Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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deck comparlments. Into the spreading fire 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. Lt. Comdr. Stone, with iielpers like Chief Bull Orndorft ' . 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 ship ' s 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 island; 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 Yorhtown, that perished at Midway, were waiting for the captains words, bidding him speak. Captain Gehres. a determined commander, told Admiral Davison that if he would provide air and surface support Franklin would he saved. The Miller was signaled to come forward from her position on the starboard quarter. An Admirals responsibility comes first to his task group; he must transfer his flag and get on with the war. For an hour the Miller lay under the huge, listing island, her hoses play- ing on the hangar deck fires as the Admiral ' s staff was transferred. Order was coming out of confusion; men forward on the flight 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 the 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 side; 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 ship ' s 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 lirave little battle to save their shipmates and themselves. The ward was intensely hot, from the raging fires above; thick smoke was pouring over the port quarter where the sickbay was located. Air was foul, the door tightly closed to keej) 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 patients; the oxygen tent was used until the flasks were emjity. Chief Shipfitter Durrance. a I lir iijler jne inch In in nunuil gave Snnfii Fe lin.sc.s i hii jnh