Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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Bombers from Big lien gave the laps on Guam lots of headacfres 10th. 1941. free. fighting American troops would walk again on the soil of that islandg would redeem the flag that had been trampled there in the dust. The afternoon of arrival, sixteen Hellcats from Big Ben, each armed with six rockets and six 50-caliber machine guns, went in for the preliminary kill over Cuam's Orote penin- sula. Here were barracks for thousands of Jap troops, sup- ply dumps. ammunition stores, gun emplacements, an air- field. Flak was moderate at first, but increased heavily as the attack progressed. Again and again the Hellcats thun- dered over the Jap positions, pouring destruction on the en- emy, starting dozens of fires, silencing guns, blasting build- ings. It was during this assault that Lt. Willy Cove, leading his division. pulled out of formation with his engine streaming ominous smoke. He glided his Hellcat into a water crash landing, two miles off-shore, near Point Ritidan, almost directly under the muzzles of Jap batteries. Dark was fast approaching. Ens. Roger lflfstrange, his wingman, care- fully noted the position of the crash. Back on Big Ben that night, Navigator Benny Moore and Lt. Walter Levering, intelligence Officer, worked far into the night computing the exact drift the downed ofliceris raft would take. Half an hour before dawn, four hghters, led by uSunshine Howerton. flew to the computed position with two scaplanes from the cruiser Boston. hoping for the best. Within flfilfififl minutes Cove was located almost exactly where Benny Moore had scientifically prophesied, twelve miles we-t of where he had crashed. flonscientious, friendly, faithful, Will Dove lived to strike many another telling blow at the enemy. On July 13th, photographers discovered a concealed am- munition dump on Oroteg the following day thirty-hve of Franklz'n7s planes blew it to kingdom-come, smothering the surrounding gun positions with their own fire. Troop con- centrations near Agana, Rota Island's airheld, and radio stations-all of these felt the punishing blows of Big Benis flying arm. Until July 17th Franklinfs fliers continued to attack the defenses of Guam, the boatyard at Piti Town, the airfield at Orote, bridges on vital roadways near Taloforo and Togcha Bays. On one of these embattled days, before dawn, a group of Japanese planes rose from one of Cuamis torn airfields to seek out the task group. Badar spotted them. Big Benis fighter directors, collaborating with a combat air patrol from the carrier San Jacinto, made a perfect interception thirty miles away. Four Uscar fighters and six twin-engined Betty bombers of the Japs were splashed in flames. Long after, intelligence ofhcers learned that those last Japanese planes to leave Guam were carrying high Japanese officers, trying to flee the doomed island stronghold. All was not triumphant shouting. On July 16th, during the pre-dawn warm-up of planes for the dayis first strike, in treacherous half-light, Jim Smiley, seaman first class and a plane captain, was struck by a whirling propeller-one of the countless hazards always threatening the men on a car- rier's flight deck. His shipmates buried him at sea. Death was breathing on the necks of Big Ben's men and fliers. All was not tragedy either. Routine 'cgeneral quarters sounded one morning an hour before sunrise, and every man began to grope his way to his battle station. Doctor James

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ing position. Attacks were to begin at dawn and Captain Shoemaker had promised the crew a Fourth of July cele- bration with fireworks aplenty at the expense of the little men who did not believe in independence. Bib Ben, named for one of America's greatest leaders, was to see her first action against an enemy of her country on Independence Day! The captainis promise was fulfilled. All day strikes roared from the flight decks of the four carriers in this con- centrated attack on Iwo Jima, Chichi Hima, and Ha Ha Jima. The enemy seemed stricken with paralysis. Hellcats shot down Zeros over their own airfields. Helldivers loosed