Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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ABOVE: Flaming rivers of gasoline pour over th hangar deck, trapping men ail . ■ . below: Firefighters duch. as an- other big explosion goes up . . . The flying airplane engine narrowly missed the captain when it fell

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her lirsl lieavy strike. Astern was the light carrier Hatmin, ahead was the San JaririJo. At 7:0S came a radio message from the Hancock: Enemy plane closing on you from ahead . . . ' (.aptaJM (ichres (|uickly asked (!1C on the interphone if ihey liad coiilacl uith the enemy plane. The answer was negative. They had heen searching for a Jap just reported luelve miles away, near another task group, in addition to their regular search. It was later believed thai the enemy plane ahead had heen mistakenly identified as friendly on all radars in the formation; the Hancock had spotted it vis- ually as it Hashed into a cloud. The captain alerted all lookouts and gun control stations, cautioning them to heed particularly the sector ahead where a bank of clouds floated two thousand feet in the air and a thousand yards away from the shi|). The watch on the bridge iloubled its vigilance. Comdr. Hale, the Air Officer, had just received a report from Lt. Stalcup on the hangar deck: Everything is ready to go here. and Lt. Fred Harris, the Flight Deck Officer, was winding up the seventh plane of the launch as the Jap- anese, a twin-engined Judy, hurtled from the clouds on a low, level, bombing run. The attack developed so suddenly that even the alerted watchers on the bridge did not see the j)lane as it flashed in, though the forward twin five-inch mounts ami a forty quad on the island took it under fire belatedly. Comdr. Jurika, the navigator, saw two bombs spin down, as the Jap — hardly fifty feet above the deck — pulled u[) and climbed away. He was shot down a few moments later by Comdr. Parker, leader of Air Group Five. Tlie first bomb that struck, a 500-pound armor-piercer, exploded on the hangar deck at frame 7.5 and blasted a great hole in the . ' -inch armor plate, setting fire to the gassed and armed planes. The second bomb struck aft, crashing through two decks and exjjloding on the third, near the chief |)etty officer ' s quarters. The Helldiver just taking off was blown over on its back; its pilot climbed out and made his way to the side. A column of black smoke poured from the forward eleva- tor well, and as Captain Gehres regained his feet from the explosions a huge sheet of flame was erupting from the for- ward starboard edge of the hangar deck. Thinking the fire was forward, he quickly slowed speed to sixteen knots and turned to starboard. This placed the wind on the port side, keeping the fire away fiom the heavily armed planes aft. Pilots, aircrewmen. plane caj)tains. were scrambling wild- i«yiW»iWli» |i | »» lH» i t i ,. I , 1 K ■ Sixty miles jroni Japan

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ly for the side as their planes caught fire. I ' ro|iellers, still spinning, and exploding ammunition, made theirs a deadly journey. From the hridge there was no indication as yet that there had been a hit aft. In fly control, (ioindr. Hale repeated again and again: Jettison the planes with the Tiny Tims first. . . . Those were the last words lliat came over the speakers. Now a mighty column of smoke rose froin the stern of the ship and the ca|)tain 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 keej) the fire from the undamaged part of the ship. By 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 focsl to bring the fires under control. Little more than a minute pas.sed before the sheets of fire spread over the five bombers, fourteen torjjedo 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 be 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. Offices and berthing compartments on the second and third decks were torn by ex] losions and swept by fire that sjircad from the hangar deck. Over thirty tons of high explosive were on the planes alone and countless other tons were in the lockers and ready magazines. Smoke began to ])our into the engine rooms below and men donned gas masks or rescue breathing e(pii|)ment. Num- ber Two Fireroom, its uptakes blasted by explosions, went out of commission, the fires under its boilers snuffed 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 Smoky Gud- brantzen, manned the steering control room the caj)tain 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. Comdr 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 jniny fire hoses to bear on the great conflagration that raged on the hangar deck aft, where 40,- 000 gallons of aviation gasoline were contributing to the fires. On the focsl Fire Marshal Stanley Graham yelled to the men who were making their way clear from the smoky, blazing, compartments: Boys, we got pressure on the lines, we got hoses, let ' s get in there and save her! ' In a few min- utes a dozen hoses were working aft on the flight and hangar decks, into the flames. Men with fire axes chopped holes in the flight dc ' k planking to let water into blazing gallery Santa Fe moves in. fire hoses ready, as flames move closer to men trapped on hangar deck