Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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to land as best they could on the airfield at Dulag while it was under attack. Later all made their way back to the ship. except Lt. tjgl Robert F. Brooks. One wheel of his Hellcat had been shot awayg he hailed out over Leyte Gull' near land. but was not found. It took twelve of them to get Bobby. . . . The same day, a sad one for Big Ben. Lt. Raymond B. Cookis Helldiver failed to return. Bay Cook, of Palmyra, N. Y., and his gunner, William B. Butler, of Cincinnati, Ohio. were marked missing. Also night fighter Wfarren Wolf, of White Plains, N. Y.. on being catapulted into the darkness to intercept a Jap bomber, spun directly into the sea. Wlarren. a handsome, cheerful boy, who grinned at danger, was car- ried under the water by his plane, of Lt. XVineger's three night chicks only one was left now-Tony Martin. A message from General MacArthur to the fleet on Oc- tober 29th said that the Army now ls established its air forces on Leyte and would assume all responsibility for bombing island targets. Navy planes would attack island targets only when permission had been obtained from the Army. However, during the following morning, there were numerous reports of enemy aircraft and the combat air patrol had been busy. None had closed within 30 miles of the task group, but the double watch was set on the guns. At 2:00 p.m. the radio room reported a fleet tanker force 50 miles away under air attack, Franklin at once launched twelve Hellcats to go to its aid. Hardly had they left the deck when a small group of lap planes, which thc- rfornhat patrol had been chasing for the last half-hour, appeared near the formation. They had originally been detected 75 miles to the northwest, high in the air, the combat air patrol, guided out to intercept, tailed to spot the rlf-r-f-pliu-ly camouflaged Japanese planes. All the way in to the ship the fighters had flown within a mile or two of the enemy. but unable to register a HTallyho. Now, at ten miles, they were visible to the task group, three or four thousand feet in the air. The destroyer Bagley, fueling alongside, cast off at 2:17 p.m. The cruisers and destroyers of the screen closed in tight around the carriers, Frrmklin, Enterprise, liellffau ll oofl. and San. facinto. The course was changed ninety degrees to the left, putting the attack on the sterns of the Hattops. Now. at six miles, every hve-inch in the formation opened up and the black bursts of exploding shells began to spot the sky around the Japs. Une minute later, two miles away. the six enemy planes nosed over in their dives. Two hundred forty mm. muzzles took up the battle and pepper-like dots covered the western sky. Finally the twenty's opened as the laps whipped close. A Judy bomber, in flames, dove at Big Ben and missed. crashing in the water amidships, starboard. His bombs and plane exploded on impact with the water and the big flat- top shook with the concussion. Now a Zeke came slanting I if Sl1.Il'I-lflv' plrnze lfzul IIIISSPII 11115 jus! expfmlerl in flu' ll'llfl'f by Big lien .... Aflzoflzer. in flurmzv, llmf 14-il! 1101 1n1.s.s, lrulllex flown nf ilu' fllgllf deck. will: Ffflllkll-II s gIllIIH'l'S .vfrzggirig ur lzifn r-wry incl: nf' ilu' zrvrv.

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l 1 E l i l l 1 l 4 l t l . l A t t See 'einif . . . That's the w ny to the cruisers. boys . . lie was flying down over the Jups. drawing their lire. and the bursts of flak in the evening sky directed the Anrerican warships to their targets. .-X brave man was llocket 77. Before the moon rose the last Japanese warship of tht group was on the muddy bottom of the llacilic. smashed by cruiser gunfire. As the task group steamed south. Jap de- struction complete to the north. the captain spoke solemnly and proudly to liig liens tense crew: You will never forget today. Today. October 25th, 19-1-l. we have defeated the Japanese Navy in one of the decisive sea battles of history . . Then he turned the speak-xr over to the fliers who had climbed from Franlrlinis deck. Vlfhen the men off watch that night rolled into their hunks they were as proud as Captain Shoemaker 4 they had put those planes in the air and kept 'em there . . . October 26111 was spent in contacting the tanker group and refueling. Nleantime complete reports were pouring in of the far-Hung Battle for Leyte Gulf. The Japanese Second Fleet, attacking Vice Admiral Kinkaidis escort carriers, withdrew at the last moment. after sinking the Gambier Bay, two de- stroyers. and three destroyer escorts. The Japanese admiral had reached his decision at 11 a.m. and steamed north to San Bernardino. passing through the strait at midnight, ev- ery ship in his squadron damaged by destroyer torpedoes or air attack. As the fast battleships of the United States Third Fleet passed the straits at 1:00 a.m. only one crippled Japanese cruiser lagged behind. It disintegrated so swiftly under thc sixteen-inch guns of the super-battleships that not until some of the stunned survivors were pulled out of the water was it known to be a cruiser and not a destroyer. To pursue the group of enemy warships into the heavily mined straits would be imprudent, so Admiral Halsey contented himself with launching heavy air assaults over the escape route through the islands. The Japanese force beaten in the Suragaio Straits had truly been annihilated. Only one crippled battleship made its way back into the Sibuyan Sea and it was sunk by air attack before Admiral Kinkaid could Htake a picture of the darn thingf: As a fighting force the Imperial