Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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mate lirst class, of Baltimore, held., who went back into the llooded machine shop to help his friends. lllusician Drew Widener died in that blast, as did Robert N. Orr. shiplitler lirst class, who had earned Captain Shoemakeris tirst coin- mendation award while on the shakedown cruise, for putting out a dangerous lire. Bob Orr died because he was too brave to live. He rushed forward fearlessly into the spreading llames with an inadequate hose. Chief Macliinists Mate Hid- dle. pressing into the smoke and water on the third deck. was caught in this second blast and badly burned. as were many of his fellows in the Engineer Repair Party. under Lt. Fitz- gerald. Others, like Lt. Thomas Mclntyre. soft-spoken dentist of Minneapolis. with his pharmacist's mates and stretcher bearers, had died at their battle stations, directly in the path of the Kamikaze. Scores were painfully burned: many dangerously wounded. Big Ben listed to starboard under the weight of the water being thrown on the fires from scores of high pressure hoses. llarnagr- liontrol lientral Station fought, a losing battle to keep ln-1' on an 4-vf-n kr-1-l. Sll'tflf7llt'InH loaded with rnen burned agonizingly, but uni-ornplaining. were gently rrarr'ir-fl through the dint, murky passageways to the battle dre-sing -tations in the island and the warrlrooni w here Corndr. Srnithl Nledi. cal Department labored. Overhead. slim lc'-fltiis from Gcheral NIacArthuris airfield, sent out to cover the task group, provided against lurther attacks. The Hcllcuuf llf ood and Franlflirt were still fighting fires whose columns of smoke could be seen from the nearby land. The Sun., fucinlo and Enfcrprise stood by with combat air patrolsg the battleship Soullzr Dakota and cruisers New Orleans and Blilflgtli, with the destroyers of the screen, lay in close with their hundreds of guns slanted upwards. With CIC again in commission, reports were coming of other enemy planes closing the task group but they failed to reach their objectives, being turned back or shot down by patrol planes. When dark came, hundreds of men had distinguished a k W4 ,,hC.Z,7, f, ,JQQWWJ l .- QQ ax., Cmmpr 5-iu t '7r5 'WIFI' f'j'1S lY- Ffflfllfllift flflfl l3f'Uf.'f1I1 lliiood in flunws. llIl'fII-flillgi lillffflfl' rzfffzt-lm