rocks at him and, after he was lodged in jail, took turns beating him with ropes and sticks and spitting in his face. One of them knocked me out, he said. When I recovered consciousness, my eyes were closed and my head was bleeding. 'This can't be happening to me,' I thought. 'It's all a bad dream. I'll wake up after a while.' But it was no night- mare. I wondered if I were going insane. Taken to the Kanoya airfield, Stephens was questioned by his captors, and from there, in ua filthy, slow train, with two guards to protect him from the enraged passengers, he was transferred to Naga- saki. There had been a big air raid that morning and two B29 men had been captured The ,laps taunted us, said Stephens, told us that all three of us were to be shot. A I spent the night in prayer, my thoughts centered on my wife and tW0 children. At dawn the other two boys were mowed down by a firing squad, but for some reason my life was sparedf, Later, at Kanoya, sword dancers gave a demonstration for his benefit, and he was told that he was to be beheaded. Bllf again the Japs changed their minds. He was flown to a small island, kept in solitary confinement for 26 days, starved and tortured. There he fell ill with dysen' tery and berifberi, but was given no medi' cal aid. We were allowed to take a bath OnCe a month-100 of us using the same water. If we killed 100 flies, we were rewarded with a cigarette. I became an expert HY catcher, but I was simply crawling with lice and fleas. Stephens and his fellow prisoners were liberated on Sept 1 by the 11th Air Borne Division r ' ' . , . . . . at I . 6 'vxifum