Japanese Navy had ceased to exist. MacArthur,s heachheads were secure and no power on the face of the earth could stop Americafs re- conquest of the Philippines. Franklin and Task Group 38.4. steamed back to the Leyte area the next day, furnishing combat air patrol for the trans- ports in the Gulf. and launching search sweeps for Japanese warships still trying to escape. Sixteen Hellcats. each armed with a 500-pound bomb, located a cruiser of the Aoba class with two destroyers, south of the island of Mindoro. Four direct bomb hits and fourteen rockets were slammed into the cruiser. lt was left blazing, leaking steam, and listing heav- ily to port. The two destroyers were damaged. Half an hour later another hghter sweep, launched by the lfrttcrprise, ar- rived to hnish them off. The two destroyers were still there, one already abandoned by its crew. The cruiser was never seen again, almost certainly sent to the bottom by llig lierfs strike. The airmen from the llig AFI made strafing runs over the destroyers. leaving them both sinking. A Lt. f. B. Johnson, Corning through hatch on the Flight deck of the Franklin . . . fohnnfy's experiences were so numerous and unusual that Quentin Reynolds wrote him up in a Colliefs article During the 28th and 29th of October heavy calls were placed on the Fleet's fighter squadrons by MacArthur7s em- battled forces. Combat air patrol was flown over Leyte, and searches were conducted off the island of Samar for carrier pilots shot down in the previous actions. The Hellcats shot down eight Oscars and one Zeke which were trying to attack the transports in Leyte Gulf. Vlleather was rainy and the new- ly constructed airfields at Dulag and Tacloban on Leyte were in poor condition. Crack-ups were frequent on the muddy fields, and often grounded pilots were under bombing attack as the Japs continued to slip in groups of bombers to strike the invasion forces. On the evening of the 28th, six of Franklin's patrolling Hellcats attacked twelve Jap fighter planes at dusk. When the Oscars had been driven away, Big l3en's airmen were forced .rfs , , , Q j ,, ' V1 Flight rlcclt crews arming a dcclcloaa' . . . Note rockets being loaflcfl on llcllcats . . . Air Group I3 was one Of first to use this weapon against japanese

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tlotsn in gi suicidal plunge. at oxcr tln-uc lnnnlrcd tnilcs an hour. Itig licnis gnnncrs hung gritnly to thcir mounts. liring to tht- last. l'iltnning. thc pilot ttcatl at his controls, tracers ripping liolcs in tht- plane. nothing sccnicd ahh- to stop it. lloxsn into f'1u11lt'lli1t..w lligltt rlcck it tloxc. ltl'Sllll'tlll'1tlill'l'l'llti ot thc island. X tctitln- explosion shook tht- slnp and shc lurchcd in agonizcd protcst. 'X mighty cloud ol' sniokc and tire shot up from tht- thirty-loot crater in the tlight deck. tlames licking swiftly :tl tht- ncarhy planes on the hangar and ttight decks. llunncrs at their stations were hlinded hy the liumcs, scorclicd hx tht- tlanics: lno dozen nicn had al- lllxlllly tliftl. -K thii-tl plane, another Judy. swept low over llig lien. dropping his ltNltt-pound homh. hut this one missed-emissed the island hy llcct and exploded in the sea. The Jap. still un- der heaxy tire from ltig lienis torn ard hatteries. swerved his plane to the left and crashed on the lliglit deck of the Helleuu ll ood. To o more suicide planes dived at the Sun fucinlo, hut hoth missed. The linal Jap aimed at the l'.'11terprl'sc hut was hlasted hy liig lienis gunners and the ships ol' the screen, exploding in mid-air. Thus ended the tirst Kamikaze suicide attack on major tnited States xsarships. tln the Frt1111.'11'11 gunners stood doggedly hy their mounts. choking in the thick gray smoke. awaiting the next attack. tfllif nas out ol' commission, hut the crexs stood hy. while lit. n 4 ' A O s 1 s YI G ' f Q v 5 0 U 1 s f - UO U an Vic lluhl and his technicians fought through darkened con- lusion to get the vital radars searching again. Electricians lahorctl ovcr their control hoards. trying to clear them of faults. Under the cool dircction of tlomdr. licnjaniin Moore and llonidr. l.c l avour. the lilatnagc liontrol Department. assisted hy hundreds of willing hands. sprang into action. lloscs appeared magically on the llight and hangar decks. Sprinkler curtains erected walls of water on the hangar deck, isolating the hurning area. Foam extinguishers and fog noz- zles in the hands ol' the lire-fighters. heat hack the llames. Flight deck crews jettisoned dozens of planes. hefore fire could reach their hundreds of gallons of gasoline. Fire mar- shals Caldwell and Graham. with the olhcers and men of the repair parties, ignoring all dangers, had the fire under con- trol after forty-five minutes of desperate fighting. Twenty minutes after the explosion. while courageous parties of men were groping through the smoke and water that had gained access to the lower decks. searching for trapped comrades. trying to clear the passages down to the engineering spaces of water, another awful explosion wrenched the decks. Gasoline from wrecked planes on the flight and hangar decks. leaking through a damaged homb elevator. had reached the third and fourth decks. Vaporizing. it had exploded. The second explosion warped and twisted steel hulkheads, hurled men helter-skelter, killing many hy concussion alone. So perished Joseph Esslinger. machinist's . ,,..,.-t Q..- ' n 1 A 4 I Q S K ..,.,, .M-.mfr-c , .t ,,.-V4-, .- l'lfu-I liurslt flnl Iliff sky. us II lftinl .suiriflrf plrznw. nrrr Ffllllklill. drops his lmrnh if ln1'.w.w'fl lint' fl'f'f H ' lirfnrr' lu- rlirws info ilu' HI'llf'IIll lli'noal's tlrrk