tons of bombs on gun positions, airfields, hangars and bar- racks. Avengers roared in low over the coastline, dealing death to shipping with their torpedoes. Big Ben lost three good men on that flaming Fourth: Lt. fjgj Milton Bonar, from Akron, Ohio, was shot down by Jap flak. His gunner, Albert D. Lowenthal, from Pulaski street in Baltimore. perished with him when the dive-bomber l'ilol.s of Air Group Tliirlrfrfrt relax in tim figlilvris ready room . . . lorrwrroui will be ll busy day . . crashed into the sea. Later in the morning, a damaged Hellcat, missing the wire with its tailhook, crashed the bar- riers and careened into the island structure. The pilot, Lt. ljgj Davy Jones was seriously injured. Eighteen-year-old, blond Jimmy Mulligan, electriciangs mate and movie oper- ator, was struck by the plane and instantly killed. Throughout the day the force steamed within sight of the islands. It withdrew that night and set a course for Guam, arriving off the northeast coast of that Jap-held island on the morning of July 6th. Guam was one of the four major Japanese bases in the Mariannas. Saipan, the main base, writhed helplessly as its garrison slowly died at the hands of American soldiers and Marines. Rota, Tinian and Guam remained. They must be pounded to impotency from the air, their swarms of planes destroyed, their garrisons prevented from aiding doomed Saipan. On c4William Dayf' July 21st, Guam itself would be invaded. Then, for the first time since December Lt. Willy Cove cuts his birllzrlay cake T' , X 1 ' li ,T i T . W . 95 gs . . .Q Si 1 Xi . Lg fl..

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Moy was hurrying to his post on the llight. deck when sud- denly, he decided it would he an excellent idea to pt.'or-evil hy a new and untried route. lile wished to liilllllllilflltf hint-N self with the ship. Croping forward on the llight deck, hr- pressed on through the darkness-pressed on until he drop- ped headlong into the black Pacihc, sixty feet helow. flom- ing to the surface, after endless seconds, he began looting the whistle which every man on Big Ben had heen issued for just such an emergency. c'Man overboard, port sidefi blared the loudspeakers. Eyes strained to pick out the strug- gling victim in the water and darkness but only a faint despairing wail of the whistle marked the spot as Big Ben sped on at twenty knots. Doctor Fuelling, Moys fellow medico at the battle station, remarked, Ctthese darn seamen. Always walking in their sleep. Fortunately Dr. Moy could swim strongly. Bemoaning the trick of fate that caught him with his life jacket still stowed at his battle station, he huttoned his collar and in- flated his shirt to stay afloat. An hour later. a destroyer picked him up and he was hack on Big Ben in time for breakfast-adorned already with a nickname he was never 'paw-. to lose: uWr'ong-wriy' Moy. Yet. the elifmfgf ,t rf fp-,fapff had lit-:gn rtarrow, 'lhiteo month: lain luis:-. U f.f.z:.i. gm. 'natn hrsl, fgl1.ts.s, ol' l.arltonr.l:ilf:, l'a., lifrtl our to ft iffilldf t'lI'f'LlIlll5lLlllf.Tlfri. hut. would not ltr: lofiatr-fl. Almost frvely plant: on liig lien flex: at least I. '.-. fi ifi. :Joris on July 19th -el77 sorties for UU planes. lpxf.-ry plane that would lly took the air against that hat.tf:rffd island of linain. They rained lIlCCflf.ll2iI'lff5 on the last standing l.niilf.li:ig-5 the? strafcd everything that moved on the roads. 'lim eneml, opened up with the concealed hatteries he had sawed lor an emergency. For this, the lap seemed to decide, an emergency, if ever one was to occur. These batteries took their toll. Damaged planes limped home after ewfrjs strike, Ens. Nick Smith, engine dead and aileron shot at .i,r ay. crashed ahead of a screening dcstroyerg Lt. fjgyt Hayrnon-il lj. Cool-.. with a huge hole in his right wing and his stabilizer in fili- lions, made a miraculous landing on deck wliich could hate meant death to any pilot. July Qlst was Yiiilliam Dayhthe day of Guanrs invasion. At 3:30 that morning a hundred transports and LETS stood oft the heaches hy Orote. A thousand landing craft. jammed f-40 'w',i Lt. Comdr. fumes illoy comes fmmc to Rig limi. after It SIl'I-III hvforp 1,,.m,Q.fm,-