Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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sinner- -' lx for the side as their 'lanes caught hre. llro tellers. still l . l spinning. and exploding anuuunitton, made theirs a deadly iournex. lfroni the bridge there was no indication as yet that there had been a hit aft. ln llx control.t'ou1dr.llalerepealled . , A . , vw. iv. again and again: ,lettison the planes with the liny inns first ,... H 'lihose were the last words that eaine oier the speakers. Now a mighty column ol' smoke rose from the stern ol' the ship and the captain saw there had been a hit aft. Swiftly he turned the ship with full left rudder into the wind and again came up to standard speed. bringing the wind broad on the starboard bow. to keep the tire from the undamaged part of the ship. lly this maneuver. during the next two hours. it was possible for the survivors to organize fire-fighting parties and work aft from bases in the unharmed focsll to bring the fires under control. l.iltle more than a minute passed before the sheets of fire spread over the tive bombers. fourteen torpedo planes and twelve fighters. all heavily armed. on the flight and hangar decks. Then a terrific series of explosions commenced, the violence of which can only he imagined. The inferno was increased by the detonations of ready ammunition lockers on the topside. filled with rockets, with shells for five-inch. forty mm., twenty mm., and fifty-cal. machine guns. Men died by the scores on the flight and hangar decks, or were trapped in CIC and the crowded gallery deck work- shops. The entire gallery deck, sandwiched between flight and hangar decks. was a death trap. Ofhces and berthing compartments on the second and third decks were torn hy an vw up-nu n unnnnur-ul ...il-.sr-.vnu explosions and swept by line that spread from the hangar deck, ther thirty tons of high explosive were on the planes alone and countless other tons were in the lockers and ready magazines. Smoke began to pour into the engine rooms below and men donned gas masks or rescue breathing equipment. Num- ber Two l'llI'L'l'OOlll., its uptakes blasted by explosions, went out of commission, the fires under its boilers snuflned out by the first blasts. All communications on the ship were lost except for one line between the bridge and steering control aft, thence to main engine control. As long as quartermaster Davis, and his crew-William Hamil and 'lSmoky', Cud- brantzen, manned the steering control room the captain could give orders to the engines. Comdr. Hale was dispatched from his station in fly con- trol to take charge of fire-fighting on the hangar and flight decks. flomdr Taylor was still groping through smoke across shattered decks, trying to make his way to the bridge. The gallant destroyer Miller came recklessly alongside from the screen, bringing her puny fire hoses to bear on the great conflagration that raged on the hangar deck aft, where 440,- 000 gallons of aviation gasoline were contributing to the fires. On the focsll Fire Marshal Stanley Graham yelled to the men who were making their way clear from the smoky, hlazing, compartments: uBoys, we got pressure on the lines. we got hoses, letls get in there and save herl' In a few min- utes a dozen hoses were working aft on the flight and hangar decks, into the flames. Men with hre axes chopped holes in the flight dork planking to let water into blazing gallery Santa Fe moves in., fre hoses ready, as flames move closer to men trapped on hangar deck

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ABOVE: Flaming rivers of gasoline pour over the hangar deck, trapping men aft . . . BELOW: Firefighters duck, as an other big explosion goes up . . . The flying airplane engine narrowly missed the captain when it fell .1

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deck compartments. into the spreading lire moved the men, continuous explosions of every type of ammunition in the catalogue reverbrating around them. Seven big 500-pound bombs and two smaller ones were rolling about on the flight deck, so hot they were painful to the touch. l.t. Comdr. Stone, with helpers like Chief Bull Urndorll. Bill Fowler, Robert Boyd and Jacobs, rolled them over the side. Comdr. Hale stopped one young seaman. who was playing a hose on a big bomb. Just in time-the stream of water was spinning the arming vane and explosion was im- minent. Pilots from Air Group Five fought alongside shipls officers, seamen, and colored mess attendants. At 7:25, hardly twenty minutes after disaster had struck, Admiral Davison conferred with Captain Gehres on the bridge. The Admiral advised the Captain to pass the word to prepare to abandon ship. Flames a hundred feet high were shooting up past the islandg the roar of exploding shells was deafening. A col- umn of smoke rose a mile above the clouds, Perhaps up there the spirits of the brave Lexington, that died in the Coral Sea, and the Yorktown, that perished at Midway. were waiting for the captainis words, bidding him speak. Captain Cehres, a determined commander, told Admiral Davison that if he would provide air and surface support Franklin would be saved. The Miller was signaled to come forward from her position on the starboard quarter. An Admiral's responsibility comes first to his task groupg he must transfer his flag and get on with the war. For an hour the Millar lay under the huge, listing island, her hose- play- ing on the hangar deck fires as the Adrniralis staff was transferred. Urder was coming out of confusiong men forward on the llight and hangar decks had halted the flames. As they fought aft on the hangar deck they by-passed white-hot fires where magesium bombs glowed on the armor plate in thc- ashes of the planes that had borne them. Men below on the second and third decks. or trapped on the hangar deck aft, were making their way to safer zones. Dozens had been blown over the sideg others, hopelessly trapped, were forced to leap over, many without life jackets. For hours little groups struggled to the fantail, where they fought the fires with ev- ery means at their command, leaping into the water only when their position became unbearable. In the shipis hospital ward, beside the smashed chief's quarters, were Dr. Fox and eighteen men, eleven of them patients. The doctor and his seven pharmacists mates fought a brave little battle to save their shipmates and themselves. The ward was intensely hot, from the raging fires aboveg thick smoke was pouring over the port quarter where the sickbay was located. Air was foul, the door tightly closed to keep out the suffocating smoke and the flames. Two small holes in the ship's side, overboard discharge connections leading through the side of the ship, were opened. Hospital Corpsman John Epting and his comrades placed wet towels across the faces of the patientsg the oxygen tent was used until the flasks were empty. Chief Shipfitter Durrance. a . ,,...,., a '41, fflf' flflcl' fire I'IH'lI fIl'l-ll lllllllllf gum' .klllllftl l c' floxm II big' job